A begum abroad: Urdu literature, women authors, and the imaginative power of the travelogue in South Asia

In the nineteenth century, travel writing rocketed to prominence across India in almost all its language, but none more so than in Urdu. In this talk, Associate Professor Daniel Majchrowicz argues that, in a rapidly changing world, the travelogue emerged as a space for Indian readers to describe the world as they saw it and, more importantly, to negotiate their place in it. He further argues that – against common assumptions – women writers were critical to that imaginative project.

To explore this history and concept, in this talk he examines the 1910 travel diary of an elite Hyderabadi woman that was later published under the title Dunia Aurat ki Nazar meñ (The World in a Woman’s Eyes). Begum Sarbuland’s travelogue of the Middle East and Europe reveals how she imagined the contours of the global Muslim community to be, and where she located herself within the world she presented. And her diary, in turn, exemplifies the power that the travelogue had to shape how India imagined, and engaged with, the world around it. 

About the speaker

Daniel Majchrowicz is an award-winning translator and scholar of South Asian literature, history, and culture. He is currently Associate Professor of South Asian Literature and Culture and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Northwestern University and is Vice-President of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, as well as a board member of the Modern Endangered Archives Program. His most recent book is A Journey to Mecca and London: The Travels of an Indian Muslim Woman, 1909-1910. 

Agenda
Light refreshments: 4-4.30pm
Lecture time: 4.30-5.30pm

This talk is coordinated by the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific and supported by the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, and the ANU Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies.