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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Judge, Rajbir Singh, author.

Series:

Religion, culture, and public life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Duleep Singh, Maharajah, 1838-1893.

Duleep Singh.

Sikhs--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Sikhs.

Sikhs--Politics and government.

Punjab (India)--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Punjab (India).

Punjab (India)--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xii, 273 pages ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Loss, sovereignty, and the Sikh tradition in colonial South Asia

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"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.

Contents:

Introduction: Losing Duleep Singh

Community

The public

Conversion

Rumors

Reform

Conclusion: Failure.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-256) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Judge, Rajbir Singh. Prophetic Maharaja

ISBN:

9780231214483

0231214480

9780231214490

0231214499

OCLC:

1412002226