Perspectives on Caste and Religion in South Asia

Caste, as a plurality of ideas about systemic exclusion or social hierarchy, has shaped the lifeworlds of South Asians past and present, across regions, languages, and religious boundaries. But is caste a unitary concept? And what does it have to do with religion? This seminar turns to the archive to explore a series of case studies about how caste, as an actively contested concept and set of social practices, has interfaced with meaning-making and community formation in Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian traditions. We are interested both in the social history of religion as well as the phenomenology of oppression and liberation, taking a comparative approach that allows us to defamiliarize our assumptions about the varied relationships between religion, culture, hierarchy, and violence. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.