Just-Notes

Couple of Notes from several courses

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Index

Assignment 1

  1. Raja Ram Mohan Roy applied The Rational approach to religious inquiry in public life.
  2. Both political theory and political thought are concerned with understanding of politics.
  3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was NOT influenced by Confucianism.
  4. Modern education as a tool for career advancement under British Rule does not qualify as the purpose of modern education for Indians.
  5. RRMR didn’t present press as a rightful platform for revolutionary nationalist activites of Indians to the British Crown to relax press regulation in India.
  6. Samvad moves beyond the binary of East & West, tradition and modernity.
  7. “Modern Indian political thought emerged in the context of colonialism and the formation of a nation-state in modern India” - best characterizes modern Indian political thought.
  8. RRMR :
    • considers natives of his period lacked self-governing capability
    • thought British rule would promote civil liberties.
    • had chosen civil and religious liberty over political liberty.
  9. RRMR is the father of modern Indian political thought.
  10. According to Press Regulation Act 1823, grounds for restricting the publication of any document included:
    • Anything defamatory or harmful to the royal fam or authorities.
    • Publications threating peace and social order.
    • Publications creating suspicions and hatred among the natives against the government.

Assignment 2

  1. Rabindranath Tagore was only a cosmopolitan thinker.
  2. Mechanical organization of State was most problematic for Tagore.
  3. Ghare Baire signifies his disillusionment with the Swadeshi Movement.
  4. Presupposal imitation of other nations does not explain the cosmopolitanism envisioned by Tagore.
  5. Gandhi’s basic education scheme was problematic because :
    • Overemphasis of material utility at the cost of overall development of student
    • Limited poor students to a definite vocation.
  6. RT renounced Knighthood after Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
  7. Tagore believed Zamindari system was flawed. Was apologetic and embarassed about it. Could sense the cruelty associated with the system.
  8. He can be regarded as a cosmopolitan thinker because he respected various traditions and universal values.
  9. He DID believe in the moral and ethical side of man.
  10. Tagore believed Satyagraha was misused by some to promote bigotry.

Assignment 3

  1. Auro selectively appropriated, secularists tend to distance from his thoughts. AND his work is not read in totality AND often relegated to religious figure.
  2. Passive resistance => Nature of response ~ nature of repression by oppressor
  3. For him, nation was a mom. Struggle is not just for political freedom. Engagement with swadeshi and such was his mom-love guidance.
  4. True Self => Spiritual individual or Virat Purusha.
  5. False that he believed Gita couldn’t offer anything in discovering horizons of the future.
  6. “Aims to create a machinery of production” does not explain “economics of spiritualized society.
  7. False that “Auro envisioned nationalism merely as a political programme”.
  8. Rajas element denotes will to action.
  9. Auro was associated with extremist seciton of congress.
  10. New lamps for Old is his work.

Assignment 4

  1. Vivekananda understood democracy as a process that inculcates faith, self-reliance, and self-government.
  2. Practical Vedanta is his work.
  3. False that Vivekananda opined that social and political liberty could be realized without paying attention to moral, ethical, and religious concerns.
  4. His idea? Politics and religion are two different domains.
  5. False that For Vivekananda, education was just about memory or the accumulation of facts and information.
  6. Vivekananda wanted to promote masculine, rational, linear.
  7. Cultural assimilation was not a way to tackle existing social concerns of India.
  8. Shri Ramakrishna was the spiritual guru of Vivekabro.
  9. World Parliament of Religion, Chicago - his universal tolerance speech.
  10. Belur Math headquarters in Kolkata.

Assignment 5

  1. Hind Swaraj :
    • Polity based on moral and ethical principles
    • Ideal social structure
    • chart out statecraft for ideal polity.
  2. Selfishness not ideal of Satyagrahi.
  3. Anthony J Parel classified political philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi as Pax Gandhiana.
  4. His prefers - Ramrajya, Ahimsa, Varnashrama dharma.
  5. Poona pact was with BR Ambedkar.
  6. Judith M Brown said Gandhi was “single most important organizer of numerous movements that choered loosely as a nationalist movement against imperial rule in India.
  7. Europeans? Politically corrupt.
  8. Champaran Satyagraha started his political activism in India.
  9. Fought with ambedkar over VarnaShrama Dharma.
  10. “Swaraj can only be attained through means of violence.” - obviously false. Like actual fucking obvious. Jesus.

Assignment 6

  1. Essential ideals of Muslims? Unity and Homogeneity.
  2. Qawm and Millat are not exclusive of each other to Iqbal.
  3. Islam denotes philosophy of life, way of living, embodiment of historical and cultural traditions.
  4. Iqbal DID repudiate the negative role of Sufis towards rationalistic philosophy.
  5. Khudi is self-affirmation or ego.
  6. Iqbal copied ego and superman from Nietzche.
  7. Iqbal? All-India Muslim League.
  8. Muhammad Iqbal DID emphasize the self within a community.
  9. His dissertation? Development of Metaphysics in Persia.
  10. Iqbal DID view the nationalism as a threat to the principles of Islam.

