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Introducing India in a
Middle School Humanities Classroom
What Indian Literature Reveals about its Culture, History, and Politics

 

 Charles Kappus

Academic Setting

 

I teach social studies (world history) and language arts to sixth graders at Lyndon Baines Johnson Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Located in a middle class, suburban setting on the city’s expanding West Side, LBJ serves an ethnically diverse (60 percent Anglo, 35 percent Hispanic, five percent combined Black, Asian, and Native American) student body of approximately 1,200 students, with programs designed to meet the needs of regular education, gifted, and severely handicapped students.  LBJ is proud of its respectable scores on standardized tests and high levels of parent involvement.  To ease the sometimes difficult transition sixth grade students make when moving from an elementary to middle school setting, students spend extended “blocks” of time in their four core academic subject; language arts is blocked with social studies and math is blocked with science, with 92 minutes in each of these blocks.  Because sixth grade students have a separate literature class, my course cannot be considered a “pure” humanities block – a combination of literature and social studies.  It is my responsibility to concentrate on writing, spelling, and grammar in language arts, and to hopefully blend those activities with world history in a way that will enhance the learning of both disciplines.  I believe strongly in the interdisciplinary approach, and feel that my use of  literature is vital to the teaching of not only the writing process and its rules and conventions, but also to the understanding of the cultures and civilizations we will discuss in our world history survey.

 

My involvement in the Albuquerque Teacher’s Institute World Literature Seminar provided an ideal opportunity to integrate these disciplines and formulate a curriculum unit that will present one such civilization – India – in a way that will foster respect and appreciation for its long and magnificent literary traditions.  For me, this is the exciting part of my job: finding a way to “flesh out” the bare bones of the social studies text with fiction, poetry and drama that will bring these periods and peoples to life.  Throughout my ten years in the classroom, my foremost desire has been to develop interdisciplinary units that will immerse students in other cultures, challenging them to read from another point of view and write about both the profound differences and universal themes that make the world so interesting.   Yes, we need to supply the geography skills and timelines of social studies and the grammar rules of language arts, but we need to do so in a way that will make learning fun.  By bringing the literature, music, food, and religious traditions of India into the classroom, students will get a better sense of what it means to be Indian, living in a land steeped in religious and cultural diversity.  Even the timing of the unit can make this happen; I plan to begin the project in November so it coincides with Diwali, the five-day celebration that marks the start of the Hindu new year.

 

The sixth-grade social studies curriculum in New Mexico is an incredibly broad survey geared more toward topic introduction than topic immersion.   During the school year, students should become familiar with all the major civilizations from Mesopotamia to Greece and Rome, from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and both world wars.  Teachers are often faced with the familiar dilemma of choosing between the “cosmetic coverage” a full-textbook agenda would demand and “picking and choosing” the chapters they believe to be most relevant to a deeper understanding of the world.  Such will be the case for my unit on India.  Mine is a three-week project that will devote one week each to Ancient India, the Colonial Period, and the modern nation still struggling to define itself and survive in the nuclear age.  Of course, any of these topics is multi-faceted enough to warrant its own three-week unit, but the survey nature of my curriculum doesn’t allow that kind of latitude.  Thankfully, the longer time periods made possible by the humanities block will enable me to enrich the “nuts and bolts” of the text with some of the world’s greatest writing.   Week one will include ancient epics like the Ramayana, week two has the poetry and prose of Kipling, and week three blends in biographies of Gandhi, modern Indian poetry, and news stories about the frightening armed conflict with Pakistan.  It is my hope that these experiences will make the study of India more meaningful and relevant to a student body that knows precious little about the world’s largest democracy, and at the same time hone skills in the five major language arts competencies: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and research.Go to top of page.

 

Context and Background

 

Rationale

 

I think my students need to read world literature for many of the same reasons I do.  In his critical essay “Misunderstanding Poetry: Teaching outside the Western Canon,” Thomas M. Greene notes that the traditional literary canon is currently undergoing an exciting transformation, expanding to include the best work from places like Africa, India, and Asia, regions previously overlooked by the Western literary perspective.  By delving into these works, American teachers can provide both themselves and their students with a more global perspective of the world and its diverse cultures, identifying important values and beliefs that others hold in order to better understand ourselves.  I agree with Greene’s assertion that Western readers do not free themselves of their biases with such an experience, but we can better understand what the biases are and come away with a new appreciation of the complexity of differences we need to manage if we are to survive together on this planet.  I agree with Sarah Lawall’s belief that world literature looks forward; we can use it to learn from the past and cope with the future.  The process of “active reading” is something I model and nurture throughout the school year; students should constantly ask questions about whatever text they are engaged with, comparing new ideas with prior knowledge, decipher word meaning through context, summarize content, and make predictions based on what has already been presented.  That reading is an active, dynamic process is even more critical for students engaged with world literature, because students must constantly compare their own world view with that of an often radically different perspective.

For many years, this philosophy of education has been taking root in American classrooms, if through nothing else than the thematic organization of literature textbooks.  If students can come to realize that, despite our many differences, all human beings have the same (or at least similar) basic needs and fears, and that all world societies have developed stories to teach the universal truths of human nature, we have made important progress toward a community of nations living in an atmosphere of  mutual respect.  This is the kind of world community American novelist and dramatist Thornton Wilder envisioned in 1950 when he declared, “For better or worse, world literature is at hand.  Our consciousness is beginning to be planetary” (qtd. in Harrison 1).   Before Wilder, this world community of readers was envisioned by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832):  “The world at large,” he wrote, “no matter how vast it may be, is only an expanded homeland…”; nonetheless, nations ought not “to think alike, but … become aware of and comprehend one another” (qtd. in Harrison 4).

 

I want my students to study history and literature side-by-side to the greater understanding of each.  When we are studying the Hebrews, we’ll read passages of the Old Testament; when we discuss World War II and the atomic bomb, we’ll read passages from President Truman’s memoirs and John Hersey’s Hiroshima to capture the magnitude of world events.  For our discussion of India, a children’s book such as Ted Lewin’s Sacred River, a description of the holy pilgrimage more than one million Hindus make to Benares each year to renew themselves in the Ganges River, can provide the same kind of cultural awareness.  I believe this humanities approach will bring my students closer to what poet and essayist T.S. Eliot called a “historical sense” – that is, a self-conscious awareness of their position relative to the great works of literature that precede their own (qtd. in Harrison 6).

 

I feel social studies curriculum should provide ongoing opportunities for students to make their own meaning from important primary text documents by exploring books that are important or even sacred to other cultures.  I agree with Lawall’s notion that a student’s concept of “I” is molded by significant interaction with cultures different than their own.  Educational theorists like D.W. Winnicott and L.S. Vygotsky concur, suggesting that the teacher’s role is to create the conditions that will make such an experience possible.  Winnicott calls this kind of environment “the experimental space of play” where the child’s sense of identity is compared and contrasted to other-world scenarios (qtd. in Lawall 35). Vygotsky called this interface the zone of proximal development, the area where a child cannot solve a problem alone but could be successful under adult guidance or in collaboration with a more advanced peer.  Small-group activities like poetry analysis, dramatic readings, and Internet research are examples of these kinds of learning opportunities and can be found in the Implementation portion of this unit.

 

In her critical essay Reading World Literature, Lawall describes a dynamic process where readers are constantly viewing new ideas through the prism of their own cultural identity:

 

When a scene or manner or manner of acting is unfamiliar, readers draw
on their own experience to project a hybrid reality that “makes sense” so as to be able to continue reading.  A process of correlation is engaged that builds a newly coherent whole and enlarges the the reader’s intellectual scope and sense of identity; it emulates Goethe’s notion of a literary conversation of cultural identities over the common curiosity about sameness and difference, and it shares the generous optimism of Kant’s description of the humanities as Teilnehmung, “taking part” in and “imparting” humanity in a fundamentally social act         (42).

 

All this does not mean that reading world literature will fundamentally alter a student’s point of view or sense of place in the world, nor should it.  “Reading texts from remote cultures might be said to train our ethnocentrism,” Greene writes, “enlighten it, broaden it, but never altogether dispel it” (72).  In other words, we are allowing students to learn about themselves when they learn about other cultures, and sometimes that will mean identifying areas where Americans and people from other parts of the world simply agree to disagree.Go to top of page.

 

Background: India’s History and Literary Traditions

 

This unit will use the text World: Adventures in Time and Place (published by MacMillan-McGraw-Hill and authored with cooperation from the National Geographic Society) as a general outline and primary resource.  Consistent with that text’s emphasis on river valley civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt), our study of India will begin around 2,600 BC, when peoples from regional cultures united into a culturally cohesive network in the Indus Valley region.  In addition to their use of the annual flooding of the Indus River to enhance their system of agriculture, these people planned urban developments, used standardized weights, and developed craft technologies.  Indo-Aryan culture began to dominate the region around 1500 BC, when a culture associated with Sanskrit, a language related to Greek, Latin, and Avestan (the ancient language of Persia) emerged.  The Vedas, texts associated with the complex ritual system of the Indo-Aryans, were composed in this period and formed the basis for Hinduism, the oldest of the world’s major religions.   The term “Hindu” is an ancient name for inhabitants of Northern India.  The Hindu religion is the largest of the three major religions in India today (Buddhism and Islam are the others), and today more than 800 million people practice this religion worldwide. Buddhism and Jainism were founded in the middle of the last millennium BC, sharing some of the basic ideas of Hindu thought but critical of the hierarchical and ritual structure of the Vedic system.

 

Hinduism teaches that different people have different talents and abilities, leading to a social organization called the caste system.  The varnas, or caste/class groups within this system, presented in descending order of importance, are the Brahmins (priests and religious leaders), Kshatriyas (soldiers and government officials), Vaishyas (shopkeepers, traders, and farmers), and Shudras (servants of the other three groups).  The lowest group, which Gandhi tried to help during the post-colonial period, are Harijans or “untouchables,” who perform society’s most menial tasks.  Unlike monotheistic religions, Hinduism recognizes many gods, each representing a different force of nature or human endeavor.  Over hundreds of years, the idea developed that these gods were not different beings, rather different ways of looking at the same thing.  In other words, all of the gods were ways of revealing the majesty of Brahman, the Great Power.  The Hindu concept of religion is expressed by the Sanskrit term dharma, or sacred duty.  It is through ancient epics like the Bhagavad-Gita and the Ramayana that Indian literary heroes come to grips with their dharma and learn the lessons of their destiny.   In the Gita, a warrior prince named Arjuna confronts the dilemma of a duty that conflicts with justice.  Through the intercession of his charioteer, the god Krishna, Arjuna is led to a plane of higher spiritual understanding.  By reading these texts, I hope my students will come to appreciate their beauty and recognize their relationship to other inspiring stories about heroes from cultures around the world.   For example, Arjuna’s dilemma can be compared to that of Abraham and Job of the Old Testament, because one’s duty to obey faithfully is challenged by worldly concerns such as family and financial well-being.   I can challenge my own students to draw a parallel to their own lives by asking: “When is it difficult – or unpopular—to do what you know is right?”

