Author: Ghulam Murshid
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 9386906120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 507
Book Description
Art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society are together regarded as the culture of that society. Ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society are also its ‘culture’. Contrary to what we think, it is not easy to describe ‘culture’, nor is it easy to write the cultural history. Writing the history of Bengali culture is even more difficult because Bengali society is truly plural in its nature, made even more so by its political division. The two main religious communities that share this culture are often more aware of the differences between them than the similarities. Nonetheless, the people remain bound by history and a shared language and literature. Ghulam Murshid’s Bengali Culture over a Thousand Years is the first non-partisan and holistic discussion of Bengali culture. Written for the general reader, the language is simple and the style lucid. It shows how the individual ingredients of Bengali culture have evolved and found expression, in the context of political developments and how certain individuals have moulded culture. Above all, the book presents the identity and special qualities of Bengali culture. The book was originally published in Bengali in Dhaka in 2006. This is the first English translation.
Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years
Author: Ghulam Murshid
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 9386906120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 507
Book Description
Art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society are together regarded as the culture of that society. Ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society are also its ‘culture’. Contrary to what we think, it is not easy to describe ‘culture’, nor is it easy to write the cultural history. Writing the history of Bengali culture is even more difficult because Bengali society is truly plural in its nature, made even more so by its political division. The two main religious communities that share this culture are often more aware of the differences between them than the similarities. Nonetheless, the people remain bound by history and a shared language and literature. Ghulam Murshid’s Bengali Culture over a Thousand Years is the first non-partisan and holistic discussion of Bengali culture. Written for the general reader, the language is simple and the style lucid. It shows how the individual ingredients of Bengali culture have evolved and found expression, in the context of political developments and how certain individuals have moulded culture. Above all, the book presents the identity and special qualities of Bengali culture. The book was originally published in Bengali in Dhaka in 2006. This is the first English translation.
Publisher: Niyogi Books
ISBN: 9386906120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 507
Book Description
Art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society are together regarded as the culture of that society. Ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society are also its ‘culture’. Contrary to what we think, it is not easy to describe ‘culture’, nor is it easy to write the cultural history. Writing the history of Bengali culture is even more difficult because Bengali society is truly plural in its nature, made even more so by its political division. The two main religious communities that share this culture are often more aware of the differences between them than the similarities. Nonetheless, the people remain bound by history and a shared language and literature. Ghulam Murshid’s Bengali Culture over a Thousand Years is the first non-partisan and holistic discussion of Bengali culture. Written for the general reader, the language is simple and the style lucid. It shows how the individual ingredients of Bengali culture have evolved and found expression, in the context of political developments and how certain individuals have moulded culture. Above all, the book presents the identity and special qualities of Bengali culture. The book was originally published in Bengali in Dhaka in 2006. This is the first English translation.
Travel Culture, Travel Writing and Bengali Women, 1870–1940
Author: Jayati Gupta
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000088227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
This book chronicles travel writings of Bengali women in colonial India and explores the intersections of power, indigeneity, and the representations of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in these writings. It documents the transgressive histories of these women who stepped out to create emancipatory identities for themselves. The book brings together a selection of travelogues from various Bengali women and their journeys to the West, the Aryavarta, and Japan. These writings challenge stereotypes of the 'circumscribed native woman’ and explore the complex personal and socio-political histories of women in colonial India. Reading these from a feminist, postcolonial perspective, the volume highlights how these women from different castes, class and ages confront the changing realities of their lives in colonial India in the backdrop of the independence movement and the second world war. The author draws attention to the personal histories of these women, which informed their views on education, womanhood, marriage, female autonomy, family, and politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Engaging and insightful, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers of literature and history, gender and culture studies, and for general readers interested in women and travel writing.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000088227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
This book chronicles travel writings of Bengali women in colonial India and explores the intersections of power, indigeneity, and the representations of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in these writings. It documents the transgressive histories of these women who stepped out to create emancipatory identities for themselves. The book brings together a selection of travelogues from various Bengali women and their journeys to the West, the Aryavarta, and Japan. These writings challenge stereotypes of the 'circumscribed native woman’ and explore the complex personal and socio-political histories of women in colonial India. Reading these from a feminist, postcolonial perspective, the volume highlights how these women from different castes, class and ages confront the changing realities of their lives in colonial India in the backdrop of the independence movement and the second world war. The author draws attention to the personal histories of these women, which informed their views on education, womanhood, marriage, female autonomy, family, and politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Engaging and insightful, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers of literature and history, gender and culture studies, and for general readers interested in women and travel writing.
