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CAU > Seminars and Study Tours > India: The Imagined, the Real, the Remembered

India: The Imagined, the Real, the Remembered

January 2-19, 2007

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Overview

Getting to know any nation is an adventure, but understanding modern India is a challenge all to itself. Like China, it is one of the world's most populous countries, yet it has only a third of China's landmass. Its geographic, ethnic, and linguistic complexity rivals that of Europe, but India has far greater religious diversity (it is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and ancient branches of Judaism and Christianity, and is the second largest Muslim country in the world after Indonesia).

India is the world's largest democracy by population, and probably its most vibrant in practice, but it has an electorate that is 35 percent illiterate. It is a genuinely and steadfastly secular country, despite having a 90 percent religious majority of Hindus. It is an agrarian country with an urban population that is larger than the total populations of all other countries save China. It is an intellectual powerhouse that has exported scientists, engineers, and doctors for decades. It has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world during the past ten years and it possesses an affluent middle class of four hundred million consumers, yet it also is home to one-quarter of the world's poor.

Faculty

These are some of the complexities and contradictions that we will ponder as we travel most of the length of this intriguing country with Porus Olpadwala, professor of urban and regional planning and past dean of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, and his wife Deenaz, both of whom were educated and worked in India before coming to Ithaca. Porus's professional areas of teaching and research are development studies and urban planning, and he will provide, in formal lectures and informal discussions, alternative frameworks for understanding the Indian reality. In addition, we will meet with public and private officials from many walks of life, and enjoy specially arranged receptions, visits, and meals with Cornellians. Porus and Deenaz's presence will lend a personal flavor to the visits as we meet several of their friends and professional acquaintances, and as they reflect on the changes to their homeland.

Itinerary

We will begin in the capital of Delhi, which is the site of the seventh (Old Delhi) and eighth (New Delhi) cities built at the same location, and thus a physical manifestation of two millennia of Indian history and culture. Our next stop will be Agra, the first capital of the sixteenth-century Mughal Empire. We will spend time at the fabled Taj Mahal and visit the imperial ghost capital of Fatehpur Sikri, which was built and quickly abandoned by the greatest Mughal, the Emperor Akbar.

A change of pace and scenery awaits us next as we overnight at Bharatpur, one of India's marvelous nature preserves, famed for its bird population. From here, we will drive through the colorful and historic countryside of Rajasthan to the Pink City (Jaipur), with its palaces (and shopping).

Next, we will experience a substantial change in region and pace as we fly to Mumbai, the dynamo behind India's economic resurgence (and home of Bollywood). We will stay in a heritage hotel owned by one of the corporations of Cornell alumnus Ratan Tata, wander the city to look at the second largest collections of Victorian Gothic and Art Deco architecture in the world, and mix it up with Indian alumni at a Cornell alumni reception.

A short hour's flight from Mumbai and twenty-first century India will take us to the famous Ajanta and Ellora cave shrines and transport us back a couple of millennia.

We will complete the main portion of the trip in the southeastern seaport of Cochin in the state of Kerala. Here we will mix history—Vasco da Gama's burial site, a 1568 synagogue decorated with Chinese tiles, Dutch and Portuguese forts—with time on Arabian Sea beaches and a backwater cruise through the magnificent deltas of the forty-odd rivers that wind their way to the sea. While doing all this, we will investigate how and why this province of a poor country has had, for the past thirty years, social achievements in health and education that are comparable with areas that are much more developed.

Those who leave the tour here will head for Mumbai to catch their flight home. The remainder of the group will head to Bangalore to be treated to two days in the "Garden City" of India, elevation three thousand-plus feet, with its historic sites and a visit to software leader Infosys, founded by Cornell trustee Narayana Murthy. We will tour the immensely impressive campus and hold discussions with Infosys officials about the phenomenal rise of software in India and the future of computing. (Those taking part in the Bangalore extension will depart for home from Bangalore on Saturday, January 20.)

Program Cost and Travel Arrangements

The program fee of $8,990 (per-person, double-occupancy) includes all accommodations and meals, all air and ground transportation in India, all site visits, escort services, taxes, gratuities, emergency medicalevacuation insurance, and the full educational program. The supplement for single occupancy is $3,190. A group air package from the U.S. will be offered at additional cost (the current fare from New York is $1,825), but you are free to make your own international air arrangements if you prefer. The program fee for the extension to Bangalore (January 18—20) is $1,350 (per-person, double-occupancy) and the single supplement for the extension is $490. The airfare supplement for the Bangalore extension is $100.

Physical Requirements

This will be a moderately strenuous trip. We will be traversing uneven ground in many places, climbing many steps, traveling by various conveyances (animal included), and taking some long drives over uneven roads. Daytime temperatures will be seasonably warm and will vary depending on our location. Please be sure to dress accordingly (we'll send you full details).