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Academic Papers

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Articles & Reviews in Mainstream Press

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Poetry and Translations

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The Calcutta Encyclopedia

The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways and The Great Indian Railways

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List of Publications (last updated on July 27, 2026

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Books

• Ram Setu: The Memoirs of an Enchanted Bridge. Rupa, 2025.
• Adam’s Bridge: Sacrality, Performance, and Heritage of an Oceanic Marvel. Routledge, 2024.
• Indians in London: From the Birth of the East India Company to Independent India. Bloomsbury, 2021.
• The Great Indian Railways: A Cultural Biography. Bloomsbury, 2018.
• The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways. Bloomsbury, 2017.

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Journal Articles

• “GF Kellner and the Making of an Imperial State Apparatus in the Indian Railways.” History of Retailing and Consumption 11, no. 1 (2025): 58–80.
• “Latour Against ‘Freeze-Framing’: A Sacred Indian ‘Monument’ in the Anthropocene.” Implicit Religion 26 (2025).
• “The 19th Century Colonial Archetype of the Indian Crocodile: The Aquapelagic Roots of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Muggers.'” Shima 19, no. 2 (2025): 234–256.
• “Mythologizing Late Victorian Tea Advertising: The Case of the Illustrated London News (1890–1900).” History of Retailing and Consumption 10, no. 1 (2024): 43–82.
• “Pothum Janakummah Ragaviah’s ‘Fairy-land’: A ‘Hindoo Lady of Madras’ in Victorian London.” Studies in Travel Writing 27, no. 3 (2024): 290–310.
• “Ram Setu and Delusions of Archaeological Grandeur: The Politics of Obscuring a Sacred Geology.” Shima 18, no. 2 (2024): 184–207.
• “The ‘Decline’ of London’s Curry Houses, Invented Tradition, Authenticity, Gastromythology.” Consumption Markets & Culture 26, no. 6 (2023): 443–465.
• “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of Theosophy: Spiritual Underpinnings of the Science of Deduction.” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 35, no. 2 (2023): 96–113.
• “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of Lucid Dreaming: The Place of Oneirogenesis in the Science of Deduction.” Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 12, no. 1 (2023): 55–83.
• “The Gastromythology of English Tea Culture: On the UKTC’s Advertisements and Making Tea a ‘Fact’ of English Life.” Canadian Journal of History 57, no. 1 (2022): 47–80.
• “Do You Believe in Ram Setu? Adam’s Bridge, Epistemic Plurality and Colonial Legacy.” Island Studies (2022).
• “Lord Ram’s Own Sethu: Adam’s Bridge Envisaged as an Aquapelago.” Shima 16, no. 1 (2022): 94–114.
• “Aconite in Victorian Tropical Toxicology: What You Wanted to Know about the Indian Poison but Were Afraid to Ask Sherlock Holmes.” Canadian Journal of Health History 39, no. 2 (2022): 281–310.
• “Oriental Dressings, Imperial Inhalations: The Indian Hookah in British Colonial Culture.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 65, nos. 1–2 (2022): 279–324.
• “Mapping Icons of Victorian Femininity: Engendering London in Nineteenth-Century Indian Accounts.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 24, no. 3 (2022): 313–341.
• “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and the Consumerist Utopia.” History of Retailing and Consumption 8, no. 2 (2022): 130–150.
• “A Female Neighbour in Whose Country? The Untold Story of Afia Begum and the Sari Squad.” Lectora 28 (2022): 255–271.
• “‘Soft Thick Carpet Under Your Feet’: The Indian Eye on Victorian London’s Homes.” Interiors 12, no. 1 (2022): 1–18.
• “Sherlock Holmes and Vijnana Vedanta: The Hidden Spiritualist of 221B Baker Street.” The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society 12, no. 1 (2022): 171.
• “Shakespeare and Therapeutizing the ‘Naturall Sicknes’ of Dreams in Reformed England.” Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture 15, no. 2 (2022): 71–100.
• “Ruskin Bond’s Haunted Architecture: Anglo-Saxon Archetypes of the Doon Valley.” Anglo Saxonica 19, no. 1 (2021).
• “Shakespeare in Dream and Shakespearean Dreams.” International Journal of Dream Research 14, no. 1 (2021): 99–113.
• “A Study in Furniture: The Moonstone’s ‘Detective Fever’ and Pharmacy of Deduction.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 24, no. 1 (2021): 142–171.
• “Performing Calibanesque Baptisms: Shakespearean Fractals of British Indian History.” Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 23, no. 38 (2021).
• “Doonstruck Diaries of Victorian Memsahibs: Between the Journal and Jhampaun in Mussoorie and Landour.” Lectora: revista de dones i textualitat 27 (2021): 191–210.
• “The Science of the Andamans and The Sign of the Four: The Distorted Racial Hierarchy of British Imperial Anthropology.” Shima 14, no. 2 (2020).
• “Imperial Neuropsychology and an Indian Diamond.” International Journal of Dream Research 13, no. 2 (2020): 259–266.
• “Decolonising from London: An Indian Psychogeography around Victorian Railway Spaces (1870–1914).” Diasporas 36 (2020): 149–171.
• “The Story of our Experiments with London: The Victorian City in Indian Imagination (1870–1900).” Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 12, no. 3 (2020): 155–165.
• “Downton Abbey and a Culinary Travelogy: Histories of Anglo-Indian Imperial Cooking.” Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures 6, no. 2 (2017).
• “The American ‘You Probably Know’: On Chomsky, United States, and the Failed States.” Annals of “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava 2014, no. II (2014): 63–75.
• “Introduction: Travel and Politics (A Note on The Indian General Elections, 2014).” Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures 3, no. 2 (2014).
• “Reader, Tourist, and Psychogeography Today: A Categorical Imperative of Travel.” Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures 3, no. 1 (2014).
• “Introduction: Travel and Self.” Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures 2, no. 1 (2013).
• “A Twice-Born Canon and its Reification: The Indian Hill Writings of Emily Eden, Fanny Parkes.” Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures 2, no. 1 (2012).

