Negotiating Languages: Urdu, Hindi, and the Definition of Modern South Asia*

Author: Walter N. Hakala

Brand: Primus Books

Features:

• Language -English

Binding: hardcover

Number Of Pages: 281

Release Date: 01-01-2017

Details: This book casts lexicographers as key figures in the political realignment of South Asia under British rule and in the years after independence. Prior to the nineteenth century, South Asian dictionaries, glossaries, and vocabularies reflected a hierarchical vision of nature and human society. By the turn of the twentieth century, the modern dictionary had democratized and politicized language. Compiled ‘scientifically’ through ‘historical principles’, the modern dictionary became a concrete symbol of a nation’s arrival on the world stage. Their dictionaries document how a single, mutually intelligible language evolved into two competing registers—Urdu and Hindi—and became associated with contrasting religious and nationalist goals. Each chapter in this book focuses on a key lexicographical work and its fateful political consequences. Effectively, this book recovers overlooked texts and denigrated authors to provide insights into the forces that turned intimate speech into potent nationalist politics, intensifying the passions that partitioned the Indian subcontinent.

EAN: 9789384092702

Package Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches

Languages: English