Whether as arranged marriage or as untouchability, why does caste persist into the present? And what is the relationship between lived experiences of caste and religion? Caste as an order of hierarchy and inequality exists throughout South Asia and across all religions practiced in this region. This seminar will explore the history of caste and untouchability as well as the history of the effort to annihilate caste. It will travel from the pre-modern period into the present, dwelling along the way on political and autobiographical writings and other compositions of anti-caste thinkers, including Dalits (those formerly deemed "Untouchable").

This course will provide an introduction to the study of South Asian languages in relation to culture (and history, society and politics), addressing topics such as orality and writing systems, multilingualism and polyglossia, literary cultures, cosmopolitan and vernacular language politics, and their relationship to social identity in historical and contemporary perspective.