Anticolonial Perspectives from South Asia

This seminar examines anticolonial perspectives that not only influenced twentieth century movements for decolonization and independence in South Asia, but also profoundly shaped struggles for equality and justice globally. We will explore major South Asian political and intellectual figures such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, Savarkar; revolutionaries, poets, and writers such as Bhagat Singh, Amrita Pritam, Namdeo Dhasal, Muhammad Iqbal, and Saadat Hassan Manto. The course will also engage with thinkers such as Martin Luther King, DuBois, Frantz Fanon, and Ghassan Kanafani, among others, to think in conversation with the repertoire of global anticolonial thought. The seminar is chance to closely read canonical as well as lesser-known primary sources to think through the entanglements between individual and collective liberation, religion and secularism, and ethics and politics, across intersections of caste, gender, race, and religion.