Learn about the Country of India!

How much do you understand what goes on in the world around you? I recently completed a course that enlightened me to the country of India through focusing on the films and videos surrounding the infamous ‘Bollywood.’ Now I’ll be honest, I often find myself lacking the effort to follow important events occurring both in my own country as well as others. However, this class piqued my interest thanks to my love of movies and constant bingeing of television shows! With the hope that this blog reaches some of the younger classmen at Mount St. Mary’s University, I wanted to share some of my favorite moments of the course to instill in them a desire to take it for themselves! From the basic history of India that we learned through reading Mira Kamdar’s, India in the 21^st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, to the various movies we watched, there is an extensive array of topics covered in this class.

In Kamdar’s book, we read of India’s political system and leaders, which I found to be slightly more tyrannical than America’s own system, though India technically has a similar political set up. We learned of inspirational leaders, both male and female, who paved different paths of assisting in India’s economy. This economy, as we learned, has had massive ups and downs which have led to it currently being a less developed country with hopes of flourishing in the coming years. Throughout the book, it often touched on the role of women in India, who are constantly discriminated against and pressured into being subservient housewives. This was one of the topics that resonated with me the most, for it is difficult to imagine the daily struggles these women go through in comparison to the lives of women in America. Another topic covered in our reading was the different religions of India, though Hinduism reigns as the country’s official religion, that are present in the large and growing population. The last few topics were on geopolitics and India’s environment, which I will admit I found to be the least engaging since I know little about these topics in relation to my own country so could not make as many comparisons.

My favorite assignments, however, were those that consisted of watching two different Bollywood films that related in some way to our reading for the week, and completing an assignment based off of the concepts covered in the film. Though I expected these films to be a chore and simply take up hours of my time, I found myself enjoying them and even consider Bollywood films now when I go to select a movie to watch! Seeing the cultural differences shown, even in films, from another country truly enlightened me to the societal differences between America and India. Many of the films I chose to watch featured love stories, but I found all the films to contain insights into what messages are being portrayed to India’s audiences. For example, the movie Laal Singh Chaddha, seemed to be a public call for change when it comes to abusive natures. Though I have an adoration for such romantic movies, I found the movie Thalaivii to be my absolute favorite as it followed the path of a young actress turned politician that was constantly beat down by men but remained strong and independent, finally reaching her goals by the end of the film. The films we watched in this class seemed to show me the impact films must have on the people of India.

Following this same idea, through the videos we watched from the youtubers Mohak Mangal and Dhruv Rathee, I grasped an even greater understanding of the values of people in India. With a massive selection of videos to pick from each week, I watched many different topics, though often landing on historic or political analyses. There is a growing issue of fake news, so these youtubers provided a trustworthy source into the reality of India. Even if you were not to take this course yourself, I would highly suggest visiting these youtuber’s pages in order to earn a greater understanding of the country of India and the events that occur within it.

Overall, this was an extremely informative course, and I am ecstatic to finally have a greater understanding of another country’s political system (though maybe still not enough about my own.) The culture in India has certainly had some negative connotations, thanks to concepts such as the caste system and the undervaluing of women, but it appears to be mending the social norms set throughout history in order to grow a greater economy. As I mentioned above, I may have found the topics of women the most relevant to me, but I felt as though I could appreciate most of the information I learned if I compared it to America. Rather than simply viewing the country of India as a foreign concept where people speak a different language, this course helped me to remember that they are people too, who go through the same societal struggles as me, such as education, poverty, and careers.