Globalization and Urban Culture in Dhaka
Author: Kazi Abusaleh
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000584887
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
This book examines globalization and urban cultures in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, from a socio-cultural view. It focuses on the evolving nature of urbanity in the city due to globalization and the global flow of information, while framing the changing patterns of everyday cultures and practices. The volume explores key linkages and factors in urban transformation; the history and heritage of Old Dhaka; globalization, diverse urban cultures and ethnic spaces; changes in food habits, clothing, health practices, and recreation; changing forms of festivals, marriages, and religious practices; the situation of indigenous people in Old Dhaka; and the roles that need to be played by NGOs, civil society, and the local government. With its rich ethnographic case studies and field-based evidence, it discusses the relations between technology-driven economic activities and increasing cultural homogenization. It traces developments induced by cultural globalization and includes contemporary debates along with comparisons of Asian and global perspectives. This book will be a useful resource for scholars and researchers of urban studies, city studies, urban sociology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, political sociology, development studies, South Asian studies and cultural studies, and to those interested in Bangladesh.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000584887
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
This book examines globalization and urban cultures in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, from a socio-cultural view. It focuses on the evolving nature of urbanity in the city due to globalization and the global flow of information, while framing the changing patterns of everyday cultures and practices. The volume explores key linkages and factors in urban transformation; the history and heritage of Old Dhaka; globalization, diverse urban cultures and ethnic spaces; changes in food habits, clothing, health practices, and recreation; changing forms of festivals, marriages, and religious practices; the situation of indigenous people in Old Dhaka; and the roles that need to be played by NGOs, civil society, and the local government. With its rich ethnographic case studies and field-based evidence, it discusses the relations between technology-driven economic activities and increasing cultural homogenization. It traces developments induced by cultural globalization and includes contemporary debates along with comparisons of Asian and global perspectives. This book will be a useful resource for scholars and researchers of urban studies, city studies, urban sociology, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, political sociology, development studies, South Asian studies and cultural studies, and to those interested in Bangladesh.
Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America
Author: Vivek Bald
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674070402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award Winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for History A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A Saveur “Essential Food Books That Define New York City” Selection In the final years of the nineteenth century, small groups of Muslim peddlers arrived at Ellis Island every summer, bags heavy with embroidered silks from their home villages in Bengal. The American demand for “Oriental goods” took these migrants on a curious path, from New Jersey’s beach boardwalks into the heart of the segregated South. Two decades later, hundreds of Indian Muslim seamen began jumping ship in New York and Baltimore, escaping the engine rooms of British steamers to find less brutal work onshore. As factory owners sought their labor and anti-Asian immigration laws closed in around them, these men built clandestine networks that stretched from the northeastern waterfront across the industrial Midwest. The stories of these early working-class migrants vividly contrast with our typical understanding of immigration. Vivek Bald’s meticulous reconstruction reveals a lost history of South Asian sojourning and life-making in the United States. At a time when Asian immigrants were vilified and criminalized, Bengali Muslims quietly became part of some of America’s most iconic neighborhoods of color, from Tremé in New Orleans to Detroit’s Black Bottom, from West Baltimore to Harlem. Many started families with Creole, Puerto Rican, and African American women. As steel and auto workers in the Midwest, as traders in the South, and as halal hot dog vendors on 125th Street, these immigrants created lives as remarkable as they are unknown. Their stories of ingenuity and intermixture challenge assumptions about assimilation and reveal cross-racial affinities beneath the surface of early twentieth-century America.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674070402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award Winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for History A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A Saveur “Essential Food Books That Define New York City” Selection In the final years of the nineteenth century, small groups of Muslim peddlers arrived at Ellis Island every summer, bags heavy with embroidered silks from their home villages in Bengal. The American demand for “Oriental goods” took these migrants on a curious path, from New Jersey’s beach boardwalks into the heart of the segregated South. Two decades later, hundreds of Indian Muslim seamen began jumping ship in New York and Baltimore, escaping the engine rooms of British steamers to find less brutal work onshore. As factory owners sought their labor and anti-Asian immigration laws closed in around them, these men built clandestine networks that stretched from the northeastern waterfront across the industrial Midwest. The stories of these early working-class migrants vividly contrast with our typical understanding of immigration. Vivek Bald’s meticulous reconstruction reveals a lost history of South Asian sojourning and life-making in the United States. At a time when Asian immigrants were vilified and criminalized, Bengali Muslims quietly became part of some of America’s most iconic neighborhoods of color, from Tremé in New Orleans to Detroit’s Black Bottom, from West Baltimore to Harlem. Many started families with Creole, Puerto Rican, and African American women. As steel and auto workers in the Midwest, as traders in the South, and as halal hot dog vendors on 125th Street, these immigrants created lives as remarkable as they are unknown. Their stories of ingenuity and intermixture challenge assumptions about assimilation and reveal cross-racial affinities beneath the surface of early twentieth-century America.
India and Identity - Some Reflections
Author: Dr. Firoj High Sarwar
Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 616
Book Description
'India and Identity: Some Reflections' is an edited book, comprising fifty-two articles, written by distinguished scholars of arts and social sciences, mainly reflecting the multifarious and multilayer identities of India and Indians. It covers the arena of Indian history, culture, politics, society, economy, regions, languages, religions, castes, classes, and ethnicity which has traveled since remote ancient times to the recent twenty-first century. We hope that this book will provide a scope for an intellectual discourse on India and the diversified issues of Identities and enlighten our existing knowledge
Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 616
Book Description
'India and Identity: Some Reflections' is an edited book, comprising fifty-two articles, written by distinguished scholars of arts and social sciences, mainly reflecting the multifarious and multilayer identities of India and Indians. It covers the arena of Indian history, culture, politics, society, economy, regions, languages, religions, castes, classes, and ethnicity which has traveled since remote ancient times to the recent twenty-first century. We hope that this book will provide a scope for an intellectual discourse on India and the diversified issues of Identities and enlighten our existing knowledge
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine
Author: Colleen Taylor Sen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350128651
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 545
Book Description
This reference work covers the cuisine and foodways of India in all their diversity and complexity, including regions, personalities, street foods, communities and topics that have been often neglected. The book starts with an overview essay situating the Great Indian Table in relation to its geography, history and agriculture, followed by alphabetically organized entries. The entries, which are between 150 and 1,500 words long, combine facts with history, anecdotes, and legends. They are supplemented by longer entries on key topics such as regional cuisines, spice mixtures, food and medicine, rites of passages, cooking methods, rice, sweets, tea, drinks (alcoholic and soft) and the Indian diaspora. This comprehensive volume illuminates contemporary Indian cooking and cuisine in tradition and practice.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350128651
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 545
Book Description
This reference work covers the cuisine and foodways of India in all their diversity and complexity, including regions, personalities, street foods, communities and topics that have been often neglected. The book starts with an overview essay situating the Great Indian Table in relation to its geography, history and agriculture, followed by alphabetically organized entries. The entries, which are between 150 and 1,500 words long, combine facts with history, anecdotes, and legends. They are supplemented by longer entries on key topics such as regional cuisines, spice mixtures, food and medicine, rites of passages, cooking methods, rice, sweets, tea, drinks (alcoholic and soft) and the Indian diaspora. This comprehensive volume illuminates contemporary Indian cooking and cuisine in tradition and practice.
