Farina Mir 
The Social Space of Language [EPUB ebook] 
Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab

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.

Innehållsförteckning

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

A Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Use of Foreign Terms


Introduction


1. Forging a Language Policy

2. Punjabi Print Culture

3. A Punjabi Literary Formation

4. Place and Personhood

5. Piety and Devotion


Conclusion


Appendix A. Colonial-Era Hir-Ranjha Texts Consulted

Appendix B. Punjabi Newspapers, 1880–1905

Appendix C. Punjabi Books Published Prior to 1867


Notes

Bibliography

Index

Om författaren

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