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Aristotelian Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of David Charles
by David Bronstein Thomas Kjeller Johansen Michail PeramatzisThis volume provides a rich collection of original essays on Aristotle's metaphysics written by sixteen prominent scholars in the field. Honouring the seminal influence of David Charles to philosophical scholarship, it offers fresh interpretations and assessments of Aristotle's thinking in metaphysics and related areas such as philosophy of language, psychology, natural philosophy, and mathematics. The collection contributes to the recent resurgence of interest in Aristotelian metaphysics, furthering our understanding of Aristotle's seminal contribution to the history of western philosophy. It evaluates key features of Aristotle's metaphysical thinking: his accounts of definition and meaning; his understanding of being and the categories; his models of explanation, causation, and accounts of modality, space, and change. The chapters are written with clarity and attention to the detail of Aristotle's texts but presuppose no knowledge of ancient Greek and can be read with benefit by advanced philosophy students and scholars.
Defining Corruption in the Ottoman Empire: Morality, Legality, and Abuse of Power in Premodern Governance
by Bo?a? A. ErgeneHow did the premodern Ottomans understand public office corruption? To answer this question, Defining Corruption in the Ottoman Empire explores how Ottoman jurists, statesmen, political commentators, and others characterized this notion and what specific transgressions they associated with it before the nineteenth century. The book is based on extensive research and a wide variety of sources, including jurisprudential texts, imperial orders and communications, chronicles, and travel and diplomatic accounts. It identifies articulations of self-interested abuses of power by official and communal actors in these sources and illustrates how they resonate in some ways with modern perspectives. These premodern formulations, however, are shown to have collectively constituted a conceptual space that was contentious and temporally unstable, and no single overarching term was able to encapsulate all the specific misdeeds frequently linked to modern depictions of corruption. The book's genre-specific discursive survey is complemented by discussions that highlight, in the Ottoman context, the shifty boundaries that separated legitimate and illegitimate forms of revenue extraction; that examine the state's efforts to monitor and punish abuses by government officials; and that explore the context-dependent and often contested moralities of many acts, such as gift giving as bribery, office selling, and favoritism. It also considers the ways in which "corrupt" state actors might have rationalized their offenses. Defining Corruption is a conceptually driven work that is both comparative and interdisciplinary, engaging seriously with non-Ottoman historiographies, including broader Middle Eastern, European, and Chinese, and multiple disciplines besides history, in particular anthropology and economics, to provide a comprehensive analysis of premodern Ottoman perceptions of administrative abuse.
Defining Corruption in the Ottoman Empire: Morality, Legality, and Abuse of Power in Premodern Governance
by Bo?a? A. ErgeneHow did the premodern Ottomans understand public office corruption? To answer this question, Defining Corruption in the Ottoman Empire explores how Ottoman jurists, statesmen, political commentators, and others characterized this notion and what specific transgressions they associated with it before the nineteenth century. The book is based on extensive research and a wide variety of sources, including jurisprudential texts, imperial orders and communications, chronicles, and travel and diplomatic accounts. It identifies articulations of self-interested abuses of power by official and communal actors in these sources and illustrates how they resonate in some ways with modern perspectives. These premodern formulations, however, are shown to have collectively constituted a conceptual space that was contentious and temporally unstable, and no single overarching term was able to encapsulate all the specific misdeeds frequently linked to modern depictions of corruption. The book's genre-specific discursive survey is complemented by discussions that highlight, in the Ottoman context, the shifty boundaries that separated legitimate and illegitimate forms of revenue extraction; that examine the state's efforts to monitor and punish abuses by government officials; and that explore the context-dependent and often contested moralities of many acts, such as gift giving as bribery, office selling, and favoritism. It also considers the ways in which "corrupt" state actors might have rationalized their offenses. Defining Corruption is a conceptually driven work that is both comparative and interdisciplinary, engaging seriously with non-Ottoman historiographies, including broader Middle Eastern, European, and Chinese, and multiple disciplines besides history, in particular anthropology and economics, to provide a comprehensive analysis of premodern Ottoman perceptions of administrative abuse.
