3/27/25
MODERNITY IN CRISIS:
WAR, DECOLONIZATION, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE:
GANDHI & MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
HUMA 1170: THE MODERN AGE
PROFESSOR MARK CAUCHI
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ADMINISTRATIVE
¡ Next Week:
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Start Postmodernism
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Readings are challenging
¡ In two weeks (Mar 28), we’re discussing a film, Still Life (dir. Jia Zhangke, 2006)
¡
Watch it before class (I will post a link to it from the York Library)
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It’s a challenging film: slow, not in English, not much happens
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3/27/25
IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM
¡ Worth 20%
¡ In class on April 4, 2:30 – 4:20
¡ Arrive early
¡ 75% of exam on second term, 25% on first term
¡ Focused on major concepts, ideas, events
¡ All materials included: lectures, readings, art, film
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IN-CLASS FINAL EXAM
¡ Part A (20 marks, 1 mark each, 20 mins)
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Very short answers (multiple choice, fill in blanks)
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20 questions
¡ Part B (20 marks, 10 marks each, 30 mins)
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Short Answers (definitions, identifications, explanations)
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Choose 2 from available
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Answers should be ½-1 page long
¡ Part C (40 marks, 1 hour)
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Longer Answers (answer a question)
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Choose 1 from available
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Answers should be 2-3 pages long
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3/27/25
MODERNISM &
SOCIAL CHANGE
¡
Modernism was the intellectual, artistic, and cultural
movement in the late-19 th century to mid-20 th century
that emphasized finding new forms of expression
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There was a growing sense that the old ways
(traditional ways) of doing things was not true to the
world and ourselves
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Modernism fostered the idea that new ways of being in
the world and new identities were also possible and
desirable
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MODERNISM IN CRISIS
¡ Modernism intersected with politics from early on
¡ Futurism evolved out of Modernism in Italy and Russia in the 1920s. In Italy,
Futurism fused with Fascism. In Germany, Fascism (Nazism) turned against
Futurism and Modernism and viewed them as “degenerate”
¡ Increasingly, the legacy and meaning of modernity in general was in dispute
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MODERNITY IN CRISIS
¡ Recall that history doesn’t change in instantaneous moments
¡ Movements slowly evolve, things overlap (for a time, some people are
Enlightenment defenders, others are Romantics)
¡ Around WWII, the Modernist sensibility starts to decline
¡ This will become clearer next week with Postmodernism
¡ There is still a desire for change, but some want to reject some changes or the speed
of changes
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MODERNITY, COLONIALISM, RACISM
¡ In this course, we have explored the conundrum that modernity both enables racism and colonialism, even while it
offers tools to criticize it
¡ Part of racism and colonialism was the belief that white Westerners were more advanced (modern) than non-white and
non-Western peoples (primitive, uncivilized)
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Modernity supports oppression
¡ In the 19th and early 20th centuries, start to get “progressive” movements against racism and colonialism
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Modernity opposes oppression
¡ By around WW2, the meaning and legacy of modernity is increasingly in question
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This questioning will eventually prompt in the 1960s the emergence of Postmoderism (discussed next week)
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Gandhi and King reflect this middle period of simultaneous support and increasing question of modernity
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MODERNITY, COLONIALISM, RACISM
¡ European colonization is divided into two phases and types
¡ Old Imperialism
¡ 15th - 18th centuries
¡ European powers take over and settle colonies
¡ North and South America, Australia
¡ New Imperialism
¡ 19th – early-20th centuries
¡ European powers take over and exploit, but do not settle
¡ Africa, Middle East, India, Hong Kong, South Pacific
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MODERNITY, COLONIALISM, RACISM
¡ Beginning around the turn of the 20th century, many colonies begin decolonial struggles
¡ Before and after WW2, European powers will start to either lose conflicts or give up their colonies
¡ The significance of this process for thinking about modernity is it raises question of what is modern? The modern
societies colonizing “backward” societies? Or is that evidence of non-modernity? Is the struggle against
colonization modern?
