Introduction to Anti-Caste Thought and Literature | Humanities & Social Sciences

Introduction to Anti-Caste Thought and Literature

Course Number: 
HSL682
LTP structure: 
3-0-0
Discipline: 
Literature
Credit: 
3.0

Pre-requisite

N/A

Course Objective

• to introduce students to the founding/inaugural texts of modern and contemporary anti-caste thought in the sub-continent;
• to familiarise them with the antecedents, histories, and traditions of thinking, discourses and movements which interrogated and criticised the caste system and practices;
• to help students think critically about the various aspects of caste, including in historiography, sociology, literary studies, and philosophy, through the perspective of anti-caste thinkers and the emancipatory discourses and imaginations of the oppressed.

Course Content

The course will focus on the following topics: Buddhist critiques of caste; Bhakti movement; anti-Brahmanism; anti-caste movements and new discourses (Jotirao Phule, Iyothee Thass, Periyar, Ambedkar); literary articulations of about and against caste and casteism (Dalit literature: autobiography, poetry); Role of anti-racism in anti-caste thought; Debates on sociology and historiography of caste; Anti-caste expressive cultures.

The information provided here may not be updated. Please check UG/PG section for updated course offering data.

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