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Book Chapters

• “The Entangled Island: Katchatheevu and Indo-Lankan Maritime Relations.” In Aquapelagos, 119–139, 2025.
• “The History of India and Indian Poisons are Key to Understanding Sherlock Holmes.” University of Toronto Press, 2022.
• “‘Luca Brasi Sleeps with the Fishes’: The Gastromythology of The Godfather Trilogy.” In Food Culture Studies in India, 67–83, 2021.
• “Remembering ‘The Purloined Letter’: Letters from the Event Horizon.” In Philosophy, Language and the Political: Poststructuralism in Perspective, edited by Franson Manjali and Marc Crépon, 2017 (reissued 2026).

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Articles in Mainstream Dailies and Publications

1. The Politics Behind Dhurandhar’s Addictive 90s Soundtrack — The Indian Express — 6 April 2026
2. The Indian Railways are Kaleidoscopes into Indian History — The Week — 5 April 2026
3. Trade, Language, and Shared Identities: How an Ancient World Linked India and Iran Thousands of Years Ago — The Indian Express — 9 March 2026
4. Christmas in Calcutta — The Indian Express — 23 December 2025
5. Shakespeare in India’s Constituent Assembly and Indian Law — The Indian Express — 11 December 2025
6. The Samuel Pepys of India: Abdul Latif Shushtari and the Great Fire of Bombay (1803) — The Indian Express — 5 December 2025
7. Ports, Polities, and Partnerships: The History of India-Philippines Ties — The Indian Express — 20 August 2025
8. Revisiting Chola Grandeur with Eyes Wide Open — The Indian Express — 3 August 2025
9. How Cholas Laid The Groundwork For Microlocal Governance in Southeast Asia — NDTV — 21 August 2025
10. Arup K. Chatterjee Reviews A Different Story by Amlanjyoti Goswami — Ink Sweat and Tears — 14 July 2025
11. Satyajit Ray is Not Your ‘Renaissance’ Man — NDTV — 7 April 2025
12. How the Constituent Assembly Debated Over ‘God’ in the Constitution — The Indian Express — 26 November 2024
13. Humour In Constituent Assembly And Lessons For Laughter-Challenged Citizens — NDTV — 20 November 2024
14. How India’s ‘Other’ Ram Setu, Pamban Bridge, Might Never Have Existed — NDTV — 2 October 2024
15. The History of Kali Worship — Jindal Global Law School / ETV Bharat — 1 September 2024
16. How the Independence Movement Altered the ‘Dream’ of a Casteless Society — The Indian Express — 12 August 2024
17. The Mandukya Upanishad Promotes Scientific Temper — ETV Bharat — 2 August 2024
18. Gulzar, A Poet Who Embraced Quantum Mechanics Like No Other — NDTV — 26 July 2024
19. The Different Types Of Ramayanas Of Southeast Asia — ETV Bharat — 16 July 2024
20. The Battle of Plassey as a Revenge Tragedy — ETV Bharat — 16 July 2024
21. Panchayat and Phulera: What Urban Indian Dreams Are Made Of — NDTV — 22 June 2024
22. How Ruskin Bond Made Being Anglo-Indian a Way of Life — The Indian Express — 21 May 2024
23. Maldives, India, China: History Shapes the Present — The Indian Express — 14 January 2024
24. Katchatheevu: How an Indian Island Went to Sri Lanka and Many Hope for its Symbolic Return — The Indian Express — 16 September 2023
25. Katchatheevu: An Unacknowledged Achilles’ Heel of Indian (and Lankan) Nationalism — Moneycontrol — 1 September 2023
26. The Battle of Plassey: A Tale of Triumph and Betrayal — The Daily Star — 26 June 2023
27. Odisha Train Tragedy: To Heal Our National Distress, Let There Be a Collective Commitment to Safety, Accountability, Equity — Moneycontrol — 7 June 2023
28. The History of India and Indian Poisons are Key to Understanding Sherlock Holmes — University of Toronto Press Blog — 12 October 2022
29. Do “Reel Villages” in Cinema Show Real Rural India? — Village Square — 21 September 2022
30. 6 Indians Who Helped Make London the City It Is Today — Londonist — 3 March 2022
31. The Gastromythology of English Tea Culture: On the UKTC’s Advertisements and Making Tea a “Fact” of English Life — University of Toronto Press Blog — 4 July 2022
32. The Gastromythology of English Tea Culture: On the UKTC’s Advertisements and Making Tea a “Fact” of English Life — University of Toronto Press Blog — 10 July 2022
33. Tea Tales: India’s Ever-Evolving Chai Culture — Village Square — 23 May 2022
34. William Shakespeare’s Family in Calcutta — Untold Lives, British Library — 30 October 2021
