Modernity, Print and Sahitya : The Making of a New Literary Culture, 1866-1919

The advent of print heralded a significant chapter in the history of colonial modernity in South Asia that led to the emergence of new literary cultures in the region. This book documents the story of Odia literature, in the context of similar but conflicting linguistic-territorial cultures of Eastern India. Through an in-depth study of a large corpus of archival material, the volume traces the development of new literary practices and cultures facilitated mainly by the formation of new public and literary spheres with the rapid spread of European education. While the phenomenon was not unique to Odia, this study identifies several local factors that were distinctive about its literary sphere and traces how, under political compulsions, an Englisheducated intellectual class in Odisha used agents of modernity such as print, education, the new sciences, travel and communication to forge a new aesthetic without completely breaking with the past. They also tried to define, articulate and press for what they thought were their unique linguistic-territorial identities as well as nationalist aspirations. This book investigates the shifting and mutating dispositions of the newly emerged Odia print culture while addressing major questions such as those around colonial modernity, linguistic identity, book history, canon formation and new aesthetic forms. Thus, the book is an important addition to the growing body of scholarship on literary cultures in India. It will be of interest to students and researchers of modernity studies, post-colonialism, print and book history, cultural studies, linguistic and critical theory, and languages of Asia. Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Epigraph Introduction Print: “Effect and Consequences” Concept Notes Modernity in the Vernacular New Kind of Newness Sahitya The Proto-Public Sphere Bhagabat Tungi Pedagogic Spaces as “Public” Bhand, Rahasya and Chatuni The Field of Scholarship The Present Book Three Segments Chapter Summaries Notes Chapter 1: Sahitya in Times of Crisis: Print, Periodicals and the Odia Public Sphere The Outbreak of Emotion Interrogating the Hegemonic Discourses The Intimations of the Enemy The Union of Utkal Sahitya and Jati Press of the Mission and the Mission of the Press Cuttack Printing Company and After The Periodical Press and the Literary Sphere Pressures of Material Conditions Potentially Subversive Notes Chapter 2: Reappraisals and Renewals: Prachin versus Adhunik Kavya/Sahitya/Literature Sahitya and the Pedagogic Space I Sahitya and the Pedagogic Space II The Dilemma of the Literary Editors Pothi to Print Sahitya, Samalochana and Samalochana Sahitya Natyashastra and Taste Sahitya in the Pedagogic Space III Demonising Adi Rasa and the New Metrical Concern Kavya to Gadya Coitus Interruptus: Self-Censorship in the New Sahitya The Printing Press and New Odia Sahitya The Periodical Press and the Novel Form The Resilience of Rasa i Shanta and/or Karuna Rasa ii Bibhatsa Rasa or the Rasa of Disgust Notes Chapter 3: Mapping the Terrain and Legitimising the Past: The Carving of “Utkal” Sahitya Textualising Utkal Singers of the Past History in Verse History and the Early Odia Novel The Importance of Lachhama The Discovery of Odisha: Odia Travel Writing Visibilising the Territory: Maps and Compass Poetical History Geography Summing Up Notes Chapter 4: Print and the Shaping of a Moral Community The New Discourse Need to Uplift The Home of Morals The Question of Morality and the Public Space Na-Taka: Enacting Moral Allegories Radhanath’s Rite of Passage Fakir Mohan’s Dialogism The Woman’s Body as the Site of Odia Morality Ars Erotica and Adi Rasa Moral Schooling From the Aestheticist to the Utilitarian Notes Chapter 5: Odia Literary Modernity: Consolidations The New is in the News A New Kind of Newness Light of Knowledge Patenting, Registration and Companies News as Muse Reviews and Notices Circulation of Print and Odia Drama Circulation of Print and the Odia Short Story The Periodical Press and Nation Building Gopabandhu’s Satyabadi and a New Political Aesthetic Notes Conclusion Notes References Web Links Contemporary Books and Documents Contemporary Journals/ News Papers/ Periodicals Printed Books and Journal Articles Index