G06: India Mini-Project: History & Culture

See pages 52-53 to understand Ancient Indian Medicine

Ancient Technology provides a fascinating look at a particular area of technology as it developed in ancient times, from the first humans to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in A.D. 476. Each chapter covers a different ancient civilization, beginning with Stone Age cultures and progressing chronologically through others, such as the ancient Middle East, Egypt, China, Mesoamerica, Greece, Rome, and India. Every book includes a world map and timeline to show the location and timespan of each culture. Supports the national curriculum standards Culture; Time, Continuity, and Change; People, Places, and Environments; Science Technology and Society; and Global Connections as outlined by the National Council for the Social Studies.

Somini Sengupta emigrated from Calcutta to California as a young child in 1975. Returning thirty years later as the bureau chief for The New York Times, she found a vastly different country: one defined as much by aspiration and possibility--at least by the illusion of possibility--as it is by the structures of sex and caste. The End of Karma is an exploration of this new India through the lens of young people from different worlds: a woman who becomes a Maoist rebel; a brother charged for the murder of his sister, who had married the "wrong" man; a woman who opposes her family and hopes to become a police officer. Driven by aspiration--and thwarted at every step by state and society--they are making new demands on India's democracy for equality of opportunity, dignity for girls, and civil liberties. Sengupta spotlights these stories of ordinary men and women, weaving together a groundbreaking portrait of a country in turmoil.

Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day.

The Ramayana -- one of the great legends of ancient India -- is presented here in the form of a visually stunning and gripping graphic novel. Told from the perspective of the queen, Sita, it explores ideas of right vs. wrong, compassion, loyalty, trust, honor and the terrible price that war exacts from women, children, animals and the natural world.