Richard Wagner

May 22, 1813 – Feb 13, 1883

Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany to Carl Friedrich Wagner and Johanna Rosine. His father died nine months after his birth and his mother married his father’s friend, Ludwig Geyer, who was an actor and playwright. The interests of his stepfather were also found in Wagner who grew to become a theatre director as well as a composer, conductor and a polemicist. Wagner’s works in the theatres were influenced by other well-known artists and composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and William Shakespeare. Wagner is known today for his musical contributions and controversial anti-Semitic works. Wagner’s contributions extend into the performing arts as well as the thoughts of intellectuals. Weber (2006, 508) notes that during Wagner’s early life, Leipzig had strict notions of music imposed upon it by the Church. The population was ready for a change in its musical capacities and Wagner delivered with his works and compositions. Wagner introduced leitmotifs, a characteristic sound for a person, object or event. Kregor (2017, 547) details Wagner’s leitmotifs and how they are still used today in movies and television because the masses still find them entertaining. Wagner used tonal centres, chromaticism, various sounds of quantity and quality to produce a new quality of music. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde that premiered on June 10, 1865, was a musical masterpiece in its various combinations of sound, but is as Classen (2013, 338) suggests, a work that romanticizes the material and greedy aspects of human nature. Wagner would use dream sequences in his works as Lippman (1990, 54-56) describes, in ways that were fairly insightful into what dreams really were before any formal investigation into the matter. Wagner was more than an artist, he was an influential thinker, a polemicist who had controversial ideas and a magnetic character that allowed his ideas to spread. Wagner still has followers known as Wagnerians or Wagnerites who are devoted to him and his works. Wagner’s essay on Jewish music is as Loeffler (2009, 3) describes, reflective of the stereotypes during his time. Hall (2017, 54-60) details how Adolf Hitler had gained a deep interest in Wagner’s works, specifically the anti-Semitic ones. Wagner had indirectly influenced the Nazis and as such, a select few pieces of his works were being used as propaganda and his music was played during their events. Emslie (2012, 17-25) details how Wagner’s works in music and literature helped some to define what it meant to be German. Wagner was creating a cultural identity with his works, and as a result, he helped to define clear lines between Germans and Non-Germans for those who had a deep sense of nationalism. These dividing sentiments in culture contributed to the feeling of ressentiment between the Germans and Non-Germans, only to explode into a conflict such as the Holocaust during World War II. Wagner was an innovative composer and thinker whose influence was far reaching in areas involving the arts and intellectual thought. He has had an impact on the minds of many and has had a hand in shaping history as a result.

Shariful Sakib

Works Cited

Classen, Albrecht. 2013. “Visuality and Materiality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde ed. by Jutta Eming, Ann Marie Rasmussen, and Kathryn Starkey (Review).” The Comparatist 37 (1): 338–41. doi:10.1353/com.2013.0003.

Emslie, Barry. 2012. “Being German: Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann.” Being German: Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann. 6 (2): 17–32.

Hall, David Ian. 2017. “Wagner, Hitler, and Germany’s Rebirth after the First World War.” War in History 24 (2): 154–75. doi:10.1177/0968344515608664.

Loeffler, James. 2009. “Richard Wagners “Jewish Music”: Antisemitism and Aesthetics in Modern Jewish Culture.” Jewish Social Studies 15 (2): 2–36. doi:10.2979/jss.2009.15.2.2.

Kregor, Jonathan. 2017. “Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music.” Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music 73 (3): 547.

Lippman, Edward A. 1990. “Wagners Conception of the Dream.” Journal of Musicology 8 (1): 54–81. doi:10.1525/jm.1990.8.1.03a00030.

Weber, William. 2006. “Redefining the Status of Opera: London and Leipzig, 1800–1848.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36 (3): 507–32. doi:10.1162/002219506774929764.

Narendra Modi

Well-known for his Hindu nationalist approaches, Narendra Modi was appointed as India’s Prime Minister in India’s general election of 2014 (Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland, 2017). He was born on September 17, 1950, a few years after the Partition, in a small town in Gujarat, India. Even with tension between Hindus and Muslims at the time, Modi was raised in a community mixed with Muslims, and grew up with many Muslim friends throughout his childhood (Marino, 48). At the age of eight, Modi joined the RSS youth wing, where he began to realise his interest in debating about issues concerning the world. The RSS is an organization that was formed in 1925, with the purpose of promoting Hinduism, and after many years with the RSS, he was offered the position of the sambhag pracharak, which was the regional organizer. He was later promoted in 1990, becoming one of the seventeen members of BJP’s National Election Committee (Marino, 51). With each promotion leading up to his election as Prime Minister of India, Modi was determined to work towards his goals of remaking India and making Hindu nationalism a priority (Marino, 53).

In recent years, the Indian state has attempted to spread the religion of Hinduism across the country through reform and favouritism. Otherwise referred to as Hinduisation, this has been a particular goal for Narendra Modi and the BJP Party (Khalidi, 2008). Modi has been referred to as anti-Muslim because of his efforts in implementing Hindu culture across the country. His resentment for Muslims is associated with the Partition in 1947, which created tension that continues to remain amongst Muslims and Hindus even today. On February 27 of 2002, the Ram temple in Godhra was presumed to be attacked by Muslims, killing over 59 people. That same evening, Modi had televised the ceremony to the public, which unleashed violence towards Muslims as he blamed them for the attack (Jaffrelot, 2015). In many instances, Modi has been given credit for his use of both body language and different intonations, as they are said to demonstrate his strength as an orator for the public (Marino, 47). After the attack on Ram temple, one of Modi’s key tactics involved the manipulation of television with the means to provide reassurance and protection to the public. During the election period, one of his BJP television commercials consisted of a train pulling into the Godhra station, followed by terrified screams and the sounds of rifles being fired. Afterward, his image would be shown in order to demonstrate the protection he could offer against Muslim violence (Jaffrelot, 2015). This has remained to be one of his key tactics for gaining attention and popularity amongst Indian citizens.

In Hinduism, cows are seen as sacred animals as they are thought to represent different deities, motherhood and wealth (Lodrick, 71). To further prioritize Hindu nationalism in India, Modi had stigmatized the consumption of beef and slaughtering of cows in general. He created a ban on the consumption of beef, which was supported by many Hindus as the slaughter of cows is considered taboo (Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland, 2017). In one incident, a Muslim labourer was beat to death with bricks by Hindu nationalists for slaughtering a cow. These Hindu nationalists claimed that Muslims’ consumption of beef demonstrated disrespect to Hindus (What Hindu Nationalism Means for India’s Future, 2016). This incident along with others emphasizes the anti-Muslim sentiment many Hindus hold today as a result of Narendra Modi’s beliefs.

In September 2006, Modi’s BJP legislature passed a law against conversion to Islam, but enabled conversion to Hinduism, as Hindu assimilationists argued that conversion to Islam was viewed as a form of denaturalisation (Khalidi, 2008). This anti-Muslim sentiment held by many in India is also commonly held amongst others in different countries, and is also referred to as Islamophobia. The heightening of Islamophobia over recent years has become an important issue, as many Muslims are targeted for their culture. Although Donald Trump may be more of a well-known political figure that holds Islamophobic beliefs, Narendra Modi has proven more than once the resentment he holds for Muslims as well. He has played a significant role in India by trying to prioritize Hinduism over other religions, while also spreading anti-Muslim sentiments across the country. As he remains the Prime Minister of India, he is viewed as an influential leader, and therefore the beliefs he holds will continue to have a great impact on Indians as well as Muslims (Jaffrelot, 2008). In India’s current state, discrimination is most apparent through certain institutions restricting religious freedoms other than Hinduism, and Modi’s goal to remake India as a prominently Hindu nation continues to exist (Khalidi, 2008).

Mira Kashyap

Works Cited

“Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland.” Stratfor Analysis, Apr. 2017, p. 33. EBSCOhost, libaccess.mcmaster.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=123510972&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Jaffrelot, Christophe. “Narendra Modi and the Power of Television in Gujarat.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 4, May 2015, pp. 346-353. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1527476415575499.

