Enlightenment And Modern Ideas

Answer : The Renaissance, a French word meaning rebirth or revival led Europe out of the middle ages into the modern times. It was a period between the early fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The rebirth occurred in the fields of art, literature and science. The term of Renaissance was coined by the fifteenth century intellectuals who believed that their age represented the rebirth of classical culture following an infirming age of darkness as they termed the medieval period. The age of renaissance represented our age of transom from medieval to modern civilization.

There were many reasons which acted to bring about renaissance. Firstly, the philosophers and thinkers like Robert Bacon, Magnus, St. Francis of Assist, and Dante, who were moving spirits of the new era lived in the thirteenth century. In the medieval period, the church nominated the human mind and activities. It was difficult to question its authority. But these philosophers revolutionized the thought and laid a great stress on the spirit of enquiring reasoning, independent thinking and scientific investigation. Once scholar Thomas for instance declared that the prime author and mover of the universe was intelligence. Roger Bacon made a bold appeal for the free use of powers of mind. Thus, the spirit of enquiring, original and free thinking gave great impetus to the renaissance movement.

The invention of the printing press was another very important factor for the spread of Renaissance. Before the invention of the printing press it was very difficult to spread knowledge because the books were written by hand and they were also very costly.

This made knowledge the privilege of the rich people only. But things changed drastically with the invention of printing press. The first printing press was set up in 1465 in Germany by Battenberg. Later on, Printing press was introduced in England by Caxton in 1476. The press helped in publishing books in large numbers. Besides, printing was more accurate than copying by hand, and as a consequence books were more dependable. Increase in knowledge and education also gave great impetus to the literary activity.

The Renaissance originated in Italy. The most fundamental reason for this was that Italy in later middle age encompassed the most advanced urban society in all of Europe. Italian aristocrats lived in urban centers rather that in small castles and constituently became fully involved in urban public affairs. Moreover, since the Italian aristocracy built its palaces in the cities, the aristocratic class was less sharply set off from the class of rich merchants than in the north. Hence whereas in France and Germany there was never any appraisable variation from the rule that aristocrats lived off the income of their landed estates while rich town dwellers gained their living from trade, in Italy so many town dwelling aristocrats engaged in banking or mercantile enterprises and so many rich mercantile families initiated the manners of aristocracy that by fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie were becoming virtually indistinguishable.

The noted Florentine family of the Media, for example, emerged as a family of physicians, made its fortune in banking and rose imperceptibly into aristocracy. The result of there development for the history of education are obvious. Not only was there a great demand for education in skills of reading and counting necessary to become a successful merchant, but the richest and most prominent families sought above all to find teachers who would import to their offspring the knowledge and skills necessary to argue well in public arena.

Consequently, Italy produced a large number of secular educators, many of whom not only taught students but demonstrated their learned attainments in the production of political and ethical treatises and works of literature. The schools of there educators, moreover created the fest educated upper-class public in all of Europe and incredibly therefore with a considerable number of wealthy patrons who were ready to invest in cultivation of new ideas and new forms of literary and artistic expression.

Another reason for Italy becoming the birth place of an artistic renaissance lay in the fact that it had a far greater sense of rapport with the classical past than any other territory in Western Europe. The Italian aristocratic commitment to an educational curriculum speared success in urban politics. The best teachers understandably sought inspiration from ancient Latin and Greek texts because politics and political rhetoric were classical rather than medieval arts. Elsewhere, report to classical knowledge and classical literacy style may have seemed intolerably antiquarian and artificial, but in Italy, the classical past appeared most redeem because ancient Roman movements were out present throughout the peninsula and ancient Latin literature referred to cities and sites than renaissance. Italians recognized their own culture. Moreover, Italians became particularly intent on re-appropriating their classical heritage in the 14^th and 15^th centuries because Italians then were seeking to establish an independent cultural identity in opposition to a lackluster identity most closely associated with France. During the 14^th century, there was an intellectual reaction against scholasticism on all fronts which made it natural for Italians to prefer the intellectual alternatives offered by classical literary sources. Naturally too, once Roman literature and learning became particularly favoured in Italy, so did the Roman art and architecture.

