I am a PhD scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. My research examines vernacular literature in 19th-century North India, with a particular focus on the qissa as a literary form and its cultural significance. I hold an M.A. in English from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and a B.A. (Hons.) in English from Miranda House, University of Delhi.
Current Research:
My doctoral research explores the qissa, a widely popular narrative form in Hindi and Urdu, as both a literary genre and a cultural practice during the nineteenth century, a period of profound political and social transformation in North India. Once central to the popular literary imagination, the qissa responded dynamically to new readerships and cultural contexts. As the emerging middle class sought narratives that combined entertainment with moral instruction, the qissa adapted its content and style to align with changing sensibilities, mediating between the pulls of tradition and the pressures of reform. Yet this same adaptability also made the qissa the subject of growing criticism from reformers, colonial administrators, and later literary critics, who often disparaged it as vulgar, outdated, or incompatible with modern ideals. Approaching the qissa simultaneously as a literary form and a cultural practice, my study highlights its role in shaping middle-class subjectivity in colonial India. It demonstrates how the qissa provided a space where pleasure and respectability, tradition and reform, could be continuously negotiated.
Areas of Study:
Vernacular Literature, Hindi/Urdu Literature, Nineteenth Century, South Asia, Postcolonial Studies