Indian Issues in Anthropological Perspective

From its role as an emerging economic power, to characterization of outsourcing global media, political discourses, and worldwide popularity of Bollywood, India is undergoing rapid changes, global imagination, and importantly in how Indians think about themselves in an era of globalization. We cover anthropological issues of contemporary India, including Hinduism and Islam, caste, social structure and forms of social relations using ethnographic texts. We will focus on postcolonial India, particularly two decades since liberalization in 1991. We will consider how history, cultural practices and existing social norms continue to shape and change contemporary Indian society and its relation to the world.