NOTE:  This is an Old Syllabus.  If you are looking for the fall 2002 syllabus, click here.
 

Instructor:  Vijay Pinch
Class Hours: Tues and Thurs, 10:30 - 11:50
Office Hours: Tues 2:00-3:30, or by appointment (x2399; wpinch@wesleyan.edu)

This lecture/discussion course surveys the history of southern Asia and the Indian Ocean, with emphasis on the pre-modern era. Topics to be examined include travel and exploration, religious culture, social change, land and sea-based technologies, trade, state formation, and the civilizational encounter with Europe. Readings will combine historical analysis with primary sources - including travel accounts, religious poetry, imperial chronicles, courtly drama, and popular literature.

The following texts are required for the course and are available at Atticus:

Cultural History of India [CHI]
by A. L. Basham (editor)

Madhumalati : An Indian Sufi Romance [MISR]
by Manjhan, Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman (translators)

In an Antique Land [IAL]
by Amitav Ghosh

Speaking of Siva [SS]
by A. K. Ramanujan (compiler and translator)

Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean [TCIO]
by K.N. Chaudhuri

The Little Clay Cart [LCC]
by Sudraka, A. L. Basham (translator)

The grade for the course will be based upon the following (see the schedule of lectures and readings for respective due dates):

• Panel discussions (30%) -- see note for details
• Travel/discovery paper: 70% [comprising five short, linked essay drafts (10% each), bibliography (10%), and final draft (additional 10%)] -- see following note for details
• Attendance and discussion is mandatory

1. Visual illustrations from the material culture of the period (these may be web-based)
2. "Social-historical" observations for general discussion -- one per student

Note on the Travel/Discovery paper:  Each student will choose, at the beginning of the semester, an original pre-1700 travel account that deals with southern Asia and/or the Indian Ocean.  Choices must be approved by the instructor and finalised by September 14th. (Note:  Marco Polo's travels is off limits.)  For some suggestions click here; also, K. N. Chaudhuri's bibliography contains many possible titles.  Topical themes are listed below. Students must complete the vital statistics and discovery sections; students should choose three of the additional four themes.  There are a range of due date options, listed below; students should present on September 14 their choice of travel account and a formal schedule for submitting the linked essays.

1. Vital statistics:  This introductory section of the essay will consist of a basic description of the travel account, including the author's identity (and any questions pertaining thereto), the route taken and mode of travel, the circumstances of authorship (why and when and how it was written), the manuscript and publication history, and any noteworthy particulars concerning the editor and/or translator.  Students should also mention remarkable forensic details, such as the quality of the paper and binding, the size of the pages, any special orthographic conventions employed, the existence of illustrations, maps, tables, index, and any other noteworthy physical attributes.  This section should be approximately 500 words and must include a map constructed by the student.  Students should also indicate on a separate sheet the schedule of dates that they will be turning in subsequent work.
2. Sociality:  Report on the traveler's observations concerning human social relations.  Since different travelers will emphasize different aspects of human behavior, there will be considerable latitude.  Some may focus on social hieararchy, ostracism, and theories of corporeal purity and pollution, whereas others may emphasize gender and sexual mores, whereas others still may be interested in language or household.  Some travelers may take a sensationalist approach simply to compare the people and culture of foreign lands unfavorably with those of his home country.  Others may be more even-handed in their treatment.  The goal for the student is to use the travel account to say something concrete about how humans interacted in the environment encountered by the traveler, despite what may appear to be subjective reporting.  This section should be approximately 750 words.
3. Economy:  Describe the economic world of the Indian Ocean, or the regional pocket of the Indian Ocean described in the account.  Kinds of questions to be answered include:  What are the goods being produced and traded?  Where does trade occur?  How is it structured (are there specific markets for specific goods, do certain communities control certain commodities, are their overarching political units that superintend trade)?  What is the status of merchants?  How is money organised and transmitted?  (Based on the observations of the traveler, students may wish to focus on one or another of these questions, rather than attempt to answer all of them.)  This section should be approximately 750 words.
4. Belief:  Describe the deeper mental worlds visited by the traveler.  What did the people encountered think about the nature of the world around them, about creation and their own origins, about ultimate causes, about planes of existence?  Did they believe in supernormal beings, and if so, what forms did they take?  Or did they reject such understandings?  How did the traveler respond to these understandings?  Care should be taken to supplement generic terms, such as "Christian" or "Muslim" or "Hindu" or "Buddhist," with more specific descriptive language.  750 words.
5. Violence/Warfare/Politics:  How does the account shed light on the ways power was articulated, weapons wielded, and conflicts resolved?  If the author was implicated in warfare and conflict, how might that have informed the account?  Is warfare restricted to particular classes of people?  Does violence have a gender dimension, a "caste" dimension?  What is the level of day-to-day or "routine" violence?  750 words.
6. Discovery:  Students will follow their own instincts and interests to comment or reflect on the travel account.  This section will serve as a kind of conclusion to the essay, but it should not simply recapitulate what has already been written in previous sections.  Students may wish to comment on the question of travel and "discovery," or explore the motives of the author, or think more broadly about the nature of the Indian Ocean world.  Or something else altogether.  750 words.
7. Final Draft and Bibliography:  In addition to revising the essays, both in response to the instructor's comments and suggestions as well as to better link the sections together, students should also compile an annotated bibliography of relevant works.  The bibliography should consist of at least three articles from scholarly journals, three scholarly books, and one primary source (that intersects with and in some way sheds light on the account).

• Due date I:  10 a.m., Friday, September 21 [vital statistitcs]
• Due date II:  10 a.m., Monday, October 1 [vital statistics]
• Due date III:  10 a.m., Friday, October 12
• Due date IV:  10 a.m., Monday, October 22
• Due date V:  10 a.m., Friday, November 2
• Due date VI:  10 a.m., Monday, November 12
• Due date VII:  10 a.m., Wednesday, November 21 [discovery; all five sections should be complete by this date]
• Due date VIII:  10 a.m., Monday, December 10 [final draft and bibliography, mandatory for all students]