Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Balbinder Singh Bhogal is the Sardarni Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair in Sikh Studies and Professor of Religion at Hofstra University, where he has held the endowed chair since 2007. His research addresses the philosophy and exegesis of Guru Granth Sahib in sustained dialogue with continental philosophy, hermeneutic theory, deconstruction, and postcolonial thought. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2001, with a dissertation titled <strong><em>Nonduality and Skilful Means in the Hymns of Guru Nanak: Hermeneutics of the Word</em></strong>, and his B.A. (Hons) from Lancaster University.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">"The Animal Sublime: Rethinking the Sikh Mystical Body" (<strong><em>Journal of the American Academy of Religion</em></strong>, 2012) argues that British colonial reform movements split the animal body from the rational mind in the creation of Sikhism as a monotheistic analog to Christianity, imposing a hierarchical "verticality" that overlooked the temporal and horizontal tenor of Sikh scripture in which the body is the site of socio-religious praxis. The article recovers what Bhogal calls the suppressed "pantheistic" dimension of Sikh scripture, reading the Sikh mystical body alongside Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch to probe the modern Western subject from a posthumanist and postcolonial position.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">"Sikh Dharam and Postcolonialism: Hegel, Religion, and Zizek" (<strong><em>Journal for the Academic Study of Religion</em></strong>, 2012) examines how Hegel's philosophy of religion constructed the category of "Sikhism" within a teleological schema that subordinated non-Christian traditions, and reads Slavoj Žižek's engagement with Hegel to assess the continuing relevance of this framework. "Monopolizing Violence Before and After 1984: Governmental Law and the People's Passion" (<strong><em>Sikh Formations</em></strong>, 2011) addresses state violence against Sikhs and the relationship between governmental law and popular religious attachment. "Decolonizations: Cleaving Gestures that Refuse the Alien Call for Identity Politics" (<strong><em>Religions of South Asia</em></strong>, 2010) served as the introductory essay to a review symposium on Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair's <strong><em>Religion and the Specter of the West</em></strong>, engaging the politics of decolonial thought in relation to the study of Sikh tradition.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">"Ghostly Disorientations: Translating the Adi Granth as the Guru Granth" (<strong><em>Sikh Formations</em></strong>, 2006) and "Questioning Hermeneutics with Freud: How to Interpret Dreams and Mute-Speech in Sikh Scripture" (<strong><em>Sikh Formations</em></strong>, 2005) explore how the translation of the Guru Granth Sahib within colonial modernity was mediated by European hermeneutic assumptions, and what interpretive resources — including psychoanalysis — might be brought to bear on Sikh textuality beyond those inherited frameworks. "Subject to Interpretation: Philosophical Messengers and Poetic Reticence in Sikh Textuality" (<strong><em>Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics</em></strong>, 2011) extends this project.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">His book chapters include "Text as Sword: Sikh Religious Violence Taken for Wonder" in Richard King and John R. Hinnells (eds.), <strong><em>Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice</em> </strong>(Routledge, 2006); "Postcolonial and Postmodern Perspectives on Sikhism" in Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), <strong><em>The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies</em></strong> (Oxford University Press, 2014); "Undressing Political Theology for an Animal-Saint Redress" in Clayton Crockett and Catherine Keller (eds.), <strong><em>Political Theology on Edge: Ruptures of Justice and Belief in the Anthropocene </em></strong>(Fordham University Press, 2021); "Gur-Sikh Dharam" in Purushottama Bilimoria (ed.), <strong><em>History of Indian Philosophy </em></strong>(Routledge, 2018); "Sikhi(sm): Yoga and Meditation" in the <strong><em>Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies</em></strong> (2021); "Death and Dying within the Guru Granth Sahib" in Pashaura Singh and Arvind-Pal Mandair (eds.), <strong><em>The Sikh World</em></strong>(Routledge, 2023); "The Facts of Colonial Modernity and the Story of Sikhism" (<em>Sikh Formations</em>, 2015); "On the Hermeneutics of Sikh Thought and Praxis" in Christopher Shackle, Gurharpal Singh, and Arvind-Pal Mandair (eds.), <strong><em>Sikh Religion, Culture, and Ethnicity</em></strong> (Curzon/Routledge, 2001); and the entry on "Dreams (Sikhism)" in Mandair (ed.), <strong><em>Sikhism</em></strong> (Springer, 2017). With Francesca Cassio, Prabhsharandeep Singh, and Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker, he co-authored "The Necessity of a Decolonial Frame — Undoing the Inscriptions of Colonial Modernity in the Study of Sikh Musical Heritage" in <strong><em>Dialogues: Towards Decolonizing Music and Dance Studies</em></strong> (2022).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">In his role as Bindra Chair, Bhogal has organized or co-organized nine international conferences at Hofstra since 2008, addressing topics including the hermeneutics of Sikh music (<em><strong>rāg</strong></em>) and word (<em><strong>shabad</strong></em>) (2010), political theology and the Sikh tradition, and the 2012 Oak Creek gurdwara massacre. He convened a 2021 conference on the Kisan Morcha examining neoliberal violence, Hindutva, and farmer resistance.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Before joining Hofstra, Bhogal held positions at York University in Toronto (Associate Professor, South Asian Religions and Cultures, Division of Humanities, Faculty of Arts), James Madison University in Virginia, and the University of Derby in England.</p>

The philosophy and critical interpretation of the Guru Granth Sahib, with emphasis on nonduality, sabad, and the hermeneutics of Sikh textuality. Continental philosophy in dialogue with Sikh thought, drawing on deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology. The colonial construction of "Sikhism" as a category, including Hegelian framings and the religion-secular divide. Postcolonial and decolonial theory as applied to the study of South Asian religions. The relationship between violence, sovereignty, and political theology in Sikh history. The animal-human divide and posthumanist approaches to the Sikh mystical body.