 

Buddhism was introduced to the Indian subcontinent in the third century BC, when followers of Gautama, the Buddha, ruled the region under the leadership of the emperor Asoka.  Buddha is not a name but a title, meaning “someone who has gained enlightenment.”  Buddhists believe that they can gain enlightenment by following Buddha’s teachings.  Until one achieves enlightenment, Buddhists believe, humans are trapped in a cycle of rebirth called samsara.  When one breaks free of  samsara, a state of bliss called nirvana can be realized in which a perfect peace cannot be disturbed by the fires of greed, hatred, or ignorance.  Meditation is an important aspect of Buddhism, and I would like students to participate in an exercise where quiet contemplation is observed.

 

Muslims invaded India three times between the eighth and sixteenth centuries AD, establishing Islam as a major religion and unifying the subcontinent under the leadership of the Moghuls.  The third invasion, in 1526, would bring a 300-year period of Moghul rule and a boy king named Akbar (meaning “Great” in Arabic) to power.  I want my students to know Akbar not only as a great military commander, but as wise leader who practiced religious tolerance.  Akbar had a special building constructed at this palace where Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and other religious leaders could meet and explain their beliefs.  It is said that Akbar would pace back and forth on walkways above the building floor, listening to those sitting below.  At times he would toss out questions that would spark heated debates (World, 394). Abkar’s grandson, Shah Jahan, built a tomb for his wife that still stands as one of the world’s greatest achievements in architecture – the Taj Mahal.

 

Although Europeans were present in South Asia as traders from the beginning of the seventeenth century (mapping the “Silk Roads” will be an excellent way to illustrate these trade routes), it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that the British established rule in this region.  In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to a group of English merchants, licensing them to develop trade in Asia for the British government.  Known as British East India Company, these merchants set up trading centers, called “factories,” in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta.  The emerging power and influence of the East India Company coincided with the demise of the Mogul rulers.  In the 1850’s, after more than ten wars between the British and local rulers, the Company controlled two thirds of the subcontinent, with Indian princes loyal to the British crown governing the remaining third.  The Colonial Period that continued for nearly a century was marked by infrastructure improvements in India such as telegraph lines, a postal service, and railroad service between major cities, but most Indians were not satisfied living under British rule.

 

A study of the life of Mohandas Gandhi, along with the poetry and fiction of Rudyard Kipling, will give students a sense of the different lifestyles and racial tensions that were apparent during the Colonial Period.  The concept of civil disobedience, so important to the struggle for civil rights in the United States, will be vital to the understanding of the struggle for independence.  A comparison of the writing of Gandhi and Martin Luther King will underscore the greatness of both men and illustrate how they changed the world.  We will also read excerpts from Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience, the landmark work that influenced Gandhi’s attitude toward government and inspired his stand against the British Empire.

 

In 1947, the independent nations of Pakistan (East and West) and India were formed out of the British Empire in India.  Tragically, this partition of the subcontinent into separate nation-states was accompanied by tremendous violence.  In 1971, East and West Pakistan divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh, and these nation-states that were formed largely along religious lines (despite Gandhi’s plea for unity between Hindus and Muslims) have a long history of armed conflict and border incursions that continues to the present day.  The current standoff between Pakistan and India has raised the ugly specter of nuclear confrontation to levels of concern not witnessed since the Cuban Missile Crisis.  A sampling of modern Indian poetry will make my students aware of a variety of contemporary concerns: the continuing influence of the caste system, friction between faiths, the price of westernization, and the subservient role of women will all be addressed.

 

The ATI seminar that I participated in allowed me to experience Asian Literature more comprehensively than ever before.  I’ve come away with a greater sense of appreciation of a body of work that is every bit as meaningful as the classics of Western Literature; indeed, there seems to be a parallel great work of eastern literature for every standard from the western canon.  Epic poems like the Iliad, the Odyssey,  and Beowulf compare with the Ramayana in their celebration of the warrior hero; I recall the verses of the   Psalms while reading Bhagavad-Gita; Gandhi’s words echo Thoreau (who read and quoted from the Bhagavad –Gita) and foreshadow Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream,” the speech the awakened a nation’s conscience.  We are doing our students a great disservice if we do not include at least portions of these texts in our social studies curriculum.  The canon of great works of literature, like language itself, is alive and dynamic, always evolving to accommodate the most vital concerns of a changing world.  I think critic James Ngugi said it best in “Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom”: “The languages  and literatures of Asia, Africa, and South America, the literatures of peoples of non-European stock but who are now part of the economic, political, and cultural reality of the West, are all creating space for a hundred flowers to bloom on a global scale; and the organization of cultural studies all over the world should reflect this multi-coloured reality of the human creative stream” (24).Go to top of page.
 

Implementation 

Meeting State Standards

 

The curriculum unit that follows is designed to meet New Mexico’s academic standards by integrating essential social studies and language arts skills in a way that compliments both disciplines.  The social studies text World: Adventures In Time and Place provides the historical framework for the unit, as well as the five themes of geography that are the guiding philosophy of the National Geographic Society (the text’s authors).  These themes are also included in the State of New Mexico’s standards for social studies.  They are: location (What are the characteristics that help you know where you are?), Place (What makes this locale different from other places?), Human/Environment Interactions (How have people changed the landscape), Region (What are some things that make this a special region?), and Movement (How do goods travel from place to place?). These will be themes that I will post prominently on a bulletin board and refer to periodically throughout the unit.  For example, why did the exotic spices, delicate cotton plants, and silkworms so prized by European explorers from Columbus to Marco Polo thrive on the Indian subcontinent? How did the rugged Himalayan Mountains sometimes act as a barrier against foreign invaders?   What are the positive and negative effects of the monsoon season?  How has population affected the ways of life in India?  Why are the cobra and mongoose symbols of good and evil in Indian folklore, as well as in the classic Kipling story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi?  Discussions about climate, topography, and other map activities will reinforce the importance  of India’s geographical features and illustrate how the country’s borders changed after independence from Great Britain was achieved and as a result of several religious wars. Geography, like literature, enhances one’s knowledge and appreciation of history and will be an ongoing theme of the unit.

