070196 GR Guided Reading (2013S)

This course considers the place of South Asia in the broader framework of global history. For thousands of years, the Indian subcontinent has been a central hub of cross-cultural exchange and interaction. Situated at the cross-roads of the vast Afro-Eurasian land mass, linking Africa and Europe with China and Southeast Asia, India was (in the words of Janet Abu-Lughod) ‘on the way to everywhere.’ Attached to the Silk Roads and Indian Ocean trading areas, Indians have been the active agents of cultural, religious, scientific and economic diffusion as well as the recipients of outside influence. We will emphasise some of the ways in which Indian ‘currencies’ and ‘cultures’ influenced the outside world before the dominance of Europeans in global affairs. Hindu and Buddhist incursions into Southeast Asia created new sites of exchange where evidence of Indic civilization remains to this day: for example, Angkor Wat in Cambodia; the island of Bali in Indonesia; and Champa in present-day Vietnam. This seminar will explore the place of South Asia in these world systems to appreciate the non-Western roots of globalisation but also to situate India’s present role as an emerging global superpower in a longer historical context.

Before enrolling in this seminar, consult your diary and make sure you can attend on Wednesday 6th May 2013 AND Friday 10th May 2013.