The Sundarbans

Sarkar, Sutapa Chatterjee:
The Sundarbans : folk deities, monsters and mortals / Sutapa Chatterjee Sarkar. - New Delhi : Social Science Press ; Hyderabad : Orient Blackswan, 2010. - 212 S. : Ill.
ISBN 978-81-87358-35-0
Rs. 550,00
DDC: 305.89144; 954.14008
-- Angekündigt für Januar 2010

Beschreibung
The lower deltaic Bengal, the Sundarbans has always had a life of its own, unique in its distinctive natural aspect and social development. Geographical and ecological evidence indicates that most of the area used to be once covered with dense, impenetrable jungle even as patches of cultivation sprang intermittently into life and then disappeared. A continuous struggle ensued between man and nature, as portrayed in the punthi literature that thrived in lower deltaic Bengal between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
   The construction of a permanent railroad connecting Calcutta to Canning further facilitated the influx of new ideas and these, subsequently, found expression in the spreading of co-operative movements, formation of peasant organizations, and finally culminated in open rebellion by the peasants (Tebhaga Movement). The struggle between men and the dangerous forests was therefore overshadowed by the conflict among men. [Orient Blackswan]

Inhalt
Preface and Acknowledgements
Maps
Abbreviations
1. The Sundarbans Folk Deities, Monsters and Mortals: Introduction
2. Fearsome Forests and Rising Tides: A Historical Geography of the Sundarbans
3. The Sundarbans in punthi Literature
4. Tilman Henckell: An Advocate of Colonial Paternalism
5. Land Reclamation from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century
6. Development of the Port at Canning and Gosaba Co-operative
7. Tebhaga in Kakdwip
8. The Sundarbans in Modern Bengali Fiction
9. The Mangrove and the Man: A Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Autor
SUTAPA CHATTERJEE SARKAR is Reader, Department of History, West Bengal State University.

Quellen: Orient Blackswan; Berghahn Books; Scholars without Borders; Social Science Press; WorldCat.