Theology of the “Absent King” and the Possibility of Rabindranath Tagore’s Political Thought
Contrary to his usual depiction as a modern secular thinker, heteronomous imaginaries of sacrality and kingship are pervasive in Rabindranath Tagore’s plays. A return to these referents, as I show in this paper, releases Tagore’s thought-world from the stranglehold of derivative categories and allow...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2022
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| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2022, Volume: 23, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 44-58 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Tagore, Rabindranath 1861-1941
/ Hinduism
/ King
/ Absence
/ Sovereignty
/ Freedom
/ Theology
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism FA Theology KBM Asia TJ Modern history TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
Theology
B Sovereignty B Esotericism B Tagore B Aesthetics B Politics B Freedom |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Contrary to his usual depiction as a modern secular thinker, heteronomous imaginaries of sacrality and kingship are pervasive in Rabindranath Tagore’s plays. A return to these referents, as I show in this paper, releases Tagore’s thought-world from the stranglehold of derivative categories and allows for his reconstruction as a political thinker. Eschewing the nationalist ideal of valiant and noble rulers shored up from histories and myths as legitimate alternatives to the colonial regime, Tagore aesthetically employed the imaginary of an “absent king” sourced from the Upanishads. Avoiding the tropes of spectrality of a dead king or an exceptional interregnal anarchic moment, emptiness was inscribed in the very heart of the monarchical model, thereby transfiguring it into a radical instituting imaginary of the social. This curiously brought together the apparently antithetical categories of sovereignty and freedom through an insistence on creative will and action. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.2017537 |