The decline of multilingualism in a divided public sphere
The Indian Press and cultural politics in colonial Allahabad (1890-1920)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3646832 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sougata Poddar (0000-0002-9290-9056, University of Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1798-1828 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0026749x22000622 |
| OpenAlex | W4380488626 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 12 |
This article draws attention to the provincial city of Allahabad at the turn of the century as the site of a prolific and multilingual print culture. While publishing trends in this city were shaped by the intertwined histories of political culture and cultural politics, specific journals responded to these forces in ways that remain unexamined. Taking the Indian Press-established in 1884 and arguably the city's most important multilingual publishing house-and four prominent journals that it produced (Saraswatī, Prabāsī, The Modern Review, and Adīb) as case study, I analyse the entanglements between print culture and debates on the contentious issues of languages and identities in a divided public sphere. Based on an extensive analysis of several decades of publishing trends for Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and English, I argue that the continued thriving of many languages, or multilingualism, cannot be read simply as evidence for the proliferation of syncretism in the early decades of the twentieth century. Through a detailed reading of this complex field of cultural production, I show that while multilingual publishing thrived, cultural discourse led by middle-class and elite intellectuals was increasingly becoming homogeneous and insular, pushing a milieu of multilingual readers and publishers towards a narrow nationalist and majoritarian ideal. Thus, upon close analysis, multilingualism as a cultural value in the era of colonial modernity mirrored the fractures within the public sphere
Colonialism · Elite · Media studies · Modernity · Multilingualism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Publishing · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Cinema and Culture
One language, two scripts
In the Shade of the Golden Palace
Between Empires
Poetry of Kings
The Indian Press 1870–1880
Between Qasbas and Cities
Bhadralok and Chhotolok in a Rural Area of West Bengal
Letters beautiful and harmful
Scripting a new identity
The Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress, 1915 to 1926
Periodical Readership in Early Twentieth Century Bengal
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |