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Wit, Wisdom and Music in Print: An Urdu Magazine on the Performing Arts in Colonial India

Presenter:

· Gianni Sievers University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, United States of America)

Timeslot:

07/27 | 15:50-16:10 UTC+2/CEST

Abstract

The role of print culture on the dissemination of knowledge, the formation of a public sphere, and the shaping of identities in colonial South Asia is a growing field of study. Likewise, cultural historians of the region are increasingly engaging with links between the formation of “classical” performance traditions, social reform movements and nationalism. However, we still know relatively little about the ways in which music and dance featured in vernacular magazines in colonial India. In this paper, I join recent studies that begin to shed new light on the diversity and proliferation of debates about music and nationalism in Indian languages by focusing on “The Music Gazette of India,” a subscription-based Urdu newspaper from the 1910s. This magazine focused on music-related issues ranging from discussions about newly invented instruments and recording devices to noteworthy performances, changes in pedagogical concepts, and the relationship between music and the nation (qaum). Recurring elements of the magazine were cartoons in the style of the well-known Avadh Punch and op-eds by Urdu writers such as Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1926). What were the themes and positions voiced in it? Who was the target audience? How did humor and sarcasm fit into debates about music, the nation and progress? How were women portrayed and what was the role ascribed to religion? By making use of both its articles as well as its illustrations and cartoons as historical sources, I aim to show how this monthly magazine fostered exchanges about music and culture among the Urdu-speaking public sphere of colonial northern India, the diversity and richness of which have largely been forgotten.