What is modernity? Final Question Bank

Progress

1. Fill in the blank in this quote from Walter Benjamin’s ‘On the Concept of History’ (1940) cited in the lecture: “…This storm is what we call _.”

American Progress

2. The 1872 painting by John Gast, depicting the flight of Native Americans and animals from the light of American empire progressing West, was called: _ .

False

3. In every historical age people have thought of themselves as being ‘modern’ with respect to the past.

historical

4. In the module on ‘Modernity and World-Historical Identity’, it was argued that ‘Progress’ is a specifically modern form of narcissism, which was identified as _ narcissism.

Portuguese

5. In the BBC documentary series Civilizations, David Olusoga tells us that, before the English stole them, an early modern European power had encountered the Benin Bronzes in a very different historical setting. Which early modern European power was that? _

False

6. In Civilizations, David Olusoga discusses a painting set in 15th-century Lisbon in which all the Africans are slaves.

Portuguese; Dutch; Spaniards; British

7. In Civilizations, David Olusoga discusses four modern European empires:

densely

8. According to Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes, before European settlers colonized the Americas, the latter were populated: barely or densely?

Spain

9. Raoul Peck tells us that the first ‘blood laws’ in history were formulated in 1478. Under these laws, Christian blood was clean, and non-Christian blood unclean. In which country did this happen? _

Belgium; Rubber

10. In 1884 at the Berlin Conference, who got the Congo, and what commodity did they extract? ;

Historical

11. In ‘Modernity and World-Historical Identity’, two distinctive features of modern racism are biological and _.

Carl Linnaeus

12. The father of modern binomial nomenclature is _.

Genocide

13. The term _ was coined by Raphael Lemkin during WWII.

False

14. Whiteness was just as valued in the premodern/precolonial past as in the modern period.

False

15. There is no difference between premodern empires and modern empires.

Imperialism

16. Richard Overy’s Blood & Ruins argues that nationalism and _ were closely related from the late 19th century through WWII.

False

17. There is no historical relationship between Darwinism and the idea of Progress.

False

18. The idea of Lebensraum (‘living space’) was invented by Adolf Hitler.

False

19. Fascism is a premodern phenomenon.

understand

20. “It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to _ what we know and draw conclusions.”

False

21. The idea of Progress helps us make sense of human history.

The religious idea of heaven projected onto the secular world

22. Carl Becker’s book The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth Century Philosophers refers to _.

Indigenous people - native Americans, Africans, etc

23. The books Victims of Progress and Time & the Other refer to _.

Sacralization of secular technology

24. Pakistan’s 1998 Chagai nuclear explosion newsreel was shown to demonstrate _.

Salvation in this world through Progress

25. ‘Secular salvation’ indicates _.

White Supermacist, genocidal; Sophicidal, nihilist, eccocidal

26. Two features of the modern cult of Progress are ; .

Progress

27. Jose Maria Sbert identifies a deep link between the modern nation-state and _.

500

28. David Held says Europe in the late 15th c. had about _ independent units.

False

29. The Absolutist state is a premodern form of state.

dynastic; national

30. Premodern empires were empires; modern European ones are empires.

They created the nation as well as fostering the ‘Enlightenment’

31. What makes all these early modern absolutist monarchs ‘great’? _.

Battle of Plassey (in 1757)

32. ‘Rule, Britannia!’ was written 17 years before _.

Vande Mataram

33. The first regional South Asian ‘national anthem’ was _ (1882).

20th century

34. Most modern political borders came into existence in the _ century.

Treaty of Westphalia

35. The birth of the modern nation-state system began with the _ (1648).

Machiavelli

36. The first theorist of amoral state politics was _.

Cardinal Richelieu

37. The 17th-c. theorist of raison d’état was _.

Peter Thiel; Elon Musk

38. Two tech billionaires plotting to destroy the US government are ; .

Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan

39. The foundational text arguing absolute state sovereignty is _.

Network States

40. Balaji Srinivasan wants to replace the nation-state with _.

Vice-President J D Vance

41. Curtis Yarvin (‘The Prophet’) is close to _.

False

42. In theory, Donald Trump would not defy a court order.

Fire all bureaucrats and hire ones loyal to Trump

43. ‘Dark Gothic Maga’ wants to _ the bureaucracy and hire Trump loyalists.

