Oct 05, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 2600 - Hinduism
Through readings, assignments, and lectures that cut through the confusion, students in this class develop a solid understanding of the basic contours of Hinduism while also learning to appreciate the richness and nuanced complexity of a religion with more than 3000 years of history and one billion living practitioners. The course begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, then moves on to Vedic Religion, the ascetic movements associated with the Upanishads, the myths and temples of sectarian Hinduism, the development of Hinduism under the Mughals and the British Raj, the rise of modern Hindu reform movements, and the global Hindu diaspora.
Requisites: WARNING No Credit if CARS 3100
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Foundations: Intercultural Explorations
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to critically analyze contexts and contents of Hindu teachings about morality, secularism, social hierarchies, and women’s rights, and in so doing, evaluate their own core beliefs and ethical thinking.
- Students will be able to identify the ways in which Hindu texts and practices have influenced issues of ecology, sexual morality, and women’s rights in South Asia and the diaspora.
- Students will be able to identify and compare ways that different global Hindu communities understand their tradition’s role in social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and animal rights.
- Students will be able to identify and evaluate how Hindu traditions and practices inform a variety of ethical positions and debates in modern religious and political discourse in South Asia and the diaspora.
- Students will be able to connect and evaluate contemporary ethical issues and modern cultural frameworks related to Hindu traditions and their history of interpretation.
- Students will be able to apply interpretive methods to contemporary debates about what it means to be a Hindu in today’s world.
- Students will be able to evaluate relative strengths of approaches to and interpretations of a given Hindu tradition or practice in light of modern ethical commitments and perspectives.
- Students will be able to engage in productive and empathetic conversations with those holding diverse perspectives on the implications of Hindu traditions and practices for contemporary intercultural politics, while suspending their own judgments.
- Students will be able to recognize and evaluate diverse modern strategies of invoking Hindu traditions and practices in public discourse about issues like Indian nationalism, women’s rights, and animal rights.
- Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of cultural differences within Hinduism and between Hinduism and their own culture in verbal and non-verbal communication, and also to negotiate a shared understanding based on those differences.
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