Locating the ‘Local’ in South Asia Critical Themes in the History of Northern Bengal

I. Environmental Factors and Geo-Political Contours

1.     Situating Names in Contexts: Shifting Geopolitical Contours of the Puṇḍra ‘Subregion’ in Early Bengal

Rajat Sanyal

2.     Human Nature Interface in the Dakshin Dinajpur Region of West Bengal: A Study of Early Medieval Settlement Dynamics

Dipsikha Acharya and Bidhan Halder

3.     War, Environment, and the Rise of Islam in Medieval North Bengal

Chanchal Adhikary

II. Society, Culture, and Melting Pot

4.      Strategic North Bengal: A Crucial Contributor to India-Bangladesh Relations

Amit Ranjan and Diotima Chattoraj

5.     Two Coin Hoards of the Bengal Sultans from Northern Bengal: Discovery, Collection and Historical Importance

Sutapa Sinha

6.     War, armed forces, and society in North Bengal: A Colonial Perspective

Manas Dutta

7.     Rethinking the History of Public Health and Medicine in Colonial Northern Bengal (1869-1947)

Sudip Khasnobish and Monoranjan Sarkar

III. Sculpture, Monument, and Religiosity

8.     Buddhist iconography in North Bengal: the stone images

Claudine Bautze-Picron

9.     Brahmanical Images from Northern Bengal: Situating Coactions of Style, Iconography and Ideology

Sharmila Saha

10.  The Sultanate Mosque at Hemtabad: Revisiting a Forgotten Monument

Indrajit Chaudhuri

IV. Story of the ‘Marginalized’

11.  Indo-Bangla Enclaves and the Story of Making and Un-Making of Women’s Agency

Ranjita Chakraborty

12.  A Study of the Tea Garden Workers of North Bengal: A Historical Perspective

Pratima Chamling Rai and Anil Bhuimali

Appendix: Karatoyāmāhātmya, the English Translation

Biography

Dipsikha Acharya, Ph.D., teaches in the Department of History, at the University of North Bengal, India. She is the recipient of the Indian Council of Historical Research Post Doctoral Fellowship (2015-17). Though her core area of interest includes various themes of ancient Indian history and archaeology, she studies various issues of the history of the environment and that of science and technology. Her major publications comprise her authored book, Iron in India: History and Historiography, 2022 besides several research articles and book chapters published in reputed journals and edited volumes.

Sudip Khasnobish (Ph.D.) is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, at Rajganj College, Jalpaiguri, India. He has received an M.Phil. and PhD degree from the University of North Bengal. Presently, he is working on the ICHR-sponsored Major Research Project titled ‘Mass Participation and Anti Colonial Resistance in a Frontierland: Northern Bengal (1770-1947)’. His works have been published in reputed journals, like Journal of Indian History, Karatoya, Itikatha, etc.

Chanchal Adhikary, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Kurseong College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. He has done M.Phil from the University of North Bengal, and a PhD. from the University of Calcutta. He has recently published a book on the Rise of Islam in Cooch Behar and several research papers in national and internationally reputed journals such as South Asia Research, Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Indian Historical Review, etc.