Print Culture and Radical Activism in Punjab: A Case Study of Proscribed Pamphlets and Tracts in the 1920s and 1930s
Keywords:
Print Culture, Radical Activism, Colonial Punjab, Revolutionary Literature, Censorship, Proscription.Abstract
This article provides an in-depth analysis of the proscribed revolutionary literature published in Urdu in the early twentieth century. The literature, primarily in the form of pamphlets and tracts, became the chief means of disseminating revolutionary ideas among the Indian masses. On the one hand, these pamphlets and tracts exposed British injustices and authoritarian attitudes, and on the other, they created a sense of national awakening and political consciousness among the people of India. To make communication more effective and influential, revolutionaries used a genre of poetry that was more appealing and soothing to the public taste and resonated with the cultural tradition of oral communication, memorisation, and self-expression in Punjab. The verses urged masses, especially youth, to break the shackles of slavery and sacrifice their lives to liberate India from the clutches of foreign rule. To achieve this goal, the pamphlets emphasised that the people should bear oppression temporarily to eradicate it forever. This literature further stressed the need for Hindu-Muslim unity and advised on resolving all communal tensions. Likewise, they exposed the British legal and justice system, which had always been partial when dispensing justice to the natives. In addition, they glorified the deeds of the accused in the Kakori and Lahore Conspiracy Cases and offered them a tribute. They projected the 'afterlives' of martyrs as a source of inspiration and motivation for the living to continue their legacy. However, in the colonial discourse on sedition, these pamphlets and tracts were considered seditious and a potential threat to the ‘public safety’ and ‘maintenance of public order’. The British Government banned this literature under section 124-A (sedition act) of the Indian Penal Code; nonetheless, the revolutionary ideas preached in these pamphlets continued to influence people for a long time.
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