The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab

Farina Mir

Published by University of California Press 2010

The Social Space of Language

Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab

Farina Mir

Volume 2 in the series South Asia Across the Disciplines

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520947641

Overview
Contents

About this book

This rich cultural history set in Punjab examines a little-studied body of popular literature to illustrate both the durability of a vernacular literary tradition and the limits of colonial dominance in British India. Farina Mir asks how qisse, a vibrant genre of epics and romances, flourished in colonial Punjab despite British efforts to marginalize the Punjabi language. She explores topics including Punjabi linguistic practices, print and performance, and the symbolic content of qisse. She finds that although the British denied Punjabi language and literature almost all forms of state patronage, the resilience of this popular genre came from its old but dynamic corpus of stories, their representations of place, and the moral sensibility that suffused them. Her multidisciplinary study reframes inquiry into cultural formations in late-colonial north India away from a focus on religious communal identities and nationalist politics and toward a widespread, ecumenical, and place-centered poetics of belonging in the region.

Author / Editor information

Mir Farina :

Farina Mir is Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
A Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Use of Foreign Terms Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Forging a Language Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2. Punjabi Print Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. A Punjabi Literary Formation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
4. Place and Personhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Appendix A. Colonial-Era Hir-Ranjha Texts Consulted Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Appendix B. Punjabi Newspapers, 1880–1905 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Appendix C. Punjabi Books Published Prior to 1867 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 294

eBook

Published: July 4, 2010
ISBN: 9780520947641