Prasanta Chakravarty – författare

This book examines the literary, religious, and political aspects of the radical movements and various sects of the English Civil War. Featuring a chapter on John Milton, this book also addresses the legal problems that engaged the early modern radical reformers, the issue of radical religion as a negotiating tool and the limits of radical liberal thought.

This collection of essays, fiction, poetry, and discussions, derived from the cult Internet magazine Humanities Underground, provides entry into some of the most burning issues in the humanities in contemporary South Asia. The anthology brings together select pieces on such diverse issues as aesthetics and artistic craft, ethics and criticism, movements and institutions, and ideologies and reflections. Working at the cusps of the artistic and the political spheres, the anthology, like the magazine, argues that since our concerns for art and philosophy must be understood through the political, social, and economic conditions that birth them, our writing and our reading must be attentive to the intricacies of these relationships and the contexts they create. This anthology of engaging essays will be of interest to scholars in the humanities both within South Asia and beyond.

This book examines the literary, religious, and political aspects of the radical movements and various sects of the English Civil War. Featuring a chapter on John Milton, this book also addresses the legal problems that engaged the early modern radical reformers, the issue of radical religion as a negotiating tool and the limits of radical liberal thought.

Machiavelli's ideas are as important in our time as in his own. His insights and prescriptions help us make sense of today's political upheavals and natural calamities and reduce them to a working order. The chapters in Machiavelli Then and Now explore Machiavelli's central concerns: statecraft and order, liberty and citizenship, diplomacy and leadership, modes of strategization, the quest for empire - all set against the basic contention between autarchy, oligarchy and democracy. They also address the ethical and behaviourial factors behind political practice, such as force, suasion, ambition, corruption and vigilance in public discourse. The contributors consider the role of language, text and the imagination in Machiavelli, and they also bring the Machiavellian discourse closer to our own times, in relation to Gandhi, Gramsci and Althusser. The book will interest historians, political scientists and students of public policy; philosophers, rhetoricians and literary critics; and no less institution builders, diplomats and, administrators.