The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (33 page)
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Carlyle , Thomas
(1795–1881)
Scottish literary and political writer. Born in Ecclefechan in the Western Lowlands of Scotland close to the English border, son of a master stonemason in a Calvinist household, Carlyle was schooled at Annan Academy and Edinburgh University. He took up tutorships in mathematics at Annan and Kirkcaldy, taught himself German and French, and soon developed into a leading Victorian critic of mechanistic materialism. In part, this was from the general philosophic standpoint of German Romanticism, but it also stemmed from an intense personal admiration of Goethe, Schiller, and
Coleridge
. At times, this contempt for materialism issued as an irritable disdain for science and scientific procedures. It also produced an antipathy to
Benthamism
and to the whole ‘mechanico-corpuscular’ philosophy of utilitarianism. Carlyle, of course, was also responsible for establishing the need for a historical perspective in literary criticism, though his famous history of the French Revolution (1837) had the prime didactic purpose of warning the British to take up social reform. Indeed, his own study of Chartism, 1839, was an attempt to interpret for the Tories that new and unfamiliar class of industrial workers whose only property was their labour power. Rather sadly, perhaps, as he became more successful and wealthier Carlyle inclined more and more to the politics of deference, with captains of industry becoming the new lords of the manor and with a new and profound spiritualism being encouraged by devices analogous to the
clerisy
.
JH
Scottish literary and political writer. Born in Ecclefechan in the Western Lowlands of Scotland close to the English border, son of a master stonemason in a Calvinist household, Carlyle was schooled at Annan Academy and Edinburgh University. He took up tutorships in mathematics at Annan and Kirkcaldy, taught himself German and French, and soon developed into a leading Victorian critic of mechanistic materialism. In part, this was from the general philosophic standpoint of German Romanticism, but it also stemmed from an intense personal admiration of Goethe, Schiller, and
Coleridge
. At times, this contempt for materialism issued as an irritable disdain for science and scientific procedures. It also produced an antipathy to
Benthamism
and to the whole ‘mechanico-corpuscular’ philosophy of utilitarianism. Carlyle, of course, was also responsible for establishing the need for a historical perspective in literary criticism, though his famous history of the French Revolution (1837) had the prime didactic purpose of warning the British to take up social reform. Indeed, his own study of Chartism, 1839, was an attempt to interpret for the Tories that new and unfamiliar class of industrial workers whose only property was their labour power. Rather sadly, perhaps, as he became more successful and wealthier Carlyle inclined more and more to the politics of deference, with captains of industry becoming the new lords of the manor and with a new and profound spiritualism being encouraged by devices analogous to the
clerisy
.
JH
carpetbagger
Carroll , Lewis
caste
A group of people bound together through Hindu religious sanctions and rituals. Broadly speaking, the origins of the caste system, first articulated in the
Law Book of Manu
between 200 BC and AD 200, were functional. The four major caste groups (
varnas
) were characterized according to the social functions they performed.
Brahmins
were the educators,
kshatriyas
the producers and warriors,
vaishyas
the merchants, and
shudras
the scavengers. Castes are further divided into subcastes (
jatis
) which are more important in their impact on daily lives of people. Those belonging to a
jati
form a
biradari
which is the specific sociocultural unit within which caste roles are performed. Caste has become an important factor in the Indian political system, primarily because of the policy of positive discrimination adopted by the post-colonial state. Of all government jobs, educational places, and elected posts, 22.5 per cent are reserved for those belonging to the lower castes, now called the Scheduled Castes because of the ninth schedule of the Indian Constitution under which this provision was made. An attempt in 1990 to extend this quota to 49.5 per cent in accordance with the recommendations by the Mandal Commission (1971) led to widespread protests and contributed to the fall of the V. P. Singh government.
SR
Law Book of Manu
between 200 BC and AD 200, were functional. The four major caste groups (
varnas
) were characterized according to the social functions they performed.
Brahmins
were the educators,
kshatriyas
the producers and warriors,
vaishyas
the merchants, and
shudras
the scavengers. Castes are further divided into subcastes (
jatis
) which are more important in their impact on daily lives of people. Those belonging to a
jati
form a
biradari
which is the specific sociocultural unit within which caste roles are performed. Caste has become an important factor in the Indian political system, primarily because of the policy of positive discrimination adopted by the post-colonial state. Of all government jobs, educational places, and elected posts, 22.5 per cent are reserved for those belonging to the lower castes, now called the Scheduled Castes because of the ninth schedule of the Indian Constitution under which this provision was made. An attempt in 1990 to extend this quota to 49.5 per cent in accordance with the recommendations by the Mandal Commission (1971) led to widespread protests and contributed to the fall of the V. P. Singh government.
SR
Castroism
Theory and practice associated with Fidel Castro (b. 1926), leader of the Cuban Revolution since 1959. Its first public statement was Castro's
History Will Absolve Me
(1953) which stressed nationalism, democracy, and social justice, but not socialism (the debate continues as to whether Castro was always a Marxist or ‘became’ one in 1961 in order to secure Soviet support against the United States).
The
Second Declaration of Havana
(1962) called upon all progressive forces to participate in an anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution. Revolutions depended upon the conjunction of objective and subjective conditions in each country. The latter (propaganda, organization, and leadership) matured in response to the former, which included exploitation, the development of a mass revolutionary consciousness, a general crisis of imperialism, and the emergence of national liberation forces. There was no need to create an idealized vanguard party, and neither was the proletariat the only revolutionary class—peasants, students, radical Christians, could all join the movement.
Castroism exercised a strong influence over the
New Left
. In power, the institutionalization of the Revolution under the Cuban Communist Party produced an uneasy blend of bureaucracy, selective repression, artistic conformity, social welfare, mass mobilization, support for other revolutions (Angola), promotion of Latin American unity (for example, in the debt crisis), and, above all, charismatic leadership.
GS
History Will Absolve Me
(1953) which stressed nationalism, democracy, and social justice, but not socialism (the debate continues as to whether Castro was always a Marxist or ‘became’ one in 1961 in order to secure Soviet support against the United States).
The
Second Declaration of Havana
(1962) called upon all progressive forces to participate in an anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution. Revolutions depended upon the conjunction of objective and subjective conditions in each country. The latter (propaganda, organization, and leadership) matured in response to the former, which included exploitation, the development of a mass revolutionary consciousness, a general crisis of imperialism, and the emergence of national liberation forces. There was no need to create an idealized vanguard party, and neither was the proletariat the only revolutionary class—peasants, students, radical Christians, could all join the movement.
Castroism exercised a strong influence over the
New Left
. In power, the institutionalization of the Revolution under the Cuban Communist Party produced an uneasy blend of bureaucracy, selective repression, artistic conformity, social welfare, mass mobilization, support for other revolutions (Angola), promotion of Latin American unity (for example, in the debt crisis), and, above all, charismatic leadership.
GS
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