In 1921 a traveling religious man appeared in eastern British Bengal. Soon residents began to identify this half-naked and ash-smeared sannyasi as none other than the Second Kumar of Bhawal--a man believed to have died twelve years earlier, at the age of twenty-six. So began one of the most extraordinary legal cases in Indian history. The case would rivet popular attention for several decades as it unwound in courts from Dhaka and Calcutta to London.
This narrative history tells an incredible story replete with courtroom drama, sexual debauchery, family intrigue, and squandered wealth. With a novelist's eye for interesting detail, Partha Chatterjee sifts through evidence found in official archives, popular songs, and backstreet Bangladeshi bookshops. He evaluates the case of the man claiming, with the support of legions of tenants and relatives, to be the long-lost Kumar. And he considers the position of the sannyasi's detractors, including the colonial government and the Kumar's young widow, who resolutely refused to meet the man she denounced as an impostor.
Along the way, Chatterjee introduces us to a fascinating range of human character, gleans insights into the nature of human identity, and examines the relation between scientific evidence, legal truth, and cultural practice. The story he tells unfolds alongside decades of Indian history. Its plot is shaped by changing gender and class relations and punctuated by critical historical events, including the onset of World War II, the Bengal famine of 1943, and the Great Calcutta Killings. And by identifying the earliest erosion of colonialism and the growth of nationalist thinking within the organs of colonial power, Chatterjee also gives us a secret history of Indian nationalism.
Le informazioni nella sezione "Riassunto" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.
Le informazioni nella sezione "Su questo libro" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.
Spese di spedizione:
EUR 4,60
In U.S.A.
Descrizione libro hardcover. Condizione: Very Good. No dust jacket. Tan colored cloth boards. Clean, has a good binding, no marks or notations. 429 pages. Codice articolo 215534
Descrizione libro Hardcover. Condizione: Very Good -. Condizione sovraccoperta: Very Good. Beige paper-covered boards with black-stamped particulars and publisher's emblem to spine. Pages are clean and unmarked. Text block and end papers are foxed particularly to top edge. Boards have bumping to edges, corners and ends of spine; rubbing along edge of spine at front board; small dampstain to center of front board. Binding is tight, spine slightly cocked.Dust jacket is clean with sunning to spine, fore edge, and top edge of front cover; creasing to corners and ends of spine; sticker to lower edge of rear cover. Dust jacket is covered in a protective mylar jacket. Codice articolo 64837