Research Interests: Vernacular Archives and Manuscripts, Medieval Indian Literature, Folk Literature, Women’s history
Charu Singh is an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Sciences. Her area of expertise is Hindi literature. The focus of her research is on literary historiography, women's history, educational hegemony, and North Indian folklore. Her main areas of academic investigation are vernacular (lokbhasha) archives. During her doctoral research, she did extensive archival work related to Nineteenth Century Hindi archives.
Professor Singh had training in education and social sciences as an undergraduate, and then moved to Hindi literature, and completed her Masters in the subject from the Centre of Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She did her PhD at the University of Delhi.
Charu Singh’s doctoral thesis, submitted at the University of Delhi, addresses the conceptual questions concerning the idea of ‘Stri Shiksha' (Women's Education), a popular phrase in the Nineteenth Century Hindi public sphere. Under this, an attempt has been made to conceptualise the difference between 'Shiksha' and 'Stri Shiksha' in the historical context of the late Nineteenth Century. Was this movement of ‘Stri Shiksha’(Women’s Education) limiting the opportunities of education for women? Did it have any meaning other than 'domestic education'? What were the socio-historical contexts in which the demand for a different kind of 'Stri Shiksha' became a literary and public concern in the Hindi sphere?
Another focus of Professor Singh’s research has been the search for women authors who were active throughout this period in public and literary spaces, but were not recorded in history. She believes the knowledge of the presence and participation of these women authors in the Nineteenth Century public arena will give new insights in the interpretation of the literary history of the period.
Professor Singh is currently working on a biographical history of a famous but forgotten public figure of the late Nineteenth Century, Srimati Hardevi, a social reformer, educator and editor of the prestigious Hindi journal 'Bharat Bhagini'. In the historiography of Hindi literature, until now there has been no mention of any women writer of the Nineteenth Century. Understanding the journey of a 16-year-old unknown widow entering the world of Hindi in 1882 through a book like 'Simantani Upadesh' to become a noted social reformer, Shrimati Hardevi, appeals to Charu Singh as a student of history and literature. She is also revising her doctoral thesis, "The Concept of "Stri Shiksha" in the Nineteenth Century Hindi Public Sphere (1850-1900)" for publication.
Introduction to Hindi Literature