‘Dirty’ Hindi Literature: Contests About Obscenity in Late Colonial North India

South Asia Research

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 89-118

  Gupta, Charu ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84992856477     PISSN: 02627280     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/026272800002000202     Document Type: Article

References (156)

1. It has been argued that in particular historical moments, widespread social fears and anxieties may result in ‘moral panics’ around sexuality, especially among the middle classes. See Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers, London, 1972, p. 9;
2. Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800, London, 1981, pp. 14, 92.
3. Lyla Bavadam, ‘In Defence of Freedom in Art: Against the Hindutva Attack on M.F. Husain,’ Frontline, 15 November 1996, pp. 4–9;
4. Monica Juneja, ‘Reclaiming the Public Sphere: Husain's Portrayal of Saraswati and Draupadi,’ Economic and Political Weekly (hereafter EPW), Vol. 32, No. 4, 25 January 1997, pp. 155–57.
5. Rashme Sehgal and Narendra Panjwani, ‘Is She Objectionable Because She's Nude?’, The Sunday Times of India Review, 19 January 1997, p. 1.
6. For example, see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, London, 1983;
7. Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, trans. Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson, Cambridge, 1991;
8. Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. Alan Sheridan, London, 1972;
9. Elisabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols, Cambridge, 1979.
10. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley, New York, 1978, pp. 24–25, 145–46.
11. Lynn Hunt, ‘Introduction: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity. 1500–1800’ in Lynn Hunt, ed., The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500–1800. New York, 1993;
12. Peter Michelson, Speaking the Unspeakable: A Poetics of Obscenity, Albany, 1993, p. 3;
13. Brian McNair, Mediated Sex: Pornography and Postmodern Culture, London, 1996, pp. 42, 53.
14. File 570/1923, Judl, Home Deptt, NAI; S.H.S Gour, The Penal Law of India, Vol. 2, Delhi, 1980, 9th edn, p. 1996.
15. Susie Tharu and K. Lalita, eds, Women Writing in India, 600 B.C. to the Present, Vol. I: 600 B.C. to the Early Twentieth Century, Delhi, 1991, pp. 1–12, 116–20. 2–3.
16. Eugene F. Irshick, Dialogue and History: Constructing South India, 1795–1895, Berkeley, 1994.
17. Tharu and Lalita, eds, Women Writing in India, p. 118.
18. Svati Joshi, ed., Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History, New Delhi, 1992;
19. Sumanta Banerjee, The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta, Calcutta, 1989;
20. Sumanta Banerjee, ‘Marginalisation of Women's Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Bengal’ in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi, 1989, pp. 127–79;
21. Tapati Roy, ‘Disciplining the Printed Text: Colonial and Nationalist Surveillance of Bengali Literature’ in Partha Chatterjee, ed., Texts of Power: Emerging Disciplines in Colonial Bengal, Minneapolis, 1995, pp. 30–62.
22. Roger Chartier, ed., The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane, Cambridge, 1989, esp. pp. 1–5;
23. Roger Chartier ‘Publishing Drama in Early Modern Europe’, The Panizzi Lectures 1998, The British Library, London, 8–10 December 1998.
24. Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, London, 1996.
25. Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society, pp. 19–21.
26. Anindita Ghosh, ‘Cheap Books, “Bad” Books: Contesting Print-Cultures in Colonial Bengal’, South Asia Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1998, pp. 173–94, draws a more sophisticated analysis, but she too at times succumbs to making a sharp distinction between respectable and popular presses.
27. Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, London, 1978.
28. Lynda Nead, Myths of Sexuality: Representations of Women in Victorian Britain, Oxford, 1988, p. 5.
29. Meryl Attman, ‘Everything They Always Wanted You to Know: The Ideology of Popular Sex Literature’ in Carole S. Vance, ed., Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, London, 1984, pp. 115–30.
30. Banerjee, The Parlour and the Streets.
31. Rustom Bharucha, In the Name of the Secular: Contemporary Cultural Activism in India, Delhi, 1998.
32. For details see Uma Chakravarti, ‘Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi? Orientalism, Nationalism, and a Script for the Past’ in Sangari and Vaid, eds, Recasting Women, pp. 27–87.