Khalidi, Omar. “Hinduising India: Secularism in Practice.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 8, 2008, pp. 1545–1562. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20455129.

Lodrick, Deryck O. “Symbol and Sustenance: Cattle in South Asian Culture.” Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 1, 2005, pp. 61–84. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29790728.

Marino, Andy. Narendra Modi: A political biography. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2014.

“What Hindu Nationalism Means for India’s Future.” Stratfor Analysis, June 2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost,libaccess.mcmaster.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=116776789&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Abu-Musab al-Suri

Abu-Musab al-Suri was born in Aleppo, Syria in November of 1958 and is still alive today, although he is no longer able to spread his radical ideas as his whereabouts are a secret to those outside of the U.S. government agents holding him in captivity. The name Abu-Musab al-Suri is not actually the name he was given at birth, it was a name that he adopted through war; his real name is Mustafa bin Abd al-Qadir Setmariam Nasar. He is a Syrian jihadist who has had a great influence on the plans for Al-Qaeda to move forward after the incidents of 9/11. His ideas are the backbone of what has continued to give power to Al-Qaeda after these attacks.

It is stated that al-Suri is “the most important strategist for the Islamic jihadist movement of the last 20 years.” (Boyle, 2). Al-Suri’s ideas were predominantly used after the attacks of 9/11 however his sharing of his ideas about how Al-Qaeda should be handling certain situations goes back to long before 9/11 occurred. For example, at the end of the 1980s he offered his opinion to Osama bin Laden that Al-Qaeda was not using enough force and violence against Saudi Arabia. While many of his ideas are tied to Al-Qaeda, al-Suri gathered his opinions and concepts from multiple different “radical islamic organizations and networks” (Boyle, 2). This denies a kind of devotion to one specific group and rather accepts whatever ideas he sees fitting, regardless of their source. His ideas about furthering Al-Qaeda and how that should be done differ from those of Osama bin Laden’s, creating a competition for an active sense of leadership. After the dissolution of the taliban, al-Suri travelled to Pakistan where he was able to spread his ideas online, as well as work on the book that he wrote, expressing his notions about the future of Al-Qaeda. This book was entitled, Global Islamic Resistance Call , and it was published and shared at mass through the internet in the transitioning months from 2004 to 2005. In this book, he discreetly wrote about his belief that the force of Al-Qaeda and other organizations of the like were not strong enough to undermine the forces of the western countries which in turn explains his ideas about there being a change in Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. Prior to this book being written, al-Suri gave talks in Afghanistan which were recorded and also widely spread, to influence more people and to gain more power for him. Al-Suri was also a main suspect in the London bombings, and while it turned out that he was not directly affiliated with these attacks, his ideas helped influence the people who were behind them. After the attacks, al-Suri, himself, said; “I swear to God that I have in me a joy stronger than the joy of the farmer who sees the harvest of his fruits after a long planting and efforts and patience throughout decades of building.” This quotation reinforces the notion that he supported these forms of extreme violence and believed in the necessity of these aggressive actions against other, western, countries, therefore having faith in terrorism. Al-Suri’s objectives were essentially realized through the “islamic militants” creation of multiple groups used for different methods of attack. These methods include smaller groups positioned to perform random attacks as well as larger groups who are in constant warfare. In November of 2005, al-Suri was arrested in Pakistan, this being a very significant arrest because it was uncommon for someone who was a post 9/11 influence to be arrested, as many of the people caught by the government had ideas predating the attack in 2001. Abu-Musab al-Suri’s ideas are still being put into motion today as many of the people he personally influenced are now in power positions in numerous different islamic groups. Due to how widely his perceptions were shared and how dedicated he was to a life of terrorism he belonged to, his influence will continue to be perpetrated through his followers.

 

Sarah Kirkwood

Works Cited

1. Boyle, Michael J. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) 84, no. 5

   (2008): 1054-055. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25144948 .

