Search Results

The Literati

Yuri Pines

in The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy

This chapter focuses on the intellectuals' voluntary attachment to the ruler's service as their single most significant choice. It elucidates both the advantages of this choice and its price. Having ... More

This chapter focuses on the intellectuals' voluntary attachment to the ruler's service as their single most significant choice. It elucidates both the advantages of this choice and its price. Having opted for a political career, leading intellectuals had to accept their position as the emperor's servitors, which was at odds with their self-proclaimed moral superiority over the throne; and the resultant tension between their roles as the leaders and the led generated persistent frustration and manifold tragedies. Yet bitterness aside, the voluntary attachment of the intellectuals to the throne had also greatly empowered the educated elite as a whole. For two-odd millennia, members of this stratum navigated the empire through many storms and challenges, contributing decisively toward the preservation of the imperial political structure, and of its cultural foundations, against all odds.Less

Reasserting Control: The Regulation of Mass Culture

Corey Ross

in Media and the Making of Modern Germany: Mass Communications, Society, and Politics from the Empire to the Third Reich

This chapter considers one major aspect of the heterogeneous responses of cultural and political elites to the rise of the media and burgeoning entertainment industry. It focuses on efforts, above ... More

This chapter considers one major aspect of the heterogeneous responses of cultural and political elites to the rise of the media and burgeoning entertainment industry. It focuses on efforts, above all through means of state regulation, to reassert elite values and standards by establishing a formal framework of control over popular culture, including literary and film censorship as well as state ownership of broadcasting. While the censorship of cultural forms as a means of social control was of course nothing new at the time, the avowedly commercial orientation of most popular amusements and their unprecedented dissemination via new communications technologies elicited a new brand of cultural interventionism among the educated elite, a belief not only in their ability to improve the tastes and cultural practices of the masses, but indeed in their right — even duty — to do so.Less

Experiencing the New Order: In Search of an Identity, 1775–1890

Anindita Mukhopadhyay

in Behind The Mask: The Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject in Colonial Bengal (1715-1911)

This chapter examines the need of the educated middle class to establish themselves as an ‘aware legal subject’, as they experienced a different formation of a public sphere that came with the ... More

This chapter examines the need of the educated middle class to establish themselves as an ‘aware legal subject’, as they experienced a different formation of a public sphere that came with the colonial political economy. This in turn demanded a different perception and articulation of the law, both as a sign of sovereignty and the manner in which it regulated the subject race. It looks at the writings of Rammohan Roy, who stressed on a dialogue between the government and the politically aware subjects within the new public sphere created by print media. While some educated Indians struggled to rationalize the intellectual seduction of colonial rule, lines of separation were being drawn between a select few who would be able to comprehend the blessings of British rule, and the vast majority who would not. It is argued that the few educated elite who understood the new rule, fashioned the mould of the new ‘legal subject’ according to their understanding of the new requirements, in an attempt to empower their own social class.Less

Loose Canons

Benjamin R. Barber

in An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and the Future of America

This chapter examines the education canon in the U.S. in relation to the teaching of liberty. It suggests that the canon and its detractors are not so far apart because it was the canon that produced ... More

This chapter examines the education canon in the U.S. in relation to the teaching of liberty. It suggests that the canon and its detractors are not so far apart because it was the canon that produced its own detractors, and its modern critics were not drawn from new immigrants to America but came from within traditional educated elites. It argues that education for liberty lends itself neither to fixed canons nor to no canons at all, but it flourishes with active students, bold teachers and loose canons.Less

Procreation and Patronage in the Song Chan School

Morten Schlütter

in How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China

This chapter argues that the patronage of the educated elite was also critically important to the success of the Chan school and its individual lineages. In the Song, support from members of the ... More

This chapter argues that the patronage of the educated elite was also critically important to the success of the Chan school and its individual lineages. In the Song, support from members of the literati was crucial to the personal ambitions of a Chan master, and to the fate of particular Chan lineages, because of the elite's economic power and its power to influence appointments to the abbacies of public monasteries. Only as an abbot at a public monastery could a Chan master give transmission to his students, and Chan masters were very aware that they required the support of officials and local literati if they wished to obtain abbacies and continue their lineages. Appealing to the interests of the educated elite thus became an important subtext in the Chan school, and the influence of elite laypeople ultimately contributed in significant ways to the shaping of Chan ideology and factional—or sectarian—consciousness.Less

Introduction: Travel, Culture, and the Song Literati

Cong Ellen Zhang

in Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China

This introductory chapter examines the correlations between Song-era travel, culture, and a new elite—the scholar-official class. It indicates the extent to which learning, culture, and bureaucratic ... More

This introductory chapter examines the correlations between Song-era travel, culture, and a new elite—the scholar-official class. It indicates the extent to which learning, culture, and bureaucratic service had coalesced to shape the outlook and self-identity of educated Song men, particularly during travel. The frequency and extensiveness of elite travel in the Song, and the variety of elite social and cultural activities on the road, among others, can shed new light on three aspects of Song history: the role the imperial government played in mobilizing and regularly relocating the country's political, social, and educated elite; the significant impact frequent movement had on the status and identity of the travelers; and the role their sightseeing activities played in the evolution of local history and the social and cultural integration of Song China.Less

The Birth of Modern India

Peter Heehs

in India's Freedom Struggle 1857-1947: A Short History

The first section of this chapter discusses the rise of a new leadership. The second section describes the rediscovery of India’s past. The third section describes Raja Rammohan Roy. The fourth ... More

