Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from SikhArchive and welcome to the 56th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers, and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.

In this episode, we are joined by Radha Kapuria, who is an Assistant Professor in South Asian History at the University of Durham. Her current research analyses the impact of the 1947 Partition on musicians’ lives India and Pakistan, with her interests centring around South Asian social, cultural and gender history; migration, displacement and borderlands, and conflict, decolonisation and culture.

Today we will be discussing her book, Music in Colonial Punjab: Courtesans, Bards, and Connoisseurs, which examines music’s social history for the entire Punjab region. The book is based on her PhD at King's College London, which was shortlisted for the Royal Asiatic Society’s 2019 Bayly Prize.

NB: correction at 28:59 mins: “Flora Annie Wilson” ought to have been “Flora Annie Steele”