Faisal Devji's Books

The Impossible Indian

Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence

By: Faisal Devji

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The Impossible Indian

Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence

By: Faisal Devji

The Impossible Indian offers a rare, fresh view of Gandhi as a hard-hitting political thinker willing to countenance the greatest violence in pursuit of a global vision that went far beyond a nationalist agenda. Revising the conventional view of the Mahatma as an isolated Indian moralist detached from the mainstream of twentieth-century politics, Faisal Devji offers a provocative new genealogy of Gandhian thought, one that is not rooted in a clichéd alternative history of spiritual India but arises from a tradition of conquest and violence in the battlefields of 1857. Focusing on his unsentimental engagement with the hard facts of imperial domination, Fascism, and civil war, Devji recasts Gandhi as a man at the center of modern history. Rejecting Western notions of the rights of man, rights which can only be bestowed by a state, Gandhi turned instead to the idea of dharma, or ethical duty, as the true source of the self’s sovereignty, independent of the state. Devji demonstrates that Gandhi’s dealings with violence, guided by his idea of ethical duty, were more radical than those of contemporary revolutionists. To make sense of this seemingly incongruous relationship with violence, Devji returns to Gandhi’s writings and explores his engagement with issues beyond India’s struggle for home rule. Devji reintroduces Gandhi to a global audience in search of leadership at a time of extraordinary strife as a thinker who understood how life’s quotidian reality could be revolutionized to extraordinary effect.

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Page Count

236

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674070631

ISBN 13

9780674070639

Muslim Zion

Pakistan as a Political Idea

By: Faisal Devji

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Muslim Zion

Pakistan as a Political Idea

By: Faisal Devji

Originally published: London: C.Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 2013.

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Page Count

286

Publisher

Hurst Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1849042764

ISBN 13

9781849042765

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

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Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

Faisal Devji argues that new forms of militancy, such as the actions of al-Qaeda, are informed by the same desire for agency and equality that animates other humanitarian interventions, such as environmentalism and pacifism. To the militant, victimized Muslims are more than just symbols of ethnic and religious persecution-they represent humanity's centuries-long struggle for legitimacy and agency. Acts of terror, therefore, are fueled by the militant's desire to become a historical actor on the global stage. Though they have yet to build concrete political institutions, militant movements have formed a kind of global society, and as Devji makes clear, this society pursues the same humanitarian objectives that drive more benevolent groups.

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Page Count

241

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0197524117

ISBN 13

9780197524114

Landscapes of the Jihad

Militancy, Morality, Modernity

By: Faisal Devji

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Landscapes of the Jihad

Militancy, Morality, Modernity

By: Faisal Devji

What are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict. Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity.Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.

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Page Count

201

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801459494

ISBN 13

9780801459498

The Impossible Indian

Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence

By: Faisal Devji

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The Impossible Indian

Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence

By: Faisal Devji

This is a rare view of Gandhi as a hard-hitting political thinker willing to countenance the greatest violence in pursuit of a global vision that went beyond a nationalist agenda. Guided by his idea of ethical duty as the source of the self’s sovereignty, he understood how life’s quotidian reality could be revolutionized to extraordinary effect.

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Page Count

224

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674068106

ISBN 13

9780674068100

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

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Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

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Page Count

241

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0197524117

ISBN 13

9780197524114

Landscapes of the Jihad

Militancy, Morality, Modernity

By: Faisal Devji

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Landscapes of the Jihad

Militancy, Morality, Modernity

By: Faisal Devji

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Page Count

200

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801459788

ISBN 13

9780801459788

Muslim Zion

Pakistan as a Political Idea

By: Faisal Devji

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Muslim Zion

Pakistan as a Political Idea

By: Faisal Devji

Originally published: London: C.Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 2013.

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Page Count

286

Publisher

Hurst Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1849042764

ISBN 13

9781849042765

The Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

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The Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Militant Islam and Global Politics

By: Faisal Devji

Argues that various forms of militancy, such as the actions of al-Qaeda, are informed by the same desire for agency and equality that animates other humanitarian interventions, such as environmentalism and pacifism.

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Age

Page Count

229

Published Date

ISBN 10

019752074X

ISBN 13

9780197520741

Book's by Faisal Devji

The Impossible Indian

The Impossible Indian

Muslim Zion

Muslim Zion

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Landscapes of the Jihad

Landscapes of the Jihad

The Impossible Indian

The Impossible Indian

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Terrorist in Search of Humanity

Landscapes of the Jihad

Landscapes of the Jihad

Muslim Zion

Muslim Zion

The Terrorist in Search of Humanity

The Terrorist in Search of Humanity

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