Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Urdu literary production by Muslims of Rampur to understand the shifting contours of locality and local identity from colonial to post-colonial context.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines Urdu literary production by Muslims of Rampur to understand the shifting contours of locality and local identity. Rampur was the last Muslim-ruled princely state after the decline of the Mughal and Awadh kingdoms and, therefore, became an important site of princely patronage and cultural production in the colonial United Provinces. The paper concerns itself particularly with the issue of space and subjectivity by exploring place-identity of inhabitants of Rampur (Rampuri) and sense of belonging to Rampur (Rampuriyat) that also conveys emotional attachment of self and space. Inspired by the material yet evoking the metaphoric, these ideas also flourish in and are transformed by the alternative "space of imagination" - literature - whose discursive formulations hold the key to an appreciation of the conceptualisation of Rampur as a distinct locality. Additionally, it also provides us opportunity to explore the multiple identities of Muslims in Rampur where various markers of identity like class, clan, sect, caste, gender and individual qualities emerge as crucial determinants of local historical experience and identity in its shifting contours. The paper draws upon the literary tradition of the biographical compendium (tazkira) to map the changing historical, social and cultural aspect of locality and Muslim identity in Rampur. The specific meanings accorded to the genre within the context of the nineteenth-century princely milieu of Rampur become all the more apparent when studied in relation to an extended survey of its usage in contemporary, post-colonial writings.