That Age-old Debate: Youth Cultures in Modern India

Undergraduate / Graduate

In this course, we will aim to gain a deeper understanding of how certain key moments in postcolonial India - from innumerable student protests to an economic transition to globalization, and from the meteoric rise of Bollywood to the omnipresence of social media - have shaped the youth of the country and how young people in turn have been at the forefront of some of the major events and have created history on their own terms. We will ask what these experiences have done to concepts and notions of the youth. In other words, if youth is a construct like gender and caste then how was it constructed over the last seventy odd years? What were the desires and anxieties of the larger society that have shaped very distinctive trajectories for the youth in India? How were young people fashioning themselves and carving out their own social spaces? As we progress through the quarter, we will keep two guiding questions in mind - who all are considered to be the youth in postcolonial India? And - what are the lived experiences of young people during this time? The ever changing, seemingly arbitrary, and conflicting definitions of youth in government reports, commercial advertisements, or popular culture demands a thorough analysis of this significant and impact-making category inside out.