Program(s):
ALICE REICHERT: UPDATED PROJECT PROPOSAL
Just after a couple of weeks in Delhi, I decided to change my research project topic completely. This decision is well-covered in my other post, so here I’ll just explain my plans for the project, and the work I’ve done on it thus far. My project is focused on the interaction between and the reconciliation of modern, (sometimes western) influence and traditional Indian culture. In many ways, India is a culture steeped in tradition and religion. This has become clear when exploring Delhi, the capital, and seeing countless mosques and temples that are well attended and often extremely crowded with serious devotees. You would never see such an emphasis on religion in the U.S., let alone the capital. Arranged marriage, strict dress codes and specific roles for men and women in society are examples of the traditional sides to India, from what I know of it so far. Youth culture in a place that is so traditional is very interesting to me. How do young people deal with these traditions, with parental pressures, religion, and an influx of technology and western culture? Even looking at our academic schedule in Delhi, we were mostly focused on the past–India’s history, looking at monuments, past empires, old religious sites, etc. As important as it is to look at the past, particularly how it relates to the future, I want to give a voice to modern, young, growing India. I have specific topics that I hope will spark conversation and resonate with some of the people I interview. The interviews will likely be casual, though I will inform the interviewees of my project and and be sure that they are comfortable with being involved. I’ll use their real names unless they’d rather I not.
During interviews, I’ll provide a short explanation of my project, and follow it with a few topics that might spark conversation surrounding the reconciliation I’m interested in. These topics vary, so I hope that at least a few of them will spark conversation and intrigue the interviewee. I haven’t planned a particular order for the interview topics but here are a few of them: social media, how does social media impact your life as a young Indian person, are there any issues with your parents viewing your social media, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, snapchat, etc.?; media influences of movies, television, and music both western and Indian, themes of sex, partying or drinking alcohol, reconciling this with religion, hiding from parents, etc.; lack of interest in religion; marriage; education and moving away from home; social activism including gender, caste, and sexual orientation. I have plenty of topics to work with, so hopefully a few of them will resonate with each interviewee, and I’m also willing to change the topics if I realize that other more important themes are present.
So far I’ve conducted one interview, which was really fascinating, informative and helpful. I spoke with a Delhi University student and got into an interesting discussion of feminism in Delhi, along with details about how she grew up and her relationship with her parents, religion, etc. I’ll be doing another interview with someone from Delhi over Facebook, and in both Chennai and Varanasi I hope to meet people around my age that are willing to speak to me, perhaps I’ll even look into colleges in these cities and attempt to meet students. The project will probably transform as I get deeper into it, but this is my plan thus far.