The Names of Science: Terminology and Language in the History of the Natural Sciences
by Prof Helge KraghThe history of science is echoed in the development of its language and the names chosen for its technical terms. The Names of Science examines in detail how, over time, new words have entered the scientific lexicon and how some of them, but far from all, have survived to the present. Why is a transistor called a transistor and not something else? Why was the term 'scientist' only coined in 1834, and why was the name regarded as controversial for a long time afterwards? There is a story behind every scientific word we use today. In this work, Helge Kragh tells many of these stories, taking a broad historical perspective from the Renaissance to the present. By combining elements of linguistics with the history of the natural sciences including physics, chemistry, and astronomy, this book offers a new and innovative perspective on the historical development of the natural sciences. Following an introductory list of useful linguistic terms, the book is structured in six chapters, which cover important phases in the history of science, dealing with a vast range of scientific terminology from physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, to cosmology. It also considers, if only briefly, how English - and not, say, Latin or French - developed to become the internationally accepted language of science. Contrary to other works dealing with the subject, The Names of Science pays serious attention to the historical dimension of scientific language, and to the way in which scientists have, sometimes unconsciously, acted as linguists and neologists in their research work.
Just Prospering? Plato and the Sophistic Debate about Justice (British Academy Monographs)
by Merrick AndersonJust Prospering? Plato and the Sophistic Debate about Justice introduces new research about the first secular discussions concerning the value of justice from the Western Tradition. In Part I, Anderson addresses the debates of the sophists, a group of politically minded intellectuals from the 5th Century BCE, considering relevant extant texts to produce the following conclusion: some of the sophists argued that being just was bad for the just individual, and that an individual would do well to be unjust instead, whereas others took it upon themselves to defend justice by arguing that the just life was best. Anderson continues in Part II to demonstrate that Plato, writing in the 4th Century, was aware of this debate and wanted to settle the matter himself. In his Republic, one of the great philosophical treatises of all time, he revives the earlier dialogue of the sophists to argue that the just life is the best life for human beings.
Feminist Transformations and Domestic Violence Activism in Divided Berlin, 1968-2002 (British Academy Monographs)
by Jane FreelandThis is the first in-depth historical study of feminist activism against domestic violence in divided Berlin between 1968 and 2002. Starting in the 1970s, feminists in West and then East Berlin campaigned against domestic violence as a key issue of women's inequality. They exposed the harmful gender norms that left women unprotected and vulnerable to abuse in the home and called for this to change. Indeed, domestic violence has been one of the issues most effectively addressed by the women's movement in Germany. Since the first shelter opened in West Berlin in 1976, women's shelters have spread throughout the country, and today up to 45,000 women a year turn to emergency housing in Germany, with many more accessing helplines and crisis centres. Situating domestic violence activism within a broader history of feminism in post-war Germany, Feminist Transformations traces the evolution of this movement both across political division and reunification and from grassroots campaign to established, professionalised social service. In doing so, it brings the histories of feminism in East and West Berlin together for the first time and explores how feminism successfully changed women's rights in Germany. But it also asks what popular and political support for domestic violence activism has meant for feminism and the advancement of women's rights more broadly. Examining the trajectory of feminism in Germany, Jane Freeland reveals the limitations of gender equality as advancements in women's rights were often built on the reassertion of patriarchal gender roles.
State Communication and Public Politics in the Dutch Golden Age (British Academy Monographs)
by Arthur der WeduwenState Communication and Public Politics in the Dutch Golden Age describes the political communication practices of the authorities in the early modern Netherlands. Der Weduwen provides an in-depth study of early modern state communication: the manner in which government sought to inform its citizens, publicise its laws, and engage publicly in quarrels with political opponents. These communication strategies, including proclamations, the use of town criers, and the printing and affixing of hundreds of thousands of edicts, underpinned the political stability of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Based on systematic research in thirty-two Dutch archives, this book demonstrates for the first time how the wealthiest, most literate, and most politically participatory state of early modern Europe was shaped by the communication of political information. It makes a decisive case for the importance of communication to the relationship between rulers and ruled, and the extent to which early modern authorities relied on the active consent of their subjects to legitimise their government.
From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganga Valley
by Romila ThaparThis book is a concise collection of lectures which discuss the nature of early Indian society during the mid-first millennium BC and relate it to the ancient Indian historical tradition in its earliest forms. It also looks at the particular character of social formations, their genesis, and continuity as part of the later Indian social landscape. Examining the social and political formulations of the period, this volume analyses the transformation of lineage-based societies into state formulations. It considers the migration and arrival of the monarchies in the middle Ganga valley, where the evolution of these societies resulted in the formation of a state. It provides insights into environmental influences on settlements, the particularities of caste, the role of rituals, and the interaction of ideology with these changes. The volume presents an account of the interplay of a range of variables in state formation.
