This thesis explores the fraught intersections between gender and the nationalist imaginary in the work of Pakistani women writers, from the period of the country’s inception in 1947 to more contemporary narrative treatments of the subject and its various tropes. The central concern is how these complex literary interventions figure across a hegemonic nationalist historiography which refuses to grant them a representational space. My project views the literary practice of these women authors in terms of what is at stake when their varied and diverse gendered contributions compel Pakistani nationalist discourse to re-evaluate its own precarious ideological foundations. These writers and the repressed histories their texts are a repository for, negotiate a tenuous path between the potentially regenerative power of an independent, postcolonial future and their position as marginalised silence within this supposedly ‘inclusive’reality. The project addresses its main research questions in an Introduction and four chapters. The first section unpacks how the work of authors such as Khadija Mastoor and Hijab Imtiaz Ali has been elided across various postcolonial discourses. In Chapter 1 I examine the various routes to agency that have been theorised by feminists in the postcolonial context and how this can be applied to the work of Pakistani writers, Farkhanda Lodhi and A.R. Khatun. These methodologies are tested III against the bloody Partitioning of the Indian sub-continent in the second chapter, necessitating a rethink of the possibilities of agency represented by the female body when it is under the threat of violence and erasure. My penultimate chapter focuses on the seemingly banal, but immensely popular genre of romance literature in Pakistan, on which very little research has been conducted. To this end I have chosen Qaisra Shahraz's romance epic, The Holy Woman. The final chapter explores tropes of migration and return in the diasporic imaginary of contemporary Pakistani women writers, Bapsi Sidhwa, Kamila Shamsie and Uzma Aslam Khan and their novels An American Brat, Kartography and Trespassing respectively.

The thesis examines the development of the short story in Pakistan Panjab from 1947 to 1980. While the main focus is on short stories by the major Panjab-born authors of the period writing in Urdu, the principal literary language of the province, attention is also paid to the emergence of short story writing in the rival local languages, Panjabi and Siraiki. The first part of the thesis consists of three general chapters designed to establish the necessary overall context for the subsequent discussion of the work of individual writers. These chapters deal in turn (1) with the successive regimes which have governed Pakistan, with particular reference to their often abrupt shifts in cultural policy; (2) with the complex patterns of language use in Pakistan, especially the implications for the status of Urdu caused by the immigration of the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs from India and the subsequent rise of local nationalism in the country's provinces; and (3) with a survey of the place of literature in Pakistani culture and society, particularly the role of the short story. The second part deals with the work of leading writers and schools. Separate chapters (4-8) are successively devoted to the description and analysis of the Urdu stories of Ahmad Madim Qasimi, Ashfaq Ahmad, Bano Qudsia, Mas'ud Ash'ar and Anwar Sajjad, while chapter 9 covers the Urdu stories of the Young writers of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad school, chapters 10 is devoted to stories written in Panjabi during the period, and chapter 11 to the still more recent emergence of short stories in Siraiki. A brief concluding chapter is followed by a comprehensive bibliography of the primary and secondary sources which, together with interviews conducted with the writers whose work is dealt with here, from the basis of this thesis.

The thesis studies the shaping of ideas and identities in colonial Bengal in the context of the formation of standardised vernacular print-cultures. Bengali language and literature in the nineteenth century had provided an arena for rivalries and contestation across a broad social spectrum. Upper bhadralok literati, petty bourgeois groups and even plebeian elements saw Bengali literature and language as important fields for cultural context and were able actively to influence the formation of contemporary norms and tastes. At the centre of this process lay the efforts of upper bhadralok literati to create a new literary prose Bengali and to distinguish it from what they condemned as loose colloquial forms, alleged to be polluted by Perso-arabic words, rustic expressions, and an abundant sexuality. The new Bengali became the hallmark defining the urban educated upper middle classes, and an essential tool for establishing their power over less privileged groups. However, commercial print-cultures centred at Battala in Calcutta, and shared by a range of other urban groups, disseminated literary preferences that ran counter to these efforts to define boundaries of 'polite' and 'vulgar'. The study thus also calls into question our present understanding of a homogeneous, western educated Bengali middle class or bhadralok. Literate petty urban groups emerge in this study as vital constituents of the Bengali middle class sensibility, opening up further dimensions of the group's colonial experience. The bhadralok that emerge from this study were neither simply a conservative literati defending a traditional brahmanical social order, nor were they resignedly withdrawn into an essentialised spiritual 'inner' domain, supposedly untouched by the colonial world. Significant sections also participated in robust and earthy forms of popular literature and performance which irreverently mocked at such anxiety and puritanism, and vehemently attacked the pretensions of social superiors.

