Telugu Print Cultures and Vernacular Modernity A Study of Vijnana Chandrika Mandali

Abstract

The thesis foregrounds the engagement of the early twentieth century Telugu intelligentsia with Modernity through a critical reading of the texts and paratexts published by Vijnana Chandrika Mandali, an early twentieth century literary society and publishing house. It argues that a vernacular modernity transpired from this engagement and the effort also signifies a modern intervention in the Telugu print cultures, which was enabled by the influence of Swadeshi movement and the resulting nationalist consciousness, which manifested in the realm of education as the National Education Movement and in the realm of language as linguistic reform of the vernaculars to equip them to engage with modernity. The Vijnana Chandrika Mandali published books in the genres of Biography, Sciences, History, Historical Novel and Encyclopaedia. newlineThe first two chapters set the methodological and contextual background for the study by situating the Vijnana Chandrika Mandali among the telugu print cultures of the time, while also conceptualizing the idea of vernacular modernity and documenting its pre-history. The third chapter engages with the role of Vijnana Chandrika Mandali in the Telugu language debates which divided the Telugu public sphere into reformists and classicists. The fourth chapter delves into the colonial education policy and alternative education systems that were conceived as a result of the swadeshi movement which created a need for vernacular science books. The chapter discusses the production of translated knowledge in Telugu and the situation of indigenous knowledge in this new space. The fifth chapter engages with the form and content of the first modern Telugu Encyclopaedia and discusses the role it played in juxtaposing the Orient with the Occident . The sixth chapter analyses the influence of modernity on the national, international and regional histories produced by the Vijnana Chandrika Mandali. The seventh and final chapter presents the central argument of the thesis and the ramifications of the project of