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Durham History Department
Student walking outside the Department of History

Book Launch: Music in Colonial Punjab, Dr Radha Kapuria

2 October 2023
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Image of the cover of Music in Colonial Punjab on a black background. There are 4 photographs of the speakers, and a box of text with the names of the contributors at the bottom of the page

Join the author, Dr Radha Kapuria (Durham, History), in conversation with Prof Laura Leante (Durham, Music), Dr Maryam Mirza (Durham, English Studies), and Dr Christopher Bahl (Durham, History).

Music in Colonial Punjab: Courtesans, Bards, and Connoisseurs offers the first social history of music in undivided Punjab (1800-1947).

It illuminates the power of Punjab's female performers, the rise of new musical publics shaped by Anglicized middle classes, and British colonialists' response to Punjab's performing communities. 

The book reveals a diverse connoisseurship for music with insights from history, ethnomusicology, and geography on an activity that still unites a region today divided between India and Pakistan.