Premium
Advertising and the History of South Asia, 1880–1950[Note 1. This essay was completed while working on a NEH‐funded ...]
Author(s) -
Haynes Douglas E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12252
Subject(s) - scholarship , capitalism , business history , narrative , consumption (sociology) , subject (documents) , variety (cybernetics) , history , vernacular , social science , political science , sociology , literature , economic history , law , art , artificial intelligence , politics , library science , computer science
The subject of advertising has not been a major field of investigation among historians of South Asia, but recently, a number of scholars have begun to incorporate treatment of the topic into their discussion of a variety of subjects. This article examines the ways in which recent scholars working in a range of fields – including business history, the history of global capitalism, the history of medicine, the history of sexuality, and the history of visual culture – have begun to address advertising in their work. The article seeks to bring together some of the fragmentary strands in the existing literature, and to highlight the contributions these writings have inconspicuously been making to an understanding of South Asian economy and culture. The increased significance of advertising in very recent scholarship reflects a larger turn among historians toward appreciating the role of consumption in South Asia. The essay particularly stresses how studies of advertising have served to highlight the significance of small‐scale, vernacular forms of business enterprise on the subcontinent and to complicate any unilinear narrative about the ascendancy of corporate capitalism and mass consumption values during the 20th century.