Sign-In
Cart
The Center of Mass
Paperback
Publisher: Gyrus Vision
Published: Jul 6 2026
Pages: 354
Weight: 0.90
Height: 0.79 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
The Center of Mass: How Cities Create Power Beyond Office is a structural study of political influence, urban identity, and non-positional power, using Mumbai and Balasaheb Thackeray as its central historical case.
Balasaheb Thackeray never became chief minister, minister, mayor, legislator, or member of parliament. Yet for decades, elected representatives, administrators, business leaders, journalists, party workers, supporters, and opponents treated his reaction as politically consequential. His power was not located in a constitutional chair, yet it shaped the movement of Maharashtra politics.
This book asks a deeper question: how does a city create a center of power beyond office?
Sandeep Chavan examines Bombay's transformation into Mumbai through labour history, migration, Marathi identity, employment anxiety, urban belonging, neighbourhood organization, media, political symbolism, and the rise of Shiv Sena. The book does not present a conventional biography of Balasaheb Thackeray or a complete party history of Shiv Sena. Instead, it develops a wider framework for understanding how unresolved social disturbance becomes political recognition, how identity becomes infrastructure, and how organization converts emotion into consequence.
Drawing upon the author's previously developed Power Philosophy and Unified Power Architecture, The Center of Mass introduces a powerful model of political gravity. It distinguishes between the constitutional map of power and the operative map of influence, showing how formal authority and actual centrality may separate. It explores nodal emergence, structural weight, anticipatory power, symbolic authority, conflict, succession, and distributed gravity.
The book also examines the ethical complexity of power. A movement may restore dignity to one field while producing fear or exclusion elsewhere. A leader may become structurally effective without every consequence becoming morally acceptable. Chavan therefore separates effectiveness, legitimacy, and ethical quality, allowing readers to understand power without reducing it to praise or condemnation.
From the first Dussehra rally to the rise of Shiv Sena, from Matoshree to Mantralaya, from the remote control metaphor to the later fragmentation of Shiv Sena identity, the book follows how a center forms, expands, operates beyond office, and eventually changes after the founder's absence.
Although rooted in Mumbai and Maharashtra politics, the framework applies far beyond one city. Companies, political parties, families, institutions, movements, universities, digital platforms, and nations all create visible and invisible centers of influence. The real question is not always who holds the chair, but around whom the system has already begun reorganizing its behaviour.
Serious, reflective, and conceptually original, The Center of Mass is for readers interested in political leadership, Mumbai politics, Shiv Sena, Balasaheb Thackeray, urban sociology, political theory, identity politics, informal authority, founder-led movements, and the hidden architecture of power.
Also from
Chavan, Sandeep
The End of Particle Age: Rewriting Physics Through a Continuous-Field Universe
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Why Do AI Systems Hallucinate?: A Systems-Theory Reframing of AI Hallucination
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Leadership Is Not a Person: A Field-Based Theory of Coherence, Power, Leadership Decay, and Transition
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Stop Trying to Be Happy: Why Happiness Comes Only After You Stop Chasing It
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The Evolution of Ambedkar: Resistance, Reform, and the Movement of a Mind Through India's Unresolved Questions
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The Cricket of Delayed Decisions: Time, Patience, and the Hidden Science of Batting
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Acceleration - Living in Motion: Living Intelligently in a World That Never Slows Down
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The Philosophy of Power: Alignment, Authority, and the Discipline of Non-Reaction
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Choose Your Battles Carefully: How Everyday Conflicts Shape Modern Marriage
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
AI-Integrated Engineering Careers: A Structural Guide for Employers, Engineers, Institutes, and Trainers
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The 7 Psychological Wastes: Understanding the Hidden Mechanics of Mental Exhaustion
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Never Trust Without Doubt: The Interplay Between Doubt and Trust in an Unethical World
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Physics More Than You Know: From Force and Fields to Mathematics, Measurement, and the Deeper Structure of Reality
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The End of Cosmic Anomalies: Why the Cosmos May Not Be Broken-Only Our Interpretation Is
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Let's Meet the GOD: A Field Guide to Divinity in Ripple, Ritual, and Reality
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
If You Can't Change the Country, Leave the Country: Transforming Brain Drain into Brain Gain
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The Earth Doesn't Move: Dismantling Scientific Assumptions with Ripple Truth
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
The Structure of Reality: From Nothing to Ripple, The Nature of Existence Itself
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
From Synapse to Self: Completing the Neuroscience of Mind Through Universal Energy Dynamics
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
When There Is a Snake Under Every Stone: How to Live Intelligently in Difficult Systems
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Resolution Architecture: Configuring Human, AI, and Organizational Capabilities for Real-World Results
Chavan, Sandeep
Paperback
Also in
General Political Science
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games
Jakobsson, Mikael
Flanagan, Mary
Hardcover
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
James, Daniel
Coleman, Kevin
Paperback
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
Anderson, Benedict Richard O'Gorman
Paperback
The Craftivist Collective Handbook: Projects, Stories and Methods for Your Gentle Protests
Corbett, Sarah P.
Hardcover
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America
Pfeiffer, Dan
Hardcover
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, David
Talbot, Margaret
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War
Wasserman, Mark
Paperback
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back
Stirewalt, Chris
Paperback
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Wudunn, Sheryl
Paperback
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Haberman, Maggie
Swan, Jonathan
Hardcover
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Goldmark, Susan
Bird, Kai
Hardcover
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Brett
Meiselas, Jordy
Meiselas, Ben
Hardcover
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paperback
The Elijah Mandate: A Call to Courageous Faith in a Hostile World
Tsarfati, Amir
Piflaks, Tolik
Paperback
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed Bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East
Cole, Matthew
Hardcover
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America
Warnock, Raphael G.
Hardcover
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain
Pakman, David
Hardcover
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society
Marriott, James
Hardcover
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
Bevins, Vincent
Paperback
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Soares, Nate
Hardcover
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
The Last Free Women: A Daring Escape from Afghanistan and Coming of Age in America
Blumenstein, Rebecca
Kapp, Diana
Hardcover
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy
Weber, Isabella
Hardcover
The Origins of Totalitarianism: With a New Introduction by Anne Applebaum
Applebaum, Anne
Arendt, Hannah
Paperback
The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth
Kirk, Charlie
Hardcover