Unlocking History: Insights and Perspectives

1. hang your toranadecorate your doorway with a rangolioffer pujaCelebrateGanesh

2. Lassi

3. Why study history? • some people simply like the information • history well told is beautiful History Helps Us Understand: People and Societies • prompts thoughts about the human experience • another perspective on human life and society • how people and societies behave How the Society We Live in Came to Be

4. History Contributes to Moral Understanding • the ‘great men’ and women of history who successfully worked through moral dilemmas • ordinary people who provide lessons in courage, diligence, or constructive protest or not Subhas Chandra Bose-NETAJI Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 24th Indian Viceroy

5. History Provides Identity • all modern nations encourage its teaching INC • evidence of formation and evolution भारतीय जनता पार्टी [भाजपा] Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) • nations both use identity history and abuse it

6. Historiography (the study of History) Western dominated, and/or dominated by western educated • recent revolution – south Asia, not India Outstanding features of South Asian historiographical trends: • history as written limited duration, and product of colonialism • focus on the exotic ‘other’ • focus on the dramatic • today, history politicized – post Partition, part of nation-building exercise • Subaltern History ‘history from below’ an influential export Gayatri Spivak ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ (1988)

7. Early South Asian societies : Harappan society and neighbors, ca. 2500 BCE

8. Evidence of physical change and history Longue durée Evidence: radiocarbon dating tree rings pollen counts Fatepur Sikri ‘Victory Arch’ Environmental hypotheses: less dramatic climate change, river shifts, deforestation carry on environmental effects spiritual meaning tension btwn utility and sensuality For exam: know one area and human/environmental interaction there

9. Cultural Memory Timeline Imbedded in the Mi’kmaq Legends of KluskapGerald R. Gloade 7 - 9 pm, 17th JanuarySchwartz Auditorium - StFX

10. It Wasn’t Easy: a Global/Nova Scotia Journey of Human Rights Dr. Henry Bishop Director, Black Cultural Centre, Dartmouth for Martin Luther King Day Wednesday 18 January, 7pm, Schwartz Auditorium, 1st Floor

11. McKenna Leadership Centre EncounterService Learning: Creating Tomorrow's Leaders TodayFebruary 2-3, 2012 Thursday, February 2, 2012 7pm [Schwartz Auditorium] Keynote speaker: Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children Me to We: How University Students Can Create Positive Social Change Friday, February 3, 2012 9am-4pm drop in Creating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Workshop Frank McKenna Leadership Centre Resource person: Dr. Sara Dorow, University of Alberta

12. Call forYouthActivismandInternationalSocialJusticeConferencePresentations/PapersMarch9&10, StFX Proposals of 200wordsinlength shouldconnectwiththeconference theme.Proposals to youth.activism.conference.2012@gmail.combyJan30th; acceptance byFeb10th Subthemes: ‐ Volunteerism: internationallyandlocally ‐ Power/gender/class/race/ablismandoppression ‐ Solidarity forchange ‐ Social mediaandactivism ‐ Theory and/orresearchasactivism etc.

13. Regional Geopolitics • ‘national’ frontiers and their roles Hinduvata concept (careful) Indian Ocean: connects Asia, Africa, Sunda Islands and Australia, and the southern ocean Himalayas: shape the monsoon barrier; seasonal diffusion passes can be controlled NE and NW frontiers Khyber Pass Bolan Pass all this tends to… assimilation

14. Regional Geopolitics ‘turnstile’ nature of connections • barren; high altitude • nomads historically unaligned with outside • passes in the hands of local groups ‘Hindu kush’ • range of mountains around the Khyber

15. Geography and politics By 13C CE • well populated, good agriculture • no single, long-lasting political empire could claim large areas for any length of time • fluidity e.g. Delhi sultanate • Vijayanagara • coastal city-states • Islamic states Watch: explore why these dynamic shifts occurred, why ‘failed’ is inappropriate term

16. Any such thing as a unified India?British answered no – legitimized their rule evidence: distinct regional cultures Indo-gangetic plain Robb says ?

17. Western and eastern coasts • lush; relatively isolated • oriented out, to Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal • minority religious groups: Malabar; Bene Jewish community Western ghats

18. Shadow Belts Thar Desert populated; unreliable rainfall Deccan in rain shadow population density low so difficult to est. large-scale empire – lack of economic base emergence of localized and heavily militarized rulers rely heavily on force emergence of Rajputs – lineage of long descent descended from sun/moon Hyderabad, 2009

19. డెక్కన్ చార్జర్స్of HyderabadIndian Premier League

20. Monsoon موسم • seasonal winds that reverse and carry a large volume of water • summer: main originates in western Indian Ocean moves roughly SW to NE • winter: originates over Asia moves in SW direction less water overall SE of landmass gets soaked • crucial: forming patterns and high yields three crops per year

21. Average Annual Precipitation (in.) The result:

22. it is normal if at times nasty Experiencing the monsoon

23. It is also necessary Parjanyayagya

24. it is awful

25. determines trade patterns in the Indian Ocean: between south Asian societies and: Swahili states western Asia (middle East) China knowledge of the monsoon patterns crucial in terms of perspective the Portuguese would not have made it had they not managed to engage an Arab pilot with knowledge of the monsoon patterns Summer Winter Monsoon also موسم

26. Religion and Culture – syncretic tradition Hindu faith • links to Vedic teaching and oldest Dravidian culture upanishads (sitting in front of) • popular based on composition of epics from older oral traditions • Mahabharata • Ramayana • Vishnu and the Bhagavad Gita “Song of the Lord” c. 400 CE 6C BCE reformations • Jainism – based on upanishads concern for all living beings • Buddhism – teachings of Siddhartha Gautama • then: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam -- everything