Learning Non-violence

The essays in this volume on non-violence engage on one plane with the totality of the concept, while at another they acknowledge the porosity of the idea of non-violence, particularly with respect to praxis or what can be thought of as learnt non-violence. Conceived and osmotically structured around four themes - religion, protest, the modern condition, and the world today - the book is an invitation to consider the practical possibilities of non-violence, aiming therewith to develop a transaction between modern discourses and the ancient vocabulary of the concept. The essays trace its thematic gamut, from recognising the problematic of social/justice where non-violence may not be a manifest option, and considering possibilities of transforming oneâs own self through a near perfect realization of non-violence; from exploring its expression in postcolonial theory and contemporary literature to reflecting on its manifestations as virtue, emotion, and technique in specific situations, and to surveying the ground of non violence in the social body and its mind. Approaching the theme from their varied disciplinary perspectives, the contributors offer a rich intersection of not only the past and present, but between various disciplinary approaches to theorizing the concept, and to visualising the possibilities of a sustainable moral pedagogy of non-violence.