Category: Uncategorized
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The Group
Top row, l. to r.: John Rudisill (Philosophy), Peter Havholm (English), Mark Weaver (Political Science), Mark Wilson (Geology), Lee McBride (Philosophy), Peter Pozefsky (History), Gregory Shaya (History), Henry Kreuzman (Philosophy). 2nd row, l. to r.: Shirley Huston-Finley (Theater), Shila Garg (Dean of Faculty, Physics), Elizabeth Schiltz (Philosophy), Katherine Holt (History).
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Keep it Clean, Keep it Green
Indian public intellectual, Vandana Shiva, argues that large corporate farming practices ultimately do violence to farmers and the land. It is implied that we should model our agri-culture upon the small organic agrarian village, for these communities have lived sustainably for centuries. Having read such things, I was naively led to believe that India is…
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Caste Violence
May 25, 2008 37 Killed in Caste Riots in India By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 3:14 a.m. ET JAIPUR, India (AP) — Authorities invited leaders of one of India’s lowest castes for talks as the death toll rose to 37 Sunday from three days of bloody demonstrations over caste classification. Police repeatedly opened fire…
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Education in India
One of the central themes of Nussbaum’s book is the failure of state education in India. She takes it to task for rote learning and a total absence of critical thinking. What is interesting is that private education in India is booming. In fact, it’s a thriving industry. The signs are everywhere. On the streets,…
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Arts in Chennai, Part II
On the outskirts of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu we met up with Sashi Ananth, a local architect with a degree from Madras University, who treated us to a day of touring ancient architecture, beginning in Mahabalipuram. Our lesson began with a description of the ways in which temples originated as a representation…
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Cultural Similarities
What a surprise!! The Dean of Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) receives complaints from students. The culture of colleges and universities are remarkably similar in the range of issues and problems that need to be addressed from budget constraints, course planning, and student motivation. What actually surprised me was the degree to…
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Immersion in Ritual
We’ve been travelling now without internet access. This video is from a couple of days ago in Haridwar. [qt:http://discoveryofindia.scotblogs.wooster.edu/files/2008/05/haridwar-aarti-5_18.mov 320 240] Our one evening in Haridwar was the most dramatic, bustling, exciting, claustrophobic, sharing, participatory of our experiences to date. We walked from our hotel through narrow, vendor lined streets to the temple site on…
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Caste
On May 16th we were fortunate to have Professor Dipankar Gupta of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) present a stimulating talk to us on the caste system in India. Caste, it is said, developed as an occupational social hierarchy. Roughly, priests were placed at the top, with rulers and warriors, farmers and traders, and servants and…
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Sights and Smells
You will have to excuse us. We have been thrown into a country and culture jarringly different from our own, and we are still adapting, still forming our considered impressions, as thoughtful people do. But, you want first impressions, don’t you? Okay, here are a few first impressions. We landed in Delhi in the evening.…
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Globalization: Dale Carnegie in Bangalore
Colleagues, Transnational tips on winning friends and influencing people. Grant Thursday, Apr. 24, 2008 Postcard: Bangalore By Madhur Singh Remember to touch a personal chord,” the instructor tells the class. “Make the other person feel important.” Thus advised, the first graduating class of Bangalore’s new Dale Carnegie Training center splits into pairs, each earnestly practicing…
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Discovery of India – and Positionality
Trailer for sale or rent / Rooms to rent fifty cents I’m reminded of one of my undergraduate professors of poetry, Richard Tillinghast, who advised us to only read one book at a time. He said he couldn’t think of Huck and Jim without hearing the tremor of far-off drums and feeling the heat of…
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Exotic Creature
I’ve had interesting experiences as a member of a minority while traveling to India–someone who fully admits that she often thinks and speaks of “otherness” in an intellectual setting, but who rarely has an opportunity to experience minority status as a real, lived experience. That’s why I’m here. To have a hands-on experience in a…