Print Modernity in Colonial Assam
considers the historical context of colonial Assam and traces literary trends which were subject to acknowledgment and evasion in the (over)emphasized periodicals and magazines of the time. Raktima Bhuyan and Sanjib Pol Deka argue for alternative literary trends and reading public in colonial Assam. The standardization of the Assamese language, along with the rise of the middle-class, engendered 'purity' of the language and experimentation with western mediums like the novel. This book places 'pre-modern verse' as an alternative literary practice equally embraced by the reading public during this period. At the threshold of Indian independence, issues like education as a blessing of colonial modernity needs to be subjected to discourses of morality and gender bias (and an attempt to prevent this) in the writings of the period, such as speeches, essays, and textbooks.