¡ The mid-20th century (1930s-60s) is a transition period
¡ Gandhi and King both reflect a modern sensibility while clearly illustrating failures of modernity
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3/27/25
MAHATMA
GANDHI
1869 – 1948 (ASSASSINATED)
LEADER OF INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
IN INDIA
HELPED FOUND INDIAN STATE
LAWYER AND PHILOSOPHER
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GANDHI
¡
Gandhi was born into a middle-ish caste in India that had a professional focus (merchants,
bankers, administrators)
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Caste System is a religious-natural social hierarchy (similar to Great Chain of Being)
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While his family was poor, this caste background was actually helpful for functioning in the
modern world
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He was educated, a mediocre student, but read a lot, went to London and studied law at
University of London
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He went to South Africa (part of which was a British colony) to practice law and stayed for
20 years
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It was there that his political consciousness was awakened due to the racism he experienced
and witnessed
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He helped organize Indian resistance toward Dutch racism in South Africa
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Eventually moves back to India and gets involved in Indian politics
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BRITISH IN INDIA
¡
The British begin establishing themselves in India in 1600s with the East India Trading Company
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It was a company authorized by Britain in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean
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Much like the Hudson Bay Company was authorized by Britain to trade in Canada
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Companies then, at the origins of capitalism, were only semi-independent of government: given a specific mandate, but allowed to operate
independently, including violently
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East India Company traded in cotton, dyes, spices, tea, and opium
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Such companies had to take care of their own defense (they travelled with much wealth) and so they had their own armies and militias
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The East India Company started to establish settlements in India, protected by armies
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As time went on, its settlements expanded and slowly it began taking over entire regions of India and eventually almost entire country
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BRITISH IN INDIA
¡ In 1858, Britain itself took over the rule of India from
the East India Trading Company
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Called the British Raj
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Raj means “rule” in Sanskrit (ancient Indian language)
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Lasted until 1947, when India gains Independence
¡ Britain took over all sectors of Indian governance:
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Law, education, finance, transportation, communications,
health, industry, etc.
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These were all on British models
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This was all ultimately for Britain’s benefit – however:
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India’s economy fared poorly under British rule
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It is still debated whether Britain actually benefitted
economically (it is very expensive to run a large colony)
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GANDHI
¡ Gandhi returns to India from South Africa in 1915
¡ He starts to get involved in politics and begins to apply the philosophy and techniques of resistance he developed in
South Africa
¡ Gandhi studied a lot of diverse religious texts, philosophy, and literature
¡ He grew up studying Hindu and Jain religious texts, and continued to do so throughout his life
¡ He later studied the Quran and Bible (particularly Christian portions), Henry David Thoreau (a protégé of Emerson),
and Leo Tolstoy (late-19th century Russian novelist and philosopher)
¡
He was particularly interested in these sources’ advocacy of non-violence
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SATYAGRAHA
¡ Gandhi develops the philosophy of satyagraha
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Satya (truth) + agraha (insistence, force) = insistence on truth, force of truth
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He sometimes tried to translate the idea into English by using Thoreau’s idea of “civil disobedience”
¡ Satyagraha was a philosophy of resistance to oppression
¡ The resistance was non-violent (ahimsa)
¡ It used techniques of targeted non-cooperation or non-compliance
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SATYAGRAHA
¡ However, Gandhi insisted that satyagraha was not “passive resistance”
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Passive Resistance was a form of protest that pre-existed Gandhi
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Passive Resistance is non-compliance with the laws of a government for purposes of protest
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“Satyagraha differs from Passive Resistance as the North Pole from the South. The latter [Passive Resistance] has been conceived as
a weapon of the weak and does not exclude the use of physical force or violence for the purposes of gaining one’s end, whereas the
former has been conceived as a weapon of the strongest and excludes the use of violence in any shape or form…. The law-breaker
[Passive Resistance] breaks the law surreptitiously [underhandedly, sneakily] and tries to avoid the penalty. Not so the civil resister.
He ever obeys the laws of the state to which he belongs, not out of fear of sanctions, but because he considers them to be good for
the welfare of society. But there come occasions, generally rare, when he considers certain laws to be so unjust as to render
obedience to them a dishonour. He then openly and civilly breaks them and quietly suffers the penalty for their breach….A non-cooperation [an act of satyagraha] strives to compel attention and to set an example not by his violence, but by his unobtrusive
humility. He allows his solid action to speak his creed. His strength lies in his reliance upon the correctness of his position.”
¡ Satyagraha is not passive, but active. It is not a lack of activity. It was doing something, and doing it in a deliberate way to
undo oppression
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SATYAGRAHA
¡ The commitment to truth demanded that resistance not be violent (oppressor is not purely bad), and violence
toward them would be wrong
¡
“When a person claims to be non-violent, he is expected not to be angry with one who has injured him. He will not wish him harm; he
will wish him well; he will not swear at him; he will not cause him any physical hurt. He will put up with all the injury to which he is
subjected by the wrong-doer.”
¡
“Therefore, whilst we are pursuing the policy of nonviolence, we are bound to be actively friendly to English administrators and their cooperators.”
