The return of profanation as a new political language
This article explores the philosophical concept of 'profanation' as a tool for political protest in India. It analyzes how student movements use informality and subversion to challenge established political power structures.
Why it matters
It provides a theoretical framework for understanding modern protest movements and the shifting dynamics of political discourse in India.
In his work Profanations, Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben observes how the act of profanation applies to the game of chess and children playing with household items as toys. For Agamben, profanation refers to removal or transfer of objects, places, animals, personalities or languages from the realm of sacred or restricted use to the common or ordinary use of people. Religion, state, political ideology, and marketplace are identified by him as the agents that make things sacred, removing them from common use and transferring them to a separate sphere. What chess does is profanation, converting wars or ancient divinatory rituals into a game, a playful activity.
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