33. Especially see James Mill, The History of British India, Vol. 1, with Notes and Continuation by H. H. Wilson, London, 1858, 5th edn, pp. 310–15.
34. North Indian Christian Tract and Book Society, Hindu Dharma ke Phal (The Fruits of Hinduism), Allahabad, 1905, 2nd edn, pp. 26–27.
35. Also see Hinduon ki Nirdhanta (Causes of Hindu Poverty), Allahabad, 1909;
36. A. C. Clayton, Preachers in Print: An Outline of the Work of the Christian Literature Society for India, London, 1911.
37. William Crooke, ‘Marriage Songs in Northern India,’ Indian Antiquary, Vol. 55, 1926, p. 83n.
38. Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 107–9.
39. Abbe J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, trans. Henry K. Beauchamp, Oxford, 1906, 3rd edn, p. 207.
40. Vincent A. Smith, ‘Painting and Engraving in Agra and Delhi in 1666’, Indian Antiquary, Vol. 43, 1914, p. 124.
41. Smith refers to the same in his book, A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Oxford, 1911, p. 336.
42. Gauri Viswanathan, Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India, New York, 1989, pp. 82–83.
43. F. E. Keay, A History of Hindi Literature, London, 1920, pp. 79–80, 102.
44. Quoted in Chakravarti, ‘Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi?’, pp. 44–46.
45. C.A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870, Cambridge, 1996, p. 338;
46. C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870, Cambridge, 1983, pp. 427–30.
47. Krishna Kumar, ‘Quest for Self-Identity: Cultural Consciousness and Education in Hindi Region, 1880–1950’, EPW, Vol. 25, No. 23, 9 June 1990, pp. 1247–55.
48. Nandi Bhatia, ‘Twentieth Century Hindi Literature’ in Nalini Natarajan, ed., Handbook of Twentieth Century Literatures of India, Westport, 1996, pp. 137–38.
49. Kumar, ‘Quest for Self-Identity.’
50. This was visible in other regions as well. See Pragati Mohapatra, ‘The Making of a Cultural Identity: Language, Literature and Gender in Orissa in late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, unpublished PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1997.
51. For a basic study of Braj Bhasha see Rupert Snell, The Hindi Classical Tradition: A Braj Bhasa Reader, London, 1991, pp. 29–36.
52. Barbara S. Miller, ed., Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, New York, 1977.
53. Rakesh Gupta, Studies in Nayaka-Nayika-Bheda, Aligarh, 1967;
54. A. W. Entwistle, Braj: Centre of Krishna Pilgrimage, Groningen, 1987, pp. 48–97;
55. Sudhir Kakar, ‘Erotic Fantasy: The Secret Passion of Radha and Krishna’ in Veena Das, ed., The Word and the World: Fantasy, Symbol and Record, Delhi, 1986, pp. 75–94;
56. John S. Hawley and Donna M. Wuff, eds, The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India, Berkeley, 1982.
57. Snell, The Hindi Classical Tradition, p. 135; verse from Biharilal's Satsai.
58. Karine Schomer, ‘Where Have All the Radhas Gone? New Images of Woman in Modern Hindi Poetry’ in Hawley and Wuff, eds, The Divine Consort, p. 92.
59. Ram Bahori Shukl, ‘Dwivedi Yug ki Kavita ki Pragati’ (Progress of Poetry in the Dwivedi Period) in The Divine Consort, Yuthika, Kanpur, 1936, pp. 101–2.
60. Ramchandra Shukl, Hindi Sahitya ka Itihas (A History of Hindi Literature), Kashi, 1952, 8th edn, pp. 60, 240–41, 254–58.
61. Bhushan Granthavali (Collected Writings of Bhushan), ed. Ram Naresh Tripathi, Allahabad, 1918.
62. Vasudha Dalmia, The Nationalization of Hindu Traditions: Bharatendu Harischandra and Nineteenth-century Banaras, Delhi, 1997, p. 247.
