The renouncer also articulates a decisive link between politics and sexuality, almost always defining ethical politics in terms of a transcendence of desire, and sometimes in terms of an exclusion of femininity. In this course we will examine how some classic texts of Indian literature represent the renouncer and his relation to the political and cultural world. Beginning with excerpts from Sanskrit legal and poetic texts, we will read discussions of kingship in the works of medieval saints, as well as modern literary works such as Bankim Chatterjee s Anandmath, Bhagvati Charan Verma s Chitralekha, Anantha Murthy s Samskara, and Girish Karnad s Tale Danda. In the last part of the course we will also read selections from Gandhi s autobiography in order to understand his role as a modern renouncer. The writings of anthropologists and historians such as Louis Dumont, T. N. Madan, Romila Thapar, and Partha Chatterjee will help us in our investigations.
All readings are in English, no knowledge of Indian languages is required.