 

This unit also gives students multiple opportunities to hone their skills in the five major language arts competencies: reading, writing, listening, speaking, and research.  Students will keep a notebook throughout the unit to record all the important terms and definitions, research and write a report on a topic related to Indian history, culture or religion.  They will also have opportunities to read literature in partners or small groups, then share summaries and responses with the class as a whole. Some literature, like the play Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore, can be performed through reader’s theater, allowing students to exercise important aspects of public speaking and performance such as voice projection, tone, eye contact, and characterization. Other literature can be encountered through the world wide web, with in-text links providing students with colorful illustrations of the character and scenes presented.  Note-taking skills will come to play when working with the social studies text, learning new vocabulary in literary works, doing research in the library or on-line, and recording important facts from video or peer presentations.  It is my expectation that through their participation in this unit, students will become more comfortable blending the skills of each subject area into a more comprehensive understanding of India, its people, and traditions.Go to top of page.

 

Objectives and Unit Calendar

 

This is a three-week unit, with one week devoted to Ancient India, a second to the Colonial Period, and a third to Independence from Britain and the modern era.  Here is a brief overview of what I expect to accomplish each week, presented as a list of student activities:

 

Week One (Indus Valley Civilizations and ancient Hindu traditions) – Students will:

·         Make a “KWL” chart to identify prior knowledge about India (column one), what they would like to learn about India (column two), and what they learned about India (column three).

·         Compare and contrast the Indus Valley civilizations with those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

·         Identify and discuss important geographic features of the Indian subcontinent.

·         Compare and contrast different kinds of maps (political, physical, natural resources, etc.).

·         Read and discuss The Thousand-Petaled Lotus (an excerpt from The Mahabharata).

·         Begin and maintain a notebook of important terms and definitions.

·         Learn about Aryan migration into India and the development of the caste system.

·         View a video on Hinduism and answer listening questions to check for understanding.

·         Read Song from Rig Veda (and other Vedas) and discuss the purpose of Hinduism’s many deities.

·         Begin a research paper on a topic relating to Indian history, religion, economics, politics, or culture.

·         Learn to identify the important symbols of Hindu mythology.

·         Read an abbreviated version of The Ramayana on-line, using in-text links to make illustrations appear.

·         Read the Indian myth Savitri and the Ruler of the Dead and discuss it using literary conventions such as characters, plot, setting, conflict, and resolution.

 

Week Two (The Influences of Buddhism, Islam, and The Colonial Period) – Students will:

·         Work in small groups to research various aspects of Buddhism and Islam.

·         Learn about the Moghul  Period under Akbar, the ruler who fostered religious tolerance while maintaining a powerful empire.

·         Use a small-group setting called “reading circles” to enjoy Indian creation myths, sharing summaries with the class and discussing the purposes  folklore has in every culture of the world.

·         Learn what a colony is and discuss the implications of British Colonialism from the European and Asian points of view.

·         Discuss the Colonial Period through an examination of Kipling’s work, especially the poems The White Man’s Burden and Gunga Din and the short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

 

Week Three (Gandhi, Independence from Britain, and the Modern Period) – Students will:

·         Label a political map to show the changing borders brought about by the creation of the independent states of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

·         View a video documentary of Mohandas Gandhi, using listening questions to check for understanding.

·         Read excerpts from Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience to identify ways Gandhi may have been influenced by Thoreau.

·         Discuss reasons why a colonized people would strive for independence, possibly drawing on prior knowledge of the American Revolution.

·         Read a variety of modern Indian poetry (as a whole class and in partners), with a focus on themes relating to the struggle against colonialism, religious conflict, the injustices of the caste system, and the role of women.

·         Make a short oral presentation to summarize the content of their research paper.

·         Perform the short play Post Office using reader’s theater..

·         Work in small groups on hands-on projects designed to celebrate Indian traditions (mehndi designs, ankle bracelets for girls, Rakhi (wrist bracelets) for boys, and Indian ice cream -- as time permits; see Traditions from India text).Go to top of page.

 

Lesson Plans 

The lesson plans that follow are designed for a humanities block (social studies and language arts) classroom that meets five times per week, with 92 minutes per class period.  The plans use an abbreviated version of Marylin Burns’ five-step lesson plan and include the following components: objectives (goals), focusing activity, instruction, guided practice, and independent practice (homework).  Materials needed (a significant amount of copying must be done beforehand since many excerpts from texts are used) and a vocabulary list is noted for each day.