India's Freedom Struggle 1857–1947: A Short History
by Peter HeehsThis book is an accessible introduction to the rise of the Indian freedom struggle between the Great Revolt of 1857 and the attainment of Independence in 1947.
Gandhi and His Critics
by B.R. NandaThe book explores the evolution of Gandhi's ideas, his attitudes toward religion, the racial problem, the caste system, his conflict with the British, his approach to Muslim separatism and the division of India, his attitude toward social and economic change, his doctrine of nonviolence, and other key issues.
The Muslims of India: A Documentary Record
by A. G. NooraniThis volume presents important documents recording reactions of Muslims in the period following Independence and the Partition of India, and in the subsequect fifty years. Besides key political developments, documets on topics such as Hindu revivalism and Muslim responses, the Babri Masjid question, the Supreme Court's ruling on the Shah Bano case, Rajiv Gandhi's discussions with Muslim leader and the issue of personal laws provide insights into Muslim participation in post-Independence polity anad society. This book will interest students and scholars of modern Indian history and politics, journalists, and general readers.
In Search of Gandhi: Essays and Reflections
by B.R. NandaThe twenty nine essays in this book are insightful and sympathetic analyses of various facets of Gandhi's multidimensional personality. They cover his formative years, his stuggle against racism and imperialism, his attitude to religion and the partiton of India, his public life, and the relevance of his political economic thought in the twenty-first century. This book will be of interest to political scientists, historians, followers of Gandhi, and an informed general audience.
A Hindu Education: Early Years of the Banaras Hindu University
by Leah RenoldThis book provides a comprehensive account of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India's first residential university and the result of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya's efforts to establish a Hindu university in the country. This book not only discusses the origins and development of the BHU, but also the challenges and issues that the school faced. It studies Malaviya's efforts to introduce religious education in BHU—and even make it mandatory—and his response to Mahatma Gandhi's efforts to boycott the university. It also describes the lives of the students in the campus and its academic, intellectual, and cultural atmosphere. This book also considers the role and influence of the British in the development of Hindu education during the late colonial period and the importance of the university's location.
Behind the Mask: The Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject in Colonial Bengal (1715–1911)
by Anindita MukhopadhyayThis book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in colonial Bengal. It examines the ambiguity in the bhadralok—the educated middle class— response to courts and jails. The author argues that the discourse of superior ‘bhadralok’ ethics and morals was juxtaposed against the ‘chhotolok’—who were devoid of such ethical values. This enabled the bhadralok to claim for themselves the position of the ‘aware’ legal subject as a class—a ‘good’ subject obedient to the dictates of the new rule of law, unlike the recalcitrant and ethically ill-equipped chhotolok. The author underlines the development of a new cultural language of morality that delineated the parameters of bhadralok public behaviour. As the ‘rule of law’ of the British government slid unobtrusively into the public domain, the criminal courts and the jails turned into public theatres of infamy—spaces that the ethically bound bhadralok dreaded occupying. The volume, thus, documents how the colonial legal and penal institutions streamlined the identities of some sections of the lower castes into ‘criminal caste’. It also examines the nature of colonial bureaucracy and highlights the social silence on gender and women's criminality.
Sufism, Culture, and Politics: Afghans and Islam in Medieval North India
by Raziuddin AquilThis book provides a political history of north India under Afghan rulers in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Focusing on interconnections between religion and politics, it also raises questions of paramount concern to an understanding of Islam in medieval north India. The book is divided into three sections. The first section explores the Afghan attempts at empire-building under the leadership of Sher Shah Sur. Discussing the incorporation of the Rajputs in the Afghan imperial project, the second part deals with the prevalent ideals and institutions of governance. The last segment investigates the social and political role of the Sufis. Questioning the overemphasis on the Sultanate and Mughal periods in Indian history writing, Aquil projects a dynamic view of the Afghan period.
