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This book provides an in-depth exploration of South Asian readaptations of race in vernacular languages. The focus is on a diverse set of printed texts, periodicals and books in Hindi and Urdu, two of the major print languages of British North India, written between 1860 and 1930.
List of contents
Introduction, Part One, Introduction - From Beasts and Demons to Inferior Races? Civilization and the Shifting Ideas on Human Difference in the Hindi and Urdu Public Spheres, Chapter 1 - The Civilized and the Uncivilized: Dividing the World in the Late Nineteenth Century, Chapter 2 - Hindi Literati’s Savage Others? The ‘Showcasing of the Wild’ and the Permanence of the Civilizing Mission, Chapter 3 - ‘Struggle for Existence’ and Eugenics: a Comparison Between Hindi and Urdu, Chapter 4 - The Nature-Nurture Debate on Caste, Part Two, Introduction: Hindi and Urdu Advisory Literature on reproduction: the cases of Santati-Śāstra and kokaśastra, Chapter 5 - 'Mental Force' or Selective Breeding? Comparing Two Para-Eugenic Rationalities, Chapter 6 - 'Selecting the Best Flowers from the World's Gardens of Knowledge': Vernacularization and Scientific Referencing, Chapter 7 - Between ‘Artificial Contraceptives’ and Brahmacārya. Ambivalent Attitudes To Birth Control in the Hindi Public Sphere, Conclusion.
About the author
Luzia Savary received her doctorate in History of the Modern World from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland. She currently works as an interpreter at the Refugee Office of the Italian Consortium of Solidarity in Trieste, Italy.
Summary
This book provides an in-depth exploration of South Asian readaptations of race in vernacular languages. The focus is on a diverse set of printed texts, periodicals and books in Hindi and Urdu, two of the major print languages of British North India, written between 1860 and 1930.
