PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CAST SYSTEM

To offer an in-depth knowledge of the caste system, in its thoretical tenets within the Dharmasastra literature and in its actual implementation throughout the centuries, with special attention to the modern and contemporary periods.
This course is one of the core educational activities of the Master's Degree Program in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (South Asia curriculum).

Becoming familiar with the ideology of varnasramadharma and the main features of jati.
Being able to recognize and evaluate the significance and impact of the caste system and its ideology in modern and contemporary India.

No prerequisite is needed.

The course wishes to explore the institute of caste and the thorny issue of human rights in modern and contemporary India in the light of the subcontinent’s traditional hindu background. For this reason, attention will first be placed on the normative religious texts of brahmanical Hinduism (Vedas, Dharmasastra literature), in an effort to uncover and understand in depth the key, complex ideology of varnasramadharma and of the caste system. Having portrayed this basic, priestly ideology centred on the principles of duty and hierarchical discrimination – which has dominated hindu India’s self-understanding for around two millennia – we shall oppose and contrast it with the modern reinterpretations of dharma and caste which have come to the fore in so-called neo-hinduism, both before and after the attainment of political independence (1947). Here, the seminal role played by figures such as Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Swami Vivekananda, and M. K. Gandhi will be examined. In particular, the course will assess the role played by British colonial ideology and by Western religious and socio-political values in determining this innovative ‘response’ by Indian intellectuals and religious leaders. The special ‘hermeneutic circle’ and encounter occurring between India and Europe in the XIX and XX centuries will constitute the main focus of our investigation. The ideological opposition between traditional caste duties and modern human rights illustrates such encounter (and clash) in a particularly revealing way.

There will be a basic reader for the students to follow.
There will be weekly hand-outs.

We will have the opportunity to discuss in class all the main topics of the course and this will be the best way to test one's understanding of the subject-matter.

Lectures in class with analysis and reading of texts.

English

oral