Centralise the police force directly under Trump

44. They want to _ the police force under Trump.

1600; Elizabeth I/the Great

45. The East India Company received its charter in from .

US $ 45 trillion

46. Wealth transferred from South Asia to Britain under colonial rule totaled about _.

Corporate/Capitalist/Company state; Garrison/Military state; Apartheid/Racial state

47. Three features of the colonial state were ; ; _.

100 million

48. Jason Hickel estimated British policies killed _ people in South Asia (1880–1920).

False

49. The idea of ‘culture’ has always existed.

1860s and 1870s

50. Ethnographic censuses were developed in the _.

race; culture; language; religion; nation; territory

51. Modern colonial statecraft jammed together in our minds: _.

Partition

52. Amrita Pritam’s poem Aaj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu is about _.

False

53. Communal riots have been a regular feature in South Asian history.

colour line

54. W. E. B. DuBois said the problem of the 20th century was the global _.

Because they are based on deliberation and are constituted and reconstituted from issue to issue

55. Democratic majorities and minorities are not permanent because _.

False

56. South Asians have always made permanent distinctions between settlers and natives.

False

57. Caste is unique to South Asia.

ethnographic state

58. After 1857, the British created an _ state.

False

59. Racial prejudice is limited to skin colour.

False

60. The census is a neutral tool of modern statecraft.

religious; political

61. Before and after 1857, the Hindu–Muslim difference changed from to .

Any language has a single name

62. A “mononomological” approach to language means _.

False

63. Religious nationalism is peculiar to South Asia and the non-Western world.

Iran

64. Which country changed its name in WWII to join the ‘Aryan peoples’? _.

late 19th century

65. How old is the idea of the ‘Muslim World’ in South Asia? _.

False

66. ‘Allah’ is the proper name of the Muslim God.

after General Zia

67. ‘Allah hafiz’ became normative in Pakistan _.

racialization

68. The key process defining the transformation of ‘religion’ in modern times is _.

False

69. Languages are essential to our religious identities.

18th century

70. Bulleh Shah is from the _ century.

The first part of each line of the poem was Persian, the second part Hindi

71. The Khanqah song Zihal-e-miskeen was unusual because _.

Manmohan; Palanhar

72. Two names for God used by Shah Fazlur Rehman Ganj Moradabadi were ; .

noble/sharif

73. The word ‘arya’ originally meant _.

inflection

74. The grammatical feature limiting Semitic thought is _.

obsessed with law; literalist; fanatical

75. Three qualities 19th-c. scholars associated with Semites: ; ; _.

The West & the Rest by Stuart Hall; Invention of World Religions by Tomoko Masuzawa

76. Two Core 102 texts on Europe’s problem with Islam: ; .

racialization/reification/objectification

77. The effect of linking languages and religions has been _.

American Declaration of Independence, 1776

78. Wealth of Nations was published in the year of the _.

competition

79. Nationalism and capitalism share the principle of _.

Racial Capitalism

80. Cedric Robinson called capitalism _.

Protestant

81. Max Weber related _ Christianity to the emergence of capitalism.

F.D Roosevelt; New Deal

82. Which US President instituted the welfare state, and what was it called? ; .

Russian Revolution; Great Depression

83. Two events motivating the welfare state were ; .

Thomas Malthus

84. The economist concerned by population questions was _.

Colonization of the life world

85. In ‘Economic Modernity’, the interference of everyday life by capitalism was called _.

They were hospitals for regular check ups and treatment of prostitutes that were reserved for white men, to ensure that the company’s men did not end up with venereal diseases.

86. Lock houses were created to _.

Sikhs

87. Which martial caste was favored: Muslim Jats, Sikhs, Pathans, or Gurkhas?

That Indians were not ‘manly men’ to begin with. So those few categories within them which could be considered manly stood apart from the rest.

88. The colonial logic behind ‘martial races’ was _.

By targeting their means of livelihood, i.e. by outlawing their music and dance performances, homosexual prostitution, outlawing castration, and the taking in of young boys into Hijra households. Also outlawing the passing of property from mentor to protege.

89. The Criminal Tribes Act (1871) sought to finish off the Hijra by _.

Clock time; Small time; Medium time; Long time/Planetary time

90. Four scales of time: ; ; ; .

History; Geology

91. Instruments: Small time is measured by , Long time by .

Modernity

92. Environmental destruction signatures coincide with _.

4.6 billion

93. The planet has been around _ years.

32

94. Individuals in the US use how many times more energy per year than in Pakistan? _.

Destruction/Desacralization

95. Dehumanization of colonized people went hand in hand with _ of their environment.

War-making

96. David Held argues the modern nation-state’s success is due to _ capacity.

False

97. Jesus spoke English.

False

98. White supremacy is limited to White people.

False

99. Arabic is the language of Islam.

False

100. Language can be owned.