 

Week One (Indus Valley Civilizations and ancient Hindu traditions)

            Day one – Objectives: Students will begin a KWL chart to identify what they already know and would like to know about India (and what a civilization is), label a map to identify India’s important geographic features, begin a notebook of important terms for the unit, and read an episode from the Mahabharata, one of India’s ancient epics.  Vocabulary: subcontinent, Indus River, Himalayas, Indus Plain.  Materials/Preparation: Notebook, sheet of loose leaf paper folded into three columns (long ways), World text (pages 130-133), outline map of India, and class set of story The Thousand-Petaled Lotus (p. 43-45 in Traditions from India), Children’s books about India with large pictures. Focusing Activity: After writing the four definitions in their notebooks (a daily “bell ringer activity” that helps get students settled), students will view pictures from India to get them thinking about what they already know about this country.  They will then begin their KWL chart (a sheet of paper divided into three long column labled “what I know” in column one, “what I’d like to know” in column two and “what I learned” in column three. Instruction: Students will complete as many items as they can for columns one and two of the KWL chart to set goals for themselves and identify what they are curious about.  The outline of India will then be distributed, and students will label major geographic features using their texts (teacher can use overhead or wall map if possible to assist). Students will read pages 130-133 during this process, then keep both the map and KWL chart in a folder for future use.  Teacher will then tell the class that this unit will combine great works of  Indian literature with the “nuts and bolts” of the textbook to provide a better understanding of India and its people.  Our first example of this literature will then be distributed, and students will read orally when called upon.  Guided practice: Students will practice active reading strategies as the story continues, comparing Indian customs with our own, using context to decipher new word meaning, summarizing plot, and predicting what might happen next.   Independent practice: Finish the first two columns of your KWL chart and be prepared to discuss it on day two.

 

            Day two – Objectives: Students will learn about the Indus Valley civilization at Mohenjo-Daro, discuss the migration of Aryans into the region, label routes of migration on their India maps, and compare an Indian holiday – Diwali – with American holidays. Vocabulary: citadel, migrate, Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Aryan, Sanskrit.   Materials/Preparation: KWL Charts and maps from previous day, text book pgs. 134-139, requirements for 10-12  paragraph research paper and list of topics (handout), and children’s book Diwali.  Focusing activity: After defining today’s vocabulary words using the reference section of the text, students will be called upon to share items from their KWL chart.  Instruction: Research paper guidelines will be passed out and discussed.  Then students will take out their textbooks and maps from day one.  While reading, students will label regions of the Indus Valley where civilizations arose, then answer map work questions #1-2 (p. 37) on the back of their maps.  Throughout the reading and map work, students will be asked to draw comparisons with the other river valley civilizations we have discussed (Egypt and Mesopotamia).  In the last 20 minutes of class, students will do a “think-pair-share” partner activity, brainstorming a list of holidays we celebrate in the United States.  Guided practice: Student lists will be discussed and compared with an Indian holiday as teacher reads the children’s book Diwali to the class.   Independent practice: Students read p. 138-139 for homework, adding routes of migration into India to complete their maps.   Map work questions #1-3 (p. 139) should be answered on the back.

 

            Day three – Objectives: Students will examine the basic principles of Hindu belief, read about various Vedic deities, and compare these gods and goddesses with others they may have learned about (most likely through an introduction to Greek mythology). They will also receive instructions for their India research paper and begin to think about choosing a topic. Vocabulary: monotheism, polytheism, Hinduism, Vedas, caste system, reincarnation, dharma. Materials /Preparation: A class set of 15-20 profiles of Vedic deities (about one page each; these can be found on the Internet or in books on Indian mythology), video on the Hindu religion, handout for research paper assignment outlining expectations, due date, and providing a list of possible topics. Focusing activity: Have a list of natural phenomenan on the board that includes: the changing seasons, night and day, earthquakes, tidal waves, etc.  Ask students to explain how these occur, first by using scientific knowledge, then without using science at all.  Show students how primitive people often used stories about gods and goddesses to explain the world around them. Instruction: After homework is turned in and vocabulary words are added to notebooks, students will confront a religious tradition that is probably very different from their own, first by thinking about a society with many gods and goddesses, then by reading about Hinduism and taking notes on a video presentation. After the focusing activity, we will read text pages 142-144, then take notes on a 20-minute video (World Religions/Hinduism).  Students are required to write 10 or more facts about this religion during the presentation.  After the video, students will work in partners to read about one Vedic deity, write a one-paragraph summary of this god or goddess, and share their findings with the class.  Students will return to their seats at the end of class to review the requirement for their India research paper.  Guided practice: Teacher will move from partner groups to assist with summary writing.  Independent practice: Students will begin to research topics on the project handout and choose a topic.

 

            Day four – Objectives: Students will continue to learn about the many Hindu gods, their symbols, and what they represent in Hindu mythology.  We will also introduce the concept of heroes and discuss their role in literature and society.  Vocabulary: (use list of terms from symbols of Hindu gods handout www.asia.si.edu/pujaonline/puja/activities_symbols.html) Naga, Shiva, Vishnu, Discus, Club, Linga, Lion, Durga, Hanuman, Ramayana.  Materials/Preparation: Class set of symbols from Hindu mythology (teacher can download answer key), a brief version of the Ramayana  (www.maxwell.syr.edu/maxpages/special/ramayana/story.html) and textbook.  Focusing activity: Teacher will have a list of symbols from popular American culture on the board (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the Flash, Wonder Woman.).  What do these symbols represent?  Why are they useful?  Why do we have heroes?  Instruction: After students add to their notebooks and discuss heroes and their symbols, student will read text pages 146-147 for a brief look at Hinduism today.  Students will then answer “Think About  It” questions #1-5 in complete sentences to check reading comprehension.  In the last half hour of class, partners will brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe most heroes (five-minute focusing activity) before reading a short version of the Ramayana.  Guided practice: During today’s reading, teacher will look for opportunities to compare Hindu heroes and beliefs with our own.  Independent practice: Before leaving, students will be asked to name their report topic and encouraged to begin their research.