2. Cruickshank, Paul and Mohannad Hage Ali. 2007. “Abu Musab Al Suri: Architect of the New Al Qaeda.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30 (1): 1-14. doi:10.1080/10576100601049928. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1057610x/v30i0001/1_amasaotnaq .

Individualism

First coined in France, thinkers took on different views on the topic of individualism and the possible impact it could serve on society. It is a nineteenth century expression that was used in France as a response to the French Revolution, and is used widely among different countries where it has played an important role in the history of ideas and ideologies (Lukes, 45). Conservative thinkers in France did not like the idea of individualism at the time it was formed, as they perceived it as a threat to political order (Mohd, 126). From France, individualism travelled to Germany, the U.K. and the United States of America, where it would be supported and disapproved by other thinkers (Mohd, 128). Along with those who perceived the term in a negative sense, there were also thinkers who supported the term and promoted it within different societies.

As the term travelled from France to Germany, it gained more importance as people began to define its meaning. In France, the term looked at the selfish interests of people (Mohd, 127) and was seen as a concept that would weaken the authority because of the sudden growth of individual opinion (Lukes, 46). The idea of individualism negated the popular concept at the time which stated that men had only existed for society and society only educated men for the benefit of itself (Lukes, 47). However, once it travelled to Germany, individualism took on the idea of individuals freely seeking out different opportunities, and German thinkers saw it as a form of progression (Mohd, 127). Its significance has been represented in the modern day, as different social movement and reforms have taken place, all deriving from the concept of freedom of conscious, thought and speech. When it was once thought by many to be something that would destroy the commonwealth (Lukes, 46), it has been shown over the years to be progressive in terms of human development (Robinson, Scholfield, Braithwaite and Thomilson 2017, 278). The concept of individualism has brought along change as well, as in the 1970s, an individualistic society in Britain would allow for different perspectives on divorce, abortion and births outside of marriage to emerge (Robinson, Scholfield, Braithwaite and Thomilson 2017, 273). Individualism is defined as an individual that is sovereign over their own body and mind, and therefore promotes the idea that everyone should form their own opinions and fulfill their own responsibilities, as it will lead to social development and the well-being of the public (Rudman and Aldrich 2017, 3).

Many thinkers in the 1800s posited different views on the idea of individualism, which only demonstrated its power and significance within societies. In France, thinkers like Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Tocqueville and Alexis de Pierse Leroux were opposed to it as they said it displayed the selfish interests of people. Another thinker of the time named Saint-Simone argued that individualism was tied to anarchy and egotism, and acted as a threat towards authority (Mohd, 126). Tocqueville argued that it was the “natural product of democracy” and regarded it as an evil concept for society to adopt (Lukes, 52), and Joseph de Maistre claimed that it undermined hierarchy within a society. In contrast to these French thinkers, there were a handful of German thinkers who supported the idea of individualism and saw it as a form of progression. Some of these thinkers included Fichte, Hegel, Schelling and Schleiermacher (Lukes, 57), most of whom regarded individualism as progressive as it looked at the freedom and sacredness of a person (Lukes, 51). As the idea of individualism travelled to America in the mid-1800s, American thinkers also supported the movement, and claimed that it would bring social development, moral and religious significance with it (Mohd, 128). With the many different thinkers discussing the impact that individualism would have on society, the movement gained importance as it was perceived as something that could greatly impact society either positively or negatively.

Mira Kashyap

 

References

Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Rebecca M. Aldrich. (2017) Discerning the social in individual stories of occupation through critical narrative inquiry. Journal of Occupational Science 0:0, pages 1-12.

Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, Natalie Thomlinson; Telling Stories about Post-war Britain: Popular Individualism and the ‘Crisis’ of the 1970s, Twentieth Century British History, Volume 28, Issue 2, 1 June 2017, Pages 268–304, https://doi-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/10.1093/tcbh/hwx006

Lukes, S. (1971). The Meanings of “Individualism”. Journal of the History of Ideas, 32(1), 45-66. doi:10.2307/2708324

Mohd. AKHTAR KHAN. (1987). INDIVIDUALISM: ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 48(1), 126-132. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41855869