Participative cultural productions of the oppressed: The master-servant dialectic through an Indian lens. Issue 1 (1st September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nisar, AC
• Is Part Of: Indo-Pacific journal of phenomenology. Volume 20:Issue 1(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-09-01
• Subjects: cultural production (Bildung) -- Dalits -- freedom -- oppression -- social substance; Phenomenology -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 142.705
• DOI: 10.1080/20797222.2020.1850474
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2079-7222

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The master-servant and self-substance dialectic in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit presents the self as reflectively negating the particularities of its natural consciousness and transcending towards the social substance in order to inscribe its culturally refined self-conception upon the universal substance. Hegel argues that the reflective and determinate negations of the subordinated self by means of participative cultural production ( Bildung ) lead to the overcoming of servitude and subordination. That is, the actions of the supposedly 'inessential' servant-selfhood lead to freedom and disallows the ossification of the social substance. This Hegelian insight is employed in this article to understand dominations in contemporary liberal democracies, and the participative cultural productions of the Dalits and their politics of resistance in the Indian subcontinent.