 

            Day five – Objectives: Students will read an Indian myth and compare its hero with the hero in the Ramayana and other stories.  Vocabulary: (use remaining terms from Hindu gods handout) Nandi, Ganesha, Conch Shell, Trishula (Trident); from Savitri story: anoint, namesake, regal, sage, sari. Materials/Preparation: Symbols list from previous day, class set from Steck-Vaughn World Myths Series Savitri and the Ruler of the Dead. Focusing Activity: After students add definitions to their notebooks, we will review the list of adjectives from the previous day.  How did the hero of the Ramayana display these qualities?  Why is it helpful to promote these qualities in society?  How do American mythological heroes do the same thing?  Instruction: Have students write the following literary terms (with a short definition for each) in their notebooks: plot, character, setting, protagonist, antagonist, exposition, conflict, climax, resolution, and denouement. As you discuss each term, show how they apply to the Ramayana story (a “Plot Triangle” on the blackboard may help to illustrate the concepts through rising and falling action).  Challenge students to identify each term in today’s story.  Guided practice: Begin reading Savitri story together, identifying the first few terms such as setting and character.  Have students finish their lists while they read the rest of the story silently.  During silent reading, call students up individually to discuss their research paper topics and provide advice and encouragement. Go to top of page.

 

Week Two (India’s major religions and the Colonial Period)

            Day one – Objectives: Students will learn how three major religions coexist in India (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam), today focusing on the origins and practices of Buddhism.  Vocabulary: Buddhism, monk, karma, Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Middle Way, Siddhartha Gautama, Kosala.  Materials/Preparation:   Statue or picture of Buddha (for focus), text, Class set of “Becoming a Buddhist Master” from text Anthology resource book, p. 30-31 (comes with text), a series of seven flow-chart boxes drawn on the blackboard.  Focusing activity: After students copy vocabulary definitions in their notebooks, teacher shows students a statue of a Buddha.  What do they know about this symbol and religion?  How did this religion begin?  We will find out by reading about the life of Siddhartha Gautama, a Hindu prince who left all his riches behind to live the simple life of a monk.  But first, we will try to achieve the peaceful feeling the Buddha represents through a brief meditation exercise.  Turn off the lights, and have the students put their heads down, close their eyes, and relax.  Imagine a world with no cares or suffering, only peace.  Imagine that you have everything you need and desire nothing.   Imagine you are as a free as a white cloud drifting slowly across a blue sky on a summer afternoon (Give students 5-10 minutes to meditate, then ask them how they felt).  Instruction: Divide class into seven small groups.  Each group is assigned a small part of the textbook p. 150-155 (use text subheadings to divide).  Each group must read their section, discuss it among themselves, and write a short summary on the blackboard.  The summaries will be a series of boxes connected with arrows like a flow chart.  When students report to the class, the events in the Buddha’s life will proceed like a story, and students can see how the religion started and grew.  Students will record the completed flow chart in their notebooks.   Guided practice: Teacher will float from group to group to help students formulate a three or four sentence summary.  Independent practice: For homework, students read a two-page excerpt from a primary source document “Becoming a Buddhist Master” and write a one-page summary titled “What I Know About Buddhism.”

 

            Day two – Objectives: Students will review all the material covered so far, then participate in a brief introduction to Islam.  Vocabulary: (Will be defined for homework today) Islam, Quran, Kaaba, Five Pillars, pilgrimage, Muhammad, Khadija, Mecca, Medina. Materials/preparation: Children’s book Sacred River, class set of “Pilgrimage to Mecca” (from text Anthology resource book, p. 56-57), text.  Focusing activity: Students will read their homework summaries to review what we know about Buddhism.  Instruction: After homework summaries are collected, students will answer Chapter 6 review questions on p. 156-157 (Thinking About Vocabulary #1-5, Thinking About Facts #1-10, and one of the “Think and Write” options).  Students will turn these in after about a half hour, then teacher will read Sacred River – about the Ganges River pilgrimage many Hindus make --  to them, holding up the pictures to view after each page of text.  This book will introduce the concept of a pilgrimage to students.  What are the holy/special places we return to on a regular basis?  Teacher will then pass out primary source excerpt “Pilgrimage to Mecca” and students will be asked to read it silently, looking for similarities and differences between the two sacred journeys.  Guided practice: As class ends, teacher will ask students to identify similarities and differences between the two journeys on a blackboard “comparison/contrast” chart.  Independent practice: Students read the chapter on Islam for homework (p. 266-271) and define all the vocabulary terms in their notebook.

 

            Day three – Objectives: Students will discuss what they know about Islam and learn about the Moghul period, when India was governed by Islamic conquerors.  A key aspect of this lesson is the concept of religious tolerance practiced by Akbar.   Vocabulary: Akbar, Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Agra, Taj Mahal. Materials/Preparation: text. Focusing Activity: After students add new vocabulary definitions to their notebooks, have partners do a quick “think-pair-share” brainstorming activity, listing the most famous buildings in the world.  This will culminate with a sharing of lists, and students looking at the picture of the Taj Mahal on text p. 396.  Who built this magnificent tomb?  Instruction: Students volunteers will read chapter titled “India Under The Moguls” p. 392-397 aloud, discussing vocabulary words and the Muslim religion as we proceed.  Why was it in Akbar’s interest to practice religious tolerance in India?  Does our own government insure that people of different religions can practice freely? How were Akbar’s open discussions like those of the Greeks and Romans?   In what part of the Indian subcontinent is Islamic influence strongest today?  Guided practice: Students will begin “Think About It Questions” (#1-5 on p.Go to top of page. 397) together, then finish by the end of the period.

