The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab"This is a pioneering study. Mir draws upon largely unfamiliar material and suggests new approaches to religio-cultural questions of great importance to South Asianists across a wide disciplinary spectrum."—Christopher Shackle, SOAS, University of London "Mir makes creative use of archival and folkloric material to tell the history of a composite, modern, and gendered Punjabi self in colonial India that was sadly lost in the welter of partition politics and violence. The story of the legendary lovers Heer and Ranjha haunts her narrative like an artistic lament about a lost Punjabi self without in any way compromising the academic quality of her research and the rigor of her exposition. A very significant contribution to South Asian history."—Dipesh Chakrabarty, The University of Chicago "Farina Mir has given us an outstanding work of literary and cultural history. She skillfully unravels the many versions of the famous folk-tale about Hir and Ranjha to illuminate gender, class and community relations in Punjab. This book will compel historians to rethink the links between language, religion and power and to reconsider the contingencies of union and partition in late colonial India."—Sugata Bose, author of A Hundred Horizons "Mir's archival work covers and foregrounds the breadth of the story-telling or qissa tradition, great and little, high and low, Sufi, Sikh and Hindu, showing its wide dissemination. Mir's findings are of immense significance, given the turbulent history of the region in post-independence India and the political turmoil today, particularly on the Pakistani side of the border. Panjabi seldom finds this kind of focus in cultural history."—Vasudha Dalmia, University of California, Berkeley |
Other editions - View all
The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab Farina Mir Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
administration Ahmad al-Din Amritsar argues Arya Samaj Asian Berkeley Bhai British India California Press Cambridge caste colonial officials colonial period colonial punjab colonial-era compositions context Delhi devotion early example Farid genres Government Guru Harfi hindi hindu Hir and Ranjha Hir wa Ranjha Hir-Ranjha texts Hir's History Husain Ibid indo-persian script Islam Jhang Khalsa Khera Kishan Singh Krishna Kutab Lahore language policy late nineteenth century linguistic literary tradition Malki missionaries Muhammad Muqbal Muslim narrative North India Oxford University Press Pakistan panj pir Patiala performance persian piety poetry poets political practices precolonial print culture produced province published punjabi books punjabi language punjabi literary formation punjabi literature punjabi print punjabi qisse punjabi texts Punjabi University qawwali qazi Qissa Hir religion religious Sang-e-Meel Shaikh Sikh Singh Sabha Siraiki social society socioreligious reform South Asia Sufi suggests Takht Hazara tion twentieth centuries University of California Urdu vernacular languages Waris Shah yogi