Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Textual Representations, Public Discourses

1. Dynastic Times: A Chronology for Memories in Bishnupur

2. Tidal Histories: Envisioning the Sundarbans, 1860s–1920s

3. Representations of Manbhum and Purulia in Orientalist Texts and the Task of Salvaging the Past of the Region

Part II: Pedagogic Practices, Local Articulations

4. The Small Voices of History: Subaltern Technologists of Colonial Bengal

5. The Advent of Primary Education in Bengal

6. Education and Training for Coal Miners: ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Knowledge’ in the Collieries of Raniganj and Jharia, 1901–1930

Part III: Administrative Imperatives, Governmental Manoeuvres

7. Military Interventions and Surveys in Southwest Bengal, c. 1765: Midnapore “Frontier” and the Wider Jangal Mahal

8. Rethinking Detection in Bengal: Police Work in the Districts and the City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

9. Influx and Efflux: A Case Study of the Nadia District, 1947–1971

About the Author

Kaustubh Mani Sengupta teaches History at Bankura University, India. He obtained his PhD from the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He was a post-doctoral fellow for two years at the Transnational Research Group on ‘Poverty and Education in India’ funded by Max Weber Stiftung, Germany. His research focuses on the urban history of South Asia, the early colonial state in India and the history of infrastructure and space.

Tista Das teaches History at Bankura University, India. She obtained her PhD from the Department of History, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India. She has been a Junior Research Fellow at the Peace Studies Group, Department of History, University of Calcutta. Her research interests include histories of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent, migration, resettlement and ways and means of reading violence.