¡ But violence toward the oppressor also does not reveal the truth of the oppression
¡ Revealing the truth of the oppression (its injustice) is itself a kind of force
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SATYAGRAHA IN ACTION
¡ Gandhi set out, in carefully planned gestures, actions that would reveal the cruelty, absurdity, injustice of British
rule, while also crippling it
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Boycott of British goods, burning of British goods, Indians to resign from British administration or companies, resign British
titles, sometimes to resist laws
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Sometimes these actions led to violence taken against Indians
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SATYAGRAHA IN ACTION
¡ For instance, similar to the American colonies, Britain
would send Indian resources back to Britain and then
send back British-made goods to be sold in India
¡ Britain would only allow British-made clothing to be
sold in India
¡ Gandhi urged non-co-operation with this system and
urged Indians to make their own traditional clothes
using traditional means
¡ This is why, after this point, we only see Gandhi in his
loincloth
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SATYAGRAHA IN ACTION
¡ The Salt March (1930)
¡ Indians used to harvest salt for free
¡ Britain imposed a tax on salt
¡ Gandhi organized a march covering 380 kms over 25 days to a where Indians make salt with the intention
of making salt themselves without paying the tax
¡ He was joined by thousands
¡ This was followed by the Dharasana action (1930), where followers raided a salt works
¡ The British knew they were coming and sent the military to suppress the protest (Gandhi was arrested
before protest)
¡ For hours, one by one, Gandhi’s supporters walked to the guards and were beaten
¡ “In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A picked
column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire stockade... at a
word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on
their heads with their steel-shot lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not one of the marchers even raised an
arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whack of
the clubs on unprotected skulls... Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with
fractured skulls or broken shoulders.”
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SATYAGRAHA IN ACTION
¡ The Salt March and Dharasana March can seem crazy
¡ But it illustrates how satyagraha works
¡ The action clearly reveals truths:
¡
the cruelty of the British
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the absurdity of their rule (taxing salt)
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the righteousness of the Indian struggle
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the moral superiority of the Indians over the British
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The absurdity of the racist claims to British superiority
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LEGACY OF GANDHI
¡ Gandhi was not anti-modern
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He supported democracy, pluralism, equality, the rule of law
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Opposed the caste system (mostly)
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He was a reader of modern ideas and culture
¡ Gandhi helps to reveal that the advocates of civilization and modernity were not as advanced as they claim
¡ Gandhi had critics and enemies
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Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister) called Gandhi “Indian Mussolini”
¡
Many thought Gandhi’s suggestion that Jews should use satyagraha against Hitler was naïve. If you resist Hitler with nonviolence, he will continue to use violence
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Eventually, groups of Hindu and Muslim nationalists turn against Gandhi’s pluralism, leading ultimately to India’s partition into
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the ongoing conflict about Punjab
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MODERNITY IN TRANSITION
¡ In the middle of the 20th century (1930s-1960s), modernity is undergoing changes and doubts
¡ On one hand, a lot of very tangible change
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Technological explosion: electricity, telephones, radios, movies, televisions, cars, planes, plumbing, home appliances
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New knowledge: modern medicine, new sciences of relativity, atomic science,
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New art forms (modernism)
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Lots of social and political change: feminism, Harlem Renaissance, welfare state, communism, fascism
¡ On other hand, a lot is happening that makes modernity not seem what it claimed to be
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WW1, Depression, WW2, Holocaust, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, decolonization, Vietnam War, racism
¡
How could modernity lead to these things?
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MODERNITY IN TRANSITION
¡ America has long been perceived as the quintessentially modern nation (“new world”)
¡ After WW2, when European powers are weakened, America rises to most powerful nation
¡ America flaunts its modernity
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Massive industrialization (auto manufacturing, modern manufacturing)
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Invests in modern infrastructure and social planning (mass home ownership, suburbs, highways, trains, airports)
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Modern architecture, skyscrapers, urban design
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Modern art galleries (MOMA in 1930s, Guggenheim in NYC)
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American popular culture spreads/forced around world (film, music, fashion)
¡
Moon landing (1969)
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MODERNITY IN TRANSITION
¡ Despite America’s ascendency in modernization, two major problems
¡ Vietnam War
¡ Entrenched racism
¡ These problems start to shake American self-confidence and confidence in modernity (to be
discussed next week)
¡ The Civil Rights movement (movement for full rights of African Americans) will both
challenge America’s modernity and make a modern argument (hence transition)
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CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Background:
¡ Recall, America employed slavery
¡ Civil War
¡ between the federal government (the Union) and southern states who want to withdraw in order to
maintain slavery
¡ After the South loses, southern states impose Segregation (“Jim Crow” Laws)
¡ Nationally, the government makes home ownership easy for white people (easy loans, cheap property,
segregated neighbourhoods), but prevents black people from participating in programs
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CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
¡ African Americans and allies begin mobilizing with sit-ins, civil disobedience, rioting, legal
