Diasporic sublime: Sikh martyrs, Internet mediations, and the question of the unimaginable

Abstract

How are the Internet and the World Wide Web productive of new forms of cultural life? I analyse how the confluence of martyrdom, terror, and computer-mediated-communications has contributed to the emergence of a Sikh diasporic cultural politics. I argue that the centrality and force of both the Internet and the figure of the martyr for many Khalistanis prompt a rethinking of the privilege scholars often accord to the “imagination” and “experience” in explaining the creation of diasporic communities. In outlining what I call the diasporic sublime, I mine the works of Walter Benjamin and Immanuel Kant to develop a more precise way for talking about community formation in terms of the inexperiencable and the unimaginable.

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