3. Introduction to Anarchism
• The term Anarchism is derived from the Greek word the
“ Anarchia” in which an=no and arch = rule which means
no rule or absence of rule and government
• Anarchism was developed in the West and spread through
out the World in the 20th century
4. Ultimate aim of Anarchism:
• Anarchism is a theory of states with the ultimate aim to
get rid of the State and politics and to attain utmost
individual liberty
5. Definition of Anarchism:
• It is defined as
“a doctrine which seeks to abolish political authority in
all its firms because it is unnecessary and undesirable for
the mankind”
6. Definition of Anarchism:
• Kropotkin describes Anarchism in the following way:
“a principal or the theory of life and conduct under
which society is conceived without Government or state,
harmony in such a society being obtained not by submission
to law or by obedience to any authority but by the free
agreements concluded between the various groups,
territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake
of production and consumption and as also as satisfaction
of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of civilized
being”
7. History of Anarchism:
• Zeno and other Greek stoics
believed that a good life cannot
prevail in the state
• Certain Christian Mystics also
preached freedom from the man
made laws and political
structures
8. History of Anarchism:
• But modern Anarchism is the extreme left wing of
Socialism
• It aims to create a classless, stateless and non-religious
society
9. Who gave the doctrine of Anarchism:
William Godwin, oil painting by
J.W. Chandler, 1798; in the Tate
Gallery, London
Courtesy of the Tate, London
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, detail of an oil
painting by Gustave Courbet, c. 1865; in
the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.
Giraudon/Art Resource, New York
10. Doctrine of Anarchism:
• It was first presented as a political doctrine by an English
man William Godwin and a French man Proudhon who
was the first writer to call himself as Anarchist
12. Principals of Anarchism:
• There are three basic principals of Modern Anarchism:
1. The opposition and abolition of state
2. The abolition of private property
3. Suppression of Religion
13. Principals of anarchism:
opposition to the state:
• Anarchism opposes the state in toto does not matter
whether it is the corrupt one like autocracy or the best
one like diplomacy
14. Opposition to the
property:
• Some basic tenet of Anarchism is opposition to the
system of private property and capitalism because of two
reasons:
1. It creates all the social and economic evils in the society.
2. They are not necessary for the production
15. Principals of Anarchism:
opposition to the religion;
• Religion is also condemned by this school of thought
because
• While the state protects the evil institutions in the society
religion sanctifies them
• As Bakunin says:
• “ religion is consciously used by the possessors of
wealth and political power to perpetuate their unnatural
superiority “
16. Ideals of Anarchism:
• Anarchism leads to the three basic aims:
1. To free a man as a producer from the yoke f capitalism
2. to free the man as citizen from the yoke of the state
3. To free man as individual from the authority of religious
morality
18. Method of Anarchism:
• This question leads us to the methods of Anarchism
• According to the method Anarchists are divided into two
groups
1. Philosophical Anarchists
2. Revolutionary Anarchists
19. Methods of Anarchism:
philosophical Anarchists:
‘Lev Tolstoy in
Yasnaya Polyana”,
1908, the first color
photo portrait in
Russia. By Sergey
Mikhaylovich
Prokudin-Gorsky.
From Wikimedia
Commons, public
domain.
20. Methods of Anarchism:
philosophical Anarchists
• Tolstoy believed in peaceful and non-violent methods of
education, persuasion and example to achieve their goal
22. Methods of Anarchism:
Revolutionary Anarchist:
• Revolutionary Anarchist like Bakunin and kropotkin
advocates revolutionary methods of violence, bloodshed
and revolution to get rid of the state and establish an
Anarchist society
• But they believe revolution should e aided by the
evolution of the society which is already leading it
towards the formation of Anarchist society.
24. Society of Anarchism:
• The anarchists are vague about the free society that will
be established after the destruction of the state
• Only Kropotkin has described this society in his book
The conquest of Bread and Anarchist Communist
26. Society of Anarchism:
Kropotkin has described the free society in the following
three ways:
1. Its social organisation
2. Economic organisation
3. Evaluation and comparison
27. Society of Anarchism:
Social Organisation:
• According to kropotkin in the Anarchist society free
association will prevail
“ Society will be organised as a hierarchy of voluntary
bodies, beginning with the simple and working upwards to
the complex””
28. Society of Anarchism:
Economic organisation:
• Economically the new order will be based on complete
communism
• Everything will be owned in common by the society
whether it is an article of consumption and production
29. Society of Anarchism:
Evaluation and comparison:
• Anarchism is the first and the foremost plea of
Decentralization both territorial and functional
• It organises from the smallest to the simplest group and
works up to the most complex
30. Criticism of Anarchism:
1. Anarchism considers man to be an angle which is too
optimistic to consider
2. Human nature has both good and bad sides, there must
be some type of authority to restrain the evil tendencies
prevailing in the society
3. The anarchist society is considered a utopia which
cannot be realized
4. Human society so far is very complex while the
anarchist considers it simple and local