---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Chekkutty N.P <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Jun 29, 2008 8:08 PM Subject: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Re: [GreenYouth] Habermas & Ziauddin Zardar To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear Damodar, Your post brought back to me memories of the days I spent with Murali, in the Calicut University. He was a scholar extraordianry, a friend non pareil. I first met Murali when we were going to Hyderabad for the Indian History Congress in 1979, immediately after the Emergency. He was a student of history PG in Calicut University, and I was a degree student at Malabar Christian College. He was a delegate and I had a paper to present on the leftist media in Malabar in forties. After that, we spent many days together discussing, quarelling and trying to understand each other. He came from Palakkad, the son of a right-wing hindutva thinker, and I came from a family of poor peasants frrm a remote village in Kozhiode, the first to go to a university in the entire family. But he was a great friend and when I realized that the differences that divided us narrowed, I was happy. He was close to TK Ramachandran and his group in the university, and as an SFI activist, I belonged to a group critical of TK and his group. Now after almost three decades I realize that those differences were ephemeral. Now where is the great divide, I don't find any. N P Chekkutty On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 7:30 PM, damodar prasad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On 6/29/08, Dileep Raj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> *M.Muralidharan (1-6-1958--- 1-12-1995), a great thinker Keralam has >> produced*, > > > *No doubt. * > ** > ** > Dileep, > I opened mail box to crticize you on your previous mail remarks on > 'framework". After reading this excerpts from the unpublished work of Dr. > Muralidharan, I withdraw and keep quite. > > damodar . > > > wrote with a sophistication and brilliance rare among conventional >> academics.The following passage is taken from his unpublished paper "Hindu >> Community Formation in Kerala: Processes and structures under Modernity" >> (1994): In recent years , the most sedate defence of modernity has been >> that it makes possible a communicative ethics, a sociality of ideal-speech >> and validations.Such attempts that point to an implicit human condition >> permeated by understanding and free from coercion will have to confront >> communities that are actually made; religious, national or ethnic. Outside >> the university communities in Western Europe, modernity has witnessed the >> shaping of such groups.Any celebration of what they free in human nature >> will have to be shown too be not bound up with what they chain.The >> ethics of ideal speech faces the paradox that in a torture cell, the right >> to speak becomes an obligation. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 8:14 PM, damodar prasad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> >>> Habermas and Ziauddin Zardar >>> >>> >>> >>> Whereas Habermas is a distinguished hardcore philosopher, Ziauddin >>> Zardar, should I describe him, as a futurist? >>> >>> >>> >>> Habermas belongs to the tradition of European philosophy; Zardar belongs >>> to the thinking emerging in the postcolonial context. >>> >>> >>> >>> Habermas belongs to the great Frankfurt school tradition of critical >>> theory and is located in Germany; Zardar is located at England and writes >>> passionately about Bollywood cinema. >>> >>> >>> >>> Zardar is devout practitioner of Islamic religion; I know nothing about >>> Habermas except the remark in MG Radhakrishnan's mail that he is friend of >>> Pope. >>> >>> >>> >>> As I understand, ( may be there is -donno) there is nothing in common >>> between their thinking and writings. >>> >>> >>> >>> But both concern themselves to the problem of secularism in a world >>> increasingly determined by multi-religious or inter-religious exchanges, >>> sometimes pleasant, some times violent. >>> >>> >>> >>> Habermas is perhaps popular to Malayalam writing since 80s, I guess >>> because of his engagement with Marxism. Public sphere, his antithetical >>> position on students left movement, his idea of the 'In complete project of >>> modernity' and his dialogues with Focault are popular in Keralam. >>> >>> >>> >>> But Zardar, I think is not much popular. >>> >>> >>> >>> Habermas engagement with secularism is contextualized in European >>> modernity and in a particular context where state-promoted multiculturalism >>> and the created fear of "terrorism" has made the 'civilized' states >>> xenophobic and resulting in 'irresistible' rise of new Artru Uis. >>> >>> >>> >>> I've found (with my minimal knowledge) there is a deep sense of tragedy >>> underlying Habermas' writings. That has become his style. Though a bit >>> 'flexible", same syntactic intricacies, conceptual complexities and semantic >>> density can be seen in his description of "post secularism". >>> >>> >>> >>> A sense of mourning pervades his description. This can be best described >>> in Rushdie's words "last sigh for a lost world in Moor's Last Sigh. He opens >>> up to a new world but there is 'nostalgia' for the lost world. So I don't >>> wonder a large gap, a widening chasm between the thinkers who live in the >>> lost world of Nehruvian Nationalist Secularism and Habermas who wakes up to >>> engage the emrgent context. The world of Nehruvian Statist secularism >>> is bygone and cannot be recaptured. (and pls. don't!!) >>> >>> >>> >>> But then Zardar is refreshingly new. He engages religion and new emerging >>> ideas of secularism as a value. He engages with a non-European world where >>> multi-religion is a historical condition and perhaps ravaged by Colonialism >>> and later neo-colonialism. Wriiting is full of enjoyment and a sort of >>> pleasantness spreads through his works. >>> >>> >>> >>> Habermas is least self-reflexive. (The maximum he can be, as he states is >>> that he is a "sociological observer") There is no "Habermas's" in his >>> writing, where as Zardar is self-reflexive. One can engage with Habermas in >>> a "disciplined and dispassionate (and cozy way) " keeping his 'self' in a >>> comfortable closet (looks like a scene Bunuel's from "Phantom of Liberty). >>> But to engage with Zardar, one has to be self-reflexive (if at all he/she is >>> sincere). All the solidity of discipline and dispassion liquefies. >>> >>> >>> This is my tentative reading, slightly undisciplined and passionate. (pls. >>> do visit: http://www.ziauddinsardar.com/ >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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