An obscure archive: Hindi-Urdu Periodicals from late colonial India, 1900-1950 (EAP1435)

Aims and objectives

This is an effort to rescue and digitize some little-known but significant journals, newspapers, books and film publicity booklets in Hindi, Urdu and English, and render these visible and freely available for research to a global community interested in histories of Hindi-Urdu public and popular spheres. Of the general-purpose magazines, the Allahabad-based Chand and its short-lived sister publication, Bhavishya, were frequently proscribed by the colonial administration for their radical content and advocacy of freedom and equality based on caste, class and gender. Deepali was a film magazine published in English from Kolkata. Most importantly, Sadaqat was a Kanpur-based weekly newspaper in Urdu that straddled the colonial and post-colonial divide and a couple of centuries (1925-2013). It carried news, views and discussions on economy, polity, society, culture, religion and literature, and a lot of advertisements for a variety of products including films.