Prophetic Maharaja: Loss, Sovereignty, and the Sikh Tradition in Colonial South Asia

Author: Rajbir Singh Judge
Publisher: Columbia University Press, New York
Year: 2024 | Page: 320 | Price: $14.40
ISBN: 978-93-5944-871-8

Jaypreet Kaur

Rajbir Singh Judge’s Prophetic Maharaja: Loss, Sovereignty, and the Sikh Tradition in Colonial South Asia offers a deeply layered meditation on sovereignty, exile, and memory. Seeking to examine and unravel the strengths and weaknesses of a region, its religion, and its people under British Rule, the book attempts to document the colonial relationships that require recognition through alternative histories. This exploration is a profound exercise in understanding what can be termed as ‘unfair and unjust political ethics of colonialism.’ Through this book, Judge revisits history and historiography surrounding Duleep Singh’s persona, his efforts to return to Undivided Punjab, and his attempt to reclaim his inheritance in the 1880s. In this book, Judge claims that his work is a historical narrative created for Duleep Singh, while framing a narrative that refuses to historicize. Indeed, the book is staged with a series of refusals. On the one hand, Judge probes how a people and a tradition grappled with loss, and on the other hand, he addresses the problem of space of history through a refusal. These are not two disparate modes of engagement. Rather, they are intertwined throughout the book, ebbing and flowing across the five chapters. As he puts it, “writing a narrative of a historical figure such as Singh is itself a bid to come to terms with the failure and narrative of history.” Download PDF

Reviewer: Jaypreet Kaur

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