Philip Deslippe | University of California, Santa Barbara (original) (raw)
Journal Articles by Philip Deslippe
Sikh Formations, 2024
This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,' w... more This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,' which gave a revised history of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga, and narrates its reception and influence in subsequent years, especially since 2020 with revelations of abuse by Yogi Bhajan and within 3HO institutions. It argues that 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric' played a role as both a threat to legitimacy and then a tool of crisis management for 3HO, and the reception of the article highlights the importance of Yogi Bhajan's yoga and claimed titles during the longer history of 3HO through the present moment.
Japanese Religions, 2023
Within histories of Buddhism in the United States, the names of Francis M. Ormsby (1905-1979) and... more Within histories of Buddhism in the United States, the names of Francis M. Ormsby (1905-1979) and Lewis A. Colburn (1909-1990) are entirely absent, even though they took Buddhist vows in 1930 under the Rinzai Zen teacher Nyogen Senzaki 千崎 如幻 (1876-1958), travelled and studied through Asia for the next five years, and received a massive amount of media attention. Through an examination of archival records and over a hundred newspaper articles, this article recounts the lives of Ormsby and Colburn from their upbringings in Idaho, ordination under Senzaki in San Francisco, half-decade of travel through Japan, China, Thailand, Burma, and India, their claims to being members of a secretive Rosicrucian group called the Ordo Magiaro, and their lives after returning to the United States. It then places them into the various contexts of other Western Buddhist converts of their time as plebian Buddhist tramps, spiritual tourists, occultists, and as figures comparable to wandering bishops in the Christian tradition.
Ethnic Studies Review, 2023
Using newspaper articles and previously sealed court records, this article analyses Bhagat Singh ... more Using newspaper articles and previously sealed court records, this article analyses Bhagat Singh Thind through his almost entirely overlooked short and turbulent marriage to Inez Buelen, a marriage that occurred less than a year after the Supreme Court decision that ruled Thind ineligible for American citizenship and only months into his decades-long career as a metaphysical lecturer. In contrast to the prevailing view that Thind's sense of his own race was unknowable, or that he defined himself as White as part of a legal strategy or a matter of expediency in gaining citizenship, I argue that the marriage and subsequent divorce show that he consistently claimed Whiteness for years after his Supreme Court case, both in public and in private, and on the basis of descent, geography, caste, racial science, previous court rulings, and his own blood.
Implicit Religion, 2021
Within the academic study of New Religious Movements, it has become standard to understand “cult”... more Within the academic study of New Religious Movements, it has become
standard to understand “cult” as a pejorative term which is dismissive of
minority religions and in some cases harms them. This article, through a
quantitative content analysis conducted by the author of various uses of
the word “cult” in twenty-five American newspapers through the 1990s,
is an attempt to understand, in detail and supported by data, how “cult”
was applied to particular religious groups and used more widely within
popular discourse. It argues that the word “cult” was primarily used for
subjects that were not religious groups, and when it was applied to religious groups, it was largely done so to a very small number that all shared several characteristics. It further argues that “cult” should be understood as a complex term with a range of meanings and applications.
Japanese Religions, 2021
One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in ... more One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in the United States was Swami Mazziniananda (pseudonym, unknown-1931), a former patent medicine salesman and quack doctor who became a spiritualist minister and fortune teller while claiming dubious credentials as a Buddhist bishop at the turn of the century. This article traces the rise of Mazziniananda and his connections to the Buddhist Mission of North America, as well as the circumstances surrounding their split and his final years. I suggest that the best way to understand the figure of Mazziniananda-his mixture of Buddhism and occultism, real engagement with other Buddhists and fabricated titles and rituals-is as a type of Buddhist "wandering bishop." Finally, I argue that in light of his close ties with the Japanese Buddhist establishment, the influence of his liturgy and hymnals, and the deep engagement with the occult by his contemporaries and the members of the Dharma Sangha of Buddha that preceded him, Swami Mazziniananda is best seen not as a marginal or atypical figure, but rather as central and emblematic of the Euro-American Buddhist converts of his time and the deep linkages between occultism and the history of Japanese Buddhism in America.
