Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta
Debjani Bhattacharya’s book brings to mind Debesh Ray’s acclaimed Bengali novel Tista Parer Brittanta (1988)1 in which a canny landlord in north Bengal takes the precaution of surveying and measuring submerged lands right up to the midstream of the notoriously restless river Tista, thereby laying prior claim to the char or sandbanks which would be formed through alluvium deposits and exposed once the river shifted its course.