ABSTRACT
An existence ceases following death and ‘a piece of universe of sensation’ fades away. To mark this disappearance grieving becomes important, for it helps survivors to recognize and cope with their loss at an individual and societal level. But what happens when some deaths become ‘ungrievable’?Studying death in the deltaic Sundarbans of India is an example of one such exception, when it becomes invisible both through the avoidance of its social acknowledgement and from getting legally sanctioned.Citing ethnographic experiences from my fieldwork with the fisherfolks of the region, this chapter elicits how death is an ‘everyday event’ for these people, earning their livelihood in the watery labyrinth exposing themselves to mortal dangers from the fabled Royal Bengal Tiger, yet they hide the ‘evental mourning’ as they are seen to be ‘criminal transgressors’ of the State’s fortress-style conservation policies keeping the forests off-limits for the community.
