Panda, Ahona  <br/><br/>
Prachi Deshpande, scripts of power: Writing, language practices, and cultural history in Western India 

 - The Indian Economic and Social History Review 
 - 61(3). Jul-Sep, 2024: p.420-423 
<br/><br/> Deshpande’s erudite Scripts of Power, an account of diagraphia in the Marathi language, narrates the fascinating story of how a script falls out of circulation in history. Two scripts were used in the precolonial Maratha world; Bālbodh associated with religious and sacral writing, and Moḍī with record keeping and revenue documentation. Tracking the shifting values accorded to each over four centuries, the book demonstrates the political life of Moḍī during the middle durée. By the twentieth century, Moḍī became an ‘iconic symbol of Maratha power’ and yet, ‘Marathi as a language of the masses worthy of imparting education and government was established not through Moḍī but Bālbodh’ (p. 255). What historical processes led to the favouring of Bālbodh in the modern age of print? How did Moḍī remain embedded as an essential (even if indecipherable) aspect of Marathi identity?- Reproduced <br/><br/>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00194646241256332<br/>