The Materiality of Politics: Volume 1

The Materiality of Politics: Volume 1

The Technologies of Rule

By Ranabir Samaddar

Anthem South Asian Studies

Through a series of historical illustrations, the author investigates the political aspects of violence, law, terror, protection, justice and post-colonial governance.

Hardback, 272 Pages

ISBN:9781843312512

August 2007

£70.00, $115.00

  • About This Book
  • Reviews
  • Author Information
  • Series
  • Table of Contents
  • Links
  • Podcasts

About This Book

‘The Materiality of Politics’ uses a series of historical illustrations to reveal the physicality and underlying ‘materiality’ of political processes. The political subject of the study is the collective political actor poised against governmental rules for stabilizing order. Samaddar’s tour de force propels readers through an account of blood, violence, bodies, controls, laws and conflicts. Politics is examined not as an abstraction, but as a ‘real’ field of dynamic factors rooted in everyday life.

Volume 1, subtitled ‘The Technologies of Rule’ discusses the techniques of modern rule which form the basis of the post-colonial Indian state. Beginning with the rule of law, the volume analyses the nature and manifestations of constitutional rule, the relation between law and terror and the construction of ‘extraordinary’ sovereign power. The author also investigates the methods of care, protection, segregation and stabilization by which rule proceeds. In the processes, the material core of the ‘cultural’ and the ‘aesthetic’ is exposed.

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Author Information

Ranabir Samaddar is the Director of the Calcutta Research Group and was earlier the Founder-Director of the Peace Studies Programme at the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu.

Series

Anthem South Asian Studies

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction: The Materiality of Politics; Colonial Constitutionalism; Law, Terror and the Colonial State; Governing Territory with the Right Size; Care, Protection and Power; Stable Rule and Unstable Population; Index of Names; Subject Index

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