India's Ancient Past
by R.S. SharmaThis book presents a complete and accessible description of the history of early India. It starts by discussing the origins and growth of civilizations, empires, and religions. It also deals with the geographical, ecological, and linguistic backgrounds, and looks at specific cultures of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Vedic periods, as well as at the Harappan civilization. In addition, the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, Magadha and the beginning of territorial states, and the period of Mauryas, Central Asian countries, Satvahanas, Guptas, and Harshavardhana are also analysed. Next, it stresses varna system, urbanization, commerce and trade, developments in science and philosophy, and cultural legacy. Finally, the process of transition from ancient to medieval India and the origin of the Aryan culture has also been examined.
Appropriation and Invention of Tradition: The East India Company and Hindu Law in Early Colonial Bengal
by Nandini Bhattacharyya PandaThis book, strongly grounded in primary sources, makes an important contribution to the intellectual history of early modern Bengal. It brings to light the complex interpenetration of diverse interests, opinions, and ideologies articulated by various social groups implicated in the process of colonization on the lines of Ranajit Guha's work on property relations in Bengal and Radhika Singha's work on law. There is no comparable work specifically on the subject of Hindu property rights and how these came to be perceived or interpreted in early modern Bengal. The author explores the so-called compendia prepared under British auspices and argues that there was hardly any link between the Smritis and the laws. The latter were determined almost entirely by changing British policy with regard to land revenue and that many of the positive features of Hindu custom like women's rights to property were undermined in the process.
Debates in Indian Philosophy: Classical, Colonial, and Contemporary
by A. RaghuramarajuThis volume traces the impact of colonialism and Western philosophy on the dialogical structure of Indian thought and highlights the general tendency in contemporary Indian philosophy to avoid direct dialogue as opposed to the rich and elaborate debates that formed the pivot of the classical Indian tradition. It defines three possible areas of debate: between Swami Vivekanand and Mahatama Gandhi; V.D. Savarkar and Mahatama Gandhi; and Sri Aurobindo and Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya—on state and pre-modern society, religion and politics, and science and spiritualism respectively. This book will be of considerable interest not only to students and scholars of Indian philosophy and religious studies but to scholars of politics and sociology as well.
The Nehrus: Motilal and Jawaharlal
by B.R. NandaMotilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru are both prominent Indian men in their own right. Motilal is known as a widely successful civil lawyer and a popular political figure, while Jawaharlal made his mark as a firm nationalist leader and possible heir of the Mahatma. This book serves as a discussion of Motilal’s life and achievements, and looks into the first four decades of Jawaharlal’s life. It shows that while the father–son tandem played different roles in the nationalist struggle of India, their close emotional bonds helped them influence each other. Their story can be combined with that of the Indian freedom movement. The book covers a number of important events in the lives of the Nehrus—from Motilal’s childhood in Agra, Jawaharlal’s acceptance into Trinity College, and Jawaharlal’s entry into the political arena, to the father–son conflict over the changing political atmosphere in India. This book also takes a look at several notable individuals who play important roles in Motilal and Jawaharlal’s lives. These include Annie Besant, the leader of the Home Rule movement, and Mahatma Gandhi, the fierce fighter for India’s independence.
Poetics, Plays, and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre
by Vasudha DalmiaThis book addresses the political and aesthetic concerns of modern Indian theatre, tracing its genealogies, and looking in particular at its appropriation of 'folk' theatre. Starting with the plays of Bharatendu Harishchandra in 1870s Banaras, the book moves forward to Jayshankar Prasad and Mohan Rakesh, landmark figures in the history of modern Indian drama. Dalmia then focuses on the intense urban interaction with folk theatre forms, their politicization in the 1940s and later again in the 1970s. Finally the book maps some of the routes taken by avant-garde women directors since the last decades of the twentieth century. Theatre students, critics, cultural historians, scholars of South Asian theatre, as well as general readers will find the book inspiring.
Robert Knight: Reforming Editor in Victorian India
by Edwin HirschmannRobert Knight, the principal founder and the first editor of Times of India, Mumbai and Statesman, Kolkata has hardly ever been mentioned in accounts of British India and omitted from biographical dictionaries. Using remote letters, crumbling newspapers, and obscure official archives, this book presents the first historical biography of the pioneering editor. It also outlines the history of two of today's leading newspapers. Knight fought for a press free of government restraint or intimidation. An ardent critic of colonial rule, he made the press—the 'fourth estate'—a part of the political process in India. This volume documents the making of the reformer editor, taking us through his London background and start in Bombay; the first editorship and creation of the Times of India; the ill-fated move to Calcutta, the launching of the Statesman; the London venture; and finally the mature editor coming to terms with the empire. Against a backdrop of key events of Indian history from 1857 onwards, Robert Knight's editorial responses, and his personal life are all lucidly intertwined in this biography. Edwin Hirschmann elaborates on the connections of the world of newsprint with the colonial establishment and Indian people. He also provides a fresh approach to the Orientalism debate by deploying the narrative of an Englishman, involved in the age of the emerging public communication system.
