Listening Like a Theosophist

This essay focuses on the Theosophical Society (est. 1875), an occult movement that, through the efforts of Annie Besant, became closely associated with early Indian anticolonial politics. While the Theosophists spread their doctrine through global networks of print, I argue for the importance of an...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Political Theology in India
Main Author: Mukhopadhyay, Priyasha (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2018]
In: Political theology
Year: 2018, Volume: 19, Issue: 8, Pages: 719-733
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Besant, Annie 1847-1933 / India / Theosophische Gesellschaft / Politics / Lecture / History 1890-1918
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AZ New religious movements
KBM Asia
TJ Modern history
TK Recent history
Further subjects:B Theosophy
B Listening
B Annie Besant
B Lectures
B India
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This essay focuses on the Theosophical Society (est. 1875), an occult movement that, through the efforts of Annie Besant, became closely associated with early Indian anticolonial politics. While the Theosophists spread their doctrine through global networks of print, I argue for the importance of another means by which they did so: the lecture. Through a close examination of a range of theosophical lectures and texts, I argue that the act of listening was central to the creation of a theosophical self which, in turn, was the starting point for a spiritually motivated and often very uneven vision of mass politics. By examining the potentials and limits of the intertwined acts of thinking, listening, and speaking, I chart out what it meant to listen like a Theosophist in early twentieth-century India.
Item Description:Das gedruckte Heft ist als Doppelheft erschienen: "Volume 19 Numbers 7-8 November-December 2018"
ISSN:1743-1719
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1537582