Description

From the high-tech industries of Bangalore -- India's answer to Silicon Valley -- to thousands of rural villages seemingly untouched by time, India embraces both the dynamic forces of globalization and the deep-rooted traditions of an ancient culture. The dichotomy is woven into everyday life in India -- cows interrupt the streams of cars and trucks on the roads, and farmers work with hand tools in fields under the flight paths of jumbo jets.

On the interdisciplinary ACM India Studies Program in Pune, students have the rare opportunity to experience India's dynamism and diversity firsthand through courses, independent study, and daily life in an Indian home and community. Pune, a city of over three million in the state of Maharashtra, offers students excellent resources for experience, exploration, and study. A gathering place for artists and intellectuals as well as an industrial center, Pune's residents include leaders in the fields of art, music, dance, yoga, theatre, film, religion, politics, environmental science, and social reform.

In pursuing their independent research, students can use the city's museums, educational institutions, government offices, political organizations, business and labor groups, and cultural and social welfare agencies. Local historical sites and archives chronicle Pune's role as a center of Hindu resistance to British rule and as the summer headquarters for the colonial government of Bombay. Maharashtra is among the more prosperous and stable areas of India, embracing nearly all of the nation's religious, social, and ethnic variety. Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), India's chief commercial center, is easily accessible to students by train.

Highlights

India today is a country of contrasts: a modernizing economy in which village production continues to dominate, a vibrant democracy with an entrenched bureaucracy, a nuclear power in the place where nonviolent protest was born.

The Indian economy has been described as "schizophrenic": its modern service sector, largely urban-based, stands in juxtaposition to rural India, where fields are plowed with bullocks and brick kilns dot the landscape. Road traffic, proceeding at multiple speeds, incorporates these different sectors, and Mercedes and Marutis share the roads with scooters, bicycles, and even camel-drawn carts. Even the entertainment sector exhibits these disparities, with older Bollywood productions portraying rather chaste interactions between the sexes and newer films and video games more risqué in their portrayal of men and women.

The fall ACM India program, located in Pune, is designed to provide students with an overview of these many aspects of Indian culture and society today. The program begins in mid-August, with a three-week orientation, in which students begin an "Introduction to India" core course, study Marathi language intensively, and draw up a plan of research for their independent study projects. The regular term begins in early September, where students continue the core course and Marathi language, choose one of three elective courses (in political science, sociology, or environmental studies), and begin to carry out their independent study projects. In each of the courses, classroom learning is augmented by weekly activities outside of the classroom, and students are also encouraged to volunteer with local organizations. The program organizes several program-sponsored overnight excursions to sites in and around Pune, while a one-week break in October provides opportunities to travel further afield in India.

In Pune, students live with Indian host families, providing a window into Indian society that students might not otherwise have, and for many it is the highlight of their experience in India. Pune itself reflects the contrasts of India as a whole. A city of 3.5 million, it is an important center for the automobile and software industries of India, and is also known as "the Oxford of India," a reference to the presence of the prestigious University of Pune. Its climate is far more pleasant than that of muggy Mumbai, and it has attracted many foreigners over the years who have come to the ashram of Bhagwan Rajneesh.

Degree Level

Bachelors Degree (Undergraduate)

Subject Areas

Cost in US$:

Inquire for more information

Experience Required

no

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participants.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Home-stays

Typically Participants Work

Independently or in Groups of 20

Application Process Involves

• Letters of Reference
• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Transcript
• Written Application

Typically The Application Process Time is

2-3 weeks after deadline has passed

ACM - Associated Colleges of the Midwest's Mission Statement

The Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a consortium of residential liberal arts colleges, aims to strengthen its member colleges as leaders, and exemplars, in liberal arts education through significant, innovative, and sustainable collaborations. One key component of ACM is to provide exemplary liberal arts learning through a wide variety of off-campus study programs. Almost all of ACM's off-campus study programs around the world are open to students from any college or university.

Year Founded

1958