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Anindita Mukhopadhyay teaches history at the University of Hyderabad.  She has translated for research purposes over the last few years.  Her Behind the Mask: The Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject in Colonial Bengal 1175-1900 will be published later this year.

Saratchandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876 in Devanandapur, a village of West Bengal. He grew up in dire poverty and received very little formal education. After spending some of his youth in Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur, Saratchandra left for Burma in 1903, and it was from Burma that he began to send his stories and novels to magazines in Kolkata. Sensitive and daring, Saratchandra’s writings captivated the hearts and minds of readers, and he soon became Bengal’s most popular novelist. Saratchandra returned to Kolkata in 1916, and dedicated himself to writing. He was India’s first successful professional writer – a person who earned his entire livelihood only from writing. He died in 1938. Saratchandra remains one of the best-loved Indian novelists of all time; his works have been translated into various languages and made into films as well. Among his best-known novels are Srikanta, Devdas, Palli Samaj, Parineeta, Charitraheen, Grihadaha and Pather Dabi.