Punjab Reconsidered History, Culture, and Practice

by Malhotra, Anshu; Mir, Farina

• ISBN13: 9780198078012
• ISBN10: 0198078013
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book considers the notion of 'Punjabiyat', and examines if there exists an 'idea of Punjab' or 'ideas of Punjab' that connects people from the region, now scattered across the globe. Deploying a variety of methodological and disciplinary techniques, the volume discusses changing contours and notions of territoriality, migrations, and diaspora; language and literary cultures; colonial experience; religious identities; Sikh studies and identity; cultural and religious syncretism; and middle class and urban spaces; conversion and politics of difference. Through a careful analyses of aspects of Punjabi social, cultural, political, and religious history, it explores areas like mentalities and social texts, symbols and cultural representations, elite and popular cultures, social codes and their performance and reception. This book will interest scholars, students, and researchers of history, particularly modern India, as well as sociology and cultural studies.

Author Biography

Dr. Anshu Malhotra is Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Dr Farina Mir is Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
List of Abbreviations	p. xi
Note on Translation, Transliteration, and Diacritics	p. xiii
Punjab in History and Historiography: An Introduction	p. xv
Literary Cultures and Language Politics
Punjabi Sufi Poetry from Farid to Farid	p. 3
Language, the Nation, and Symbolic Capital: The Case of Punjab	p. 35
Texts, Contexts, and Religious Identities
The History of the Zafar-namah of Guru Gobind Singh	p. 65
An Idea of Religion: Identity, Difference, and Comparison in the Gurbilas	p. 93
Guru Nanak's Life and Legacy: An Appraisal	p. 116
Religious Cultures: Marginal, Popular, Controversial
Brotherhood of the Pure: The Poetics and Politics of Cultural Transgression	p. 163
Panths and Piety in the Nineteenth Century: The Gulabdasis of Punjab	p. 189
Genre and Devotion in Punjabi Popular Narratives: Rethinking Cultural and Religious Syncretism	p. 221
Brave Converts in the Arya Samaj: The Case of Dharm Pal	p. 261
Colonialism: Rural and Urban Cultures
Environmental History, Biradari, and the Making of Pakistani Punjab	p. 289
Being Middle Class in Late Colonial Punjab	p. 320
Translating the Public in Colonial Punjab	p. 356
Cosmopolitanisms: Historical and Contemporary
Bhagat Singh: A Politics of Death and Hope	p. 377
Post-Partition Pluralism: Placing Islam in Indian Punjab	p. 409
Migration, Cultural Legibility, and the Politics of Identity in the Making of British Sikh Communities	p. 435
Notes on Contributors	p. 459
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