The Theosophical Society and its Subaltern Acolytes (1880-1986)

Authors

  • Alan Trevithick New York

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2008.13.3600

Abstract

The Theosophical Society (est. 1875), and its associated texts have sometimes been characterized as counter-Orientalizing or only partially Orientalizing, in the sense of at least departing from "official" British-Indian Orientalism and providing a critique of that discourse. In somewhat the same vein, the society has also been characterized as playful, self-ironic and/or postmodernist, and/or as broadly reformist in not only an anti-colonial but also an anti-patriarchal and pro-or-protofeminist way. These approaches fail to grapple with the nature of the orientalism that was fundamental to the foundation of the TS, as well as the pronounced entrepreneurial and exploitative aspect of the cult, its strategic and emotional structuring, and the significance of its syncretizing and revitalizationist processes.

References

● ADC The Colombo diaries and notebooks of Anagarika Dharmapala
● ADS The Sarnath diaries and notebooks of Anagarika Dharmapala
● ADSU Unmarked Notebook of Anagarika Dharmapala at Sarnath.
● Barker, A.T. (editor) 1925, The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett and Other Miscellaneous Letters, Transcribed, Compiled, and with an Introduction, Pasadena,
California, Theosophical University Press.
● Blavatsky, H.P. 1888 (facsimile) The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical University Press electronic version.
www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm
● Blavatsky, H. P. 1930 The People of the Blue Mountains, Theosophical Press, Wheaton, Illinois.
www.katinkahesselink.net/other/blue_mount1.html
● LHPH Letter Of H. P. Blavatsky To Dr. Hartmann 1885 To 1886. www.theosociety.org/pasadena/damodar/dam4.htm#hpbtohartmann
● ODL Old Diary Leaves, Henry Steel Olcott,
www.theosophy.ph/onlinebooks/odl/odl213.html
● SDM Damodar K. Mavalankar, Supplement to The Theosophist, July, 1886
www.theosociety.org/pasadena/damodar/dam4.htm
● Sinnett, A.P., 1969, ninth Edition, [1881], The Occult World, London, Theosophical Publishing House.

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Published

2015-05-28

How to Cite

Trevithick, A. (2015). The Theosophical Society and its Subaltern Acolytes (1880-1986). Marburg Journal of Religion, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2008.13.3600

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2008)

Section

Articles

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