35. B.R. Ambedkar in London: A Thesis Completed, a Treaty Concluded, a ‘Bible’ of India Promised — Scroll.in — 13 September 2021
36. Sherlock Holmes and the Spectre of India: The Adventures of Devil’s Foot Root — The Wire — 11 July 2021
37. Who Was Anthony Firinghee? Remembering the Portuguese-Origin Singer Who Is Part of Bengali Folklore — Scroll.in — 9 September 2020
38. Polycoloniality in Bengal and Marquezian Histories — The Hindu — 22 August 2020
39. ‘Polycoloniality: European Transactions with Bengal’ Review: Bengal’s Colonial History Through the Lens of Plurality — The Hindu — 22 August 2020
40. All the King’s Men: Review of Ira Mukhoty’s Akbar — The Hindu — 22 June 2020
41. Sherlock Holmes Was a Self-Isolated Sleuth — Open Magazine — 24 April 2020
42. Clash of Civilisations: Review of Sudeep Chakravarty’s Plassey — The Hindu — 30 January 2020
43. Ruminations on the Spirit of Freedom from the Lens of a Scientist and a Philosopher — The Hindu — 17 August 2019
44. Rabindranath Tagore in the London Tube — The Hindu — 27 July 2019
45. Lamb, Peacock, and Mill: An Empire in Letters — The Hindu — 23 March 2019
46. Jamshedpur: The City of Steel — The Hindu — 23 February 2019
47. The Origins of India’s Cotton Story — The Hindu — 16 December 2018
48. Eat, Drink, Hookah, in Calcutta — The Hindu — 17 November 2018
49. Banquet on Broad-gauge: Luxury Train Travelling in India — The Hindu — 20 October 2018
50. On the Trail of an Auden and a Spender in India: They Were Not Poets, They Wanted to Scale Mountains — Scroll.in — 9 September 2018
51. How Chai Arrived in India 170 Years Ago — The Hindu — 18 August 2018
52. Suleman Noor in Shakespeare’s Times — The Hindu — 4 August 2018
53. How Racism Scarred the Legacy of the British-Asian Physician Who Changed Modern Medicine — Scroll.in — 11 July 2018
54. Armenians, Clive and the Battle of Plassey — The Hindu — 23 June 2018
55. Robert Melville: The Artist, Indophile and Imperialist Who Founded Grindlays Bank — Scroll.in — 6 March 2018
56. Haunted Trains and Railway Stations Have a Long History in Bengal – and Its Literature — Scroll.in — 26 January 2018
57. With the Restoration of a Danish Tavern in Serampore, a Forgotten Chapter of History Comes to Light — Scroll.in — 8 January 2018
58. Why India’s Universities Must Move from Ensuring Employment to Creating Empowerment — Scroll.in — 9 December 2017
59. The Amazing Story of the Chef-Conman Who First Made America Fall in Love with Curry — Scroll.in — 30 November 2017
60. How Calcutta Kept Alive a Line of William Shakespeare’s Family — DailyO — 20 November 2017
61. Time Travels in a Train: How a Trope from Satyajit Ray’s Fiction and Cinema Inspired Wes Anderson — Scroll.in — 8 September 2017
62. Why Teachers’ Day in India Can Seem Absurd — DailyO — 6 September 2017
63. Railway Resignations Are Severely Dodging the Issue of Safety and Development — DailyO — 24 August 2017
64. India’s Railway Incidents Risk Derailing Lives, Economics and Common Sense — DailyO — 22 August 2017
65. The Global Culture and Politics of India’s Bullet Trains — DailyO — 6 August 2017
66. PM Modi’s Address to Chartered Accountants and the Rhetoric of Nationalism — DailyO — 5 July 2017
67. Are India and China Heading Towards a Cold War Over Railways? — DailyO — 29 June 2017
68. Cringe Politics of Adityanath Govt Renaming Mughal Sarai Railway Station — DailyO — 22 June 2017
69. How the Indian Railways Became Integral to the Growing Nationalism in the Independence Era — The Caravan — 10 June 2017
70. How the Curry Came to London (and Why After the UK Election, It May Never Taste the Same Again) — Scroll.in — 8 June 2017
71. How Gandhi, a Judge and the Right to Lavatory Changed the Indian Railways — DailyO — 5 June 2017
72. How Communal Really Were Allama Iqbal and the Two-Nation Theory? — DailyO — 29 May 2017
73. Railways’ Plan to Hike Lower Berth Fare for Trains Signals Demise of a Rich Culture — DailyO — 22 May 2017
74. Strychnine at the Savoy: Agatha Christie’s Mysterious Affair at Styles Was Inspired by an Indian Murder? — The Conversation — 2 March 2017
75. The Ghosts of a Literary Indian Hill-Station That Haunt the Writers of the Present — The Conversation — 17 February 2017

