Introduction

Crime writings emerged in the 1890s in Bangla when darogas (Detective Inspectors in the colonial Police Dept. in Bengal) Bakaullah and Priyanath Mukhopadhyay published accounts of cases that they had investigated. This volume, with its ten translated case accounts – three of Bakaullah and seven of Priyanath Mukhopadhyay – from their original Bangla, hopes to make these non-canonical writings available to readers who are unable to read them in their original language. The accounts selected for translation are of cases in which women make an appearance either as victims or offenders, or, more interestingly, as both. Besides enhancing our understanding of crime and detection within nineteenth century Bengal, these accounts also yield rich insights into the social formation within which they were produced.