‘Canon’ Formation (Part I)

The proprietor of Gaṅgā Pustak Mālā relied on an impressive network of scholar-writers, journalists, and educationalists who were involved with the publishing house and the periodical. Their contributions to Sudhā are introduced in Chapter 3 with the intention to demonstrate what in the eyes of the editors of Sudhā and the Hindi public constituted useful knowledge for the middle-class reader. Poetry, fiction, and prose essays were three major publication genres of the time, which underwent transformations while being written in. The discussion of these genres takes place in the context of the developments within the pages of Sudhā, the publishing house, and the Hindi literary sphere that witnessed a number of literary movements in the early twentieth century.