The movement of peoples and cultures from South Asia into the Pacific regions, Africa, Europe, and the Americas began many centuries ago: evidence shows contact between the subcontinent and the Mediterranean basin from as long ago as the Greek and Roman periods. In the imperial era, European empires moved South Asian indentured laborers to Indonesia, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Africa, and, after the abolition of slavery, to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean islands. After World War II, global migrations included peoples from the newly independent nations of South Asia--India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh--to Britain and other Commonwealth countries, and to the United States.
Our class will trace these movements of peoples and cultures over time and space, seeking to understand their historical range. In what ways did peoples and cultures in diaspora both remain "South Asian" and change to adapt to their host countries?
This course aims to give students a sense of the global scope of the South Asian diasporas over time. Students will construct web-based maps, using StoryMaps, to create visualizations of various aspects of the South Asian diasporas. Discussion and lecture will provide historical background, and ITS will provide technological support. Individual students will work over the semester on the construction of their own web-based map, tracing the geographic movement over time of a single aspect of South Asian diaspora that they themselves have chosen: beginning with a map of the world, individual student maps will show the diasporas' geographic range, timelines, and trace the movement of trade routes, trade goods, languages, cultural practices, religions, or another specific focus that interests the student. |