Journal of Yoga Studies, 2018
This article provides an overview to what the author has termed “early American yoga,” yoga as it... more This article provides an overview to what the author has termed “early American yoga,” yoga as it was understood in the United States from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Using a combination of primary sources, archival materials, and popular writing from the period, it offers a detailed and data-based understanding of the first half of yoga’s history in the United States by describing what yoga was, where and how it was taught, and who its teachers and students were during this time. It argues that early American yoga was not physical or postural, but primarily mental and magical. Early American yoga was not centered on books or specific figures, but rather upon an active and widespread network of travelling teachers who gave tiered levels of instruction through public lectures, private classes, and dyadic relationships. Teachers of yoga were overwhelmingly of a type — educated, cultured, and professionally savvy — and students were largely female, affluent, and invested in American metaphysical religion. The article concludes with a reappraisal of the historical importance given to the figures of Vivekananda and Yogananda and suggests that their careers and legacies in the United States are best understood within this larger context of early American yoga.
Journal of Sikh & Punjab Studies, 2016
This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the ... more This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the United States during the early to mid-twentieth century: Wassan Singh (1882-1942), Bhagwan Singh Gyanee (1884-1962), Rishi Singh Gherwal (1889-1964), Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967), and Sadhu Balwant Singh Grewal (1899-1985). After placing them in the context of modern yoga and its early history in America, it is suggested that as yoga teachers these five are best understood as immigrants and merchants who occupied a unique and liminal position between the prevailing antagonisms against South Asian immigration and a fascination with an imagined “metaphysical Asia.” In addition to their political activities for rights within the United States and an independent Indian nation abroad, they are cast as a significant presence in both the history of yoga and the history of the Punjabi diaspora in America.
Contemporary Buddhism, 2013
This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966),... more This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966), who was born in Italy as Salvatore Cioffi and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After converting to Buddhism in his late-twenties, Lokanatha travelled to Burma, took ordination as a monk, and began a remarkable 40 year career as a writer, lecturer, organizer, and Buddhist missionary throughout South Asia and the world. Beyond biography, Lokanatha and the various responses to him are contextualized within the different cultural spheres in which he operated, from the anti-colonial Buddhist revival in Burma to the mocking indifference Lokanatha found in the United States. Scholarship on modern Buddhism, particularly recent work on U Dhammaloka, is used to situate Lokanatha's life and its facets of conservative reformer and transnational actor. Finally, an account of the source material used to reconstruct the life of Lokanatha is employed to offer practical methodological explanations for his absence from conventional narratives of modern Buddhism and what his inclusion along with other figures might mean in the future.
Sikh Formations, 2012
This article details the influences upon and the construction of Kundalini Yoga as introduced, ta... more This article details the influences upon and the construction of Kundalini Yoga as introduced, taught, and propagated in the West by Yogi Bhajan (1929–2004), by delving into the lost history of the practice's earliest years through previously neglected sources such as its documentation in rare early texts and interviews with early students and associates. As opposed to the official history of Kundalini Yoga that claims it as an ancient and secret tradition prior to Yogi Bhajan's open teaching of it, this article argues that it was a bricolage created by Yogi Bhajan himself and derived from two main figures: a hatha yoga teacher named Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari (1924–1994) and the Sikh sant Maharaj Virsa Singh (1934–2007). It is the aim of this article to provide clear evidence as to what Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga is and what it comprises, put forward the historical and cultural contexts in which it was developed and presented by Yogi Bhajan, and ultimately offer possible conclusions that could be drawn from this revised understanding.
Book Chapters by Philip Deslippe
The United States And South Asia From The Age Of Empire To Decolonization: A History of Entanglements, 2022
Through nearly a century of popular usage in America that started just after the Civil War, the t... more Through nearly a century of popular usage in America that started just after the Civil War, the term "fakir" acquired numerous successive meanings in the United States as it moved from India to a description of magicians in orientalist costumes on the vaudeville stage, then a term for ostentatious salesmen on American sidewalks, then to duplicitous con artists and criminals, and finally to the yogis and swamis from India who travelled to the United States and were labelled with the various meanings of the term. More than a simple loanword, the word fakir is one of the earliest, longest-running, and perhaps most influential ways in which American popular culture has engaged with ideas of India, and through a large cache of newspaper and magazine articles, this chapter will trace its history for the first time.
Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, 2021
‘Modern Yoga’, as defined by Elizabeth De Michelis (2004) and as discussed in many academic works... more ‘Modern Yoga’, as defined by Elizabeth De Michelis (2004) and as discussed in many academic works on yoga, has been influenced by the English-speaking world and the medium of English. This chapter highlights some general trends that might characterise the history of modern yoga – and, to some extent, meditation – from the late-nineteenth century to the present through global anglophone networks and the medium of the English language. We argue that modern yoga has been substantially influenced by the dominance of English-language presentations of yoga. However, English-language presentations of yoga and meditation have specific characteristics that should not necessarily be assumed to be dominant in other linguistic–cultural contexts. This chapter highlights an area in need of further research: a continued delineating of characteristics of English-language presentations of yoga in particular times and places combined with an outline of what might distinguish these presentations from other linguistic and cultural contexts.
25 Events that Shaped Asian American History: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic, 2019
Edited Volumes by Philip Deslippe
"Here is the flagship edition of the most popular occult work of the past century, now published ... more "Here is the flagship edition of the most popular occult work of the past century, now published with a groundbreaking historical introduction that establishes its authentic authorship and a 'lost' bonus work by the original author." -From the publisher
Book Reviews by Philip Deslippe
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 2018
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions , 2015
Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 2014
Longform Magazine Articles by Philip Deslippe
The Revealer, 2023
Unusual experiences during meditation may help to explain why some people stay in abusive religio... more Unusual experiences during meditation may help to explain why some people stay in abusive religious communities.
Scroll.in, 2019
A singular early South Asian immigrant to the US, Singh repeatedly reinvented himself, becoming a... more A singular early South Asian immigrant to the US, Singh repeatedly reinvented himself, becoming a butler, aviator, chauffeur, investor and dubious guru.
Sikh Formations, 2024
This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,' w... more This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,' which gave a revised history of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga, and narrates its reception and influence in subsequent years, especially since 2020 with revelations of abuse by Yogi Bhajan and within 3HO institutions. It argues that 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric' played a role as both a threat to legitimacy and then a tool of crisis management for 3HO, and the reception of the article highlights the importance of Yogi Bhajan's yoga and claimed titles during the longer history of 3HO through the present moment.
Japanese Religions, 2023
Within histories of Buddhism in the United States, the names of Francis M. Ormsby (1905-1979) and... more Within histories of Buddhism in the United States, the names of Francis M. Ormsby (1905-1979) and Lewis A. Colburn (1909-1990) are entirely absent, even though they took Buddhist vows in 1930 under the Rinzai Zen teacher Nyogen Senzaki 千崎 如幻 (1876-1958), travelled and studied through Asia for the next five years, and received a massive amount of media attention. Through an examination of archival records and over a hundred newspaper articles, this article recounts the lives of Ormsby and Colburn from their upbringings in Idaho, ordination under Senzaki in San Francisco, half-decade of travel through Japan, China, Thailand, Burma, and India, their claims to being members of a secretive Rosicrucian group called the Ordo Magiaro, and their lives after returning to the United States. It then places them into the various contexts of other Western Buddhist converts of their time as plebian Buddhist tramps, spiritual tourists, occultists, and as figures comparable to wandering bishops in the Christian tradition.
Ethnic Studies Review, 2023
Using newspaper articles and previously sealed court records, this article analyses Bhagat Singh ... more Using newspaper articles and previously sealed court records, this article analyses Bhagat Singh Thind through his almost entirely overlooked short and turbulent marriage to Inez Buelen, a marriage that occurred less than a year after the Supreme Court decision that ruled Thind ineligible for American citizenship and only months into his decades-long career as a metaphysical lecturer. In contrast to the prevailing view that Thind's sense of his own race was unknowable, or that he defined himself as White as part of a legal strategy or a matter of expediency in gaining citizenship, I argue that the marriage and subsequent divorce show that he consistently claimed Whiteness for years after his Supreme Court case, both in public and in private, and on the basis of descent, geography, caste, racial science, previous court rulings, and his own blood.
Implicit Religion, 2021
Within the academic study of New Religious Movements, it has become standard to understand “cult”... more Within the academic study of New Religious Movements, it has become
standard to understand “cult” as a pejorative term which is dismissive of
minority religions and in some cases harms them. This article, through a
quantitative content analysis conducted by the author of various uses of
the word “cult” in twenty-five American newspapers through the 1990s,
is an attempt to understand, in detail and supported by data, how “cult”
was applied to particular religious groups and used more widely within
popular discourse. It argues that the word “cult” was primarily used for
subjects that were not religious groups, and when it was applied to religious groups, it was largely done so to a very small number that all shared several characteristics. It further argues that “cult” should be understood as a complex term with a range of meanings and applications.
Japanese Religions, 2021
One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in ... more One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in the United States was Swami Mazziniananda (pseudonym, unknown-1931), a former patent medicine salesman and quack doctor who became a spiritualist minister and fortune teller while claiming dubious credentials as a Buddhist bishop at the turn of the century. This article traces the rise of Mazziniananda and his connections to the Buddhist Mission of North America, as well as the circumstances surrounding their split and his final years. I suggest that the best way to understand the figure of Mazziniananda-his mixture of Buddhism and occultism, real engagement with other Buddhists and fabricated titles and rituals-is as a type of Buddhist "wandering bishop." Finally, I argue that in light of his close ties with the Japanese Buddhist establishment, the influence of his liturgy and hymnals, and the deep engagement with the occult by his contemporaries and the members of the Dharma Sangha of Buddha that preceded him, Swami Mazziniananda is best seen not as a marginal or atypical figure, but rather as central and emblematic of the Euro-American Buddhist converts of his time and the deep linkages between occultism and the history of Japanese Buddhism in America.
Journal of Yoga Studies, 2018
This article provides an overview to what the author has termed “early American yoga,” yoga as it... more This article provides an overview to what the author has termed “early American yoga,” yoga as it was understood in the United States from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Using a combination of primary sources, archival materials, and popular writing from the period, it offers a detailed and data-based understanding of the first half of yoga’s history in the United States by describing what yoga was, where and how it was taught, and who its teachers and students were during this time. It argues that early American yoga was not physical or postural, but primarily mental and magical. Early American yoga was not centered on books or specific figures, but rather upon an active and widespread network of travelling teachers who gave tiered levels of instruction through public lectures, private classes, and dyadic relationships. Teachers of yoga were overwhelmingly of a type — educated, cultured, and professionally savvy — and students were largely female, affluent, and invested in American metaphysical religion. The article concludes with a reappraisal of the historical importance given to the figures of Vivekananda and Yogananda and suggests that their careers and legacies in the United States are best understood within this larger context of early American yoga.
Journal of Sikh & Punjab Studies, 2016
This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the ... more This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the United States during the early to mid-twentieth century: Wassan Singh (1882-1942), Bhagwan Singh Gyanee (1884-1962), Rishi Singh Gherwal (1889-1964), Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967), and Sadhu Balwant Singh Grewal (1899-1985). After placing them in the context of modern yoga and its early history in America, it is suggested that as yoga teachers these five are best understood as immigrants and merchants who occupied a unique and liminal position between the prevailing antagonisms against South Asian immigration and a fascination with an imagined “metaphysical Asia.” In addition to their political activities for rights within the United States and an independent Indian nation abroad, they are cast as a significant presence in both the history of yoga and the history of the Punjabi diaspora in America.
Contemporary Buddhism, 2013
This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966),... more This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966), who was born in Italy as Salvatore Cioffi and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After converting to Buddhism in his late-twenties, Lokanatha travelled to Burma, took ordination as a monk, and began a remarkable 40 year career as a writer, lecturer, organizer, and Buddhist missionary throughout South Asia and the world. Beyond biography, Lokanatha and the various responses to him are contextualized within the different cultural spheres in which he operated, from the anti-colonial Buddhist revival in Burma to the mocking indifference Lokanatha found in the United States. Scholarship on modern Buddhism, particularly recent work on U Dhammaloka, is used to situate Lokanatha's life and its facets of conservative reformer and transnational actor. Finally, an account of the source material used to reconstruct the life of Lokanatha is employed to offer practical methodological explanations for his absence from conventional narratives of modern Buddhism and what his inclusion along with other figures might mean in the future.
Sikh Formations, 2012
This article details the influences upon and the construction of Kundalini Yoga as introduced, ta... more This article details the influences upon and the construction of Kundalini Yoga as introduced, taught, and propagated in the West by Yogi Bhajan (1929–2004), by delving into the lost history of the practice's earliest years through previously neglected sources such as its documentation in rare early texts and interviews with early students and associates. As opposed to the official history of Kundalini Yoga that claims it as an ancient and secret tradition prior to Yogi Bhajan's open teaching of it, this article argues that it was a bricolage created by Yogi Bhajan himself and derived from two main figures: a hatha yoga teacher named Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari (1924–1994) and the Sikh sant Maharaj Virsa Singh (1934–2007). It is the aim of this article to provide clear evidence as to what Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga is and what it comprises, put forward the historical and cultural contexts in which it was developed and presented by Yogi Bhajan, and ultimately offer possible conclusions that could be drawn from this revised understanding.
The United States And South Asia From The Age Of Empire To Decolonization: A History of Entanglements, 2022
Through nearly a century of popular usage in America that started just after the Civil War, the t... more Through nearly a century of popular usage in America that started just after the Civil War, the term "fakir" acquired numerous successive meanings in the United States as it moved from India to a description of magicians in orientalist costumes on the vaudeville stage, then a term for ostentatious salesmen on American sidewalks, then to duplicitous con artists and criminals, and finally to the yogis and swamis from India who travelled to the United States and were labelled with the various meanings of the term. More than a simple loanword, the word fakir is one of the earliest, longest-running, and perhaps most influential ways in which American popular culture has engaged with ideas of India, and through a large cache of newspaper and magazine articles, this chapter will trace its history for the first time.
Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, 2021
‘Modern Yoga’, as defined by Elizabeth De Michelis (2004) and as discussed in many academic works... more ‘Modern Yoga’, as defined by Elizabeth De Michelis (2004) and as discussed in many academic works on yoga, has been influenced by the English-speaking world and the medium of English. This chapter highlights some general trends that might characterise the history of modern yoga – and, to some extent, meditation – from the late-nineteenth century to the present through global anglophone networks and the medium of the English language. We argue that modern yoga has been substantially influenced by the dominance of English-language presentations of yoga. However, English-language presentations of yoga and meditation have specific characteristics that should not necessarily be assumed to be dominant in other linguistic–cultural contexts. This chapter highlights an area in need of further research: a continued delineating of characteristics of English-language presentations of yoga in particular times and places combined with an outline of what might distinguish these presentations from other linguistic and cultural contexts.
25 Events that Shaped Asian American History: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic, 2019
"Here is the flagship edition of the most popular occult work of the past century, now published ... more "Here is the flagship edition of the most popular occult work of the past century, now published with a groundbreaking historical introduction that establishes its authentic authorship and a 'lost' bonus work by the original author." -From the publisher
The Revealer, 2023
Unusual experiences during meditation may help to explain why some people stay in abusive religio... more Unusual experiences during meditation may help to explain why some people stay in abusive religious communities.
Scroll.in, 2019
A singular early South Asian immigrant to the US, Singh repeatedly reinvented himself, becoming a... more A singular early South Asian immigrant to the US, Singh repeatedly reinvented himself, becoming a butler, aviator, chauffeur, investor and dubious guru.
TIDES: The Magazine of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), 2018
On February 19th, 1923, Bhagat Singh Thind was denied American citizenship by the Supreme Court. ... more On February 19th, 1923, Bhagat Singh Thind was denied American citizenship by the Supreme Court. Almost two decades later, he struggled for his freedom in a prison cell.
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 2017
Tides: The Magazine of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), Sep 10, 2015
Scroll.in, 2015
In the 1950s, Yogi Rao counted among his students several movie celebs and two of the richest wom... more In the 1950s, Yogi Rao counted among his students several movie celebs and two of the richest women on the planet. Ten months later, he was back in India.