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In this fascinating cultural history, Arup K Chatterjee charts the extraordinary journey of the Indian Railways, from the laying of the very first sleeper to the first post-Independence bogey. It evokes our collective accumulation of those innumerable memories of platform chai and rail-gaadi stories, bringing alive through myriad voices and tales the biography of one of India’s defining public institutions (Shashi Tharoor, Author, M.P., Lok Sabha

The Purveyors of Destiny is a fascinating and well-researched cultural biography of the Indian Railways-those intricate arteries of the soul of India, as have been experienced, written, filmed, and dreamed. We cannot all travel by rail to know India, as Gandhiji did, but we can and should read this book! (Tabish Khair, Author, Professor)

Drawing on an impressive repertoire of literature and film, this elegantly crafted biography of the railways takes us on a riveting journey through the cultural history of the Indian nation, from the 1850s to the present. Written with wit and verve, it is a delight to read (Sugata Bose, Author, Professor, M.P., Lok Sabha)

There are several books on Indian Railways, but there is nothing quite like this. Described as a cultural biography, it is one of a kind (Bibek Debroy, Author, Chief of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India)

A deeply engaging work that comfortably straddles, and masters, the worlds of academic research and modern nonfiction, offering countless delightful gems of India’s railway legends and narratives for the curious reader. Crafted with great skill and a keen understanding of modern culture from the region and beyond…a remarkable achievement! (Kaushik Barua, Author)

…a wonderfully eclectic account of the Indian Railways and the vital place they occupy in our cultural history, with memorable moments and motifs from literature, cinema and other elements of our collective imagination. A great train journey, replete with all of the essentials from garam chai and A.H. Wheeler to historic arrivals and departures … (Stephen Alter, Author)

