The Materiality of Politics: The technologies of rule

Download or read book The Materiality of Politics: The technologies of rule written by Raṇabīra Samāddāra and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a series of historical illustrations, the author investigates violence, law, terror, protection, justice and post-colonial governance. His reading of the materiality of politics is disturbingly 'physical'. Unlike the 'philosophical subject' (a purely theoretical construct), the author's 'political subject' is the real product of particular conflicts and circumstances, violence and bloodshed. The universal immediacy of conflict drives home the futility of vague philosophical speculations and generalizations. Instead, it prompts a rigorous study of control and rebellion, statecraft and autonomy, law and lawlessness. History, claims the author, must be studied in a new way.