A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society

A collage of color and black and white images of people, buildings, and landscapes in India.

Blends and reflections of traditional and modern aspects of India. (Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21G.040

As Taught In

Spring 2012

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Description

This course is an introduction to modern Indian culture and society through films, documentaries, short stories, novels, poems, and journalistic writing. The principal focus is on the study of major cultural developments and social debates in the last sixty five years of history through the reading of literature and viewing of film clips. The focus will be on the transformations of gender and class issues, representation of nationhood, the idea of regional identities and the place of the city in individual and communal lives. The cultural and historical background will be provided in class lectures. The idea is to explore the "other Indias" that lurk behind our constructed notion of a homogeneous national culture.

Other Versions

Related Content

Sunil Sharma. 21G.040 A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society. Spring 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


For more information about using these materials and the Creative Commons license, see our Terms of Use.


Close