This is a rare and unique perspective on the cultural history of an organization as perceived by writers, critics, films, colonial rulers and local citizenry from the 1840s till today… The most powerful chapter is the one on Partition, where the Railways bec­ome the ‘Dumb Waiters’ and purveyors of destiny of two nations. The horrors of Partition generated a large number of books, short stories and films, reminding us of the bestiality and violence on a scale rarely seen in history, while the national leadership looked on helplessly. Here, the author draws from Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, Krishan Chander’s Peshawar Express, a story where the train itself is the narrator of events that took place on it, Bhisham Sahni’s Amritsar Aa Gaya, Sadat Hasan Manto’s Kasri Nafisi and many more…Arup K. Chatterjee vividly captures the debates about its impact and on its changing cultural inf­luence over time…Chatterjee is a professor of English; his command over language and facility with it, apart from his unique perspective on the railways, makes this exceptional book compulsive reading (Vinoo Mathur, in Outlook).

Arup K. Chatterjee in his The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways traces the 156-year-history of the Indian Railways from an unusual angle—how the railways influenced the cultural milieu of India through not only literature, films and songs, but also catalyzed revolutionary changes in the country’s political and social canvas. It was the beginning of a new India after the first passenger train ran in Bombay on August 15, 1853. Railways are yet to reach all nooks and corners of India. The changes therefore are continuing (The Hindu).

For the author, the railways is not just an actually existing entity, but is, rather, a myth of tremendously Indian proportions, invoked and evoked in all forms of the national and popular imagination…This book attempts not just to create a new genre, but to set down new tracks for thought, method and writing in the area of culture studies…The perspective Chatterjee brings to this subject is a new and courageous one: rather than drafting a catalogue of novels, films, diaries and journals that have the railways as their theme, which would be expected in such a work, he investigates how the railways themselves affect the form and content of their own representations…The greatest achievement of this book is that it gathers and collects the myths, narratives and histories of the Indian Railways from sources as disparate as colonial archives and popular movies. Chatterjee successfully conjures up the magic in a lucid style, while maintaining the gravity and solemn tone reminiscent of a train journey (Scroll).

Chatterjee’s courage in undertaking such a vast endeavour is laudable…the book is thoroughly enjoyable, even if it is just for its rich trivia (The Telegraph).

Chatterjee moves with ease, from literature to history to politics to cinema, in a juxtaposition of exciting styles and frames of reference, and in a language which he calls symbolic of the railways themselves: “Why should not the language of a railway book pay homage to the institution, the times and eras in which its changing narratives belong?”… From the first proposals for the Indian Railways, to Dwarkanath Tagore and Rowland Macdonald Stephenson’s economic alliances over building them, the Great War of Independence to the age of Kipling, from the Civil Disobedience to the to Quit India Movement, to the reconstruction of the Pamban Bridge and the burst of Eastman colour on celluloid screens in the 1960s, the Indian Railways emerge as a palpable protagonist in Chatterjee’s work (Sunday Guardian).

Chatterjee really hits his stride as he chronicles half a century over intense cultural presence of railways from the stories and films of Satyajit Ray, to a whole yard of Bollywood films, and the novellas of Ruskin Bond. There is hard to find any cultural manifestation he has left out…it is a repository of rare treasures about our lives’ intersections with railways down the years—which will survive phasing of steam engines and meter gauge lines (IANS).

Lord Meghnad Desai: ‘Gandhiji said if he was not in India fighting for independence, he would live in London. Indians in London explains why and how London became a second home for Indians (including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis). Arup K. Chatterjee has unearthed a treasure trove and found London peopled with scores of Indians over five centuries. This is the most comprehensive account of Indians in London I have read and you will enjoy it too.’

Michael H. Fisher: ‘Chatterjee’s fascinating book, Indians in London: From the Birth of the East India Company to Independent India, flows eruditely and creatively among literary and historical sources to highlight Indians in London over five centuries, as portrayed by themselves and by Britons. A scintillating book … that draws attention to the centuries-long relations between India and Britain, accomplished not by the much written about by much written-about Britons but rather by diverse Indians of all classes. [It] shows how Indians actually lived in [London] and were not necessarily always acted upon, but had their own agency, their own attitudes, and their own actions. The book extends Indian history to Britain, greatly adding to works that provincialize Europe

