Interrogating Empires

by Jai Sen

As much as empires exist out there, regulating our lives, they also exist within our minds. Unless we comprehend these empires as being not only 'out there' but also as within us, and locate ourselves in relation to them, there is no way in which we can even begin to understand the world, let alone imagine the changes that are required towards making it a more open, just, peaceful, and joyful world. This book is a close look at some of the empires that govern our lives and that we are constantly socialized to believe in and accept, by society, by family, by education, by the market and the media, and by the institutions we are all part of at one point or another in our lives : The empires of patriarchy, casteism, racism, nationalism, and religious communalism - and where each of these is quite aside from what is popularly referred to as 'globalization', even as they interlock with it.

341 pages, Hardcover

Published June 2, 2011