Teaching
January 23, 2024 2024-07-11 18:34Teaching
Teaching
Jindal India Institute (JII) aims to intellectually decolonise the study and depiction of India by promoting India Studies from an indigenous perspective. In today’s world, despite India’s fierce independence and strategic autonomy, there persists a tendency to seek intellectual validation from Western educational paradigms and institutions regarding India’s identity and trajectory. JII seeks to disrupt this intellectual hegemony and provide an authentic and comprehensive understanding of India’s rich heritage and contemporary significance.
As part of its teaching mission, JII’s executive team is actively preparing to soon launch a fully online trans-disciplinary Master’s degree in India Studies on a renowned online learning platform. India Studies has not been offered as a full-degree programme by any Indian university so far. This degree will tell the India story to the world through authentic Indian lenses. Instead of being defined and studied by Western academia, this degree will enable India to self-define. It is aimed at breaking the hegemony of the Orientalist approach to India studies and South Asian studies. With the rise of India in the 21st century, there is a demand all over the world to learn from high quality Indian institutions about multiple dimensions of India in a comprehensive, unbiased, and holistic manner. The M.A. India Studies programme will bring about a comprehensive understanding of India, encompassing its role as one of the world’s greatest and oldest civilizations and a rising power in the global arena. It will cater to those interested in South Asia, Indo-Pacific, and Global South area studies, providing pathways for advanced research degrees and enhancing understanding of trade and investment opportunities in India.
Mandate
- Conceive, design and launch a fully online multidisciplinary Master’s degree in India Studies on the Coursera platform that will be open to students from all over the world, and which will cover India from the widest possible angle. This degree will bring about a holistic understanding of India’s social, economic, business, political, cultural, legal, ecological, health, diplomatic and other domains.
- Draw upon existing India-focussed and India-linked elective courses taught at JGU and create a multidisciplinary India Studies cluster that can be offered as a specialisation to JGU’s students and also made available to visiting foreign students and remotely via online ‘Global Classroom’ videoconferencing technology
- Launch an undergraduate minor in Indian Century studies across various degree programmes being taught at JGU and assist and advise Masters and PhD dissertations in topics related to the Indian Century
- Launch new partnerships to promote the India Story and greater understanding of India’s unsung accomplishments in foreign colleges and university campuses
- Develop and deliver for-credit courses on the Indian Century which can be disseminated across the world, especially among young people, through massive open online courses (MOOCs)
- Draft a standardised India Studies curriculum with well-structured modules and lessons that can be utilised and adopted as a template by high schools and universities across the world
