The Journal of Modern History: Table of Contents

Volume 90, Number 3 | September 2018

ARTICLES

An Information State for Elizabethan England Nicholas Popper pp. 503–535 First Page | Full Text | PDF (1055 KB) | Permissions

The Trouble with Authenticity: Backwardness, Imitation, and the Politics of Art in Late Imperial Russia Ekaterina Pravilova pp. 536–579 First Page | Full Text | PDF (2505 KB) | Permissions

The Paris Housing Crisis and a Social Revolution in Domestic Architecture on the Eve of the First World War Caroline Ford pp. 580–620 First Page | Full Text | PDF (1564 KB) | Permissions

International Law and the Transformation of War, 1899–1949: The Case of Military Occupation Jonathan Gumz pp. 621–660 First Page | Full Text | PDF (1089 KB) | Permissions

BOOK REVIEWS

Peter N. Miller, History and Its Objects: Antiquarianism and Material Culture since 1500 Suzanne Marchand pp. 661–662 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Siep Stuurman, The Invention of Humanity: Equality and Cultural Difference in World History Andrew Jainchill pp. 662–665 First Page | Full Text | PDF (66 KB) | Permissions

Jürgen Kocka, Capitalism: A Short History Harold James pp. 665–666 First Page | Full Text | PDF (53 KB) | Permissions

Nicolas Drocourt and Éric Schnakenbourg, Thémis en diplomatie: Droit et arguments juridiques dans les relations internationales Charles-Édouard Levillain pp. 667–668 First Page | Full Text | PDF (56 KB) | Permissions

Frédéric Barbier, Gutenberg’s Europe: The Book and the Invention of Western Modernity Cristina Dondi pp. 668–670 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

Charles S. Maier, Once Within Borders: Territories of Power, Wealth, and Belonging since 1500 Jeremy Black pp. 670–671 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Gilles Bertrand, Anne Cayuela, Christian Del Vento, and Raphaële Mouren, eds.,Bibliothèques et lecteurs dans l’Europe moderne (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles) Jacob Soll pp. 671–673 First Page | Full Text | PDF (60 KB) | Permissions

Matthew L. Jones, Reckoning with Matter: Calculating Machines, Innovation, and Thinking about Thinking from Pascal to Babbage Adelheid Voskuhl pp. 673–675 First Page | Full Text | PDF (59 KB) | Permissions

Matthew Riley and Anthony D. Smith, Nation and Classical Music: From Handel to Copland; Esteban Buch, Igor Contreras Zubillaga, and Manuel Deniz Silva, eds.,Composing for the State: Music in Twentieth-Century Dictatorships Anthony J. Steinhoff pp. 675–677 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

Patricia Mainardi, Another World: Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Print Culture S. Hollis Clayson pp. 678–679 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Steven Press, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa Matthew P. Fitzpatrick pp. 679–681 First Page | Full Text | PDF (57 KB) | Permissions

Robert Gerwarth, The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End Richard Bessel pp. 681–682 First Page | Full Text | PDF (51 KB) | Permissions

Rob Johnson, The Great War and the Middle East: A Strategic Study Ryan Gingeras pp. 682–684 First Page | Full Text | PDF (58 KB) | Permissions

Michele K. Troy, Strange Bird: The Albatross Press and the Third Reich Kara Ritzheimer pp. 684–685 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Steven Casey, The War Beat, Europe: The American Media at War against Nazi Germany Nicholas J. Cull pp. 686–687 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Noah Dauber, State and Commonwealth: The Theory of the State in Early Modern England, 1549–1640 Sarah Mortimer pp. 687–689 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

Emily C. Nacol, An Age of Risk: Politics and Economy in Early Modern Britain Jeffrey Collins pp. 689–690 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Justin du Rivage, Revolution against Empire: Taxes, Politics, and the Origins of American Independence Stephen Conway pp. 691–692 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Joseph Stubenrauch, The Evangelical Age of Ingenuity in Industrial Britain Theodore Koditschek pp. 692–694 First Page | Full Text | PDF (60 KB) | Permissions

Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider, and Jaś Elsner, eds., Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930–1945 Sheldon Rothblatt pp. 694–696 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

Daniel Todman, Britain’s War: Into Battle, 1937–1941 Alan Allport pp. 696–698 First Page | Full Text | PDF (60 KB) | Permissions

Alan Charles Kors, Epicureans and Atheists in France, 1650–1729; Alan Charles Kors, Naturalism and Unbelief in France, 1650–1729 Jonathan I. Israel pp. 698–701 First Page | Full Text | PDF (65 KB) | Permissions

Meghan Roberts, Sentimental Savants: Philosophical Families in Enlightenment France Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall pp. 701–703 First Page | Full Text | PDF (58 KB) | Permissions

Paul Cheney, Cul de Sac: Patrimony, Capitalism, and Slavery in French Saint-Domingue Malick W. Ghachem pp. 703–704 First Page | Full Text | PDF (53 KB) | Permissions

