VERNACULAR CULTURE IN COLONIAL PUNJAB THE SOCIAL SPACE OF LANGUAGE

“Farina 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 Hir 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

“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, University of London

“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.