Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (JISASR). Vol. 4, Issue 1, (2017)
Permanent URI for this collection
Representing Sikhism: Essays in Memory of the Irish Scholar Max Arthur Macauliffe. Guest editors:Christopher Shackle and Brian Bocking
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item M. A. Macauliffe and the angst of the translator(ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork, 2017) Singh, Nikky-Guninder KaurHad I known earlier the difficulties I should have to encounter, I should certainly never have undertaken a translation of this description', wrote Macauliffe (1898, 365). Even though he had carefully studied the text, familiarized himself with its source language(s), and was fluent in the target language, translating the Guru Granth into English proved to be an arduous task for the Irishman. His angst is indeed intriguing. Heidegger said, 'Tell me what you think of translation, and I will tell you who you are', so the concern voiced by our translator offers clues into his personal sensibilities and intellectual legacy. Using Amrtya Sen's 'exoticist', 'magisterial', and 'curatorial' typology (2005), we discover here a western approach antithetical to orientalism. My paper explores the synergy between Macauliffe's existential response and his non-orientalist translation of the Japji, the opening hymn of the Guru Granth.Item Book review: Niamh Reilly and Stacey Scriver (eds.), Religion, gender and the public sphere(ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork, 2017) Coughlan, PatriciaItem After Macauliffe: the wondrous liberty of Puran Singh(ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork, 2017) Shackle, ChristopherBelonging to the generation after Macauliffe, one of the first Sikhs who sought to spread the message of the Gurus in English was Professor Puran Singh (1881-1931). In his unusual life, he combined the practice of his profession with a passionate search for the expression of all-embracing spiritual realities. This drew him to the poetic interpretation of the message of the Sikh Gurus, in part inspired by his strong identification with the poetry of Walt Whitman, and resulting in a very different approach from Macauliffe's to translating the Sikh scriptures. The paper includes some discussion of the broad context of the complex interweaving of literary and religious trends across different parts of the British empire in the early twentieth century, paying particular attention to parallels between India and Ireland.Item Placing Max Arthur Macauliffe in context/s: Sikh historiographical traditions and colonial forms of knowledge(ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork, 2017) Murphy, AnneThis article pursues two interconnected inquiries into the work of M.A. Macauliffe. Firstly, the paper examines Macauliffe's work in light of general discussion in the historiography of colonial and modern South Asia regarding the relative influence of colonial forms of knowledge in the formation of South Asian subjectivities and texts in the period. This allows for understanding of the differentials in power imbedded within the 'dialogues' that produced texts like Macauliffe's. The paper explores the specifics of this question by, secondly, demonstrating the ways in which Macauliffe's work - presumably through his interaction with his interlocutors among the Sikhs and/or reading of Sikh texts - reflects existing Sikh historiographical commitments. In this, we attempt to assess the work in relation to a range of existing works in Punjabi and determine the genealogy of its creation, in Sikh historiographical terms. Assessment of these two seemingly contradictory contexts allows us to assess what was new - and what was not - in Macauliffe's representation of the Sikh past, and how we can assess the purportedly dialogical nature of the text within a broader field of power and knowledge.Item Book review: Paul Gifford, Christianity, development and modernity in Africa(ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork, 2017) Claffey, Patrick