To browse Academia. It challenges existing interpretations of same-sex love, emphasizing a nuanced understanding of elite social norms and practices while acknowledging the complexities surrounding the documentation of sexual mores across different societal strata.
The study calls for a contextualized approach to understanding early Indian sexual identities, highlighting the diversity and fluidity of the upper caste elites' lifestyles and beliefs, as well as the significant, though often overlooked, roles of lower-status individuals.
When in Habermas formulated his theory of the public sphere as " a society engaged in critical debate " he sought to describe something he felt was unique to the modern liberal democratic Western world.
Yet the creation of discursive spheres where people across lines of social difference debate questions of the common good, mutual interest, and forms of equality long predates the modern era and flourished well outside the " Western " world. This essay adapts Habermas' influential concept to highlight the emergence of a nascent public sphere at the earliest layers of Marathi literary creation in 13th century India. At this inaugural stage of a regional language's full shift to writing, we see traces of a debate in the language of everyday life that struggled over the ethics of social difference, a public deliberation that might presage key aspects of Indian modernity and democracy today.
A meaningful understanding of the pre-modern pasts of India stems from the recognition and explanation of identifiable changes in its socio-political situations, material cultures and religious experiences.
