The Animal Sublime
Rethinking the Sikh Mystical Body
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8203933 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Balbinder Singh Bhogal (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 856-908 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jaarel/lfs035 |
| OpenAlex | W1968382526 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 2 |
During the reform movements instigated under British colonialism (1870–1920), Sikh identity and tradition were re-framed according to various foreign hierarchies of ascent, transcendence, and separation. Undergirding this colonial discourse lay the distinction between ani-mality and humanity, such that the reformation split the animal body from the rational mind in the creation of Sikh-ism as an Indic mimete of a Christian-type monotheism. This hierarchical “verticality ” over-looked the temporal and horizontal tenor of Sikh scripture wherein the body is the site of socio-religious praxis. It is argued that the herme-neutic task now demands a recovery of the suppressed “pantheistic ” or horizontal dimension in Sikh scripture. In such a task, an uncanny resemblance arises between how European philosophers describe the animal’s difference (from the human) and how the Sikh Gurūs describe the saint’s difference (from the human), such that the Sikh’s embracing of the world could be more aptly described as an animal sublime. The figure of the animal thus serves as an intriguing node about which the uniqueness of the Sikh mystical body can be re-read, while at the same time revealing an unblinking critique of the modern Western subject. By speaking in a postcolonial, postorientalist, and posthumanist voice, the Sikh mystical body resonates with and probes further the subversive voices internal to modern Western discourse (here depicted primarily by Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch).
Aesthetics · Art · Mysticism · Sublime · Theology · Indian History and Philosophy · Philosophy · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |