The black soil of central India hides more than the bones of long-dead giants.
1829. William Bentincks British officials want to pull India into the modern world. William Henry Sleeman, war veteran and administrator, would rather dig the hills of Jabalpur for fossils than take part in this project. Tasked with enforcing the law, he comes across the Phansigars, who deceive and strangle travellers.
Are they merely robbers? Are they a cult? Are they among the many mysteries of India that the children of the Enlightenment cant hope to explain? As Sleemans investigations become more than just about crime and justice, he will have to grapple with the many layers of truth that hide in the Indian countryside. And the realisation that darkness comes in many forms.
And behind it all, or perhaps beyond, is a beautiful man who may hold the keys to the mystery. And he, unlike Sleeman, is not burdened with doubt or remorse
Read the account of the hunt for the Phansigars, through the eyes of the remarkable man who led it.
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Specifications
Book Details
Imprint
Simon & Schuster Publishers India Pvt Ltd
Publication Year
2020 September
Contributors
Author Info
Siddhartha Sarma is a journalist and historian. He has reported on insurgency, crime, law and foreign affairs in New Delhi, Mumbai and Indias Northeast, for national newspapers and magazines including The Indian Express and Mint, and was till recently assistant editor, The Times of India. He is guest faculty for history at the University of Delhi, where he teaches late medieval European, colonial and world history. He has an M Litt in War Studies from the University of Glasgow, where he specialised in the later Crusades.
Siddhartha has written several books in the last ten years. His latest book, Carpenters and Kings: Western Christianity and the Idea of India (2019), is the first complete history of the arrival of Western Christianity in India. His first book for young adults, The Grasshoppers Run (2009) won the Crossword Book Award 2010 and Sahitya Akademi Award for Childrens Literature in English 2011.