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Late-19th and early-20th centuries in Punjab were times of ferment and formation of new class, caste, gender, and religious identities. The quest for a localized modernity at this historical juncture was spear-headed by reform movements of Arya Samaj, Singh Sabha, and Ahmaddiya reform movement, that predicated their quest on the construction of 'modern womanhood'. The new technology of print was used effectively by reform patriarchies to disseminate these representations of modern womanhood. While much has been written about these patriarchal reform movements that projected their own modernity through 'liberal improvements' in the condition of their women and by opening up to ideas of education and companionate marriages, the presence of women in this history has been elided over. This essay examines the print spheres in late-19th and early-20th century Punjab, especially the periodical press, to trace women's responses to reform prescriptions about their education and deportment. It is in this interplay between dominant discursive formations and alternative modes of articulation by women that multiple cultural meanings emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper proposes to assess the contributions of Bhai Vir Singh to the newly emergent Punjabi print spheres in the late colonial period. Critical literature on the print and public spheres in colonial Punjab has described these as imitative of the prototype of western models and as 'derivative' discourses. It is through the example of Bhai Vir Singh that we can argue otherwise. This paper argues that the print sphere made it possible for newer subjectivities and modes of agency to emerge and it is through this politically critical idea of agency that Bhai Vir Singh's work can be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]