63. Ramvilas Sharma, Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi aur Hindi Navjagran (Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi and Hindi Renaissance), New Delhi, 1977, pp. 273–77.
64. Harprakash Gaur, Saraswati aur Rashtriya Jagran (Saraswati and National Awakening), New Delhi, 1983.
65. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Rachnavali (Collected Works of Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi), Vol. 2, ed. and comp. Bharat Yayavar, New Delhi, 1995, pp. 55–58.
66. Maithilisharan Gupt, Bharat Bharati (A Poem), Jhansi, 1937, 14th edn, pp. 120–21, 170–71.
67. Badrinath Bhatt, Miss American, Prayag, 1929, pp. 44–50.
68. Shukl, Hindi Sahitya (Hindi Literature), p. 241.
69. Shukl alleged that many a poet in delineating the erotic emotion stooped to obscenity, and in doing so they reflected the taste of the patron kings, whose lives, according to him, were devoid of all deeds of heroism; see Shyamsundardas, Hindi Sahitya, Allahabad, 1944, p. 313. He also said that the depiction of immoral love was done to satisfy the libidinous gestures of the kings of medieval times.
70. Sumitranandan Pant, Pallav (A Collection of Poems), Allahabad, 1926, pp. 9–13;
71. translation from Schomer, ‘Where Have All the Radhas Gone?,’ pp. 97–98.
72. Quoted in Shrikrishnalal, Adhunik Hindi Sahitya ka Vikas (Development of Modern Hindi Literature), Allahabad, 1942, p. 114.
73. Schomer, ‘Where Have All the Radhas Gone?’
74. Ganga Prasad and Dhirendra Varma, Selections of Hindi Poems, Allahabad, 1928.
75. Ayodhya Singh Upadyaya ‘Harioudh’, Priyapravas (A Poem on Radha's Sorrow in Her Separation from Krishna), Banaras, 1941.
76. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi Rachnavali, Vol. 13, pp. 248–49;
77. also see Sridhar Pathak, Manovinod (A Collection of Poems), Banaras, 1917, pp. 25–29.
78. Maithilisharan Gupt, Rang Mein Bhang (A Collection of Poems), Jhansi, 1927, 9th edn, p. 22.
79. Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of Tulsidas, Berkeley, 1991, pp. 309–21.
80. Statistics of British India for the Judicial and Administrative Departments, Calcutta, 1879, pp. 48–49;
81. Judicial and Administrative Statistics of British India for 1901–02 and Preceding Years, Calcutta, 1903, p. 255;
82. Statistical Abstracts for British India from 1916–17 to 1925–26, Calcutta, 1927, p. 323.
83. ‘Reports on Native Presses in the North Western Provinces of Oudh for 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865’, Selections from the Records of the Government of India, 1849–1937, V/23/121, Part 44, Article 1, p. 2, The India Office Library, London.
84. Uttar Pradesh, 9 February 1981 (Special issue on Munshi Newal Kishore);
85. Syed Jalaluddin Haider, ‘Munshi Nawal Kishore (1836–1895): Mirror of Urdu Printing in British India’, Libri, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1981, pp. 227–37.
86. Allahabad supplied 18 of the papers published in UP. Report on the Administration of UP, 1907–1908, s.v. Allahabad, 1908, p. 52.
87. ‘Reports’, Selections, Part 44, Article 1, p. 5, 8.
88. ‘Reports’, Selections, Part 44, Article 1, pp. 17–18.
89. ‘Books Submitted to Government by Native Writers’, Selections, V/23/129, Vol. 3, Article 2, pp. 56–57.
90. ‘Report on Publications Registered at Curator's Office, Allahabad, during 1869’, Selections, V/23/129, Vol. 3, Article 15, p. 244.
