South Asia in the Indian Ocean World

(4 Credits)

This course offers an opportunity for in-depth study of the history and culture of the South Asians who comprise the majority population of the United Arab Emirates. Situated at the center of the Indian Ocean world, the Indian subcontinent is currently home to over a billion people, and is the site of richly interconnected histories with regions around the wider Indian Ocean, including the Gulf. The course explores these histories, with a focus on understanding major cultural, political, economic, and environmental connections and changes as they affected ordinary people (including migrant laborers) and shaped the nature of collective identities (ethnic, national, religious, caste, class, gender, regional, and linguistic) over time. In developing an understanding of how collective identities were produced historically, students ultimately acquire valuable tools for appraising and navigating competing models of nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and universalism in the wider Indian Ocean world today.