This project seeks to make a field-defining intervention into the scholarly study of British South Asian literary works. Thus far it is overwhelmingly English language writing which has been the focus of intellectual explorations of diasporic South Asian literatures, to the neglect of the vast array of writing in vernacular languages. Correcting this omission, the field of Anglophone British Asian writing will be decolonised by revealing the hidden history of vernacular writers, their writing and thematic concerns thus enhancing our understanding of diasporic subjectivities, narratives and critique. I coin the term British South Asian vernacular literary formation as a way to explore the literary output, infrastructure of publication and distribution as well as the biographies of writers that express themselves in Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati. This formation is important not only because it offers insight into the diasporic lives of these writers in their own voice and language but because it forces us to adopt alternative epistemologies in order to more fully explicate subaltern cultural discourses.

Database

Laying the foundations for reading the vernacular formation requires mapping its extent, thus one of the outputs from this project will be to establish a database of the main writers, their outputs and publication sites, in Urdu, Bengali (Bangla), Punjabi and Gujarati. This will be the first database of its kind, publicly accessible providing a multilingual resource for scholars and writers. If you are a writer or have someone in your family who you think should be included in the database. Please contact us at: Vernacularmiglit@gmail.com

Writers

This collection of short stories, 'Aurat Abla Nay Hai' (Women are not powerless) was published in 1987 by author Jasvir Kang.

You can learn more about her here: Jasvir Kang

Translation

Bachnee is a short story from author Kailash Puri's collection Lady Margaret Road, referring to the name of a street in Southall, the place of settlement of many migrants from East Punjab. Here is a translation of some of the text.Link opens in a new window