 

            Day four – Objectives: Students will learn what a colony is and discuss the positive and negative aspects of the British Colonial Period.  The concept of “point of view” will be used to examine ways colonialism can be celebrated or criticized, especially in the context of Rudyard Kipling’s classic poetry about India. Students will also discuss how valuable goods (such as India’s spices or Chinese silk) can be powerful incentives to world trade. Vocabulary: Raj, civil disobedience, colony, Green Revolution. Materials/Preparation: text, class set of Kipling poem “The White Man’s Burden,” children’s book Gunga Din, class set of excerpt of Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience. Focusing Activity: After students record vocabulary definitions, class will turn to the map of Africa on p. 570.  This map illustrates when individual countries gained their independence from colonial powers from 1951-1993. How many different European countries colonized parts of Africa?  What brought Europeans there and influenced them to establish colonies?  What does independence mean?  On our continent, how did the US, Canada, and Mexico gain independence?  Instruction: Teacher should connect focusing activity to a discussion of what a colony is and how natural resources and agricultural products are often exported from colonies to the European powers that ruled them.  Teacher may point to a world map to show this “great exchange” and the economic factors that ignited the Age of Exploration.  This would be a good time to point out the “Silk Roads” – trade routes Marco Polo traveled from Constantinople to Khanbalik, China.  Students can use their fingers to trace the Silk Roads on the textbook map on p. 406 while teacher traces the route on a classroom map or overhead projector.  The workings of a “global economy” we often think is so modern has been going on for centuries!  The discussion of colonies should then be broadened to include ways colonization could have positive and negative impacts on the people involved.  Teacher should begin a two-column chart on the blackboard, with column one listing positive aspects of colonialism and column two listing negative consequences (especially from the colonized nation’s point of view).  Students will continue this chart as we read about the British Colonial Period in India (p. 580-581) and the poetry of Kipling.  When the class reads “The White Man’s Burden,” look for the problems Kipling identifies, including racist attitudes.  As the teacher reads Gunga Din aloud to the class, try to identify references that are objectionable from an Indian point of view (e.g. “Tho’ I’ve belted you and flayed you/By the livin’ Gawd that made you/You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”).  Guided practice: Teacher will provide clues for students, but should allow students to make their own decisions about colonialism when reading and making the chart. Independent practice: For homework, students should read an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience and write a one-page summary.

 

            Day five – Objectives: Students will make a flow chart to illustrate the influence between three great political minds: Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.  Students will use their listening skills to enjoy a taped version of Kipling’s Rikki-TikkiTavi.   Vocabulary: Mohandas Gandhi, characterization, Segowlee cantonment, mongoose, cobra, bantam.  Materials/Preparation: cassette taped version of Kipling short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, listening questions for the story, text.  Focusing activity: After students get vocabulary definitions, they should make a flow chart with three boxes (connected by arrows) in their notebooks.  The boxes should be labled “Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.”  Using last night’s homework assignment and the text, students should write a sentence or two to identify the ideas each man was most famous for.  The class can then share its findings on a flowchart on the blackboard.  Students will continue to learn about how these men influenced each other next week when we discuss modern India.  Instruction: Before starting tape of the short story, teacher will pass out listening questions students will answer while the tape plays.  Questions should stress literary terms such as plot, setting, characterization, conflict, and resolution.  Teacher should also bring up the concept of “natural enemies” in the animal kingdom and literary techniques for describing a hero and villain in dramatic fashion.  Guided practice: Teacher may periodically alert students to listen carefully for an answer, but it is their responsibility to anticipate the next question and listen for detail.  What does this story reveal about the colonial period in India?

 

Week three (Independence from Britain and modern India)

            Day one – Objectives: Students will research the life of Gandhi in greater depth, discuss the challenges the new nation of India faced, and label a political map to show the new boundaries for East and West Pakistan (later Bangladesh), Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Vocabulary: Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Jawaharlai Nehru, Indira Gandhi, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh.  Materials/Preparation: Excerpts from children’s biographies of Gandhi (the biography by Mary and Mike Furbee is especially good for identifying important subtopics such as “Indian Attitudes About British Rule,” “Teaching Nonviolence,” and “Gandhi and King – Living and Dying for Nonviolence” ), text, map of “New Nations in South Asia, 1947-1972” (text p. 583), overhead projector, plastic sheets and overhead projector markers for students to use. Focusing activity: After students add vocabulary to their notebooks, teacher will show students pictures of Gandhi at various stages in his life, from young man, to student, to young lawyer, to political activist.  What do you know about Gandhi already? Today you will work in small groups to read in depth about one aspect of this great leader.  Instruction: Students will read text p. 582-585 silently to see how Gandhi led his nation to independence in 1947 before he was assassinated in 1948.   (Challenge students to find out why Gandhi was assassinated and to identify problems the new nation faced).  When finished, student pairs can select an excerpt from a biography on Gandhi, read it together, and work collaboratively to write one or two sentences to summarize its content.  Students will then write their sentence on a transparency sheet that teacher will share with class (all students will record about 13-15 new facts about Gandhi’s life in their notebooks). Guided practice: Teacher will work with student pairs to select the most important information from excerpts and compose sentences.  Independent practice: Students will label and color map on text p. 583, adding new national boundaries and the year each nation achieved independence.

 

            Day two – Objectives: Students will review what they’ve learned about modern India, identify challenges an independent India still faces, and read the work of Indian poets to focus on some of the issues and challenges of modern life in India.  Vocabulary: None, but teacher can add literary terms dealing with poetry (rhyme, meter, theme, etc.) if students are unfamiliar with these.  Materials/preparation: text, copies of poems from various anthologies (themes should include religious identity and conflict, the injustice of the caste system, the role of women, and attitudes toward British and Western influence in modern India), news article about India’s ongoing dispute with Pakistan over the region of Kashmir.  Focusing activity: On the blackboard, make a list of nations that possess nuclear weapons.  Students can probably identify a few nations, and teacher will supply the rest.  Why are conflicts between these nations especially dangerous?  Has the world ever seen a “shooting war” between nations that possess nuclear weapons? (The Cuban Missile Crisis may be mentioned at this time.)  Students will then read news article and discuss the dangers of the India-Pakistan conflict. Instruction: Students will answer “Think About It” questions #1-5 on text p. 585 to review, then student pairs will select a poem to read and discuss.  After reading poem, students must be prepared to read the poem to the class and identify its theme or message.  GuidedGo to top of page. practice: Teacher will work with student pairs to help understand and analyze the poems.


