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Editor’s Note: Good pedagogical resources on India are scarce when compared to what is accessible regarding China and Japan. Shirin Ahlhauser, in the following review, provides readers with brief descriptions and links to excellent classroom activities and essays available on the Asia Society Web site. Thanks go to both Ahlhauser for the review as well as Grace Norman of the Asia Society, Peggy Creswell of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Asia Program, and Jon Wilson at AAS for their work on this project.
by Shirin Ahlhauser
AsiaSociety.org Education Channel
On the AsiaSociety.org site, search “India” or by title in the top, right hand corner of the page
Sponsored by the Asia Society—a nonprofit and nonpartisan educational organization founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III—AsiaSociety.org/education is an educational Web site for students and teachers covering some thirty countries that comprise Asia today, and featuring materials that range from early civilizations to current events. This online resource helps teachers and students explore critical questions about Asia and global themes. The site features scholarly content about Asia and US-Asia relations; expert K–Sophomore college-level teaching and learning strategies; and useful learning resources, such as essays, maps, slideshows, art images, videos, timelines and more. The site also includes articles about U.S. educational policy, comparative education systems around the world, and more.
This site covers all of Asia, but the focus here is India.
There are lesson plans that exclusively address India for Pre-K through twelfth grade depending upon the lesson. These lessons range from the caste system, to Hindu gods and goddesses, to nuclear war, to music, and to geographic and resource comparisons. Many lessons also have relevant maps, images, and/or essays linked to it as a necessary or optional resource. Background essays are one of the other useful tools on this site. There are dozens of India background essays, featuring topics such as the caste system, the arts, values, Indian foreign relations, etc. There are also maps of India, and extensive images related to India.
Gauri and Prithvi: The Sub-Continent Goes Nuclear is for 9th-12th grades. This lesson uses research, role-playing, and debates to help students gain a better understanding of how being a nuclear power affects India’s foreign policy relations and political dynamics. There is an intriguing background essay linked to the lesson, and other resources referenced as well. Students can interact through role playing different policy positions, and read about the seriousness of nuclear weapons in the contemporary world.
How Much is There to Eat?: A Comparison Between India and the Southern United States is one lesson that can be adapted for Grades 3rd-8th. The activity takes population density and food production and uses simple math to gain a clearer understanding of India and food resources in the world. Puffed rice cakes, or a similar material are used to represent the area of India and the southern United States. Some rice cakes are taken away symbolizing unplantable land area. The students estimate, and then learn the populations of both India and the southern US. While roughly the same amount of land has potential for agriculture, India has about 11 times as many people, and still exports food. The calculations used are fairly simple, but the lesson includes an extension that can be used for upper grade levels.
As noted, the many essays are also useful pedagogical tools either on their own, or as supplemental lessons. Two sample essays are:
Indian Society and Ways of Living: Organization of Social Life in India.
This essay provides a deep look into Indian social life through discussions of family and kinship, class and caste hierarchy, the differences between north and south India, urban and rural differences, population trends, and gender distinction. Applicable to middle school through undergraduate university students, the essay’s author not only discusses what is presently occurring, but how society has changed throughout the years.
There are two short essays about Indian painting. The first essay (from the Asia Society’s Asian Art Outlook site), Indian Painting: Mughal and Rajput Traditions, describes art beginning with the early painting traditions based from Hindu religious texts, and how later Mughal and Rajput Traditions developed. The second essay, Indian Artists and Techniques: The Mughal Court Paintings, depicts the materials, methods and techniques, the painters themselves, and the preservation and storage of the Mughal paintings.
Another essay, Understanding Modern India: Five Things to Consider, gives a brief overview of five important themes for understanding modern India: (1) the diversity of the people, language, and dialects, (2) profundity of the culture in its past and present, (3) India as a land of minorities, (4) the interactions between India’s two worlds: the city and countryside, and (5) India’s unique mix of poverty, spirituality and modernity.
Shirin Ahlhauser was an honor student and political science major who worked with the UTC Asia Program during the 2008-09 school year. She graduated from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in spring 2009, and she is currently living and studying in Beijing.
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