91. ‘Reports’, Selections, Part 44, Article 1, pp. 17–18;
92. ‘Publications Registered by the Curator of Government Books under Act XXV of 1867 during 1872’, Selections, V/23/131
93. Report on the Administration of UP, 1923–24, Allahabad, 1924, p. 91.
94. Report on the Administration of UP, 1905–06, Allahabad, 1907, p. 41.
95. Report on the Administration of UP, 1909–10, Allahabad, 1911, p. 51.
96. Kanhaiya Lal Sharma, Kok Shastra athva Yauvan Bilas (A Treatise on Sex or Youthful Pleasure), Moradabad, 1900;
97. Jaidev Nirbhay Ganesh, trans., Ratimanjari (A Treatise on Love), Moradabad, 1906;
98. Mohan Lal Gupta, Kok Sagar (A Treatise on Sex), Aligarh, 1908, 2nd edn;
99. Ganga Prasad Gupt, Gupt Prachin Kok Shastra (Ancient Secret Treatise on Sex), Aligarh, 1916, 2nd edn;
100. Kanhaiya Lal Agarwal, Kamrahasya (Secret of Sexual Desire), Allahabad, 1932;
101. Jagannath Sharma Agnihotri, Asli Kok Shastra arthat Kamshastra ka Vrihad Granth (An Original and Detailed Treatise on Sex), Banaras, 1935, 2nd edn;
102. Ramchandra Vaidya Shastri, Kamya Yogavali (A Treatise on Sex), Aligarh, 1939.
103. Vartman, 18 March 1925, p. 8, advertisement of Kamkala Rahasya (Secret of Sexual Art), published by Hindi Sevasadan, Aligarh.
104. Vartman, 21 November 1938, p. 6, with an advertisement for Sachitr Guptrog Chikitsa (Cure of Venereal Diseases with Pictures) by Vaidyabhushan Shyamlal, published by Hindustani Book Depot, Aligarh.
105. Abhyudaya, 26 April 1924, p. 10, advertisement of Kam tatha Ratishastra Sachitr (Science of Sex and Love with Pictures).
106. Report on the Administration of UP, 1924–25, Allahabad, 1926, p. 112.
107. Pyarelal Zamindar, Kok Shastra (Treatise on Sex) Aligarh, 1905, 7th edn. The introduction stated that before marriage it is extremely important to read and see this book. It also expressed the difficulty in writing such a book, as the charge of obscenity lurked at every corner.
108. Channulal Dwivedi, Chumban Mimansa (Treatise on Kiss), Kashi, 1929.
109. Haridas Vaidya, trans., Shringar Shatak (A Treatise on Erotics), Mathura, 1933, 3rd edn.
110. See Statements of Publications Regarding Books and Periodicals Published in UP (Compiled quarterly in the Office of the Director of Public Instruction, UP) (hereafter SPBP), 1900–1930.
111. For example, see Sham Sundar, ‘Joban ki Dbum’ (The Heat of Youth — Erotic Songs), Mathura, 1910, in SPBP, March 1910;
112. Bhudeo Rasad and Sheo Sharan, ‘Rasiya Rasilon ki Bahar’ (The Pleasures of Merry Beaus), Agra, 1914, in SPBP, March 1915, p. 32;
113. Kaviram, ‘Aurat-Mard ka Jhagra’ (A Pornographical Poem), Allahabad, 1921, in SPBP, March 1922, p. 62;
114. Brijbasi Das, Braj Bilas (Sensuous Pleasures of Braj), Banaras, 1939;
115. Bindeswari Prasad Tiwari, Chautal Champakali (A Collection of Erotic Poems), Gorakhpur, 1932, 3rd edn, 3,000 copies published.
116. Frances W. Pritchett, Marvelous Encounters: Folk Romance in Urdu and Hindi, New Delhi, 1985.
117. Kathryn Hansen, Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India, Berkeley, 1992.
118. Editorial, Saraswati, November 1901.
119. Anon., ‘Rati-Shastra ka Prachar’, Madhuri, Year 3, Vol. 2, No. 6, June 1925, pp. 847–49.
120. AIWC, Twelfth Session, Ahmedabad, 1937, p. 47.
121. M. K. Gandhi, ‘Filth in Literature’, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. LXVII, New Delhi, 1976, p. 407.
