Whose Authority? What Legitimacy

The modern vocabulary of authority and legitimacy pretends to universality while carrying the weight of its parochial European past. From Hobbes's Leviathan to Habermas's public sphere, theories fashioned in Europe parade as global truths. Yet, when imposed upon India, they obscure more than they illuminate. Colonial consciousness entrenched this distortion, making Indians see themselves through alien eyes. Against this backdrop, the chapter retrieves India's civilizational grammar—dharma, seva, rajadharma, and plural community orders—as alternative grounds for legitimacy. Authority here rests not on a contract among atomized individuals, but on duties within a cosmic and moral order. The aim is not civilizational chauvinism but conceptual pluralism: a call for political theory that allows multiple traditions to speak in their own voices, rather than repeating the conceit of one history masquerading as universal truth

Alien · Chauvinism · Legitimacy · Plural · Political philosophy · Politics · Proposition · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts