Selection from the records of the Bengal government,

£850 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

A rare survival of a compilation of Bengal Government records relating to the repression of banditry in the region. Notably, Bengali bandits, or dacoits as they were termed in the Indian subcontinent, did not emerge from a particular social class, caste, or creed, as was the case in other parts of the country. In 1830 the East India Company established the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in an effort to suppress the operations of armed marauders; the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts which followed were enacted between 1836 and 1848. The papers gathered here, are comprised predominantly of correspondence between Commissioners for the Suppression of Dacoits, would have been among the last issued prior to the Indian Rebellion and control of India passing to the British government. OCLC and COPAC together record copies at just five locations (BL, Oxford, SSB, Strasbourg, and Yale). First edition; 8vo; contemporary green half-cloth, decorated paper boards, extremities lightly rubbed and marked, text-block detached from binding, leaves browned, coloured pencil shelf-marks to title page, minute worm-track to upper margin, very occasional marginal chipping, a good copy; [2], 65, [1], xcii pp.

• Binding: Hardcover

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