The Cultures of History in Early Modern India: Persianization and Mughal Culture in Bengal
by Kumkum ChatterjeeThis book examines the nature and function of history-writing in India by focusing on early modern traditions of historiography with particular reference to Bengal. Situating distinctive cultures of history vis-à-vis their relevant political and cultural contexts, it highlights the richness, variety and politically sensitive character of a range of oral and textual narratives. Kumkum Chatterjee also makes a significant contribution to the intellectual and cultural history of early modern India by exploring interactions between regional, vernacular cultures on the one hand and the Islamicate, Persianized culture of the Mughal Empire on the other. Strongly grounded in primary sources, The Cultures of History in Early Modern India re-examines the concepts of authority, evidence and method in early modern historiography. It also discusses the debates surrounding the culture of history writing in India.
Violence, Martyrdom and Partition: A Daughter’s Testimony
by Nonica DattaThis book presents the oral testimony of Subhashini (1914–2003), the woman head of a well-known Arya Samaj institution devoted to women's education in rural north India. Subhashini's narrative unfolds a story, within a sea of stories, which has remained silent in the dominant historical discourse. Her memory evokes contrasting images of violence, martyrdom and Partition. Not 1947 but 1942—the year of her father's 'martyrdom'—is recalled as a violent rupture in her memory. Partition is a moment of celebration, revenge, divine retribution, empathy, remorse, tragedy and fear. Translating Subhashini's oral testimony, Nonica Datta recreates the memory of a colonial subject, living in postcolonial times, as a historical narrative. Moving beyond a historical event and well-established historical facts, Violence, Martyrdom and Partition is a parallel history of events and non-events, memory and history, testimony and experience. Breaking the silence of an oral testimony and presenting memory as history, this work opens up the historians' territory. This testimony defies the opposition between subject and agent, victim and victimizer, witness and survivor, aggressor and spectator, perpetrator and bystander. Subhashini's candid, repetitive narrative suggests a remarkable interplay of individual and collective remembrance, and reveals the shifts, ambiguities, silences and contradictions in an individual memory.
Twilight of the Tigers: Peace Efforts and Power Struggles in Sri Lanka
by G.H. PeirisThe fall of Kilinochchi, LTTE's bastion for over a decade, in January 2009 is a landmark in the military campaign by the Sri Lankan government against the rebel group. This turning point in one of the world's most brutal intra-state conflicts needs to be analysed in the wider context of the developments in the country since the initiation of a ceasefire in Decenber 2001. Ths book focuses on the political vicissitudes of Sri Lanka since the initiation of this ceasefire which sought to end the violent confrontation between the LTTE and the armed forces of the government. The main theme is the peace process of Sri Lanka and the developments associated with its collapse. The book is both a detailed documentation of events that followed the ceasefire and an exercise in synthesis and analysis. The underlying argument is that sustainable peace cannot be achieved through negotiations until the Tigers disarm and abandon terrorism. It forecasts, with guarded optimism, that the recent battlefield defeats of the LTTE could be considered the final phase of the 'Eelam War' that began twenty-five years ago.
Inside India
by Halidé EdibFirst published in 1937, this book presents the author's personal account of India. The author, a Turkish writer and novelist, visited the region in 1935 and gained insights into the history and sociology of the country. Based on her experiences, Halidé Edib documents significant contemporary events which shaped the history of India at the time, including the Hindu–Muslim separatism and the freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Her work is by far the most eloquent account of Indian society and politics in the 1930s. Here she details her travel to several regions such as Aligarh, Lahore, Calcutta, Peshawar, Lucknow, Bombay, and Hyderabad, as well as her meetings with many people from different walks of life. She takes a look at Indian nationalism, identifies its strengths and weaknesses, describes its encounters with colonialism, and analyses the rising tide of Muslim nationalism. With scholarly finesse, she reveals the Indian personality of Muslims in India and shows a favourable disposition towards the perspective of the Congress Muslims.