American Religion, Object Lessons, 2022
Sacred Matters Magazine, 2021
Religious Studies Project, 2017
Religious Studies Project, Sep 19, 2015
A public talk on Yogi Rao, the Indian stage magician turned yoga guru, and his relationships with... more A public talk on Yogi Rao, the Indian stage magician turned yoga guru, and his relationships with American celebrities such as Doris Duke and Herb Jeffries during the early-1950s.
Given on February 20, 2014 at the Durham County Public Library in Durham, North Carolina.
Japanese Religion, 2021
One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in ... more One of the most unusual, influential, and overlooked figures in the early history of Buddhism in the United States was Swami Mazziniananda (pseudonym, unknown-1931), a former patent medicine salesman and quack doctor who became a spiritualist minister and fortune teller while claiming dubious credentials as a Buddhist bishop at the turn of the century. This article traces the rise of Mazziniananda and his connections to the Buddhist Mission of North America, as well as the circumstances surrounding their split and his final years. I suggest that the best way to understand the figure of Mazziniananda-his mixture of Buddhism and occultism, real engagement with other Buddhists and fabricated titles and rituals-is as a type of Buddhist "wandering bishop." Finally, I argue that in light of his close ties with the Japanese Buddhist establishment, the influence of his liturgy and hymnals, and the deep engagement with the occult by his contemporaries and the members of the Dharma Sangha of Buddha that preceded him, Swami Mazziniananda is best seen not as a marginal or atypical figure, but rather as central and emblematic of the Euro-American Buddhist converts of his time and the deep linkages between occultism and the history of Japanese Buddhism in America.
Sikh Formations, Mar 14, 2013
Amerasia Journal, 2014
This article examines the relationship between African American folk religion and American repres... more This article examines the relationship between African American folk religion and American representations of Hinduism and yoga in the early twentieth century. The essay focuses on how Westernized notions of yoga and Hinduism were absorbed by Hoodoo during the period. The essay traces how hybridized products and practices were manufactured, marketed, and widely sold.
Contemporary Buddhism, 2013
This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966),... more This article provides a biographical overview of the life of the Venerable Lokanatha (1897–1966), who was born in Italy as Salvatore Cioffi and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After converting to Buddhism in his late-twenties, Lokanatha travelled to Burma, took ordination as a monk, and began a remarkable 40 year career as a writer, lecturer, organizer, and Buddhist missionary throughout South Asia and the world. Beyond biography, Lokanatha and the various responses to him are contextualized within the different cultural spheres in which he operated, from the anti-colonial Buddhist revival in Burma to the mocking indifference Lokanatha found in the United States. Scholarship on modern Buddhism, particularly recent work on U Dhammaloka, is used to situate Lokanatha's life and its facets of conservative reformer and transnational actor. Finally, an account of the source material used to reconstruct the life of Lokanatha is employed to offer practical methodological explanations for his absence from conventional narratives of modern Buddhism and what his inclusion along with other figures might mean in the future.
Journal of Yoga Studies, 2018
Rishis and Rebels: The Punjabi Sikh Presence in Early American Yoga Philip Deslippe University of... more Rishis and Rebels: The Punjabi Sikh Presence in Early American Yoga Philip Deslippe University of California, Santa Barbara This article examines the role played by five Punjabi Sikh immigrants as teachers of yoga in the United States during the early to mid-‐‑twentieth century: Wassan Singh (1882-‐‑1942), Bhagwan Singh Gyanee (1884-‐‑1962), Rishi Singh Gherwal (1889-‐‑1964), Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-‐‑1967), and Sadhu Balwant Singh Grewal (1899-‐‑1985). After placing them in the context of modern yoga and its early history in America, it is suggested that as yoga teachers these five are best understood as immigrants and merchants who occupied a unique and liminal position between the prevailing antagonisms against South Asian immigration and a fascination with an imagined “metaphysical Asia.” In addition to their political activities for rights within the United States and an independent Indian nation abroad, they are cast as a significant presence in both the history of yoga...
