Hindi Publishing in Colonial Lucknow

Description

Investigating the emergence of Hindi publishing in colonial Lucknow, long a stronghold of Urdu and Persian literary culture, Shobna Nijhawan offers a detailed study of literary activities emerging out of the publishing house Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā in the first half of the twentieth century. Closely associated with it was the Hindi monthly Sudhā, a literary, socio-political, and illustrated periodical, in which Hindi writings were promoted and developed for the education and entertainment of the reader.
In charting the literary networks established by Dularelal Bhargava, the proprietor of Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā and chief editor of Sudhā, this volume sheds light on his role in the development of Hindi language and literature, creation of canonical literature, and commercialization and nationalization of books and periodicals in the north Indian Hindi public sphere.
Using vernacular primary sources and drawing on scholarship on periodicals and publishing houses as well as editor-publishers that has emerged over the past two decades, Nijhawan shows how one publishing house singlehandedly impacted the role of Hindi in the public sphere.

About the Author
Shobna Nijhawan is associate professor of Hindi in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at York University (Toronto, Canada).

Table of contents

List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Acknowledgements
Note on Orthography and Translation
Introduction: Gender, Genre, and Visuality—New
Approaches to the Study of Periodicals
1. The Hindi Literary Sphere (1920s–1940s) from the
Micro-Perspective of Lucknow
Lucknow in the 1920s: A New Centre for Hindi Periodicals
Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā Kāryālay: Publisher and Distributor Printers, Publishers, and Distributors in the Hindi Public Sphere
2. Marketing Sudhā (1927–41): Objectives, Scope, and Appeal
Layout
Advertisements
Authorship in Sudhā
Customer Care and Appraisals
Marketing Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā’s Publications
Visual Appeal: Front-Cover Images and First-Page
Illustrations
3. ‘Canon’ Formation (Part I): Literature for Middle-Class
Readers
Poetry and Prose at the Interface between Utilitarian–Nationalist
Dwivedi Kāl, Romantic–Shadowist Chāyāvād, and Progressive
Pragativād
Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā and Genre Development
4. ‘Canon’ Formation (Part II): Sudhā’s Repository of Knowledge
Sudhā’s Columns
Conclusion: Literary Visions and Gendered Visuality in the Hindi Public Sphere
Bibliography
Index
About the Author