University of Heidelberg

Marathi is one of the prominent modern Indian languages of western India. Traces of satire in Marathi literature can be found in the literary works of Marathi writers as early as in 13th and 14th century. There is an abundance of satirical literature during the colonial era, especially in the second half of 19th century and in the early 20th century, in western India. In spite of leaving a notable mark in the Marathi literary oeuvre, satire has been neglected by literary historians and critics. This challenges one to make it a point to give Marathi satire a critical attention in the realm of literature.

Satire for the Marathi intellectuals – a product of colonial encounter themselves – was a powerful literary mode to critique the British colonial regime and also of self-criticism. Marathi satire deals with the questions of colonial government and its politics, ridicules and attacks the anglicized Marathi people and social mimicry, shifting gender identities, traditional ways, attitudes, role models and engages with the problematic of Marathi cultural identity and everyday lives under the overarching presence of colonialism.

My research would focus on the cultural project of formation of Marathi middle class identity and its inextricable linkage with the contemporary discourse on gender relations in modern representative Marathi satirical pieces from the late 19th century till the end of colonial rule.