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Queen Victoria, M. M. Bhownaggree, and the “Gujaratee-Speaking Community of India”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2024
Abstract
This essay examines an 1877 Gujarati translation of Queen Victoria's Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands. It was the work of M. M. Bhownaggree, later a British MP. The essay explores the circumstances under which Bhownaggree undertook the translation, its content, and its intended audience. It closes with some observations on the book's place in the history of Indian royalism, the place of Indian royalism in the development of modern Gujarati literature, and the interplay of the Gujarati identity that was emerging in the latter part of the nineteenth century with both royalism and Indian nationalism.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 52 , Special Issue 1: Vernacular Victoria , Spring 2024 , pp. 128 - 147
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
This paper will form part of my forthcoming full-length study of Sir M. M. Bhownaggree; it was originally presented at the colloquium on “Vernacular Victoria: The Queen in South Asian Languages” at Ashoka University in 2021. I must express my gratitude to the organizers of the colloquium: Miles Taylor, Siddharth Satpathy, Mandakini Dubey, and Sharif Youssef. I presented earlier explorations of Queen Victoria's relationship with Gujarati-speaking Indians at the workshop on “The Idea of Gujarat” at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2008, the India Studies Lecture Series at Indiana University Bloomington in 2008, and the Center for South Asia Lecture Series at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2008. I am grateful to Pamela Clark, Michael S. Dodson, Sumit Ganguly, Riho Isaka, Aparna Kapadia, Rita Kothari, Traci C. Nagle, Dinyar Patel, Mitra Sharafi, Samira Sheikh, and Edward Simpson for comments, advice, assistance, and support. Some of the research for this paper was conducted at the Maharashtra Archives Department in Mumbai, with the support of a Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies.
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