Understanding Fascism: Writings on Class, Caste and the State

Understanding Fascism: Writings on Class, Caste and the State

Author: K.Balagopal

Publisher: Hyderabad Book Trust

Published:

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13:

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The articles are responses at a point in time, but why the book is important is because they are relevant even now. They are about the arduous task of building democracy and charting the contours of the justice system, in its everyday guise as well as when it sets out to make and implement policies. Authoritarianism, Balagopal points out, lies immanent in the dominance of the ‘national’ project by the hegemonic classes and castes. The elites have deliberately sought to work this as well as regional contradictions to their advantage. They do this by building a repository of social contempt and negativity against shifting targets - religious minorities, workers, civil rights activists, political dissenters, dalits and adivasis movements, and protesting women. Balagopal writes about how in India, the alchemy between caste, class and the State creates a uniquely Indian alloy of fascism. Reading them gives the impression that he was standing on top of a tall tower with a powerful pair of binoculars which enabled him to see what nobody else could. In truth there was no tower, and no binoculars, just an extremely fine, courageous, and honest mind, looking around at what others turn away from. Arundhati Roy


Caste

Caste

Author: Isabel Wilkerson

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2023-02-14

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 0593230272

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions—now with a new Afterword by the author. #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Public Library, Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine, Marie Claire, Slate, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award • Dayton Literary Prize Finalist • PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist • Kirkus Prize Finalist “As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.” Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Isabel Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.


Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Kevin Passmore

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-05-29

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0191508551

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What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? Can it be both? Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology that appeals to streetfighters and intellectuals alike? That is overtly macho in style, yet attracts many women? That calls for a return to tradition while maintaining a fascination with technology? And that preaches violence in the name of an ordered society? In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction, Kevin Passmore brilliantly unravels the paradoxes of one of the most important phenomena in the modern world—tracing its origins in the intellectual, political, and social crises of the late nineteenth century, the rise of fascism following World War I, including fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of 'failed' fascist movements in Eastern Europe, Spain, and the Americas. He also considers fascism in culture, the new interest in transnational research, and the progress of the far right since 2002. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.


Fighting Fascism

Fighting Fascism

Author: Clara Zetkin

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 1608468798

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Presented at a time when fascism was a new and little-understood phenomenon, Zetkin’s work proposed a sweeping plan for the unity of all victims of capitalism in an ideological and political campaign against the fascist danger.


Sudras in Ancient India

Sudras in Ancient India

Author: Ram Sharan Sharma

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass

Published: 2016-01-01

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 8120808738

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The present work has been undertaken not only to provide an adequate treatment of the position of the sudras in ancient times, but also to evaluate their modern characterizations, either based on insufficient data, or inspired by reformist or anti-reformist motives. Here an attempt has been made to present a connected and systematic account of the various developments in the position of the sudras down to circa A.D. 600. Since the sudras were regarded as the laboring class, in this study particular attention has been paid to the investigation of their material conditions has been paid to their economic and social relations with the members of the higher varnas. This has naturally involved the study of the position of slaves, with whom the sudras were considered identical. The untouchables are also theoretically placed in the category of sudras, and hence their origin and position has also been discussed in some detail.


BUDDHA IN MY BACKYARD

BUDDHA IN MY BACKYARD

Author: Emani Rani Sarma

Publisher: Hyderabad Book Trust

Published:

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13:

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A travelogue from the pen of a historian, The Buddha In My Backyard, is a spell-binding account of the monasteries and artefacts ranging from the time of the Buddha in her backyard of Visakhapatnam district. She dwells on the destruction that time, an apathetic state and a society ridden with ignorance of history, have wreaked on these rich remains that speak of a society and culture long past.


A Marxist Mosaic

A Marxist Mosaic

Author: Jairus Banaji

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-06-13

Total Pages: 871

ISBN-13: 9004703314

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Historical materialism as Marx understood this was always an integrated conception or field of research, not one divided into separate disciplines. The essays gathered in this volume are a remarkable example of how this works across a wide range of subjects as diverse as agrarian history, capitalism, Hegel’s influence on Marx, and class struggles in India. They were written over some fifty years of both activism and academic work, embodying Banaji’s lifelong engagement with Marxist theory. His recent papers on merchant capitalism can also be found here, along with a biographical sketch that sets all of his work in context.


How Fascism Works

How Fascism Works

Author: Jason Stanley

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2018-09-04

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0525511849

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“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen “One of the defining books of the decade.”—Elizabeth Hinton, author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • With a new preface • Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history. As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare. These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership. By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals. “With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope


Approaches to Class Analysis

Approaches to Class Analysis

Author: Erik Olin Wright

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-07-01

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9781139444460

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Few themes have been as central to sociology as 'class' and yet class remains a perpetually contested idea. Sociologists disagree not only on how best to define the concept of class but on its general role in social theory and indeed on its continued relevance to the sociological analysis of contemporary society. Some people believe that classes have largely dissolved in contemporary societies; others believe class remains one of the fundamental forms of social inequality and social power. Some see class as a narrow economic phenomenon whilst others adopt an expansive conception that includes cultural dimensions as well as economic conditions. This 2005 book explores the theoretical foundations of six major perspectives of class with each chapter written by an expert in the field. It concludes with a conceptual map of these alternative approaches by posing the question: 'If class is the answer, what is the question?'