PUP Day 14

Bakrid and Varalakshmi Puja on the same day, also a Friday!

Topics read today 

United States: Abolition by War, 1860-65

On the impossibility of Gradual Abolition and Compensation in the US

On the Proprietarian and Social Justification of Slavery

Reconstruction and the Birth of Social Nativism in the US

These sections have a brief but insightful look at the American Civil War. Interesting argument about how slavery guaranteed that slaves will be cared for in the old age while industrialists would simply discard workers once useless. Jefferson, Calhoun etc debating slavery. The gradual shift of Democratic party over the decades since the War. How segregation continued despite abolition. And the idea of "native" population to justify the inequality, while completely ignoring the massacre of the native Indians.

Next topics examined

Brazil: Imperial and Mixed-Race Abolition in 1888

Russia: The Abolition of Serfdom with a Weak State 1861

Brazil continued with deep divisions after the abolition though intermixing was very high from way back. They had insisted on educational qualification for suffrage. 

Russia didn't have a strong enough state under the Tsar to implement abolition effectively

Moved onto Chapter 7

Colonial Societies: Diversity and Domination

The Two Ages of European Colonialism

The 1500-1800 phase of violence, war, rampant exploitation

The 1800-1950 phase of milder subjugation by which time the justifications of the past 300 years where imbibed by the colonised as well. 

Settler Colonies and Colonies without Settlement

Case of Algeria and France

Slave and Colonial Societies: Extreme Inequality

Top decile captures 80-90% of the wealth and income. 

PUP Day 13

Learnt this sloka from Dr. Mahesh about the effect of Hathayoga

vapu krishatwam,

vadane prasannam

nada spudatwam

nayanesu nirmalam

arogatha

bindu jayam

agni deepanam

nadee vishudhir

hathayoga lakshanam

Did more reading on slave societies. The West Indies and Haiti in particular as case study. While moving from trifunctional to ownership society, compensation for slaves was never discussed, only slave owners were compensated. Haiti went onto pay till 1950 a debt to France. Now that US is repaying Japan but not Mexico or previous slaves, Germany and France to old Jewish property owners from WWII, the question is whether France needs to compensate Haiti. Just like the transformation of Sweden from extreme inegalitarian to socialist, Democratic party went from fighting for slave owners in the civil war to being the party of the New Deal, voting rights and finally Obama. The ideological changes and influence of events is fascinating. 

Will continue this chapter tomorrow and get to the colonial social structure in the next chapter.

Pup Day 12

Part 1 of the book completed today. Almost one fifth of the book. So this could finish up in 2 months. The reading has become faster and more interesting as the topic is gripping. The translation has preserved the momentum and excitement of the original research.

Learnt about the Swedish Quarternary society today: Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie and Labor.
They had one of the oldest parliament, but proportional voting meant few had as much as 100 votes depending on their wealth and land ownership. This system stayed surprisingly for a long long period. The extreme inegalatarianism is unexpected from Sweden because we are familiar with its socialist democratic recent history. In one hundred years, Sweden went to being a welfare state. The SAP party ruled uninterrupted for almost a century. So such pivoting is possible. It is only a matter of dominant ideology and replacing the older justification for inequality.

Next Part of the book is about Slave and Colonial societies including India.
Slave societies are those with a sizeable percentage of population as slaves and Slave owning societies are those that had slaves but they made up only a small percentage of the population.

PUP Day 11

More on Ownership society transformation in England.
References to Jane Austen, the gentry and how wealth married into nobility. The aspirations and hobbies of those who could afford more than sustenance. Again, thought about Downtown Abbey.
Detailed history of collapse of House of Lords. The Black Act, the fencing, the Irish question etc.

Tomorrow will learn about Sweden and that brings the Part 1 of the book to an end. Second part is Slave and Colonial Societies that includes India.

PUP Day 10

Chapter 5
Ownership Societies: European Trajectories

Today was a slow reading day. Quite an interesting chapter looking at the transition of England into ownership society and then neo-proprietarianism. England had issues with clergy in the 1530s when Henry VIII took over monasteries because of his fight with the Pope. Clergy quickly lost their financial power in England compared to Spain where nearly 8% of the adult male population joined the clergy during 18th century.

England had the parliament but this again had the House of Lords holding complete sway of the nobility. Labor party comes much later in 20th century. Conservatives (Torys) and Whig Party have much older origins. Gentry and the neo-wealthy using marriages to move up the ladder was common. Next segment will examine these depictions in popular literature.

Downtown Abbey is still such a popular series. I had never looked at it from a sociological point of view. But I think the commoner aspiration towards royalty, like the princess dolls that girls play with, was neatly catered to in the TV series.

Tomorrow hopefully more time to read and reflect.

PUP Day 9

Chapter 4
The Case of France as an Ownership Society.

The rest of the chapter details the tax system that led to much more massive concentration of wealth in the 19th century. Finally Caillaux used data to explode the myth that France was a country of small holdings. Such a myth of an emancipated country of equality under property ownership was comfortable for the nation to believe in. Once data proved it was exact opposite, progressive tax was introduced.

The chapter ends by looking at Capitalism as the Proprietarianism for the Industrial Age. Capitalism codifies the material and immaterial property ownership. It leads to supranational entities. They are above national laws. Capitalism is a political ideology that provides absolute protection to private property. In literature, Emile Zola's Germinal reflects the impact of capitalism. Proprietarianism's end is seen in the disappearance of salons and elegant balls from the literature. Capitalism is more an urban phenomena. It's the new justification story for the inequality.

Next chapter looks at Sweden and Britain. 

Almost reading at the rate of 20 pages these days. The book might get over in two months at this rate. 

PUP Day 8

Chapter 3
Invention of Ownership Societies

Part 2

The chapter continues to talk about moderate versus extreme suggestions made before and after the revolution. The inequality that resulted after the revolution was justified by mostly touting the ending of serfdom and by the possibility of utter chaos if alternatives other than proprietariansim is considered.

Chapter 4
Ownership Societies: The case of France

This chapter presents inferences from the detailed property data available after the revolution. It shows inequality skyrocketing in the 19th century. In the Belle Epoque between 1880-1914, it was extremely high with top decile owning 80%. In Paris it was even more pronounced. For example, nobody owned a single apartment. People either owned an entire building or were simply renters for life. Huge chunk of the population died without having anything to pass on to the next generation. Progressive tax was discussed but never implemented. Sophisticated financial instruments like stocks and foreign investment became vehicles of preserving wealth and generating income. The inequality seemingly reduced from the Patrimonial Middle Class which rose with some mobility.
Literature especially Balzac paints vivid picture of the rise and fall of enterprising individuals and the obsession with money and property. The Ownership society was obviously inegalitarian.

From parallel reading of Seymour Papert, it is clear how the education system managed to sabotage the use of computers in the last 40 years to maintain the inequality and status quo. Byju's is cracking down on any criticism in the social media, giving a clear current example of how the wealthy and powerful will force their systems on the rest which will ensure that the inequality is preserved.

Tomorrow will finish this chapter and move onto the case study of England and Sweden as alternate trajectories into ownership society.