Synopses & Reviews
In the first decade of the twenty-first century autonomy has become one of the major concerns of our social and political existence. The right to autonomous life is now a political, cultural and social call of both the individual and the group - a rare conformity that points to the crucial importance of autonomy in the agenda of critical thinking.
Though the notion of autonomy in the modern era was at first applied in a political context, the term was quickly taken up in the context of individual rational persons, their rights and existences. In the wake of anti colonial movements, the term gained new perspectives and meanings which would imply new rights and new responsibilities. It became the emblem of group rights, in particular minority rights. In time the idea of autonomy became not only the standard of rights and responsibilities, but also an issue of governmentality.
The present volume is a critical attempt to understand autonomy from both historical and analytical perspectives. An international group of scholars seek answers that go beyond the thinking of Immanuel Kant or a simple hermeneutic reading of the principle of autonomy. Autonomy, in this collective reading, emerges as deeply rooted in social practices and contentious politics.
Synopsis
A critical attempt to understand autonomy from both historical and analytical perspectives.
Synopsis
In the first decade of the twenty-first century autonomy has become one of the major concerns of our social and political existence. The right to autonomous life is now a political, cultural and social call of both the individual and group. The present volume is a critical attempt to understand autonomy from both historical and analytical perspectives. Autonomy, in this collective reading, emerges as deeply rooted in social practices and contentious politics.
About the Author
Paula Banerjee is a member of the Calcutta Research Group and teaches at the Department of South and South East Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata. She specializes in issues of peace and conflict in South Asia as well as diplomatic history, besides being a women's rights activist. She has authored two books and numerous journal articles and received the WISCOMP Fellow of Peace Award in 2001-2. Samir Kumar Das is the Research Coordinator, Calcutta Research Group and Professor of Political Science at University of Calcutta, Kolkata. A Fellow (2005) of the Social Science Research Council (South Asia Program), he is also the Deputy Coordinator of the UGC-DRS Program on 'Democratic Governance in Indian States'. He specializes in and writes on issues of ethnicity, security, migration, rights and justice.
Table of Contents
Editorial Introduction; Culture and Contrasting Views on the Individual, Autonomy and Mortality with Special Reference to India; ‘Property of the Self’, Individual Autonomy and the Modern European Discourse of Citizenship; Beyond the Hermeneutics of Autonomy; The Slow Emergence of British Women as Autonomous Subjects; Autonomy or Deliberative Governance?; The Idea of Jharkhand; Law’s Autonomy; Autonomous Voices of the First Nations; Examining Autonomy and the 73rd Amendment in Assam; Dalai Lama’s New Initiative for Autonomy