The Sundarbans: Folk Deities, Monsters and Mortals

The book is about the colonization of the Sunderbans that began with the coming of the British. For two centuries, land-hungry peasants strove to transform the tidal forest vegetation into an agro- ecosystem dominated by paddy fields and fish culture. The construction of a permanent railroad led to the spreading of the co- operative movement, the formation of peasant organizations, and finally culminated in open rebellion by the peasants (tebhaga).

Sutapa Chatterjee Sarkar is Reader, Department of History in the University of West Bengal State University.