Selected Writings from Chandrika: Parasmani Pradhan and Early Indian Nepali Periodical Culture

This volume focuses on select contributions made to the Nepali periodical Chandrika, published in Kurseong, Darjeeling, India, from 1918 to 1919. Edited by Paras Mani Pradhan, Chandrika is a significant work for understanding the development of the Nepali language and Nepali identity. This volume presents articles on the Nepali language, literature, education, and identity, along with critical essays that facilitate the entry of periodical studies, especially Nepali periodicals, into the curricula of humanities departments at universities in India and abroad.

Chandrika also reflects a time when the Indian national consciousness was forming, alongside a consciousness of an Indian-Nepali identity. The writings give an invaluable insight into the intellectual and shared common temper and discourse on the subjects of language, education, progress, and society from the borderlands of pre-independence India. The volume will be important in raising awareness about the social-cultural and political concerns of the time and in helping readers connect this historical work with the more recent developments in regional literature and identity.

Part of the Voices from the Margins series, this critical edition will be of interest to students and researchers of comparative literature, Nepali, translation studies, journalism, periodical studies, South Asian literature and culture, modern Indian literature, culture, history, and sociology.

Shradhanjali Tamang is Assistant Professor in the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University. Her PhD studied the indigenous oral folk traditions in the Eastern Himalayas. She is also the Joint-Coordinator of CENTIL.

Bhawana Theeng Tamang is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Gurudas College Kolkata. She has been working closely with The Centre for Translation of Indian Literatures (CENTIL) Jadavpur since 2016. She is currently pursuing her PhD from the Department of English, Jadavpur University. Her area of research includes Eastern Himalayas, Nepali Literature, formation of the Indian Nepali identity.