Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Law School, and Divinity School, The University of Chicago.
"The Clash Within" is a book of and for our time. It will
profoundly change the way we think about religio-national violence
and about pluralism and democracy. Nussbaum s persuasive tour de
force makes clear that cultural diversity is a source of innovation
and creativity and that a national identity that is layered and
multiple, rather than exclusive or exclusionary, leads to
cosmopolitan thinking and cultural innovation. Her command of the
ethical, legal and sociopolitical problems that a political reading
of religion poses for a multicultural plural democracy makes this
work essential reading for anyone interested in the role of
religion and the future of the nation-state., --Tulasi
Srinivas"Harvard Divinity Bulletin" (01/01/2008)
Martha Nussbaum is a distinguished American philosopher, whose
formidable corpus of academic work is the more remarkable for her
enlisting of philosophy in the service of her commitment to a more
just and rights-respecting world. Nussbaum is also a passionate
Indophile who has collaborated, with Amartya Sen, on the
capabilities approach to human, and especially women s,
development. This book written chiefly for an American audience is
an expression of her deep personal engagement with the challenges
of pluralism in Indian democracy.--Niraja Gopal Jayal"Outlook
India" (07/16/2007)
Once more, Martha Nussbaum has applied her profound philosophical
intelligence to a challenging question in the practical world. In
thinking through the dangers raised by the Hindu right, she teaches
us a great deal about the dangers of dogmatism everywhere.--K.
Anthony Appiah, Princeton University
Preoccupation with the purported clash between civilizations has
masked the clash within democracies. This passionate, engaged book
has much to teach an American audience about the vulnerability and
resilience of Indian democracy. Perhaps it will also stimulate
reflections about similar clashes within American
democracy.--Amrita Basu, Amherst College
This impressive and important book grapples with the problems and
consequences of religious extremism. Nussbaum's brilliant analysis
of the controversy over religion and democracy in India
effortlessly moves between political history, philosophy, and law,
to give us a powerful and compelling narrative of the political
world of the Hindu Right. It is a must-read for all those
interested in understanding the dangers of religious extremism and
of what preserves democracy and pluralism in the face of tensions
and conflicts within.--Zoya Hasan, Jawaharlal Nehru University
This is an extraordinarily interesting book on a very difficult
subject. Martha Nussbaum's commanding familiarity with culturally
related political issues across the world, past and present,
combines immensely fruitfully here with her involvement and
understanding of India.--Amartya Sen, Harvard University
"The Clash Within" has a salutary message for crusading secularists
as well as for lovers of India.--David Goodall"The Tablet"
(08/25/2007)
At a time when India is claiming more of the world's attention, the
philosopher Nussbaum offers an informatively rich and sophisticated
analysis of democracy and religious extremism there.--Lucian W.
Pye"Foreign Affairs" (09/01/2007)
Few contemporary philosophers in the West have reckoned with
India's complex experience of democracy; and even fewer have
engaged with it as vigorously as [Nussbaum] does in "The Clash
Within"...[A] strongly felt and stimulating book.--Pankaj
Mishra"New York Review of Books" (06/28/2007)
In "The Clash Within", a passionate look at the crisis of democracy
and religious violence in India, Martha Nussbaum provides a
detailed reconstruction of the genocide she says occurred in
Gujarat. She shows that the violence had been planned well in
advance, and she chronicles the failures of the state to prosecute
the accused Hindu-right activists or their mentors in the Bharatiya
Janata Party...Nussbaum says the main purpose of her book is to
inform European and American readers about a "complex and chilling
case of religious violence that does not fit some common
stereotypes about the sources of religious violence in today's
world." She does that well.--Basharat Peer"The Nation"
(11/19/2007)
In an age of academic specialization, [Nussbaum] is one of the few
modern renaissance scholars..."The Clash Within" should be read not
only by those interested in India's present and future, but by
anyone seeking to understand the processes by which even the most
complex and sophisticated societies can navigate their way into a
morass of violent intolerance.--Irfan Yusuf"Weekend Australian"
(08/16/2008)
Martha Nussbaum's "The Clash Within" presents a powerful analysis
of the Hindu Right in contemporary India that is insightful and
penetrating...She weaves a rich tapestry of how Hindu thought has
been reshaped and distorted...She is correct to say "the clash
within" that we find in India lies everywhere..."The Clash Within"
is another remarkable achievement from the most exciting political
philosopher of our age. I cannot recommend it highly enough.--Thom
Brooks"Times Higher Education Supplement" (06/29/2007)
Nussbaum is an informed outsider looking in...Nussbaum takes one
incident--the 2002 Gujarat riots that followed the burning of a
train carrying Hindu activists in Godhra--and builds a grand
narrative of Hindu nationalism...Nussbaum sees lessons in India's
democratic achievements for the rest of the world, particularly
America. Her thesis supports Ghandi's claim that "the real struggle
that democracy must wage is the struggle within the individual
self, between the urge to dominate and defile the other, and a
willingness to live respectfully on terms of compassion and
equality."--Salil Tripathi"New Statesman" (08/06/2007)
Nussbaum sounds a wake-up call to those who may have been unaware
of the ugly nature of events in India in recent times, and the
hate-filled ideology that informs them...As further evidence of the
undemocratic danger that India now faces, Nussbaum turns to the
attempt of the Hindu Right to hijack history and rewrite the Indian
past to demonize Muslims and glorify Hindus.--David Arnold"Times
Literary Supplement" (08/24/2007)
This is a humanistic and psychological study that traces the
[Hindu] Right's rage to reaction against both the Muslim and
British conquests of India, which humiliated and shamed
Hindus...Instead of the "clash of civilizations," Nussbaum sees a
clash within each culture, but her book could serve as a Huntington
case study of the roots and rise of "Hindutva" (Hinduness).--M. G.
Roskin"Choice" (10/01/2007)
In "The Clash Within," a passionate look at the crisis of democracy
and religious violence in India, Martha Nussbaum provides a
detailed reconstruction of the genocide she says occurred in
Gujarat. She shows that the violence had been planned well in
advance, and she chronicles the failures of the state to prosecute
the accused Hindu-right activists or their mentors in the Bharatiya
Janata Party...Nussbaum says the main purpose of her book is to
inform European and American readers about a "complex and chilling
case of religious violence that does not fit some common
stereotypes about the sources of religious violence in today's
world." She does that well. -- Basharat Peer "The Nation"
(11/19/2007)
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