Prophetic Maharaja : loss, sovereignty, and the Sikh tradition in colonial South Asia / Rajbir Singh Judge.

Author/creator Judge, Rajbir Singh author.
Format Book
PublicationNew York : Columbia University Press, [2024]
Descriptionxii, 273 pages ; 23 cm.
Subjects

Portion of title Loss, sovereignty, and the Sikh tradition in colonial South Asia
SeriesReligion, culture, and public life
Religion, culture, and public life. ^A1031462
Contents Introduction: Losing Duleep Singh -- Community -- The public -- Conversion -- Rumors -- Reform -- Conclusion: Failure.
Abstract "The Sikh stronghold of Khalsa Raj, established in 1801 by Ranjit Singh, which united the warring confederacies of Northwest India, began to unravel after his death in 1839. By 1849, the British Empire had annexed Punjab and exiled its maharaja, Duleep Singh. Duleep Singh continued his attempts to reinstate Sikh rule in the 1880s, even though it was irretrievably lost. This moment at the end of the nineteenth century serves as the setting for Prophetic Maharaja as it investigates of how a tradition engaged military, political, and psychological loss through a variety of means-theological debate, literary production, bodily discipline, and ethical practice-in order to undo the dominant contours of colonialism. There is no resolution in the face of loss, and the book does not attempt to provide it. By considering Indigenous and colonialist imaginaries together, Rajbir Singh Judge demonstrates that societal, religious, and political change is irreducible to any singular circumstance, since the mere act of engaging with loss destabilizes all formations. Yet the Sikh people struggled to make sense of a world that was vanishing, of the losses they had endured and the impossible sovereignty they wished to reclaim. Loss, Judge argues, can initiate the political and ethical struggle to contend with it rather than accepting it as a fait accompli."-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 241-256) and index.
Issued in other formOnline version: Judge, Rajbir Singh. Prophetic Maharaja New York : Columbia University Press, 2024 9780231560368
LCCN 2023057153
ISBN9780231214490
ISBN9780231214483 (hardback)
ISBN0231214480 (hardback)
ISBN0231214499 (trade paperback)
ISBN(ebook)
ISBN(ebook)

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