India: Sustainable Development and Social Change

Explore the socioeconomic development trends in northern India and the tensions and challenges shaping India today.

Devinder Sandhu, Director in the Prime Minister of India Office addressing students

This program examines the diverse factors, internal and global, shaping India's development strategies and patterns. Students gain foundational knowledge of India’s past, present, and future development paradigms, economic growth, and social change.

The program is based in Jaipur, a bustling hub of NGOs engaged in development projects, social justice initiatives, and political activism. Jaipur is the capital city of the state of Rajasthan, historically a princely and aristocratic state, and a center of Hindu, Jain, and Muslim traditions.

Topics of study include:

Demographics: identity and diversity
Political trends and a pluralist state
Caste, class, gender, and religion in India
Colonial rule, Gandhi, and development
The economy of New India
Global governance: India in a globally governed world
Urban and rural challenges – equity and exclusion
Climate change and development
Social change interventions and alternative modes of development
Agents of change, including government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, corporations, community based organizations, and civil society

SIT students interacting with law students at Aligarh Muslim University

Visit institutes and NGOs in different areas of India
The program spends time at prominent academic and research institutes, as well as the headquarters of NGOs in the state of Rajasthan and elsewhere in India.

Travel outside Jaipur is an essential component of the program. Excursions typically include visiting Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Sawai Madhopur (famous for its Ranthambore Tiger Reserve) in the state of Rajasthan, and Dehradun in the state of Uttarakhand. Excursions provide varying contexts in which to evaluate development trends while become immersed in Indian culture. Learn more.

Gain practical experience working in development
Students spend five–seven days engaged with a professional academic and research institution or NGO working in the field of development and social change. Diverse workshop sites are offered in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and the Sikkim Himalayas. A special feature of the program, the workshop is designed to give students practical and hands-on experience in development.

Intensive language study in Hindi and a six-week homestay in Jaipur further facilitate cultural immersion.

Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research