Women and the Romance of the Word
Author: Sreemati Mukherjee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9356406049
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Around the middle of the 19th century, woman emerges as a new sign disrupting the cultural economy of Bengal and reversing and realigning conventional notions and expectations of woman's agency and power. The colonial interface would have been important because a need for women's overall development was felt amongst the male intelligentsia of the period and some of the key texts that circulated at the beginning of the 19th century were Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1791), James Mill's History of British India (1817), Richard Carlile's Every Woman's Book (1826) and William Thompson's Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men (1825). The inaugural moment of this outstanding efflorescence of women's writing in polemics, travel writing, autobiography and journal articles could be said to begin with Kailashbasini Devi's Hindu Mahilaganer Heenabastha (The Woeful Plight of Hindu Women, 1863), in autobiographies like Rassundari Devi's Amar Jiban (My Life, 1876) and Binodini Dasi's Amar Katha (My Words, 1913) and in personalised travelogues like Krishnabhabini Das's Englande Banga Mahila (A Bengali Woman in England, 1885). As Kailashbasini, Rassundari, Krishnabhabini and Binodini write, the romance of the word, the romance of learning and self-realisation is enacted. A new dramatic script emerges as Bengali women become the scriptwriters of their own histories.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9356406049
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Around the middle of the 19th century, woman emerges as a new sign disrupting the cultural economy of Bengal and reversing and realigning conventional notions and expectations of woman's agency and power. The colonial interface would have been important because a need for women's overall development was felt amongst the male intelligentsia of the period and some of the key texts that circulated at the beginning of the 19th century were Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1791), James Mill's History of British India (1817), Richard Carlile's Every Woman's Book (1826) and William Thompson's Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men (1825). The inaugural moment of this outstanding efflorescence of women's writing in polemics, travel writing, autobiography and journal articles could be said to begin with Kailashbasini Devi's Hindu Mahilaganer Heenabastha (The Woeful Plight of Hindu Women, 1863), in autobiographies like Rassundari Devi's Amar Jiban (My Life, 1876) and Binodini Dasi's Amar Katha (My Words, 1913) and in personalised travelogues like Krishnabhabini Das's Englande Banga Mahila (A Bengali Woman in England, 1885). As Kailashbasini, Rassundari, Krishnabhabini and Binodini write, the romance of the word, the romance of learning and self-realisation is enacted. A new dramatic script emerges as Bengali women become the scriptwriters of their own histories.
Teaching and Learning for Comprehensive Citizenship
Author: Candice C. Carter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000246213
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
Ultimately concerned with how citizenship education for peace can be enriched through interdisciplinary learning, this edited volume reveals the role of peace education in global citizenship by illuminating instruction for comprehensive citizenship. A truly international collection, this volume offers timely insights from countries including Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Canada, Bangaldesh, Korea, Zimbabwe, and Timor Leste as it provides critical, in-depth analyses of peace-oriented instruction in formal and informal settings. The text illustrates how citizenship can be effectively developed on both a global and a local level, and discusses the practical learning opportunities that can enact change through schools, nongovernmental organizations, and community-wide civic actions with children, youth, adults, and families. This text will appeal to academics and researchers involved in the field of international and comparative education and will be of interest to educators and school leaders concerned with the role citizenship plays in the context of teaching and learning.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000246213
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Book Description
Ultimately concerned with how citizenship education for peace can be enriched through interdisciplinary learning, this edited volume reveals the role of peace education in global citizenship by illuminating instruction for comprehensive citizenship. A truly international collection, this volume offers timely insights from countries including Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Canada, Bangaldesh, Korea, Zimbabwe, and Timor Leste as it provides critical, in-depth analyses of peace-oriented instruction in formal and informal settings. The text illustrates how citizenship can be effectively developed on both a global and a local level, and discusses the practical learning opportunities that can enact change through schools, nongovernmental organizations, and community-wide civic actions with children, youth, adults, and families. This text will appeal to academics and researchers involved in the field of international and comparative education and will be of interest to educators and school leaders concerned with the role citizenship plays in the context of teaching and learning.
