Sundri, then and now

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines Bhai Vir Singh's novella, Sundri (1898) from the context of the Singh Sabha reform movement (1880–1920). Sundri, Vir Singh's fictional heroine, became an important and idealized site of female identity construction during this time. Bhai Vir Singh's Sundri will be juxtaposed with a pixelated version, a recent animated film by the same name. Similar to the novella, the animated Sundri too can be understood as a highly particularized, contemporary construct of Sikh women's identity, created, more than a century later, but similarly, during a period of intense scrutiny of Sikh women's religious identity.