Lieux et formes de pouvoir

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We have just seen that men have he power of life and death over the others. And now we will see that power runs society.

During centuries, some European people had the power since there were many colonies. Indeed, for a long time some people dominated lots of countries and states and, therefore, had the power, like in South-Africa with Apartheid. It was a policy which affected many populations under racial and etnic criteria. It institutionalized in 1948 and the Afrikaners who were from Dutch originin felt superior to the Indians and the Black South Africans. But this of course sparked oppression and resistance from the Black South Africans and the Indians to get freedom. This year we studied the example of India. This document is an extract taken from a novel which is entitled Dishonoured written by Maria Garett. It took place in India. At that period, India was not independent. Some people who must have been British colonists, were invited at Indrajit Rai's, wealthy property. And that provoked misinderstanding from Colonel Mills, one of the guests. He was annoyed when he saw that his Indian host owned such a property. According to him, he should not. He felt superior to them which was echoed by Indrajit Rai's submissive attitude, but all of this changed when his son arrived. Meanwhile, Jagat stood up for himself, and wanted to prove to Colonel Mills that they were on an equal footing, but he didn't want to accept that, except that he couldn't find his words since he felt that his superiority and power were threatened. The author wanted to show us that if India got its independdence it was thanks to rebellious attitudes which fought for their self-respect, their rights and their country. That was one of the steps they had to make to become free and independent.

Another case, it took place in South-Africa and in India. The film is entitled Gandhi, it was made by Richard Attenborough. The film is about, Gandhi an Indian lawyer. In one scene he was travelling in South-Africa for his work. He was travelling in first class as he used to, until the ticket inspector questioned him about the reason which explained that he was in first class and he told him to move to the third on. But Gandhi disobeyed and refused to move. So, he was thrown out of the train. That's when he met Mr. Khan a rich Indian merchant. When Gandhi learned about the Indians' conditions in South-Africa due to Apartheid, he was shocked and wanted to fight for the Hindus and the muslims' rights, so they would be considered as being on an equal footing. That's why he decided to write to the South-African and English press to denounce such a situation. Gandhi started to rebel and wanted the people to participate in their common fight for equality, he achieved it because one day he disobeyed to the policemen and at the end, they let them demonstrate. Moreover Gandhi reached his goal without using violence, fact which is admirable and couragous, because, as a matter of fact, he said that he could die but he would not hurt anyone, he just would not obey to these laws, and he also convinced the other people to fight without using violence. For instance he refused to be fingerprinted as a criminal. This document helps us to answer the question since it proves that this man showed us that we can have more power than it seems. Indeed Gandhi, was in a country where he had no rights, but he got what he wanted, he got respect, he got the same rights, for Indians. Even if at the beginning nobody believed that he could achieve that.

To conclude, we have seen that power is present a little bit everywhere. There are no places in which there is no power, because we are all controled by someone, in fact nobody is really free, according to me. We have seen that in a whole country many people have power on innocent people who ask nothing. We have seen that, sadly, the fate of lots of people, is in the hands of armed people, even though they are beginning to carry a weapon. We have also seen, that before and sometimes even now, some people suffer from racial segregation, so they are under the power of people as if they were not completely free. According to me, it is a negative power, because in most cases, it generates fear, pain, sometimes even civil war and death: and that is really miserable.