Assignment 7

  1. Savarkar liked Hindutva.
  2. Hindu as a religion was not a criteria for Savarkar.
  3. False -> Savarkar supported the principle of absolute non-violence.
  4. False -> Savarkar rejected the idea of territorial nationalism.
  5. His work -> 6 Glorious Epochs of Indian History.
  6. False -> ‘Hindutva’ is a derivative of the larger category of ‘Hinduism’.
  7. His pen name? Chitragupta.
  8. Sanskrit -> potential to preserve Hindu culture.
  9. Inspired by Mazzini.
  10. Savarkar did not negate the right of minorities to co-exist, but he made it conditional on the ground of their acceptance of Hindu dominance. Savarkar DID NOT support preferential treatment to those minorities who accepted his condition of accepting the domination of Hindus.

Assignment 8

  1. Resolution of Fundamental Rights and Eco Change was passed in Karachi Session of 1931.
  2. Nehru’s conception of democracy was also related to the notion of equality. Nehru envisioned India as a liberal democratic country both in principle and in practice. Nehru’s understanding of democracy entailed economic and social dimensions.
  3. Fasle -> Religious beliefs and practices guided Nehru’s general outlook towards life.
  4. While Gandhi supported decentralization and small-scale industries, Nehru, on the other hand, was an advocate of centralized and planned economic development.
  5. Not one of 5 tenets : Mediation by a third party during conflict.
  6. Speech of Nehru : Tryst with Destiny
  7. False -> Socialism has nothing to do with the practice of individual freedom.
  8. Founded National Herald.
  9. False -> Total restriction on following any religious practices.
  10. Nehru had a broader understanding of democracy, and it also emphasized the social and economic dimensions. However, in his early life, Nehru’s idea of democracy was limited to political democracy alone.

Assignment 9

  1. Nehru opposed Union of Democracies because:
    • It excluded China, India etc.
    • Included fascism and imperialism.
    • Nehru believed that no democratic union is possible without ruling out colonialism and imperialism
  2. China becoming a member of the Non-Alignment Movement not a tenet of Panchsheel.
  3. D R Bhandarkar - Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population
  4. To join electoral politics was not a purpose of Bahishkrit Hitakrini.
  5. Civil disobediance, noon coop, satyagraha - grammar anarchy.
  6. Caste is biggest stumbling block in making India a united political community.
  7. Nehru was a vocal critic of the idea of nation and nationalism - false.
  8. The issue of untouchability - ambedkar disagree with iNC.
  9. Independent Labour Party - ambedkar founded.
  10. Asserting untouchables’ rights to access public tanks and wells - mahad satyagraha.

Assignment 10

  1. Ambedkar not a lawyer.
  2. Constitutional morality? Freedom, plurality, sceptical of authority.
  3. Secularism is not a cardianl principle of democracy.
  4. Stri Purush Tulana is not a work of Ramabai.
  5. Seva Sadan is not Ramabai’s.
  6. Gauri Viswanathan stated ramabai’s life.
  7. He regarded that scientific outlook and rationality are not necessarily linked to the practice of democracy. -> False
  8. Jyotirao Phule regarded Ramabai’s conversion to Christianity a radical act.
  9. Religion is about acting according to one’s conscience. – according to Ramabai.
  10. upholding political democracy alongside social and economic democracy — Ambedkar consider’s crucial for preserving and strengthening democracy in India.

Assignment 11

  1. Lohia’s worldview - Side & Forward
  2. Performance of religious rituals not one of Ramabai’s arguments for uplifting marginalized women.
  3. Jawaharlal Nehru didn’t found Congress Socialist Party.
  4. Socialism -> in which Ram Manohar Lohia is regarded as an intellectual.
  5. Spiritual Gandhian -> not one of Lohia’s articulation for categorization.
  6. False -> He did not consider caste as the root cause of social and economic inequality in India.
  7. Lohia’s criticism of Capitalism and Communism -> Not one of 3 sins of Lohia.
  8. Ram Manohar Lohia is the bridge between Gandhi and Ambedkar political thoughts.
  9. A Testimony of Our Inexhaustible Treasure -> RamaBai’s autobiography.

Assignment 12

  1. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific -> Not Lohia’s book.
  2. He proposed using only Hindi and English, advocating a ban on other Indian languages at the national level. -> False, obviously.
  3. He believed in violent anti-Brahmanism -> False, obviously.
  4. Ram Manohar Lohia -> Sapt Kranti aka Seven revolution.
  5. Nation not associated with Lohia’s idea of 4 pillar state - Chaukhamba Raj.
  6. Membership in the Congress party not defining characteristic of ruling class in India.
  7. He abhorred English as a language -> False, obviously.
  8. Doctrinal Foundations of Socialism - Lohia’s speech.
  9. Lohia’s solution for oppression of women?
    • Preferential treatment.
    • Equality in education & property rights.
    • Re-examination of marriage.
  10. Linguistic cultural chauvinism -> Not an element of Lohia’s political thought.