strategies to overturn racist policies, voter registration campaigns
¡ It’s a diverse group:
¡ Religious organizations (Christian and Muslim)
¡ Student groups
¡ Socialists
¡ Militants (Malcolm X)
¡ Legal organizations (ACLU)
¡ Black nationalists (Black Power)
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
¡ 1929 – 1968 (assassinated)
¡ Minister, scholar, activist
¡ Son of an important preacher, financially secure, educated
¡ Went to university, seminary, and then Boston College for PhD in theology
¡
hence his title: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
¡ One of the greatest orators in American history
¡ Often the favoured Civil Rights leader among white moderates, but they
usually whitewash his thinking
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
¡ Intellectually, King was very well versed in modern thought and culture
¡
His PhD dissertation was on Paul Tillich (a contemporary existentialist theologian – remember De Beauvoir was an
existentialist)
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He studied Kant, Hegel, Marx, Emerson, Thoreau, Nietzsche, and existentialism
¡
¡
He claims Hegel was his favourite philosopher and the existentialists were right in their view about human beings
¡
If you go through his writings, he will refer to all of these people
He also studied Gandhi
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KING’S ACTIVISM
¡ Under the influence of Gandhi and Christianity, King began to think of non-violent protest as a means to overcome
discrimination in US
¡ Beginning in the mid-50s, King organized a number of actions in the fight for civil rights
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Bus boycotts (to protest segregated buses)
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Segregation protests
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Voter registration campaigns
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Sit ins, marches
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Vietnam War protests
¡ In large part due to King’s activism, the Civil Rights Act is passed in 1964 in US
¡
outlaws discrimination on basis of race, religion, class, and sex,
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Outlaws segregation and unequal voting measures
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KING’S ACTIVISM
¡ King is most famous for the March on Washington in 1963, the Selma
March, and Birmingham campaign
¡ March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 1963
¡
This is site of the “I Have a Dream” speech
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Calls for end of racial discrimination, higher minimum wage, end of police
brutality,
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Over 250k people attended
¡ Selma March 1964
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People organizing to help Blacks register to vote
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Alabama government banned such gatherings
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Planned marches to the State capital
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One of the marches ended in “Bloody Sunday” when police brutally
suppressed it
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LETTER FROM
BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL
¡
King and his collaborators wanted to protest
segregation in Alabama in 1963
¡
Black protestors openly violated segregation laws, e.g.,
ordering food at a “white” restaurant
¡
Birmingham police used brutal methods to suppress the
protest, using water cannons and dogs, including on
children
¡
It was all caught on television news, making police and
government look bad and the protestors look good
¡
Similar to George Floyd murder
¡
King was arrested and imprisoned
¡
While in jail he wrote “Letter from Birmingham City
Jail”
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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL
¡ The letter was written by King while in prison
¡ It is written to leaders of white southern churches essentially criticizing them for failing to support his protest
and the larger cause of the Civil Rights Movement
¡
Recall Douglass’s criticism of American Christianity
¡ He argues that the greatest impediment to black liberation is the “white moderate” (like these clergymen)
¡
“I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the
Negro’s [Black person’s] greatest stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizen’s Councilor or the
Klu Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than justice; who prefers a negative peace which
is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says ‘I agree with you in the
goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action,’ who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable
for another man’s freedom…. Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute
misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL
¡ He issues a strong critique of white Christianity in America:
¡
“I have longed to hear white ministers say follow this decree [of desegregation] because integration is morally right and the
Negro [Black person] is your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro [Black person], I have
watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the
midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, ‘Those are
social issues with which the Gospel has no real concern,’ and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a
completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.”
¡ Here King is drawing on the tradition of modern philosophy and theology
¡
Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche were all critical of other-worldly religion
¡
For King, religion was not opposed to life in the world, it was about how one lived in the world
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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL
¡ Instead of the white moderate’s resistance to action, King argues for urgency
¡ “We have not made a single gain in civil rights without legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the
long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.”
¡ African Americans, and whites, thus have to fight for freedom
¡ But King demands urgency because he fears a growing American crisis, a loss of belief in America
¡
He identifies blacks who have a “degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’”
¡
Other blacks [he’s thinking of Malcolm X] who “have lost faith in America, …repudiated Christianity, … and have concluded
that the white man is an incurable devil”
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LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL
¡ King shows that white society does not truly believe in its declared modern values and ideals
¡ He is also noticing that the cumulative results of Black history in America are a growing despair, a loss of belief in
America’s values and ideal among Blacks too
¡ As race riots escalate in the 1950s and 60s, combined with Vietnam protests (which King supported), there is a
growing feeling in America that something is profoundly wrong
¡ Throughout 60s, a number of assassinations of progressive figures
¡ King is assassinated in 1968 and the sense that America is broken grows
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