Search

This paper will focus on a 20th century Nepali intellectual, Ram Mani Acharya Dixit (1883-1972), and his trans-border activities for the promotion of the vernacular by investigating his integration of the progress of a language with his nation, his apotheosis of the vernacular and his devotion in strengthening prose writing for the sake of the development of the divine mother tongue. Foregrounding his linguistic activities such as writing, publishing and printing in Nepal and India, with Benares in particular, it will try to answer questions such as: What was the motivating factor that inspired him to write and publish in the Nepali language? Was he in any way influenced by the Hindi language movement that was at its peak in North India of the time? How influential was Dixit's role in standardizing Nepali? Besides this Nepali language standardization concern, the paper will also examine Dixit's idea of serving mother, motherland, mother tongue and [Hindu] religion through service to a language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will deal with Shivarani Devi's (1890-1976) Premcand ghar me~, a literary memoir-cum-biography of her husband Premchand, a pioneer of Hindi literature. The book has already been extensively discussed in previous studies as a mirror held up to Premchand, revealing all his dynamism as a writer, intellectual and householder. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to delve more deeply into Shivarani Devi's own intimate space within the household. It will discuss the 'self' that Shivarani Devi necessarily lays bare while portraying her husband, the 'other'. It will analyse the narrated self of Shivarani Devi within the domesticity that she defines as ghar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]