So in place of traveling to India, I am making arrangements to go to China (and possibly Japan) instead.
The program features many opportunities for students to engage in dialogue with Chinese students, professionals, NGO activists (wondering how that's gonna go down), journalists, business people, migrant laborers, and farming families (staying awaaaay from chickens). We will attend talks, visit historic sites and modern institutions, and attend a survival Chinese course (just when I started studying Japanese). We will begin in the capital of Beijing where we will stay at a Chinese university, then move onto the North China rural community of Dazhai where we will have a homestay for a long weekend before traveling to Xi'an, and then to the southern province of Anhui where we will live in a tea producing community before moving onto Shanghai. We might also go to either Nanjing or Hangzhou. During the last part of the trip we will intern somewhere, like a school.
Might go to Tokyo on my own afterward, since it'll be close.

If anyone lives in these areas or has traveled to any of these locations, please feel free to comment with any suggestions.