Answer : Establishment of Delhi Sultanate in the thirteenth century constitutes a significant landmark in the evolution of the administrative system. A system which was characterised by fragmented nature of the policy during the post-Harsha period was again put under a centralised dispensation by the Turko-Afghans.

The foremost feature of the administrative system was that the Sultan’s office was the most important. The Sultan had the supreme political, military and legal authority vested in him. He was responsible for the safety and security of the State. As such he was responsible for administration and was also the commander-in-chief of the military forces. He was also responsible for the maintenance of law and justice.To discharge this function, he appointed judges. The Sultan acted as a court of appeal from the judges. A direct appeal could be made to him against the high-handedness of any of his officials.

Although the Turkish Sultans in India declared themselves to be the Lieutenants of the Caliph and included his name in Khutba, it did not mean that the Caliph became the legal ruler. The Caliph had only a moral position. By proclaiming him supreme position, the Sultans at Delhi was only proclaiming that they were a part of the Islamic world.

The Sultan was assisted by a number of ministers who were chosen by him and remained in office and functions of the ministers varied from time to time. A definite system of administration developed towards the end of the thirteenth century.

The key figure in the administration was the Wazir. In the earlier period, the wazirs were primarily military leaders. In the fourteenth century, the Wazir began to be considered expect in revenue officers, and presided over large department dealing both with income and expenditure. The Wazir was assisted by accountant called mustaufi and an auditor called mushrif-i-mammalik.

The next important department after that of the Diwan-i-Wazarat was the diwan-i-arz or the military department. The head of the department was called the ariz-i-mammalik. The ariz was not the commander-in-chief of the army, as king commanded all the armed forces. The special responsibility of ariz’s department was to recruit, equip, and pay the army. There were two other important departments of state: the diwan-i-risalat and the divan-i-isha. The former dealt with religious matters, pious foundations and stipends to deserving scholars and men of piety. It was presided over by the chief Sadr, who was generally a leading Qazi. Qazis were appointed in various parts of the empire.

The Qazis dispensed civil law based on the Shariat. The Hindus were governed by their own personal laws. Criminal law was based on the regulations formed for the purpose by the rulers.

The diwan-i-insha dealt with state correspondence. All the correspondence formal or confidential between the ruler and the heads of other states, and with his subordinate officials was dealt by this department.

There were a number of other departments in addition to these the rulers posted intelligence agents called Barids in different parts of the empire. The ruler’ household was another important department of state. It looked after personal comforts of the Sultan and requirements of large number of women in the royal household. It also looked after a large number of Karkhanas in which goods and articles needed by the king and the royal household were stored. The officer in charge of the department was called wakil-i-dar. He was also responsible for maintenance of proper decorum at the court and placing nobles in their proper order of precedence.

Besides these, there was department of public works set up by Firuz Tughlaq which built canals and many of his public buildings.

Another marked feature of the administrative system of Turko-Afghan was the iqta system. Initially, these were allotted to leading Turkish nobles. The holders of these offices were called muqtas. It was these tracts which later became provinces or Subas. At first the muqtis were almost independent, they were expected to maintain law and order and collect revenue due to the government. Out of the money collected, they were expected to meet the salaries due to the soldiers and keep the balance. As the central government became stronger, it began to control the muqtis closely. It began to ascertain the actual income, and fix the salaries of the soldiers and muqtis in cash. The muqti was now required to remit to the centre the balance of the income after meeting the expenditure.

Below the provinces were the Shiqs and below them the Paragana. The villages were grouped into units of 100 or 84 to form Paraganas. The Paragana was headed by the Amil. The most important people in the village were the khut (landowners) and the muqaddam or headman. There was also the patwari or the village accountant. The village administration was carried on as before and was not disturbed so long as it paid the land revenue due from it.

The other chief aspect of the administrative system was the land revenue. Till the time of Alauddhin Khilji the traditional Indian system prevalent at that time continued. Then, started the system of fixing the land revenue based on measurement. The peasants could pay in cash or kind. The demand varied from one third to half.

