“To persuade them into speech and action”: Oratory and the Tamil Political, Madras, 1905–1919

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Bate
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractAll the elements of twentieth-century politics in Tamilnadu cohere in 1918–1919: human and natural rights, women's rights, the labor movement, linguistic nationalism, and even the politics of caste reservation. Much has been written of how this politics was mediated by newspapers, handbills, and chapbooks, and the dominant narrative of such events privileges the circulation of print and print culture of vernacular language. This paper explores the relatively lesser-known story of the role and impact of vernacular oratory on the development of the mass political in Tamilnadu from the Swadeshi movement (1905–1908) to the formation of labor unions (1917–1919), and the explicit attempt to persuade non-elites into speech, action, and ultimately politics. I argue that Tamil oratory was an infrastructural element in the production of the political, at least the political as we understand it in twentieth-century Tamilnadu, where oratory became the defining activity of political practice. When elites made the conscious move to begin addressing the common man, when Everyman was called to join into the political, a new agency was formed along with a new definition of what politics would look like. The paper considers what such new agency and definitions entail in pursuit of a better understanding of what constitutes the political generally and the Tamil political in particular.

Are there Natural Rights? The Sceptical Critique and the Modern Roman Catholic Tradition

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-92
Author(s):  
Nigel Biggar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Jacques Maritain ◽  
Positive Rights ◽  
Rerum Novarum ◽  
The Common ◽  
John Finnis ◽  
Catholic Tradition

This chapter examines the modern Roman Catholic appropriation of rights-talk, in order to see whether or not Catholic tradition has proven better than other ‘modern’ traditions at meeting the sceptics’ objections to natural rights. It focuses particularly on Rerum Novarum, Jacques Maritain, ‘Pacem in Terris’, and John Finnis and, in passing, it criticises Samuel Moyn’s construal of twentieth-century Catholic thought on rights. It concludes that, through its affirmation of a larger moral order (‘natural law’), Catholic thinking about rights has shown itself more ready to talk in terms of moral categories other than ‘rights’. It is also unusual in the prominence it gives to the concept of the common good, although typically without offering any exact explanation of how this relates to individual rights—except in the case of John Finnis. Finnis also identifies a common problem with much other ‘modern’ rights-talk: that, since the very concept of a right has an absolute, ‘conclusory’ force, rights-talk has the logical tendency to shut down wider deliberation about justice. Instead, he argues, rights should emerge at the end of deliberation about a range of factors—moral, social, and political—rather than be invoked at the beginning. This appears to affirm socially contingent positive rights rather than absolute natural ones. But that is not the whole story, because the Catholic rights tradition consistently asserts some absolute natural rights. These, however, are either tautologous or practically unilluminating.

What Mathematical Subjects Should be Included in the College Curriculum?

1913 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
F. J. Holder
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Present State ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
College Curriculum ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Political Realm

In the forenoon of this twentieth century, when democracy is asserting itself, no less in the political realm than against the old aristocracy of learning, we who are voluntarily yoked to the common load of teaching mathematics must realize its present state of unrest. Possibly this is not more noticeable in mathematics than in many other branches of the curriculum, and it is probably a bit less conspicuous in the colleges and universities than in the secondary schools; and furthermore, this unsettled condition is by no means confined within the walls of our American institutions, but its constant throbbing is felt in the educational pulse of every progressive country in the world. There seems to be an ever-present desire for a change without first counting the cost of the move; a mere effort to have things different, with no well-defined plan of having them better.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHRUTI KAPILA
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bhagavad Gita ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Political Modernity ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Violence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Bhagavad Gītā

This essay revises the common assumption that non-violence has been central to political modernity in India. The “extremist” nationalist B. G. Tilak, through a foundational philosophical reinterpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, created a modern theology of the Indian “political”. Tilak did so by directly confronting the question of the possibility of the “event” of war and the ethics of the conversion of kinsmen into enemies. Writing in the aftermath of the Swadeshi movement and from a prison cell in Rangoon, Tilak interpreted action as sacrificial duty that created a vocabulary of violence in which killing was naturalized. Violence, whether conceptual or otherwise, was not directed towards the “outsider” but was of meaning only when directed against the intimate. Unlike the distinction between friend and foe that has been taken as central to the understanding of the political in the twentieth century, it was instead the fraternal–enmity issue that framed the modern political in India. Tilak foregrounded the idea of a de-historicized political subject, whose existence was entirely dependent upon the event of violence itself. This helps to explain both the unprecedented violence that accompanied freedom and partition in 1947 and also the fact that it has remained unmemorialized to the present day.

scholarly journals Distinguishing in Statutory Law: The statute as Written Custom under Maurice Haurious's Legal Institutionalism

Eudaimonia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
Cezary Węgliński
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Common Definition ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Statutory Law ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

The common definition of the statutory law, especially in continental law culture, understands a set of regulations supposed to be applicable in all possible cases in the future. Nevertheless, already at the beginning of the twentieth century, this concept was criticized as too idealistic by absolutizing the statute as a unique and exhaustive source of law. Maurice Hauriou (1856-1929), a French academic of public and constitutional law at the University of Toulouse, presented at that time the concept of the statutory law as written custom, therefore a source of law that is supposed to be actualized in particular cases with judge’s possibility to distinguish. The modern concept of the statutory law, inherited from the Enlightenment, is proven to be even more mythical. The paper focuses on the Hauriou’s concept of the statute as a written custom which can be used as a useful tool to describe the reality of contemporary legal practice.

scholarly journals A Man, Who Never Stopped Dreaming of Humane India: Swami Agnivesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Venkat Rao Pulla ◽  
Bharath Bhushan Mamidi
Keyword(s):  
Social Activism ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Activists ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of

We share two observations based on what we have seen in India. First, that the hegemonic politics in India ushered in institutional and structural inequalities in their wake and second, that the political leadership continued to be aspirational irrespective of ideologies desiring to scale up in the hierarchy of global economic and political power. These two observations pertain to the contemporary history of five decades of development in India. As a result of the above two observations, we make a further two observations that for the Aām Aādmi (the common man), the political parties that sit in the government and their respective ideologies do not matter. And for the state and the political elites, the negative consequences such as marginalisation, exclusion and desperation of the common folks that emanate from the models chosen for development do not matter.   It is in such contexts, social activists argue for a legitimate space for the vying intersects of poverty, caste, class, occupations, habitats amidst such motivated globalisation. They also continue to raise difficult conversations around patriarchy, religious hierarchy, bonded labour, and the girl child.  One such social activist that was concerned about all the above issues was Swami Agnivesh.  He was not antigovernment, anti-democracy, anti-institutional, anti-hierarchy, anti-religious. He sought to restore a new and deeper meaning of freedom (democracy), a new meaning of hierarchy, social care, and even a new definition of spirituality that is social. He was a man who never stopped dreaming of humanising India. In this article, we reminisce about our association with Swami Agnivesh and attempt to espouse his thought based on our hearing, reading, and reflection.    Briefly, we present his life, achievements, and social activism, and more importantly, we attempt to interpret his conception of social spirituality and the ‘power of love’.

scholarly journals Mass Mobilization in Indian Politics: A Case Study of Non-Cooperation Movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Farooq Ahmad Dar ◽  
Muhammad Sajid Khan ◽  
Muhammad Abrar Zahoor
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Masses

Mass-Mobilization is one of the key ingredients for not only launching a movement but also for spreading any political agenda. The involvement of the masses always plays an important role in a process of bringing change anywhere and at any time. The history of South Asia, however, witnessed that in the struggle against the colonial rulers, to begin with, started by the elite alone. Politics was considered as the domain of a selected few and the common men were considered as ignorant and perhaps irrelevant and thus were kept at a distance. It was only after the beginning of the twentieth century and especially after the entrance of Gandhi on the political screen that the masses gained importance and were directly involved in political affairs. They not only became part of the Non-Cooperation Movement but also played an important role in spreading the movement all across India. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight Gandhi’s efforts to mobilize Indian masses during the Non-Cooperation Movement and its impact on the future politics of the region. The paper also discusses in detail different groups of society that actively participated in the process of mass-mobilization.

Love, or On the Best Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 198-237
Author(s):  
Ryan Patrick Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Heavenly City

Chapter 7 focuses on Fénelon’s concept of pure love and its relationship to his political philosophy. In so doing, it contests the common claim that Fénelon sought to realize pure love in political practice. In contrast, it argues that his political philosophy is in fact animated by a deep awareness of the gap that separates the world of human glory from the world of divine glory, the earthly city from the heavenly city. To this end it proceeds in three parts. The first part examines his definition of pure love, and the degree to which this definition comports with the categories of his political thought. The next section examines Fénelon’s understanding of the life of pure love, and how it compares to the lives led by political rulers and philosophers. The final section offers a brief consideration of Fénelon’s own life seen through the lens of pure love.