122. Also see Gandhi, ‘Speech at Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad’, Collected, Vol. LXII, p. 346.
123. ‘Report’, Selections, Vol. 3, Article 15, pp. 244–45.
124. Mahadev Shukl, Ragvinod (A Collection of Thumris, Ghazals and Khayals), Lucknow, 1889.
125. ‘Report’, Selections, Vol. 3, Article 15, pp. 248.
126. Advertisements in Madhuri, Year 1, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1922
127. and Madhuri, Year 4, Vol. 1, No. 1. July 1925.
128. In fact, in the beginning of the very issue which had an article condemning such publications, there was an advertisement for the book Chakravarti Kokshastra (A Treatise on Sex), claiming to have 128 coloured pictures, cf. Madhuri, Year 3, Vol. 2, No. 6, June 1925.
129. Santram, ‘Rati Rahasya’ (Secret of Sexual Love), Madhuri, Year 3, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 1924, pp. 601–5.
130. Ramnarayan Tandon, ed., Hindi Sevi Sansar (Introduction to People who Served Hindi), Vol. 1, Lucknow, 1951, 2nd edn, p. 307.
131. Banarsi Lal Verma, Kashmiri Kokshastra (A Treatise on Sex), Prayag, 1928.
132. Sushila Devi Nigam, Dampatya Jivan (Married Life), Allahabad, 1930, p. 2.
133. K. K. Malaviya, Suhagrat: Bahurani ko Seekh, Prayag, 1930;
134. K. K. Malaviya, Manorama ke Patra: Apne Premiyon ke Nam, Prayag, 1927.
135. Francesca Orsini, ‘The Hindi Public Sphere: 1920–1940’, unpublished PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1996.
136. Pandey Becan Sharma ‘Ugra’, Chaklet (Chocolate), Calcutta, 1953, 3rd edn, published after 25 years.
137. ‘Ugra’, Chaklet, pp. 56, 101, 125–35, 156, 102, 76, 117, cover.
138. Sphurna Devi, Ablaon ka Insaf (Eight Stories and a Dialogue, Illustrating the Disabilities of Women and the Justice Needed), Allahabad, 1936, 3rd edn.
139. Ratnakar Pandey, Ugra aur Unka Sahitya (Ugra and His Literature), Varanasi, 1969, pp. 255–73;
140. Ugra, Chaklet, pp. 1–12.
141. Pandey, Ugra, pp. 260–66.
142. Ugra, Chaklet, p. 1;
143. Pandey, Ugra, pp. 271–72.
144. Sodomy and homosexuality have aroused hysterical reactions in various other cultures and in different historical moments. See Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, eds, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History and Literature, New York, 1997;
145. Christopher Craft, Another Kind of Love: Male Homosexual Desire in English Discourse. 1850–1920, Berkeley, 1994.
146. Gita Thadani, Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India, London, 1996;
147. Ruth Vanita and Salim Kidwai, eds, Love Between Women, Love Between Men: Readings in Indian Literature and History, forthcoming.
148. Ugra, Chaklet, pp. 53–54, 87–95, 102, 125, 137.
149. UP Jails Inquiry (Stuart) Committee, 1928–29, Report, Allahabad, 1929, pp. 126–31.
150. Naiyar-i-Azam, 12 January 1907
151. Native Newspaper Reports of UP, 19 January 1907. p. 90.
152. Census of India, 1931, UP, Vol. XVIII, Part I, Allahabad, 1933, pp. 138–39.
153. Royal (Whitley) Commission of Labour in India, Evidence, Vol. III. Part I, London, 1931, pp. 140–41, 155, 156, 144.
154. Jainendra Kumar, Sunita, Delhi, 1935.
155. See Madhulika Pathak, Yashpal ice Katha Sahitya mein Kam, Prem am Parivar (Sex, Love and Family in the Literature of Yashpal), Bombay, 1992.
156. For the case launched against it, see Ismat Chugtai, ‘Ek Mukadme ki Dastan’ (Story of a Case), trans. Javed Iqbal, Hans, Vol. 11, No. 4, November 1996, pp. 29–34.