Bhai Vir Singh (1872–1957)

Religious and Literary Modernities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Indian Punjab

Anshu Malhotra, Anne Murphy, Anshu Malhotra, Anne Murphy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032267784
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000867008
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Asian Religions

This volume brings together works by established and emerging scholars to consider the work and impact of Bhai Vir Singh. Bhai Vir Singh (1872-1957) was a major force in the shaping of modern Sikh and Punjabi culture, language, and politics in the undivided colonial Punjab, prior to the Partition of the province in 1947, and in the post-colonial state of India. The chapters in this book explore how he both reflected and shaped his time and context and address some of the ongoing legacy of his work in the lives of contemporary Sikhs. The contributors analyze the varied genres, literary, and historical that were adopted and adapted by Bhai Vir Singh to foreground and enhance Sikh religiosity and identity. These include his novels, didactic pamphlets, journalistic writing, prefatory and exegetical work on spiritual and secular historical documents, and his poems and lyrics, among others. This book will be of particular interest to those working in Sikh studies, South Asian studies, and post-colonial studies.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• 1 Introduction: Bhai Vir Singh as an Author, Scholar, and Reformist
• 2 Innovation in Punjabi Literature: Considerations on the Advent of Literary Modernity
• 3 Print Publics, Literary Experiments, and Community Formation in the Work of Bhai Vir Singh
• 4 The Conversion Loop: Gender, Identity, and Storytelling in Bhai Vir Singh's Sundarī
• 5 Revisiting The Khalsa Samachar (1899-1900): Women's Issues and Concerns
• 6 Didacticism and Punjabi Theatre: Bhai Vir Singh's Experimental Raja Lakhdata Singh
• 7 Beyond the Past: Poetry as a Notation of the Present
• 8 Intertextuality and Reception History: Connecting Bhai Vir Singh's Srī Kalgīdhar Camatkār to Gurbilās Literature
• 9 Vir Singh's Publication of the Gurpratāp Sūraj Granth
• 10 Bhai Vir Singh's Puratan Janamsakhi: Sikh Book Culture and the Historical Turn
• 11 Transcendence and the Modern Sikh Subject: Analyzing Bhai Vir Singh's Theology
• 12 The Manifold Lives of Bhai Vir Singh's Sundri
• Index