Print, Products, and Patriotism: Decoding Advertising Culture and National Identity in The Modern Review, 1907-1947

Abstract

Between 1907 and 1947, Modern Review functioned not only as an intellectual crucible for Indian nationalism but also as a marketplace of ideas, desires, and anxieties, mediated through its advertisements. While the journal’s essays and editorials have been extensively studied for their role in shaping nationalist discourse, its advertisements offer a parallel, and at times, subversive, narrative of India’s encounter with modernity. This paper turns to these textual and visual fragments to explore how consumer culture intersected with political ideologies, social mobility, and the self-fashioning of an emergent middle class.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks from print culture studies and postcolonial theory, particularly Benedict Anderson’s concept of “print capitalism” and Partha Chatterjee’s notion of “colonial modernity,” this study argues that advertisements in The Modern Review served as crucial paratextual elements that illuminate the complex relationship between consumption practices and nationalist identity formation. Special attention is paid to how advertisements marketed indigenous products, educational services, and cultural goods, thereby contributing to what can be termed a “swadeshi marketplace.” The research also examines how global brands adapted their marketing strategies to appeal to an increasingly nationalist readership, revealing the tensions between international commerce and the swadeshi movement.

This paper positions advertisements not as mere commercial ephemera but as strategic sites of meaning-making—where print capitalism, political rhetoric, and aspirational modernity converged. In doing so, it rethinks the epistemological possibilities of periodical studies, urging scholars to reconsider the margins of the text as central to understanding the cultural history of late colonial India. By unearthing these ‘writings on the wall,’ the paper sheds new light on the unfinished and contested nature of India’s modernity, a legacy that would persist well beyond 1947.