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The present study is an attempt to examine critically the Sinhalese puristic movement extending from the 1920's to 1970, which was inaugurated by Munidasa Kumaratunga and had as its objective the resuscitation in its wholeness of the framework of classical Sinhalese grammar and style. A brief discussion of the nature of Sinhalese diglossia with occasional relevant reference to other diglossic situations is included in chapter I both to illustrate the general character of Sinhalese and to show how it could be conducive to the rise and continuance of puristic endeavour. The same chapter also presents a thumbnail sketch of the history of Sinhalese in order to establish the historical origins of the dichotomy existing between written and spoken Sinhalese. The second chapter discusses the historical and linguistic background from the end of the fifteenth century which brings to an end the classical period of Sinhalese writing, and which the modern purists regarded as incepting a period of linguistic decadence. The first beginnings of puristic revivalism can be seen in the latter half of the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth century with their nativistic tendency. These are dealt with in chapter III. Chapter IV is devoted to discussing the emergence of Kumaratunga, his linguistic objectives and the inception of his Hela Havula (Pure Sinhalese Fraternity). The fraternity's conception of language and its proper development together with its definition of grammar and correctness are taken into consideration in chapter V. Chapter VI is an analysis of the grammatical works of the movement which were designed to teach the Helese doctrine of perfection, The activities of the followers of Kumaratunga and their zealous endeavour to propagate his linguistic credo are dealt with in chapter VII. The final chapter discusses, firstly, the recent attempt of the Hela Havula to obtain authoritative recognition of its special linguistic features by using governmental backing to get them introduced into the state-sponsored Standard Sinhalese Grammar and the series of Sinhalese school text books. Secondly, it discusses the causes which led to the decline dying out of the Hela movement. Two appendices are included to illustrate some of the points discussed.

Thumri is a vocal genre in North Indian (Hindustani) art music. It was traditionally used in songstress-courtesan performance, in the early nineteenth century as an accompaniment to interpretive dance, and later as a lyrical and emotive song form. Thumri is now one of the most popular genres in contemporary art music. The lyrics of thumri have not been the subject of extensive academic enquiry. This dissertation examines thumri texts from two perspectives: linguistic and contextual. It is primarily based on song texts collected during field work in North India in 1996-97, as well as on material transcribed from commercial recordings and printed sources. The detailed linguistic analysis carried out in chapter two provides an overview of the idiosyncrasies of the language of thumri texts, and explores their stylistic consequences. Chapter three examines the formal structure of the texts. Chapter four discusses the main themes that occur in thumri, and their literary antecedents. Thumri's contextual element is salient: in the process of negotiating the gradual move from courtesan's salon to modem concert stage, awareness of the relevance of thumri's historical role has been eroded to such an extent that we can speak of a 'reinvented' tradition. Chapter five locates thumri within the milieu of North Indian music culture, and examines how changes in the genre's context have affected its lyrics. Chapter six addresses issues of authenticity, as the ramifications of how genres respond to changing performance environments are considered. The conclusion is followed by three appendices. Appendix one contains the main corpus, the 108 texts upon which the dissertation is based. The texts are given with their variant versions where known, resulting in a total of 180 texts. These are translated, and problematic points of grammar and translation are briefly discussed. Appendix two consists of five charts which overview the use of rhyme and other poetic devices in thumri. Appendix three comprises a glossary of technical terms used in the thesis.

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This thesis deals with the earliest period of Urdu literature and the language of those texts which were for the most part composed in the various centres of the Deccan during the two and a half centuries between the decline of the Delhi Sultanate and the annexation of the south of India by Aurangzeb. The language of these works is usually referred to as Dakani. A small number of texts which have been ascribed to the fifteenth century A. D. and a number of early works composed in the province of Gujarat have also been taken into account. The vast majority of Dakanl works were written after 1580 AD, in the cities of Bijapur and Golkunda which at that time became the two most important centres of literary activity.

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