Forgiveness: Between Memory and history
Description
Forgiveness: Between Memory and History has risen out of a felt need of our times when violence and forgiveness have been uneasy co-travelers for more than half a century and occupied the attention of nations and peoples. The Western discourse has located forgiveness in legal and historical issues, but the Eastern traditions have commented both on its potential and its absence. Working with religious and cultural pasts, the present work asks the questions: what happens when forgiveness enters political discourse, compelling it to recognize the presence of inequality, power, guilt, justice and memory; and can it or can it not intervene in the course of history. Recognizing the fluidity of both time and memory, it further looks at some contemporary happenings and creative works which have risen above the violent events and found a way of forgiving. Forgiveness does not invariably link itself with forgetting – one can remember and yet forgive. It is more than all else an issue of ethics where the individual consciousness and relationships rise above political differences and contribute to the recognition of the Other as an equal, Difficult, but not impossible, forgiveness merits attention. Cultural histories and contemporary literatures provide several examples of forgiveness, reconciliation and healing. The past has a lesson for the present and this work reminds of us of the need to reflect upon it
Features
- : Forgiveness: Between Memory and history
- : Jasbir Jain
- : Indian Institute of Advanced Study
- : 9789382396376
- : 2015
- : 93
- : English