Gopalkrishna Gandhi: ‘Indians in London is a fascinating book, written with immediacy. There is a breathlessness to it … that is very infectious. It is written with speed and is read with speed; an extraordinary experience to read it in sync with the speed in which it is written … It’s been written with immediacy, but without a voyeuristic intimacy. [Arup-babu] has tried to unravel stories, without sensationalizing them, with sympathy and respect for [his characters] even when he is lethally critical of them …There is no slant in it. It has the royalty, the subalterns, the rich, and absolutely down-and-outers … It has Indians in all their varieties, all their contradictions, all their contrasts, conflicted as they are … but Indians [nevertheless] …’

Paul Flather: ‘Indians in London is a remarkable achievement of 500 pages, packed with gems, remarkable memories wonderful vignettes, terrific anecdotes, drawn so widely, both historically and in terms of themes … [that] become a brook, a stream and a veritable tributary … It is a very timely book, given the prominence of Indians in British society today, heading companies, social life, politics and [administration] … the book [facilitates our journey] towards a Global Britain. [Indians in London] adds texture to the colonial relationship between Britain and India, adds texture to it by unravelling the complexity of its various strands, particularly through intimate descriptions of individuals that lie below.’

Albeena Shakil: ‘Indians in London displaces the commonsense that the story of London and India is only one of colonialism, taking it to precolonial times; a time when the gaze was not dominated by colonial hierarchies but was more of a peer-level gaze … A fascinating [menagerie] of Indian immigrations and settlements in London, with a much more equitable position on the erstwhile colonial relations, rather than looking upwards or downwards, rather than looking Westwards or Eastwards …’

Shashi Tharoor: ‘Indians in London is a delightful work that covers a vast amount of ground in its 500 pages, full of detailed research, which wears its erudition … [nonetheless] amazingly readable …’

John Butler for The Asian Review of Books: ‘Indians in London is a rare book which may be described unequivocally as an absolute and utter delight. This is one of them. Arup Chatterjee’s Indians in London is an erudite, well-researched and comprehensive survey of a fascinating subject—four hundred years of Indian residency in London, beginning in 1600 …  suffice it to say here that readers become immersed in the teeming cast of thousands in this play, which reads is more like a Hollywood epic (with lots of extras) than a Shakespeare play with a few characters!’

Chinamaya Lal for Berfrois: ‘Indians in London is a magisterial account of the encounter between the megapolis of London and the Indians who travelled there between the sixteenth and mid-twentieth century. Through two hundred odd ‘characters’ or historical protagonists, it tells the story of the way Indians built the city and simultaneously shaped the course of the anticolonial movement in their own country … Each of the chapters in the book – whose headings follow the five-act structure of a Shakespearean play and whose segments are called “scenes” – reveal the various facets of this transformation in the way Indian travellers and the city of London interacted with each other over five centuries … Notwithstanding the wealth of historical detail that constitutes the narrative of Indians in London, it is also important to underline the significance

“Adam’s Bridge: Sacrality, Performance, and Heritage of an Oceanic Marvel is a fascinating contribution to study of space and spatial infrastructure as it braids environmental concerns, and sacred belief with discursive insights into the Anthropocene. It is the outcome of serious archival research and interpretive analysis” (Lakshmi Subramanian, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Historian and Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, Goa; formerly, Professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta)

“In Adam’s Bridge, Arup K. Chatterjee tells a captivating story of a unique feature, spellbinding in its geology and symbolism—a sacred space; the work of Gods; an oft-neglected link that connects Tamil Nadu/India and Sri Lanka. For Hindus, it is a land bridge built by a monkey army so that God Rama could rescue his beloved Sita from the demon-king Ravana, in the kingdom of Lanka. For geographers, it is a unique terraqueous ecosystem with 103 tiny reefs and sandbanks, with islets appearing at low tide. For Muslims, it is the causeway that allowed Adam, the first Man, to leave the Garden of Eden (Lanka) and proceed to the Asian mainland. For historians, it was an unbroken causeway until breached by a fierce tropical storm in 1480; and the site of thriving port city of Dhanushkodi, until it was abandoned after yet another devastating storm that killed some 1,800 people in 1964. For Indian and Sri Lankan nationalists, it is the site of tension, as one suspicious side accuses the other of dubious motives for interest and investment. For the thousands of species who live there, it is home. An ocean marvel indeed, and more besides. With this book, Chatterjee walks us through the multiple representations of this unique formation, perched graciously yet perilously betwixt two countries, land and sea, sacral and temporal, calm and tumult” (Godfrey Baldacchino, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Professor of Sociology, University of Malta; Founding Editor, Island Studies Journal)

