Bidyut Chakrabarty
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199951215
- eISBN:
- 9780199346004
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199951215.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based ...
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The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major source of inspiration to each generation of thinkers and activists in the political tradition of non-violence that bear their names. In four long chapters, the argument - defending the ideological compatibility between Gandhi and King given their commitment to non-violence - is forcefully made on the basis of a critical scrutiny of their socio-political ideas, which they had articulated in various texts that they had left for the posterity. Not only is the book a critical statement on ‘the confluence of thought’, it has also probed into whether non-violent civil disobedience is a viable strategy in an era of the growing consolidation of the social Darwinism at the behest of neo-liberal political competition.Less
The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major source of inspiration to each generation of thinkers and activists in the political tradition of non-violence that bear their names. In four long chapters, the argument - defending the ideological compatibility between Gandhi and King given their commitment to non-violence - is forcefully made on the basis of a critical scrutiny of their socio-political ideas, which they had articulated in various texts that they had left for the posterity. Not only is the book a critical statement on ‘the confluence of thought’, it has also probed into whether non-violent civil disobedience is a viable strategy in an era of the growing consolidation of the social Darwinism at the behest of neo-liberal political competition.
Marta Celati
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198863625
- eISBN:
- 9780191895999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198863625.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The chapter offers a comparative study that traces the evolution of fifteenth-century conspiracy literature, illustrating its distinctive features, narrative approaches, and political perspectives. ...
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The chapter offers a comparative study that traces the evolution of fifteenth-century conspiracy literature, illustrating its distinctive features, narrative approaches, and political perspectives. The analysis focuses on the multiform operation of recasting classical models, which matches and, at the same time, underpins the ideological viewpoint in these texts. Specific attention is also paid to the multifunctional role of history in this literature, as it exploits historical narrative, historiographical techniques, and principles, in order to construct a historical memory that conveys a precise political message. This message coincides with the condemnation of the conspiracy as an attack against the state and the ‘prince’, who is now the dominant figure in the political discourse. The key elements that frame this political outlook in the texts are: the function of the author–narrator (as a poet, letter writer, historian, witness); the speeches delivered by historical characters; the stress on the exceptionality of the historical event; the portraits of the conspirators; the representation of the common people; the image of the revenge against the plotters; and the uneasy balance between clemency and vengeance in the ruler’s reaction to the conspiracy. Through the interplay of these components the texts reflect, and contribute to, the development of a theory of statecraft that is informed by a blossoming notion of political realism and plays a crucial role in the definition of a new model of state. Significantly this strand of political thought also emerged in mirrors for princes, which display many elements in common with works on plots.Less
The chapter offers a comparative study that traces the evolution of fifteenth-century conspiracy literature, illustrating its distinctive features, narrative approaches, and political perspectives. The analysis focuses on the multiform operation of recasting classical models, which matches and, at the same time, underpins the ideological viewpoint in these texts. Specific attention is also paid to the multifunctional role of history in this literature, as it exploits historical narrative, historiographical techniques, and principles, in order to construct a historical memory that conveys a precise political message. This message coincides with the condemnation of the conspiracy as an attack against the state and the ‘prince’, who is now the dominant figure in the political discourse. The key elements that frame this political outlook in the texts are: the function of the author–narrator (as a poet, letter writer, historian, witness); the speeches delivered by historical characters; the stress on the exceptionality of the historical event; the portraits of the conspirators; the representation of the common people; the image of the revenge against the plotters; and the uneasy balance between clemency and vengeance in the ruler’s reaction to the conspiracy. Through the interplay of these components the texts reflect, and contribute to, the development of a theory of statecraft that is informed by a blossoming notion of political realism and plays a crucial role in the definition of a new model of state. Significantly this strand of political thought also emerged in mirrors for princes, which display many elements in common with works on plots.
