In this Book
- The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of California Press
- Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines
summary
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.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-26
- 1. Forging a Language Policy
- pp. 27-61
- 2. Punjabi Print Culture
- pp. 62-90
- 3. A Punjabi Literary Formation
- pp. 91-122
- 4. Place and Personhood
- pp. 123-149
- 5. Piety and Devotion
- pp. 150-182
- Conclusion
- pp. 183-194
- Appendix B. Punjabi Newspapers, 1880–1905
- pp. 203-205
- Bibliography
- pp. 245-270
- Production Notes
- p. 279
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520947641
Related ISBN(s)
9780520262690
MARC Record
OCLC
669495772
Pages
294
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No