Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture

In the decades between the 1870s and 1920s, literary periodicals (sahitya patrika), much like the newspapers and the books, became po­pul­ar among the middle-class Bengali homes – both as an affordable recreation for leisure hours, and as a major vehicle for the circulation of ideas in the public domain. Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture: Bengal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century begins by looking at the logistics of the production and circulation of periodicals that were oriented towards a widening readership market. Given their easily understood nature, their capacity for sustaining debates and adapt­ability by readers with diverse reading competencies, periodicals be­came the preferred means for dispensing modern education and enjoy­ment through the vernacular.