The Non-Reading Reader: European Hebrew Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century

Zutot ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-124
Author(s):  
Lilach Nethanel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
National Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Hebrew Literature ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Hebrew Language ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

Abstract European Hebrew literature presents a challenge to the study of early-twentieth-century national literature. By the end of the nineteenth century, the reading of modern Hebrew in Europe was neither part of a religious practice, nor did it merely satisfy a purely aesthetic inclination. It mainly functioned as an ideological means used by a minority of Jews to support the linguistic-national Jewish revival. However, some fundamental contradictions put into question the actual influence of this literature on the political sphere. This article asks a series of questions about this period in the history of Hebrew readership: How did the non-spoken Hebrew language come to produce popular Hebrew writings? How did this literature engage the common Jewish reader? In this article I propose a new consideration of Hebrew reading practices. I argue for the inclusion of the non-reading readers as important contributors to the constitution of the Jewish literary nation.

Response to Eric Arnesen

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 57-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Foner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
White American ◽  
Legal Structure ◽  
Racial Context ◽  
European Immigrants ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Eric Arnesen's essay highlights some real weaknesses in the burgeoning literature of whiteness and raises serious questions about the use of whiteness as a category of historical analysis. It effectively highlights the ambiguity of the concept and the way it tends to homogenize individuals who differ among themselves on numerous issues, including the definition of race. Moreover, the notion that European immigrants had to “become” white ignores a longstanding legal structure, dating back to the time of the Constitution, that incorporated these immigrants within the category of white American. Nonetheless, Arnesen fails to take account of some of the positive contributions of this literature, or to locate its popularity in the political and racial context of the late twentieth century. Rather than being abandoned, the concept of whiteness must be refined and historicized.

scholarly journals Lo político y los procesos de identificación

2020 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sebastián Barros
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Premier Lieu ◽  
New Space ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

El objetivo de este artículo es problematizar la manera en que la emergencia de demandas y su inscripción de un nuevo espacio de representación pueden dislocar el carácter instituyente de la política. En primer lugar, plantea que lo político opera sobre los límites del demos, expandiendo o restringiendo las diferencias, contadas como diferencias significativas en la comunidad. En segundo lugar, argumenta que esa cuenta se estructura a través de la asignación de ciertas capacidades sensibles a las diferencias que pueden significar un cambio respecto a la definición de lo común de la comunidad. En tercer lugar, el artículo señala que ese reparto de lo sensible está vinculado a un sujeto que puede hablar y ser escuchado en tanto portador de una palabra legítima, una diferencia que puede decir la verdad a través de prácticas parresiastas. En un contexto en el que todo el mundo puede hablar, porque la institucionalidad democrática así lo determina, aparece el riesgo de una mala parrhesía y de que se pierda la oportunidad de identificar la palabra veraz, dispersa en la masa.Palabras clave: Identidades, Estética, ParrhesíaThe political and the identification processesAbstractThe objective of this article is to problematize the way in which the emergence of lawsuits and their inscription of a new space of representation can dislocate the instituting character of politics. First, it lays out that the political operates on the limits of the demos, expanding or restricting the differences, counted as significant differences in the community. Second, it argues that this account is structured through the allocation of certain capacities sensitive to the differences that can mean a change with respect to the definition of the common of the community. Third, the article points out that this distribution of the sensible is linked to a subject who can speak and be heard as the bearer of a legitimate word, a difference that can tell the truth through parresiastas practices. In a context in which everyone can speak, because the democratic institutionality so determines, the risk of bad parrhesia appears and that the opportunity to identify the truthful word, dispersed in the mass, is lost.Keywords: Identities, Aesthetics, ParrhesiaLe politique et les processus d’identificationRésuméL’objectif de cet article est de problématiser la manière dans laquelle l’émergence de demandes et leur inscription d’un nouvel espace de représentation peut disloquer le caractère instituant qui possède la politique. En premier lieu, il propose que le politique opère sur les limites des demos, en étendant ou en restreignant les différences qui sont comptées comme des différences significatives dans la communauté.  En deuxième lieu, il argumente que cette compte-là est structurée à travers l’assignation de certaines capacités sensibles aux différences qui peuvent signifier un changement concernant la définition du courant de la communauté. En troisième lieu, l’article signale que cette répartition du sensible est liée à un sujet qui peut parler et peut être écouté en tant que porteur d’une parole légitime, une différence qui peut dire la vérité à travers les pratiques  parrhésistes.Dans un contexte dans lequel tout le monde peut parler, parce que l’institutionnalité démocratique ainsi le détermine, il apparaît le risque d’une mauvaise parrhésie et que la chance d’identifier le mot véridique se perde, dispersé dans la masse.Mots clé: Identités, Esthétique, Parrhésie

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