The first section of this chapter discusses the rise of a new leadership. The second section describes the rediscovery of India’s past. The third section describes Raja Rammohan Roy. The fourth section discusses the Young Bengal movement and the Brahmo Samaj. The fifth section describes the significance of social reform. The sixth section examines the cultural awakening of India. The seventh section describes reform and religious revival after the Great Revolt. The last section offers an evaluation of the Indian Renaissance. The tension that emerged between Hindu and Muslim was one of the principal shortcomings of the Indian Renaissance. Another was its exclusiveness. The cultural awakening was confined to the new English-educated elite. It also encouraged a habit of looking backward, to the heroic days of old India, rather than forward. Despite these drawbacks, the Indian Renaissance played an essential role in the creation of the Indian nation.Less

Printing, Learning, and the Unlearned

Anna Bayman

in The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture: Volume One: Cheap Print in Britain and Ireland to 1660

This chapter discusses the connection between the educated elite and the uneducated when it came to the dissemination of ideas and information through print materials. The materials were largely ... More

This chapter discusses the connection between the educated elite and the uneducated when it came to the dissemination of ideas and information through print materials. The materials were largely dominated by the elite, who believed that most materials were not suitable for the unlearned. The chapter describes the importance of print in providing a point of contact between different cultures and facilitating movement across them.Less

Preparing for the Future

Andrea Kölbel

Meenakshi Thapan (ed.)

in In Search of a Future: Youth, Aspiration, and Mobility in Nepal

Chapter Two situates the lives of Nepalis born in the 1980s within the history of the modern Nepali state and its ties to regional and global developments. Drawing on existing literature, it is ... More

Chapter Two situates the lives of Nepalis born in the 1980s within the history of the modern Nepali state and its ties to regional and global developments. Drawing on existing literature, it is argued that Nepal’s educated younger generation was seen to be particularly well prepared to take advantage of a range of new opportunities associated with educational expansion, a changing labour market, and international migration. Yet, these large-scale structural changes also caused much uncertainty, since long-established life paths were increasingly obscured. Educated young Nepalis, therefore, often struggled to reconcile pervasive discourses about a better future with the realities of their present-day lives in Kathmandu. The analysis presented in this chapter makes evident that the relevant debate about young people’s agency continues to revolve around dualistic categorizations, not least because it remains focused on specific subgroups of youth.Less

A Transient Life: Travel and the Song Literati

Cong Ellen Zhang

in Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China

This chapter highlights the impact civil service examinations had on the physical mobility of Song scholar-officials. It shows that not only did an attraction to examination learning and court ... More

This chapter highlights the impact civil service examinations had on the physical mobility of Song scholar-officials. It shows that not only did an attraction to examination learning and court service make elite men of the Song frequent travelers, the same commitment also profoundly shaped the patterns of their movements. The trips these men took to attend school and participate in the examinations brought top talent to the cultural and political centers of the realm, and once employed, government service required that they embark on journeys of even greater length and scope. This placed civil servants at the mercy of imperial policies and the factionalism that afflicted both the Northern and Southern Song courts.Less

Epilogue: A Prophet without Honour?

Edwin Hirschmann

in Robert Knight: Reforming Editor in Victorian India

This chapter describes Anglo-Indian newspapers' reactions to Knight's death, the fate of his family, and that of the Statesman. In concludes that, as Robert Knight had foreseen, it was the ... More

This chapter describes Anglo-Indian newspapers' reactions to Knight's death, the fate of his family, and that of the Statesman. In concludes that, as Robert Knight had foreseen, it was the Indian-language newspapers which were able to reach the masses of Indians and stir them into political action during the twentieth century. However, it was the newspapers of the educated elite, usually in English, which created a national political consciousness and implanted the role of the press in the evolving modern state and society of India. It is here that Knight, severe and outspoken critic of the British Raj and creator of great newspapers, contributed greatly.Less

The Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh

Margaret C. Jacob

in The Secular Enlightenment

This chapter assesses how the eighteenth century in Scotland witnessed a secular Enlightenment different from those found in Paris or London. For one thing, size mattered. The largest city in ... More

This chapter assesses how the eighteenth century in Scotland witnessed a secular Enlightenment different from those found in Paris or London. For one thing, size mattered. The largest city in Scotland in 1700, Edinburgh, contained probably 40,000 people. It is much harder to police thought and behavior in cities with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, such as London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Scotland was also far more rural than either England or the Dutch Republic. In a city like Edinburgh, the educated elite, among whom one might reasonably expect new ideas to germinate and take hold, can best be described as led by presbyterian clergy and university professors marked by “an extraordinarily high degree of inbreeding and clannishness.” The social cohesiveness of the urban elite with its strong ties to the landed gave Scotland a distinctiveness all its own.Less

Apprenticed to Ranade

B. R. Nanda

in Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj

Western education directed the thoughts of Poona’s rising generation of Chitpavan Brahmans towards greater participation in the government of their own country through representative institutions. ... More

Western education directed the thoughts of Poona’s rising generation of Chitpavan Brahmans towards greater participation in the government of their own country through representative institutions. With its small but vocal educated élite, Poona enjoyed a political prestige which rivalled that of the presidency towns in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. For more than twenty years, the town was served by a remarkable institution and by a remarkable man. This institution was the Sarvajanik Sabha, and the man, Mahadev Govind Ranade. This chapter describes how Ranade acquired a pivotal position in the public life of Poona and his role as mentor to Gokhale.Less