M.G. Ranade and Bhakti as a New Grammar for Indian Political Life

Author(s):  
Aparna Devare

This chapter focuses on M.G. Ranade’s (re)interpretation of bhakti writings in light of the colonial encounter in nineteenth-century India. Ranade used the teachings of bhakti saints, among them Eknath and Tukaram, to assert values such as egalitarianism, compassion and co-existence in the emerging public sphere. This was in sharp contrast to the incipient voices of hyper-masculinity that were trying to fashion a more aggressive Hinduism and nationalism in response to the colonial encounter. Although Ranade was an upper-caste reformer, he pushed for a more just and inclusive Hinduism that spoke strongly against caste injustices and promoted religious tolerance. In doing so, he argued for a ‘softer’ Hinduism, not Hindutva. In many ways, he fashioned a new grammar for Indian public life that anticipated Gandhi’s use of bhakti in modern politics. This chapter teases out some of the major strands of Ranade’s use of bhakti and links it to Gandhi, arguing that Ranade laid some of the important groundwork for Gandhi’s introduction of spirituality in politics.

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Calhoun

In this article I ask (1) whether the ways in which the early bourgeois public sphere was structured—precisely by exclusion—are instructive for considering its later development, (2) how a consideration of the social foundations of public life calls into question abstract formulations of it as an escape from social determination into a realm of discursive reason, (3) to what extent “counterpublics” may offer useful accommodations to failures of larger public spheres without necessarily becoming completely attractive alternatives, and (4) to what extent considering the organization of the public sphere as a field might prove helpful in analyzing differentiated publics, rather than thinking of them simply as parallel but each based on discrete conditions. These considerations are informed by an account of the way that the public sphere developed as a concrete ideal and an object of struggle in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain.


Janus Head ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Jérôme Melançon ◽  
Veronika Reichert ◽  

Contemporary democratic theory, in its focus on the distinction between a private and a public sphere, tends to exclude emotions from political life. Arendt, Habermas, and Angus present critical theories of politi­cal action and deliberation that demand that emotions be left behind in favour of a narrower rationality. On the basis of a first step toward incorporating emotions into political life as accomplished by Martha Nussbaum – despite its limitations – and of a second step taken by Sara Ahmed, an outline of a theory of emotions becomes possible, and brings into question the distinction between private and public life. Emotions act as motivations that accompany every instance of participation or for non-participation, be it because of apathy or of disengagement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-379
Author(s):  
JAMES P. WOODARD

AbstractAn examination of the Brazilian newspaper O Combate, this article accomplishes four goals. First, it defines the politics of a periodical long cited but little understood by historians. Second, it documents O Combate's place, alongside other ‘yellow press’ outlets, in the making of a ‘public sphere’ in São Paulo. Third, it situates the same publications' role in the bringing into being of a more commercial, publicity-driven press, which would shed the yellow press's radicalism and abet the collapse of the public sphere of its heyday. Fourth, it suggests that O Combate's radical republicanism was one fount of the democratic radicalism of the late 1920s and early 1930s, as well as of the regionally chauvinist constitutionalism of 1932–7. In this rare application of the ‘public sphere’ idea to twentieth-century Brazil, readers may also detect an account closer to Jürgen Habermas’ original formulation than that found in the historiography of nineteenth-century Spanish America.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-246
Author(s):  
Benyamin Intan

AbstractReligious violence in Indonesia has its origins mainly in factors that are external to religion. One factor in particular is the striving for political power initiated by the Ministry of Religion wherein religion and the state seek to subordinate the other. Within the Pancasila-based state religions have been enabled to live together in peace and harmony; opportunities have been created in which each religion can play an active role in the public sphere. This principle allows all religions and beliefs to function in public life. In a society like Indonesia a civil society—and how a particular religion functions—must begin with the reality of religious diversity. On this foundation a ‘public religion’ in the service of a civil society has the potential to be a transforming and liberating power necessary for democratic socio-political life.


1958 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max E. Fletcher

The opening of the Suez Canal took place in a century crowded revolutionary changes in the shipping world. In sharp contrast to the slow pace of change and development in the preceding era, major changes occurred in almost every sector of the shipping industry in the nineteenth century. While many of the new departures can be explained, at least in part, by the application of the techniques of the Industrial Revolution to shipping, the opening of Suez went far to accelerate and give direction to these changes. The canal significantly altered shipbuilding techniques and practices and contributed to the precipitous decline in the importance of the sailing ship as a major world carrier. Suez helped to bring about die realignment and relative decline of the European entrepot trade. And the new channel led to significant shifts in the patterns of Eastern and Australasian trade.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Carla Wilson Buss

Anyone seeking reliable information on American political life since the 1970s will be pleased with Michael Shally-Jensen’s work, American Political Culture. This three-volume set covers topics from abortion to Israel Zangwill, the nineteenth-century author who coined the phrase “melting pot” and who appears in the entry for “Cultural Pluralism.”


Author(s):  
Marharyta Butsan

In the article the concept of state functions, realizing which the state carries out a targeted management impact on various spheres of a public life. They show that the government should do to achieve and implement the goals and tasks that lie before him in a certain historical period. Purposes of the functions of the state are the results that must be obtained in implementing the functions, goals can be immediate, intermediate, ultimate. On one stage of historical development, priority may be given to economic, the other political or socio-cultural functions, the third function of defense, etc. At the beginning of its inception, the state played a very small list of functions. The contents of most of them was of a pronounced class character. The functions manifest national characteristics of the country, because the state is obliged to provide the geopolitical interests of the ethnic group, to support the development of national culture, language, and the like. The contents and the list of functions to a large extent depend on the nature of the state, its social purpose in public life. The main duty of the state to maintain a level of social organization that would ensure not only the preservation of the integrity and prosperity of society as a whole, but also the needs of individuals. The article studies scientific approaches with respect to interpretation of the concept of functions, given the existing classification of state functions: the areas of activities of the state, duration and the like. The analysis of existing functions in Ukraine. The human rights function is currently the most relevant. Advocacy function has the expression in activities that are aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, the rule of law and the rule of law in all spheres of public and political life. The peculiarities of exercise of the functions of the state are divided into legal and organizational. The legal form is a homogenous activity of state bodies related to the adoption of legal acts. Organizational form is a homogenous activity of the state aimed at creating organizational conditions to ensure functions of the state. In Ukraine there are three main forms of implementation of the activities of the state depending on types of activities: legislative, Executive, judicial. The basis for this separation is the provision of the Constitution of Ukraine, which is highlighted in these branches of government. In the implementation of all main functions of the state are actively involved all types of public power in Ukraine.


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