Textbook Violence - James R. Lewis

Textbook Violence - James R. Lewis

Self-Contradictions and Projected Otherness: Images of Sikh Militancy in the Writings of Orientalist Scholars and Contemporary Textbook Authors

Textbook Violence - James R. Lewis

James R. Lewis [+-]
Wuhan University
James R. Lewis is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University. He is well-published in the field of new religious movements. His publications and edited volumes include The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Controversial New Religions (with Jesper Petersen), Scientology, Children of Jesus and Mary (with Nicholas Levine), and, most recently, Violence and New Religious Movements.

Description

Over two decades ago, I authored a number of articles in which I critically examined Western portrayals of Sikhs and Sikhism. More specifically, I examined how the assumptions and interests of scholar-officials in the British Raj shaped their representations of Sikhs and Sikhism. Secondarily, I discussed how these often inaccurate images of the Sikh religion were picked up and redeployed by the authors of world religions textbooks that were written in the latter half of the twentieth century. In the present chapter, I propose to revisit the topic of images of the Sikh religion in Western scholarship, recapitulate my earlier arguments and examine the Enlightenment-informed Orientalist origins of Western discourse about the imputed pacifism/militancy of the Sikh gurus, broadening my discussion to include the most recent manifestations of these notions in contemporary textbooks.

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Citation

Lewis, James. Self-Contradictions and Projected Otherness: Images of Sikh Militancy in the Writings of Orientalist Scholars and Contemporary Textbook Authors. Textbook Violence. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 210-219 Aug 2017. ISBN 9781781792599. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=30516. Date accessed: 07 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.30516. Aug 2017

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