Alauddin Khilji curbed the power of local intermediaries. Sher Shah further improved upon this system. The military administration was another distinct feature. The main ranks were thou of khan, below who lay Amir, below him Sipahsalar and below him the ordinary soldier. While the higher officials were paid in iqtas, the ordinary soldiers received salary in cash. Ala ud din Khilji started the practice of keeping standing armies, and of instituting the practice of branding horses and keeping descriptive roll of soldiers.

These key features of administrative system of the Turko-Afghans medieval times and laid foundation for establishment of strong administrative system first under provincial kingdoms and later under Akbar.

Answer : Among the several developments that have heralded the beginning of modern world, the two most important developments are the Renaissance and the Reformation. The ideas they unleashed and the effects they created were far reaching.

Renaissance literally means rebirth. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in form of revival of faiths in classical civilization and in power of man to fashion his happiness in the world.Its chief feature was humanism. This exalted man, and his worth was highlighted and he was presented as the best creation of God.

Renaissance questioned the other worldly attitude and established a worldly attitude. It denotes an intellectual, literary, artistic and scientific movement which widened the horizons of man. The intellectual revival was manifested in an interest in the past and a desire for understanding the present.

Its greatest attitude was the development of that inquisitiveness which is necessary to intellectual progress. Interest in what earlier conditions had contributed was great, and the classics were revived.

Man was in the process of making a fundamental change in his attitude towards himself and the world in which he lived. This point of view is called humanism. The Humanists were primarily interested in classical literature. It focused on things of this world.

It threw a question mark on the blind belief in the system as it was prevalent in medieval times, and established man as central theme.

It was this interest in human life, and this world as expressed by the Renaissance scholars that was taken forward by Luther in Reformation. Renaissance scholars by their tireless criticism and search for truth had made breaches on the wall of blind faiths of medieval era.

The Renaissance era gave birth to a new vigour in human’s thinking process and in this context Petrarch’s contributions were immense.

He was the epitome of humanism, and dedicated himself to searching for undiscovered Latin texts and writing his own moral treatises thereby initiating a humanist studies.

The other Renaissance scholars developed “Civic humanism” and emphasized that man’s nature equipped him for action. They refused to condemn the striving for material possessions for they argued that the history of human progress is inseparable from mankind’s success in gaining mastery over the earth and its resources. Lorenzo Valla another Renaissance thinker took the emphasis on humanism and human qualities further. He questioned the papal propagandists on the Donation of Constantine. He applied his expert knowledge of Greek to elucidate the true meaning of St. Paul’s words. This work proved to be an important link between Italian Renaissance scholarship and subsequent Christian humanism.

The Renaissance which originated in Italy began to spread in Northern Europe after 1500. Here Renaissance found expression in form of Christian humanism. Erasmus who wrote the Praise of the folly and Colloquies lambasted scholastic emphasis on pedantry and dogmatism, and held up contemporary religious practices for examination in a more serious way. Thomas Moore another Renaissance scholar in his Utopia advanced the argument that if the Utopians could manage their society so well without the benefit of the Christian Revolution, the Europeans also knew the Gospels out to be able to do even better. Francois Rabelais, like Erasmus satirized religious ceremonialism, ridiculed scholasticism, scoffed at superstitions and pilloried every form of bigotry.

Thus, the Christian humanists attack on blind dogmatism and their translation of original scriptures prepared men’s mind for reformation. By the time Italian Renaissance reached northern part of the Europe, it had prepared background for Martin Luther. The Italian Renaissance scholars’ emphasis on humanism and northern humanistic questioning of superstitions created the way for Reformation led by Luther.

Furthermore, close humanistic textural study of Bible led to the publication of new, reliable biblical editions which were used by the Protestant reformers. In this regard, a direct line ran from Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla to Erasmus to Luther in so far as Vallas’ notes on the New Testament inspired Erasmus to produce his own Greek edition of new Testament which in turn helped Luther in 1518 to reach some crucial conclusions concerning literal biblical meaning of penance.

Based on the new Biblical versions, Martin Luther, attacked Church’s selling of pardoning certificates or indulgences, and also the selling of appointments to church offices called Simony. He pasted his views on University of Wartburg and originally intended to start a debate. However, some enthusiasts got it translated in German and had his thesis circulated and the Reformation movement began. Luther thereupon disregarded the bull of excommunication as he got support from German princes against the Papal authority and movement gained strength. Luther believed that man’s salvation rested between himself and god, and the Bible not the Pope was final authority. He also subscribed to the fact that faith would bring salvation.

When the Luther church was established in Northern Germany, civil wars broke out between German princes. A treaty signed at Augsburg in 1555 allowed each German ruler to choose for himself and his people whether to follow Catholicism or Lutheranism. In general, German states became divided into Lutheran North and Catholic South. Soon, Martin Luther’s ideas spread into other European countries. Rulers in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden made Lutheranism the official state religion.

While both the Renaissance and the Reformation aided in the breakdown of old order, and each contributed to the establishment of the new, they operated individually and in some cases were opposed to each other. The Protestant Humanists utilized classical studies in religious controversies, but humanism stimulated pagan learning which Protestants condemned. Renaissance scholars rebelled against the other-worldliness of scholastic Christianity while leading Protestants revived supernaturalism and witch craft.

Even granting for this disharmony, it may be concluded that the Renaissance inaugurated an era of humanism, faith in material world and questioning of superstitions. The culmination of this attitude of questioning culminated in Reformation led by Martin Luther.

Answer : Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy with seeds of socialism influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought. Perhaps Jean Jacques Rousseau’s most important work is The Social Contract, which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order within a framework of classical republicanism. The treatise begins with the dramatic opening lines, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they.” Rousseau claimed that the state of nature was a primitive condition without law or morality, which human beings left for the benefits and necessity of cooperation. As society developed, division of labor and private property required the human race to adopt institutions of law. In the degenerate phase of society, man is prone to be in frequent competition with his fellow men while at the same time becoming increasingly dependent on them. This double pressure threatens both his survival and his freedom. According to Rousseau, by joining together into civil society through the social contract and abandoning their claims of natural right, individuals can both preserve themselves and remain free. This is because submission to the authority of the general will of the people as a whole guarantees individuals against being subordinated to the wills of others and also ensures that they obey themselves because they are, collectively, the authors of the law.

Although Rousseau argues that sovereignty (or the power to make the laws) should be in the hands of the people, he also makes a sharp distinction between the sovereign and the government. The government is composed of magistrates, charged with implementing and enforcing the general will. The “sovereign” is the rule of law, ideally decided on by direct democracy in an assembly. Under a monarchy, however, the real sovereign is still the law. From this very idea the concept of absolutism took its shape later. Rousseau was opposed to the idea that the people should exercise sovereignty via a representative assemblyTemplate. The kind of republican government of which Rousseau approved was that of the city state, of which Geneva, was a model, or would have been, if renewed on Rousseau’s principles. The notion of the general wills is wholly central to Rousseau’s theory of political legitimacy.

Answer : The period before renaissance was a dark age in the history of Europe. Feudalism and its repercussion on the society had made whole European society a poor state where political system itself was also highly exploitative.

The spirit of renaissance opposed the superstitious belief in a modest way, revived the old days social and moral values and enlightened the European masses by criticising the existing religious dogmatism. The greatest achievement of this age was the spirit of humanism which gave great significance to the life of a common man. Rationalism and spirit of scientific enquiry also helped man in his moral, social, educational and spiritual enlightenment. Geographical discoveries resulted into Europe’s contact with the eastern civilisation that also helped the growth of science and technology as well as trade and commerce. Development of trade and commerce caused the economic upliftment of the man.

Literature and art had also given great significance to man. Dante’s Divine Comedy and works of Franci’s Becon had brought a significant change in human thinking. Dante’s work expressed that a man get’s enlightenment due to his true devotion and not due to charity.

The paintings of Leonardo and Raphel expressed human feeling and thus man was given supreme significance in the art work. William Shakespeare’s tragedies have their own significance in this regard which have a noble message that it is action which terminates fate into catastrophe and not the fate.