“Arup K. Chatterjee’s Adam’s Bridge provides a scholarly socio-cultural insight into an enchanting geological feature called the Adam’s Bridge, a linear coralline ridge separating a shallow sea between Pamban Island on the southeast coast of India and Mannar Island on the northern coast of Sri Lanka. A part of the Hindu mythological lore celebrated as the mythical Rama’s bridge, it became a hot topic of discussion both among environmental scientists and among religious enthusiasts, ever since the government mooted the idea of dredging a navigable route through the limestone shoals of Ram Setu. This book takes us through a complex web of ethnography, historiography, and ecological equity concerning this oceanic structure. In this most profound and eloquently written work I have read on Adam’s Bridge (Ram Setu), the author enables us to think about ways of heritagization of this marvel of nature by fostering cross-cultural collaborative efforts. Indeed, a fascinating book and a must-read!” (C.P. Rajendran, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; and National Geoscience Awardee)

“Considering the evolving geopolitics of southern South Asia, bridging the sea between India and Sri Lanka may perhaps soon get on policy radar screens. By delving into history, historiography, geology, ecology, politics, economics, mythology, and more, in Adam’s Bridge, Arup K. Chatterjee provides a fascinating background to the physical structures and legend-based structuration of Adam’s Bridge that may very well shape South Asian futures in this century” (Nikhilesh Dholakia, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Professor Emeritus, International Business, University of Rhode Island)

“In Adam’s Bridge, Arup K. Chatterjee has made a landmark contribution to South Asia’s coastal histories. Meticulously researched, this book is an epic, interrogative excavation of India’s Adam’s Bridge. Enchanting and exhaustive, it is a provocative inquiry into the intertwining legacies of colonialism, decoloniality, and island geologies” (May Joseph, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies, Pratt Institute, New York; Founder, Harmattan Theater, New York)

“Adam’s Bridge: Sacrality, Performance and Heritage of an Oceanic Marvel is a fascinating study of the historiography of the eponymous structure (also known as Ram Setu), touching upon several entangled threads on myth, literature, colonial narrative, and contemporary politics. It empowers an understanding of how the idea of Adam’s Bridge/Ram Setu became infused with power over the minds of people. This dispassionate analysis reveals that much of the current controversy related to it is public theatre – a cognitive category the distinguished American anthropologist Clifford Geertz saw as a useful lens in interpreting the history and evolution of religious landscapes” (Subhash Kak, Distinguished Scholar and Author; Regents Professor of Computer Science, Oklahoma State University-Stillwater; Member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council).

“Melting the boundaries between the sacral traditions of Ram Setu and geoscientific knowledge about Adam’s Bridge, Arup K. Chatterjee offers a fascinating account of the tombolo stretching from India to Sri Lanka. The story of origins, politics, diplomacy, ecology, and the troubling concerns of the Anthropocene, is pertinent to the current debates about dredging the area. What are the risks and gains to the people and the planet? How do ancient beliefs interface with modern commerce? Impressive scholarship and cultural sensitivity make Adam’s Bridge highly significant and wonderfully engaging” (Malashri Lal, Distinguished scholar; Professor and Former Head, Department of English, and Dean of Colleges, University of Delhi; Convener, English Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi).

“Arup K. Chatterjee’s latest book, Adam’s Bridge: Sacrality, Performance, and Heritage of an Oceanic Marvel (Routledge UK, 2024) is unique, as is the subject of this formidably complex and multilayered volume … a fine book-length revelation of Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu as a magnificent and enchanting ‘tombolo’ whether seen from soteriological or geological perspectives! … Chatterjee recounts an intriguing saga, previously very little known, plausibly told through discourses traversing history, geology, mythology, legends, political, cultural, and geostrategic mores, in a most delightful way. Adam’s Bridge will inevitably stimulate further thought and pronouncements by those fascinated by the world’s natural and anthropogenic geography, its civilization, and its amazing place in our collective minds. I recommend this book to both academic and non-academic readers most enthusiastically!” (Richard Cathcart, Distinguished scholar, geographer, and Founding Director and Head of the Department, Geographos, Burbank, California, USA. Appeared in The Australia Today)

“Adam’s Bridge is a superb addition to the emerging discipline of oceanic and island studies. It presents an engrossing academic analysis of the social, economic, and cultural heritage surrounding the structure in the Gulf of Manner to pick apart a region’s multifaceted historiography” (The Telegraph, India)