Hindi Advisory Literature from the 19th to the middle of the 20th Century
Taking a peak at the bookshelf of an average middle-class household in today’s India, one is more likely to find books on how to become successful in business, win friends or develop self-confidence, than novels or even poetry.
The research project traces the beginnings of advisory literature in India that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century up to its blossoming in the 1930s and 1940s. This was a period of heightened literary activity for Hindi, which became the medium of discussion concerning cultural, moral and religious issues along with a language movement that resulted in Hindi becoming the national language of independent India. Reformers, literati and laypeople wrote advisory literature in all kinds of shapes and sizes: etiquette books, domestic advice manuals, religious tracts and instructive schoolbooks on moral education.
By analysing these normative works and the circumstances of their creation, the research project traces processes of community formation along the lines of norms and regulations for feeling and the expression of emotions.
The qualitative content analysis of the sources accounts for different levels:
Normative rules and regulations for feelings and their expression; relating for example to the gendering of emotions in the sphere of domestic love, but also on a broader societal level, such as discussions on greed, anger and fear in business and inter-personal contacts.
The conceptualization of emotions in the body; as well as the need for emotional control and equilibrium, such as the idea of brahmacharya, i.e. abstinence from (sexual) passions.
Legitimization of emotional rules by nationalist, religious or scientific authority.
Reading Hindi advice manuals as a cultural phenomenon shows the creation of an emotional landscape along the lines of culture, religion and questions of national identity. The ‘westernized’ school system came under harsh criticism due to fear that this kind of education – and the modernization it promoted – would corrupt the values and norms of Indian society. At the same time, translations and adaptations of British self-help books became increasingly popular and advice books in Hindi frequently cite current psychological research along with ancient texts of Hinduism in order to legitimize their authority. The authors of these books not only hoped to reform their readers through practical advice on matters of daily behavior and conduct, but also aimed at offering them an education of the heart.
