Introduction

Summary

This book investigates how collective memory and grief were expressed in Urdu between 1857 and the 1940s. It builds on a rich corpus of sources evoking the past, including newspapers, colonial records, pamphlets, novels, letters, essays, and poetry by well-known as well as lesser known and anonymous actors. Through a close reading of the emotional vocabulary deployed in the sources, the book documents different meanings and interpretations of grief, and the transformation of one typical poetic genre (the shahr āshob, 'devastation of the city') across the period. Focusing on different episodes of the history of British India as vignettes, it highlights a multiplicity of emotional styles and communities, and their controversial nature. The book argues that grief was a proactive tool in the shaping of communities, and contributes to a refined understanding of the role of emotions in Muslim community formation and collective action in colonial north India.