Michel Winock, Flaubert Marshall C. Olds pp. 705–706 First Page | Full Text | PDF (56 KB) | Permissions

Aaron Freundschuh, The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris Sarah Maza pp. 707–708 First Page | Full Text | PDF (56 KB) | Permissions

Darcie Fontaine, Decolonizing Christianity: Religion and the End of Empire in France and Algeria Naomi Davidson pp. 708–710 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

Minayo Nasiali, Native to the Republic: Empire, Social Citizenship, and Everyday Life in Marseille since 1945 Rosemary Wakeman pp. 710–711 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Giorgio Caravale, Beyond the Inquisition: Ambrogio Catarino Politi and the Origins of the Counter-Reformation Wietse de Boer pp. 712–713 First Page | Full Text | PDF (59 KB) | Permissions

Dario Gaggio, The Shaping of Tuscany: Landscape and Society between Tradition and Modernity Marla Stone pp. 714–716 First Page | Full Text | PDF (60 KB) | Permissions

Antonio Feros, Speaking of Spain: The Evolution of Race and Nation in the Hispanic World Kenneth J. Andrien pp. 716–717 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Kimberly Lynn and Erin Kathleen Rowe, eds., The Early Modern Hispanic World: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Approaches Lu Ann Homza pp. 718–719 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Michiel van Groesen, Amsterdam’s Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil Arthur Weststeijn pp. 719–721 First Page | Full Text | PDF (60 KB) | Permissions

Joel F. Harrington, trans., The Executioner’s Journal: Meister Frantz Schmidt of the Imperial City of Nuremberg Laura Stokes pp. 721–722 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Heinz Reif, Adel, Aristokratie, Elite: Sozialgeschichte von Oben William D. Godsey pp. 723–724 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Geoff Eley, Jennifer L. Jenkins, and Tracie Matysik, eds., German Modernities from Wilhelm to Weimar: A Contest of Futures; Jan Rüger and Nikolaus Wachsmann, eds., Rewriting German History: New Perspectives on Modern Germany; Konrad Jarausch, Harald Wenzel, and Karin Goihl, eds., Different Germans, Many Germanies: New Transatlantic Perspectives Thomas Rohkrämer pp. 725–730 First Page | Full Text | PDF (75 KB) | Permissions

Richard Swedberg and Ola Agevall, The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts George Steinmetz pp. 730–731 First Page | Full Text | PDF (55 KB) | Permissions

Susanne Kuss, German Colonial Wars and the Context of Military Violence Lora Wildenthal pp. 732–734 First Page | Full Text | PDF (59 KB) | Permissions

David F. Crew, Bodies and Ruins: Imagining the Bombing of Germany, 1945 to the Present Jeffry Diefendorf pp. 734–735 First Page | Full Text | PDF (57 KB) | Permissions

Ali Yaycioğlu, Partners of the Empire: The Crisis of the Ottoman Order in the Age of Revolutions Frederick Anscombe pp. 735–737 First Page | Full Text | PDF (62 KB) | Permissions

Max Bergholz, Violence as a Generative Force: Identity, Nationalism, and Memory in a Balkan Community Cathie Carmichael pp. 737–738 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Mirna Zakić, Ethnic Germans and National Socialism in Yugoslavia in World War II Caroline Mezger pp. 739–740 First Page | Full Text | PDF (58 KB) | Permissions

Charles Steinwedel, Threads of Empire: Loyalty and Tsarist Authority in Bashkiria, 1552–1917 Sean Pollock pp. 741–743 First Page | Full Text | PDF (59 KB) | Permissions

Sarah Badcock, A Prison without Walls? Eastern Siberian Exile in the Last Years of Tsarism Alan Barenberg pp. 743–744 First Page | Full Text | PDF (54 KB) | Permissions

Jörg Baberowski, Scorched Earth: Stalin’s Reign of Terror Robert W. Thurston pp. 744–746 First Page | Full Text | PDF (59 KB) | Permissions

Chris Miller, The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR; Mikhail Gorbachev, The New Russia Mark Harrison pp. 746–749 First Page | Full Text | PDF (61 KB) | Permissions

The crackdown on civil society

With the raids and arrests, activists are being penalised for their unwavering vigilance

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the modern democratic state, armed with technologies of surveillance and control, possesses the kind of power that has never ever been exercised by any other state in history. In a democracy, the individual transits from subject to citizen. Yet there is no one more vulnerable and more helpless than our rights-bearing citizen if the, otherwise, democratic state decides to terrorise, kill and drill fear and trepidation in the mind of the body politic. The other dominant institution of our times, the market, is completely amoral. It is supremely indifferent to human suffering. It has neither sympathy nor room for citizens exploited by the state, and by its own need for resources, labour, and profit.

A vital sphere

The only sphere that stands between the individual and the omnipresent and omnipotent state is civil society. In this figurative space, individuals come together in webs of associational life. Associations have the capacity to challenge the brute power of the state through petitions, protests, dharnas and ultimately judicial activism. Given unresponsive political parties, citizens can access centres of power and privilege only through a vibrant civil society.

