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.
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