Voices in Verses

Farhat Hasan is Professor of Medieval and Early Modern South Asian History at the Department of History, University of Delhi. He is one of the most well established and renowned historians of South Asia. His areas of interest include Medieval India, with particular interests in court culture, identities and gender relations in the period, and Islam in India during the Medieval and colonial period, in particular, religious thought and practices. He is the author of Paper, Performance, and the State: Social Change and Political Culture in Mughal India, published with the Press in 2021.

• List of Abbreviations; Acknowledgements; A Note on Transliteration; 1. Introduction; 2. Unraveling the Texts: Memory, Reforms, and Literary Sulh-i-Kul; 3. Representing an Inclusive Literary Culture: Women Poets in the Bazars and Kothas; 4. Representing the Kothas: The Two Sisters in the Literary Sphere; 5. Commemorating the Women Poets: Memory, Gender and the Literary Culture in the Persianate World; 6. Secluded Poets in Literary Spaces: Memorializing the Female Rulers, Consorts and Memsahibs; 7. Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

'Voices in Verses takes us into the markets and palaces, brothels and salons, of nineteenth century India to hear women speak of their lives and feelings through poetry. Rare biographical compendia, known as tazkiras, are treated to a wonderfully sensitive analysis that reveals women's compositions to be at once exemplary and defiant of their literary and social worlds. An inspired and inspiring book that is a joy to read.' Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, University of Sheffield