            Day three – Objectives: Students will be reminded of various aspects of Indian life and religion during a dramatic reading of the play Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore.  Vocabulary: (from glossary of play) Ayurveda, bene-bou, champak, chhatu, dai, daiwallah, didi, fakir, mantra, parul, Ramayana, sepoy, sloka (most of these are one or two word translations from Hindu to English). Materials/Preparation: class set of play. Focusing activity: After students add vocabulary to their notebooks, ask students to write a brief answer to this age-old question: “Is there an afterlife, and if so, describe what you think it will be like.” After a few minutes, students can share this – but only if they wish.  Teacher should emphasize that all religious beliefs deserve to be respected, and different religions often agree about the most basic principles of faith. Instruction: Teacher will introduce the play as the simple story of a young Indian boy who is dying.  His attitude about death provides much insight into the serenity and beauty of Hindu faith.  Parts will then be assigned (there are 11 characters) – and these may be changed after each of the three acts.  The play should take approximately 45 minutes to read aloud.  Guided practice: Teacher will ask recall and comprehension questions after each act to emphasize plot, theme, and connections to the text.  Independent practice: Research papers are due the following day.   Students should be prepared to give a brief presentation of their findings. 

            Days four and five – Objectives: On each day, half the students in each class will present a summary of their paper, followed by one part of the unit test.  Students will take notes on each classmate’s presentation, and these will be collected and graded at the end of day five.  Materials/Preparation: two-part unit test. Assessment: Student presentations will be graded on volume, eye contact, poise, organization, and quality of information presented.  Students should keep a three-column chart throughout the presentations, listing the name of the speaker, the topic, and three or more facts presented.  Part one of the test will be vocabulary, symbols, and short answer (notes may be used if the teacher wishes).  Part two of the test will be short essay questions designed to challenge student ability to synthesize material and make connections.  Possible essay questions are: “Discuss the three principle religions of India and ways each played a role in India’s history” and “How did the ideas of Henry David Thoreau influence Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King?”
 

Documentation 

Bibliography 

Aldridge, Owen A.   The Reemergence of World Literature: A study of Asia and the West. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1986. 

Biddle, Arthur W. (General Editor).  Global Voices.   Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. 

Davis, Paul (General Editor).   Western Literature in a World Context (Volume Two; The Enlightenment through the Present). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. 

Dharwadker, Vinay and Ramanujan, A.K., The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry.  New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. 

Harrison, Gary.  “What is World Literature?”   Unpublished essay used in ATI World Literature              Seminar at The University of New Mexico, Summer of 2002. 

 Ions, Veronica.   Indian Mythology.  New York: The Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1967. 

Khan, Rukhsana.  Muslim Child: Understanding Islam Through Stories and Poems.   Morton Grove, Illinois: Albert Whitman and Company, 1999. 

Lawall, Sarah (General Editor).  The Norton Anthology of World Literature.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. 

Lawall, Sarah.  Reading World Literature: Theory History, and Practice.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. 

Lim, Geok-Lin, One World of Literature.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. 

Mann, Gurinder Singh, Numrich, David Paul, and Williams, Raymond M.  Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 

Miller, Barbara Stoler (Translator). The Bhagavad-Gita.  New York: Bantam Books, 1986. 

Ngugi, James.  Creating Space for a Hundred Flowers to Bloom. Oxford: James Currey, 1993. 

Schulberg, Lucille.  Historic India.  New York: Time-Life Books, 1968. 

Tagore, Rabindranath.  The Post Office.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. 

Thoreau, Henry David, Civil Disobedience (first published in 1849). From Anthology of American Literatue, Volume 1, George McMichael, General Editor, New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1974. 

Time-Life Books (Editors), Ancient India: Land of Mystery.  Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1994. 

Resources for Children 

Conger, David. Many Lands, Many Stories: Asian Folktales for Children. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1987. 

Cumming, David. India: Studies of Economically Developing Countries, New York: Thomson Learning, 1995. 

Furbee, Mary and Mike. The Importance of Mohandas Gandhi. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.

Gardeski, Christina Mia.  Diwali (Read-about Holidays series). New York: Children’s Press, 2001. 

Lewin, Ted. Sacred River.   New York: Clarion Books, 1994. 

Kipling, Rudyard (Illustrated by Lambert Davis). Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. 

Kipling, Rudyard. (Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker) Gunga Din. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987. 

Mamdani, Shelby. Traditions from India. Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1999. 

Penney, Sue.  Islam (Discovering Religions Series). Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1997. 

Penney, Sue. Buddhism (Discovering Religions Series). Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1997. 

Penney, Sue. Hinduism (Discovering Religions Series). Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1997. 

Prior, Katherine. The History of Emigration from the Indian Subcontinent. New York: Franklin Watts, 1996. 

Tull, Herman W. (Reviewer).  Savitri and the Ruler of the Dead (World Myths Series/South Asia). Austin, Texas: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1994. 

Internet Resources 

Asia Society. www.AsiaSociety.org (Go to the related site www.askasia.org for information, ideas, and detailed lesson plans for a variety of grade levels). 

National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com (Education links provide maps, articles, and other materials for the classroom). 

Public Broadcasting Service. www.pbs.org   (links such as www.pbs.org/adventure/divas/india provide useful opportunities for on-line research).Go to top of page.