Intellectual practice as politic an enquiry into the enigma of state sponsored violence in the works of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

The totalitarian Nazi regime and the two world wars represent the unprecedented horrifying face of state- endorsed violence with its myriad cognates manifesting the grim profligacy of the twentieth-century political scenario. Hannah Arendt outlines how the state which was conceived as an ethical institution turned out to be an oppressive system of bureaus violating citizens rights. The thesis illustrates how Arendt s discourses on state-sponsored violence, the human condition, and the intellectual practice of political activism propose pedagogies for an egalitarian world thriving on the principles of human plurality, equality, and tolerance. It offers a critical perspective on the hypocrisy and vulnerability of civilized life through a close analysis of Hannah Arendt s The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On Violence, On Revolution and Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. The selected works exhibit Arendt s deliberations on the provenance of violence which acquired a ubiquitous and banal character during the Nazi and the Stalinist regimes. The thesis explores the dilemmas of collective crime, personal moral responsibility, resistance, the idea of social and retributive justice, ideology, disintegration of citizenship, nationalism versus jingoism and the polemic of just and unjust wars. It also dwells on the nuances of excessive state surveillance and its impact on citizens freedom. The thesis concludes that Hannah Arendt s political thought moves beyond the Nazi crimes to illuminate the comprehension of contemporary widespread and precarious political concerns. newline