Mou Banerjee

The writer is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Christian conversion and the politics of faith in colonial Bengal

While Europe experienced an age of evangelical awakening in the eighteenth century, political circumstances in India posed challenges to the work of missionary preaching.

3w ago

The Baropakhya Christians: A forgotten incidence of peasant repression in colonial Bengal

The Blue or Indigo Mutiny of 1861, was an outpouring of anger by Indian peasants coerced into cultivating the unprofitable indigo crop by British planters.

1y ago

Syed Mujtaba Ali between Bengal and Afghanistan

Historically, Afghanistan, and its cities Kabul and Peshawar, were central in the Mughal imagination as the space where the idea of Hindustan took shape.

1y ago

The missionaries and the evolution of the Bengali language

In his foreword to Bernard Cohn’s magisterial book Colonialism and its forms of knowledge, Nicholas Dirks commented that for the British, in India,

2y ago

Munshi Meherullah of Jessore and religious identity in 19th century Bengal

On 7 June 1907, a rural Bengali tailor, Meherullah, died of complications from pneumonia in a small village called Chatiantala, on the banks of the river Bhairab, in Jessore.

2y ago
August 18, 2025
August 18, 2025

Christian conversion and the politics of faith in colonial Bengal

While Europe experienced an age of evangelical awakening in the eighteenth century, political circumstances in India posed challenges to the work of missionary preaching.

April 22, 2024
April 22, 2024

The Baropakhya Christians: A forgotten incidence of peasant repression in colonial Bengal

The Blue or Indigo Mutiny of 1861, was an outpouring of anger by Indian peasants coerced into cultivating the unprofitable indigo crop by British planters.

September 11, 2023
September 11, 2023

Syed Mujtaba Ali between Bengal and Afghanistan

Historically, Afghanistan, and its cities Kabul and Peshawar, were central in the Mughal imagination as the space where the idea of Hindustan took shape.

February 21, 2023
February 21, 2023

The missionaries and the evolution of the Bengali language

In his foreword to Bernard Cohn’s magisterial book Colonialism and its forms of knowledge, Nicholas Dirks commented that for the British, in India,

January 30, 2023
January 30, 2023

Munshi Meherullah of Jessore and religious identity in 19th century Bengal

On 7 June 1907, a rural Bengali tailor, Meherullah, died of complications from pneumonia in a small village called Chatiantala, on the banks of the river Bhairab, in Jessore.