Understanding Humiliation

Abstract

Humiliation is a critical point in a power relationship, the cusp region as it were, something that brings sharpness to the exercise of power and helps reproduce those relations of power. But it is also a potentially disruptive element of power that can have corrosive effects for the underlying normative order. If "humiliation" is a claim which is made complete only by incorporating in it the proposed response to the alleged humiliation, then those who are making that claim must face a situation of choice and attain the clarity required for making that choice. It is then that "humiliation" becomes more than a language used to make sense of a disagreeable situation. CR - Copyright © 2005 Economic and Political Weekly