Indian Renaissance, The: India's Rise After A Thousand Years Of Decline
Author: Sanjeev Sanyal
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814470767
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
India's recent economic performance has attracted world attention but the country is re-awakening not just as an economy but as a civilization. After a thousand years of the decline, it now has a genuine opportunity to re-establish itself as a major global power.In “The Indian Renaissance”, the author, Sanjeev Sanyal, looks at the processes that led to ten centuries of fossilization and then at the powerful economic and social forces that are now working together to transform India beyond recognition. These range from demographic shifts to rising literacy levels, but the most important revolution has been the opening of mind and the changed attitude towards innovation and risk.This book is about how India found itself at this historic juncture, the obstacles that it still needs to negotiate and the future that it may enjoy. The author tells the story from the perspective of the new generation of Indians who have emerged from this great period of change.Published and distributed worldwide by World Scientific Publishing Co. except India, UK and North America
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814470767
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
India's recent economic performance has attracted world attention but the country is re-awakening not just as an economy but as a civilization. After a thousand years of the decline, it now has a genuine opportunity to re-establish itself as a major global power.In “The Indian Renaissance”, the author, Sanjeev Sanyal, looks at the processes that led to ten centuries of fossilization and then at the powerful economic and social forces that are now working together to transform India beyond recognition. These range from demographic shifts to rising literacy levels, but the most important revolution has been the opening of mind and the changed attitude towards innovation and risk.This book is about how India found itself at this historic juncture, the obstacles that it still needs to negotiate and the future that it may enjoy. The author tells the story from the perspective of the new generation of Indians who have emerged from this great period of change.Published and distributed worldwide by World Scientific Publishing Co. except India, UK and North America
Origin of Bangla Ninth Part Bengal, Bengali, Culture, and The Spectre
Author: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Publisher: Dibyendu Chakraborty
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
Naru embarked on a life-long cerebral journey to find acceptable explanations for a few unanswered questions that arose in his mind during his school days. Those previously unexplained issues were critical to understanding the history, geography, and concept of the Bengal region, popularly known as ‘Bangla’. In his journey through life, he was able to find a previously unheard of but logically sustainable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ and one more closely associated word, ‘Bangal’. That explanation was in consonance with the present understanding of the process of geological evolution of the Bengal Basin. It was also capable of aligning itself with the accepted concept of the geological evolution of that basin. However, something even more startling occurred to Naru’s mind. As his logic-based journey to arrive at an acceptable and verifiable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ was approaching its end, the information gathered by him, in conjunction with some logical deductions, took him to the gateway that led to a new horizon. Naru started to realise the presence of something that lacked supporting physical evidence. All writers of Indian history, and thus all writers of Bengal’s history too, had to introduce a new batch of migrants into the scenario and assign that group a very high level of excellence and attainment. That has been the demand for a logical construct to explain everything at hand in relation to prehistoric as well as ancient India. Strong indications exist that a superior civilization existed in that geography. No model could be framed that could explain the mysterious past of that land, even remotely. Nobody dared to trade on that path. It is almost impossible to defend any such model. Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay attributed the 'self-inflicted downfall’ of that group to keeping logical consistency with the perceivable course of history. In recorded history, humankind has seen the downfall of a civilisation in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Whenever an unexplainable gap appears in history, it becomes handy to attribute that dark area to a self-inflicted downfall, as such examples are available at hand. In the case of India, something extraordinary has happened. The entire imagined civilisation has disappeared without leaving any trace. No archaeological evidence has been found with regard to that postulated civilisation. In all the other cases where civilisational or societal downfall has happened, remnants of the existence of such people have been found. In one of his essays about the origin of the Bengali people, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay commented that the origin of the people who were very significant in number within Bengal, i.e., those who were much larger in number than the higher classes, was shrouded in mystery. Something irritated Naru when he thought that a materialistic person like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay went on to comment that "no history has been written for Bengal." As it is evident from the writings of the experts, there is an "obscurity factor" involved with the past of the geography and history of the Bengal Basin. There is the undeniable presence of a spectre as far as the evolution of Bengali society is concerned. Naru wanted to see whether he could open a line of approach to the spectre associated with the Bengal Basin that was ever-present and allured all the travellers of history. Naru embarked on a new journey where an analysis of the different aspects of the life of the old inhabitants of Bengal became necessary to lift the shroud around the spectre associated with that basin. Ultimately, Naru was able to find a clue through which he thought that he would be able to continue his journey to the deep past of the Bengal Basin. This book provides a description of that clue and an account of the process of finding that all-important clue.
