Books by Ananya Vajpeyi
The Hindu, 2021
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Harvard University Press, 2012
What India's founders derived from Western political traditions as they struggled to free their c... more What India's founders derived from Western political traditions as they struggled to free their country from colonial rule is widely understood. Less well-known is how India's own rich knowledge traditions of two and a half thousand years influenced these men as they set about constructing a nation in the wake of the Raj. In Righteous Republic, Ananya Vajpeyi furnishes this missing account, a ground-breaking assessment of modern Indian political thought. Taking five of the most important founding figures-Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, and B. R. Ambedkar-Vajpeyi looks at how each of them turned to classical texts in order to fashion an original sense of Indian selfhood. The diverse sources in which these leaders and thinkers immersed themselves included Buddhist literature, the Bhagavad Gita, Sanskrit poetry, the edicts of Emperor Ashoka, and the artistic and architectural achievements of the Mughal Empire. India's founders went to these sources not to recuperate old philosophical frameworks but to invent new ones. In Righteous Republic, a portrait emerges of a group of innovative, synthetic, and cosmopolitan thinkers who succeeded in braiding together two Indian knowledge traditions, the one political and concerned with social questions, the other religious and oriented toward transcendence. Within their vast intellectual, aesthetic, and moral inheritance, the founders searched for different aspects of the self that would allow India to come into its own as a modern nation-state. The new republic they envisaged would embody both India's struggle for sovereignty and its quest for the self.
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Foundation for Universal Responsibility, 2007
Letter to Giorgio Agamben
Summary: My letter to Agamben proceeds in three parts. In the first ... more Letter to Giorgio Agamben
Summary: My letter to Agamben proceeds in three parts. In the first section, I try to raise, and to some extent answer the questions: Why theory? Why European theory? and Why Agamben? in setting up the categories of the camp and the refugee for South Asia. In the second section, I turn the European theory I am engaging, to address a new type of “bare life” that has emerged around the world since America launched its so-called War on Terror – that of the captured and incarcerated Muslim. Taking as a starting point Agamben’s discussion of der Muselmann, with its antecedents in the Lager or concentration-camp, I try to map some of the distance between the extermination of the Jews by the National Socialist Reich in World War II, and the torture and killing of suspected terrorists, jihadi fighters and Afghan and Iraqi prisoners of war since 9/11. I compare, borrowing momentarily Agamben’s own method of what Antonio Negri has called “immersion into philology”, the parallel vocabularies of witnessing and martyrdom available in Judeo-Christian and Islamic theological etymologies, suggesting that perhaps the illegally detained Muslim in Guantánamo Bay is no more a ahd than the Muselmann in Auschwitz was a martyr. In the third and final section, I move from the extreme figure of the Muselmann / Muslim, to the more general category of the refugee as well as the internally displaced person (IDP), and from the historically more or less unique Nazi death-camp (with the only analogy being the Serb-run camps in the former Yugoslavia, during the Balkan Wars on the 1990s), to the widely dispersed form of the relief camp. I reflect upon how South Asia experiences the state of exception, the suspension of the rule of law, extreme violence and conflict-induced displacement – all phenomena analysed in Agamben’s work. In particular, I touch briefly on the Indian Emergency (1975-77) during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and on the carnage of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat (2002) at a time when a Hindu supremacist political party, the BJP, ruled both Gujarat and India. I do not undertake a detailed study, but only sketch the outlines of a theory of violent space and violated person in a cultural and historical context far removed from, and yet intimately tied to, the European case so extensively theorized by Agamben, building on the groundwork laid by, among others, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. In places I refer to the work of Achille Mbembe on post-colonial Africa, and of Miriam Ticktin on contemporary France, to compare and contrast the Indian case.
Keywords: Camp, Refugee, Violence, Law, Exception, Power, Conflict, Death, Totalitarianism, Human Rights, Police, Humanitarianism, Biopolitics, Thanatopolitics /Necropolitics
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Chapter in a Book by Ananya Vajpeyi
Civil Lines
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Traditions in Motion: Religion in Society and History, 2005
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Shared Histories of Modernity: China, India and the Ottoman Empire, 2009
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South Asian Texts in History: Critical Engagements with Sheldon Pollock, 2011
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Hinduism and Law: An Introduction, 2010
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Fifty Writers, Fifty Books: The Best of Indian Fiction (Harper Collins), 2013
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Loka-Vidya Perspectives: A Philosophy of Political Imagination for the Knowledge Age, Amit Basole Ed. (Varanasi: Vidya Ashram and Aakar Books), 2015
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Underfire 2: The Organization and Representation of Violence, Jordan Crandall Ed(Rotterdam, NL: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art), 2005
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Underfire 2: The Organization and Representation of Violence, Jordan Crandall Ed (Rotterdam, NL: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art), 2005
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Beyond counter-insurgency : Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India, Sanjib Baruah Ed. (Oxford University Press), 2009
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Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies, Gita Dharampal-Frick, Rachel Dwyer, et al Ed. (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2015
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Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent, Vajpeyi and Jahanbegloo Ed.( Oxford University Press), 2018
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Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent, Vajpeyi and Jahanbegloo Ed. (Oxford University Press), 2018
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Ashis Nandy: A Life in Dissent, Vajpeyi and Jahanbegloo Ed.(Oxford University Press), 2018
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Despite the very different and to some extent opposite historical and political trajectories, the... more Despite the very different and to some extent opposite historical and political trajectories, there is today a convergence on nationalist affirmation and on majoritarian politics between South Asia and Europe. In India, the Hindu majority rebels against wide-ranging minority rights anchored in the Constitution. In Europe, the refugee crisis and Islamic radicalization bring to the forefront the postcolonial legacy. This introductory article to our edited volume Minorities and Populism-Critical Perspectives form South Asia and Europe is answering two fundamental questions. First, what precisely is the nexus between minorities and populism in South Asia, particularly in India, and Europe? Secondly, given the dangers of populism for minorities, which are the most adequate and feasible policy proposals that address the resentment of the majority? On the basis of the different contributions to this volume, the article draws four major conclusions: (1) Populism has its roots in growing inequalities rather than in the presence of minorities, although the danger of real identity conflicts persists. (2) The integration of Muslim communities and scheduled castes in India requires next to classical multicultural rights also affirmative action programs and quotas. (3) In Muslim-majority countries, such as Pakistan, major political, social but also theological efforts have to be made to render Islam compatible with democracy. (4) Immigration and minorities might currently sow the seeds for greater openness and tolerance of national majorities in Europe, even though processes of mutual learning and recognition might take their time to become properly rooted.
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Books by Ananya Vajpeyi
Summary: My letter to Agamben proceeds in three parts. In the first section, I try to raise, and to some extent answer the questions: Why theory? Why European theory? and Why Agamben? in setting up the categories of the camp and the refugee for South Asia. In the second section, I turn the European theory I am engaging, to address a new type of “bare life” that has emerged around the world since America launched its so-called War on Terror – that of the captured and incarcerated Muslim. Taking as a starting point Agamben’s discussion of der Muselmann, with its antecedents in the Lager or concentration-camp, I try to map some of the distance between the extermination of the Jews by the National Socialist Reich in World War II, and the torture and killing of suspected terrorists, jihadi fighters and Afghan and Iraqi prisoners of war since 9/11. I compare, borrowing momentarily Agamben’s own method of what Antonio Negri has called “immersion into philology”, the parallel vocabularies of witnessing and martyrdom available in Judeo-Christian and Islamic theological etymologies, suggesting that perhaps the illegally detained Muslim in Guantánamo Bay is no more a ahd than the Muselmann in Auschwitz was a martyr. In the third and final section, I move from the extreme figure of the Muselmann / Muslim, to the more general category of the refugee as well as the internally displaced person (IDP), and from the historically more or less unique Nazi death-camp (with the only analogy being the Serb-run camps in the former Yugoslavia, during the Balkan Wars on the 1990s), to the widely dispersed form of the relief camp. I reflect upon how South Asia experiences the state of exception, the suspension of the rule of law, extreme violence and conflict-induced displacement – all phenomena analysed in Agamben’s work. In particular, I touch briefly on the Indian Emergency (1975-77) during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and on the carnage of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat (2002) at a time when a Hindu supremacist political party, the BJP, ruled both Gujarat and India. I do not undertake a detailed study, but only sketch the outlines of a theory of violent space and violated person in a cultural and historical context far removed from, and yet intimately tied to, the European case so extensively theorized by Agamben, building on the groundwork laid by, among others, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. In places I refer to the work of Achille Mbembe on post-colonial Africa, and of Miriam Ticktin on contemporary France, to compare and contrast the Indian case.
Keywords: Camp, Refugee, Violence, Law, Exception, Power, Conflict, Death, Totalitarianism, Human Rights, Police, Humanitarianism, Biopolitics, Thanatopolitics /Necropolitics
Chapter in a Book by Ananya Vajpeyi
Summary: My letter to Agamben proceeds in three parts. In the first section, I try to raise, and to some extent answer the questions: Why theory? Why European theory? and Why Agamben? in setting up the categories of the camp and the refugee for South Asia. In the second section, I turn the European theory I am engaging, to address a new type of “bare life” that has emerged around the world since America launched its so-called War on Terror – that of the captured and incarcerated Muslim. Taking as a starting point Agamben’s discussion of der Muselmann, with its antecedents in the Lager or concentration-camp, I try to map some of the distance between the extermination of the Jews by the National Socialist Reich in World War II, and the torture and killing of suspected terrorists, jihadi fighters and Afghan and Iraqi prisoners of war since 9/11. I compare, borrowing momentarily Agamben’s own method of what Antonio Negri has called “immersion into philology”, the parallel vocabularies of witnessing and martyrdom available in Judeo-Christian and Islamic theological etymologies, suggesting that perhaps the illegally detained Muslim in Guantánamo Bay is no more a ahd than the Muselmann in Auschwitz was a martyr. In the third and final section, I move from the extreme figure of the Muselmann / Muslim, to the more general category of the refugee as well as the internally displaced person (IDP), and from the historically more or less unique Nazi death-camp (with the only analogy being the Serb-run camps in the former Yugoslavia, during the Balkan Wars on the 1990s), to the widely dispersed form of the relief camp. I reflect upon how South Asia experiences the state of exception, the suspension of the rule of law, extreme violence and conflict-induced displacement – all phenomena analysed in Agamben’s work. In particular, I touch briefly on the Indian Emergency (1975-77) during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and on the carnage of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat (2002) at a time when a Hindu supremacist political party, the BJP, ruled both Gujarat and India. I do not undertake a detailed study, but only sketch the outlines of a theory of violent space and violated person in a cultural and historical context far removed from, and yet intimately tied to, the European case so extensively theorized by Agamben, building on the groundwork laid by, among others, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. In places I refer to the work of Achille Mbembe on post-colonial Africa, and of Miriam Ticktin on contemporary France, to compare and contrast the Indian case.
Keywords: Camp, Refugee, Violence, Law, Exception, Power, Conflict, Death, Totalitarianism, Human Rights, Police, Humanitarianism, Biopolitics, Thanatopolitics /Necropolitics