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Civil society is, of course, a plural sphere, and all manners of associations find space for themselves here, from football clubs to reading groups to film fan societies. Each democratic association is important, but we cannot deny that civil liberty and human rights groups are an essential precondition for human well-being. Some Indian citizens were randomly and arbitrarily imprisoned during the Emergency (1975-77) and the fundamental rights of others were truncated. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the aftermath of the Emergency, the civil liberties movement made a dramatic appearance on to the scene of Indian politics. The movement which developed into, or acted in concert with, the human rights movement took on an extremely significant task, that of protecting the fundamental right to life and liberty granted by the Indian Constitution.

Every political revolution in the world has begun with the rights to life and liberty. These two rights lie at the core of other rights that have been developed and codified as critical for human beings. The two rights stretch from the right not to be tortured or killed, to the right not to be arrested and imprisoned by the lackeys of the state without due cause. The right to life is a basic right, but our lives do not mean anything if we are incarcerated for no rhyme or reason.

In the decades that followed, human rights groups have become the custodian of the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Indian Constitution. They have investigated cases of arbitrary imprisonment, custodial deaths, deadly encounters and coercion of any citizen who dares to speak up against the state or dominant groups. These organisations have carefully documented the causes and the triggers of communal and caste violence, and established an excellent archive on the abuse of power by governments. They have asked questions which few Indians have had the courage to ask. And above all, they have protected the rights of vulnerable sections of our own people, the Adivasis, the Dalits and Muslims.

Civil liberty and/or human rights activists are lawyers, academics, journalists and public minded citizens of India. What matters is their very human concern for the poor and the disadvantaged, the dispossessed and the vulnerable. What matters is that civil society activists protect the moral conscience of our society. Not all civil society groups do so, some are in the sole business of getting funds from the state or others. Not all sections of the media do so, they are often cowered down by their corporate bosses, and the lure of fame and lucre. Unhappily, the majority of Indians keep quiet when their own fellow citizens are tortured by the police, stripped of access to resources and livelihoods, lynched, exploited by corporate India, and neglected by the mainstream media. Human rights activists shoulder the fight for the rights of the oppressed.

The turf wars

Their role is crucial for democracy because today we are ruled by a government that openly defies ethics and morality, that casts itself in the mould of realism, and that is supremely indifferent to the plight of millions of its citizens. We are ruled by leaders who dismiss the need for civil society because the cadres and the front organisations of its ideological backbone, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, seek to dominate the space between the individual, the market and the state. The consequences are serious. Over 10 years ago, during UPA I, we were speaking of the right to food, to employment, to education, to information and to land. We theorised that India was moving towards a social democratic state vide civil society activism. Today there are few organisations that articulate the right not to be lynched, or who struggle for the right to life and liberty. Human rights activists are among these few organisations. They have courageously taken on the challenge posed by corporates, a ruthless state and its venal police, and the cadres of right-wing organisations that specialise in violence.

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Who are the activists who were arrested for 'Maoist links' in nation-wide raids?

 

Activists have been penalised for their eternal vigilance, which, as Irish lawyer-politician John Curran said in 1790, is the price we pay for liberty. The government and right-wing organisations have pursued and terrorised human rights activists. On August 28, lawyers, poets, academics and activists known for their defence of the dispossessed were targeted by the Maharashtra police. The houses of Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Stan Swamy were raided, and some of them imprisoned.

The reasons for the harassment of these warriors in the cause of justice are unsubstantial and unconvincing. The police simply cannot establish that their speeches at the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune in December 2017 incited the violence unleashed on a Dalit gathering at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 2018. It was earlier reported that the peaceful gathering was attacked by activists belonging to two Hindu right-wing organisations: Shiv Pratishthan led by Sambhaji Bhide, and Hindu Ekta Manch led by Milind Ekbote. Mr. Ekbote, committed to Maratha/Hindu supremacy, was arrested in March 2018. Soon he was cleared by the police and the Maharashtra government. Now a completely different set of agents has been brought in and charged with urban Maoism, a term that has neither a history nor a geography. It is simply silly.

Boomerang effect?

This is the latest blow inflicted on civil society by a party that wishes to see only its own organisations dominating the space of associations. The attempt might just rebound on the party. The well-known Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, jailed by the Mussolini government in the 1920s, set out to answer a crucial question. Why had a revolution occurred in semi-feudal Tsarist Russia, and not in the Western capitalist world as predicted by Marx? He concluded that revolutions only happen when the government directly and unashamedly exercises brute power, as in Russia. They do not happen in countries which possess civil societies, for here projects of domination and resistance can be played out. Citizens just do not need to revolt. Is there a lesson our rulers need to learn from this piece of profound wisdom?

Neera Chandhoke is a former Professor of Political Science at Delhi University

Source: the Hindu, 30/08/2018