Geography of Politics and the Politics of Geography

All Politics seems to be a politics of geography. There is definitely a geography of politics. the right-politics seem to have essential geography. There is an embracing of a sacred geography and there is a refusal to share this geography with others who co-exist with them. This means there is a spatial dimension to politics. May be we have to come to the work Reinhard Koselleck to understand geographical sides of our politics. In order to come to the geography of politics and Politics of geography, we shall first analyze Kosellecks understanding of history and then apply to reigning politics in our country and Goa. This analysis might enable us to understand the geographical ramification of politics.

We as humans are beings-in-the-world. We do not just exist in time, we co-exist in space and conflict with other humans in that space. This is why we have the dialectics of master/ slave , friend / enemy , man/woman, parent/child, inner/outer. Some thinkers like Karl Marx think that conflict is the engine of history. Koselleck also thinks that history is pushed through what we make of the above binaries. But his important contribution to historical thinking is that there is constitutive dimension of space to it. To him to be is not just to be in time. It also involves to be in space.

Although Martin Heidegger had the relation of space in his characterization of humans as beings-in-the-world, Koselleck attemptsto correct his prioritization of time by consideration of what we may call collective space dynamics/ logic(s) of geography. He thinks that the binary inside/ outside constitutes the historical spatiality. Thus, Koselleck thinks that Dasien is split up into inner and outer spaces. We can think of them as secret/ public spaces. The secret space delimits public space and once the public space is institutionalized produces new secret spaces to enable politics to continue.

Koselleck also take us the master/ slave dialectics of Hegel. In simple terms here we are dealing with the spatial sense of above and below without which history is not possible. This means Koselleck teaches that human history has a basic spatial character. As thrown in the world, humans are always thrown into spaces which they have to share with other people. This is why politics is of co-existence as well as conflict. It is this thrownness into spaces that makes us think in terms of inside/ outside and above/ or below. It is the kind of spatial content that we fill in these categories of inside/outside and above/ below drives our politics and makes our history. This is why history has a necessary logic(s) of geography. Hence, we have to agree that politics also has a constitutive logic of geography. Kosseleck’s categories like above/below can assist us make sense of his contention that says history is a secular eschatology.

Maybe we can understand our Indian society in the light of Kosellecks views. Several Indians are thinking history in Hegelian terms and imagine that our history is moving towards a closed telos. This telos is spatially visualized as a Hindu Rastra. To us in India, history for the right wing is not a secular eschatology. It is a religious eschatology. To be clear, it is a Christian version of Hindu eschatology. Using Aristotle’s hylomorphism, we might say that it seems to have a Christian form and Hindu matter. The Hindutva politics definitely fills the spatial categories inside/outside , above / below in a definite way that considers a sizable numbers of Indians as unIndian even when the constitution of our country accepts them as bona fide citizens. The fact that this type of spatial thinking is unconstitutional does not disturb us. The binarization of inside/outside, above/ below is driving the politics in our country.

Goa is not free from the politics of geography. Again, we can see how in different ways we fill the inside/outside, above/ below binaries. These territorial concepts of inside/outside and above/below are differently conceptualized as Hindu/Christian, North/ south , Goan / non-Goan etc fires the politics in Goa. By becoming aware of the way our politics runs , we can still find our way to freedom and emancipation.

In fact, we do not have to go far . We have to come to our Goykarponn. Our Goykarponn has somehow filled the binaries identified by Koselleck . Goykarponn has a polite, peace loving and welcoming outside and its inside is private , respectful and susegad. Although, we have to grow the way we imagine and conceptualize above/ below where we may be often considering ourselves greater or lesser based on caste, religion, gender, education , wealth ,influence, etc., yet a Goan embodies Goa’s welcome in Goa and this is why everyone coming to Goa feels at home. Hence, Goan-ness has an antidote to the politics of geography played in Goa as well as our country.

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