Publisher: Dibyendu Chakraborty
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
Naru embarked on a life-long cerebral journey to find acceptable explanations for a few unanswered questions that arose in his mind during his school days. Those previously unexplained issues were critical to understanding the history, geography, and concept of the Bengal region, popularly known as ‘Bangla’. In his journey through life, he was able to find a previously unheard of but logically sustainable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ and one more closely associated word, ‘Bangal’. That explanation was in consonance with the present understanding of the process of geological evolution of the Bengal Basin. It was also capable of aligning itself with the accepted concept of the geological evolution of that basin. However, something even more startling occurred to Naru’s mind. As his logic-based journey to arrive at an acceptable and verifiable explanation of the word ‘Banga’ was approaching its end, the information gathered by him, in conjunction with some logical deductions, took him to the gateway that led to a new horizon. Naru started to realise the presence of something that lacked supporting physical evidence. All writers of Indian history, and thus all writers of Bengal’s history too, had to introduce a new batch of migrants into the scenario and assign that group a very high level of excellence and attainment. That has been the demand for a logical construct to explain everything at hand in relation to prehistoric as well as ancient India. Strong indications exist that a superior civilization existed in that geography. No model could be framed that could explain the mysterious past of that land, even remotely. Nobody dared to trade on that path. It is almost impossible to defend any such model. Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay attributed the 'self-inflicted downfall’ of that group to keeping logical consistency with the perceivable course of history. In recorded history, humankind has seen the downfall of a civilisation in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Whenever an unexplainable gap appears in history, it becomes handy to attribute that dark area to a self-inflicted downfall, as such examples are available at hand. In the case of India, something extraordinary has happened. The entire imagined civilisation has disappeared without leaving any trace. No archaeological evidence has been found with regard to that postulated civilisation. In all the other cases where civilisational or societal downfall has happened, remnants of the existence of such people have been found. In one of his essays about the origin of the Bengali people, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay commented that the origin of the people who were very significant in number within Bengal, i.e., those who were much larger in number than the higher classes, was shrouded in mystery. Something irritated Naru when he thought that a materialistic person like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay went on to comment that "no history has been written for Bengal." As it is evident from the writings of the experts, there is an "obscurity factor" involved with the past of the geography and history of the Bengal Basin. There is the undeniable presence of a spectre as far as the evolution of Bengali society is concerned. Naru wanted to see whether he could open a line of approach to the spectre associated with the Bengal Basin that was ever-present and allured all the travellers of history. Naru embarked on a new journey where an analysis of the different aspects of the life of the old inhabitants of Bengal became necessary to lift the shroud around the spectre associated with that basin. Ultimately, Naru was able to find a clue through which he thought that he would be able to continue his journey to the deep past of the Bengal Basin. This book provides a description of that clue and an account of the process of finding that all-important clue.