'Plants of Slow Growth': Print, Radio, and the World in Punjab, C.1892-1955 Arshdeep Singh Brar

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Brar, Arshdeep Singh, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. History., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

0391.

0578.

0615.

0638.

0900.

Local Subjects:

0391.

0578.

0615.

0638.

0900.

Physical Description:

1 electronic resource (222 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 87-07A

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2025

Language Note:

English

Summary:

My dissertation studies how the print sphere in colonial Punjab responded to local and global transformations across the first half of the twentieth century as it transitioned from British rule to being partitioned and reallocated under the new postcolonial states of Pakistan and India. It analyzes output across various genres (magazines, tracts, radio plays, petitions), deploying a multilingual approach that spans the domains of literary history, public broadcasting, and visions of state-planning. The dissertation is book-ended by two publications - The Report of Material Progress in Punjab during the decade of 1881-1891 (1892) and the "Manto Nambar" (1955) of the Urdu magazine Pagdandī, published out of Amritsar in April-May, 1955 after the death of the Urdu author Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955). This period would witness many provincial and national milestones. The British administration characterized Punjab as "preponderatingly rural" where enthusiasm and taste for "literature and the arts" were "plants of slow growth". However, I show how over the early twentieth century, the province witnessed an intensification of print activity as the realm of Punjab's cultural politics articulated ideas of internationalism, reacted to changing norms of gender, and came to terms with the threat posed by the global conflict of the Second World War. I conclude my study by describing how after the Partition in 1947, new visions of statehood emerged in the respective Punjabis as civic actors reimagined linguistic citizenship on the grounds of contemporary politics and historical grievances. Through a sustained focus over the first half of the twentieth century and by extending the scope of my study across the Partition, my dissertation provides a detailed narrative of everyday intellectual, cultural, and political anxieties otherwise occluded in histories of Punjab

Notes:

Advisors: Sreenivasan, Ramya Committee members: Robb, Megan Eaton; Rosenfeld, Sophia

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-07, Section: A.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2025

Vendor supplied data

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798276001388

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license