Women Criminals in the 18th and 19th centuries in Bengal

Speaker: Dr. Sumita Banerjea, educator, and a qualified and practising Counsellor who has researched extensively on women criminals in 18th and 19th centuries Bengal
 
Chair: Dr. S. Zaidi

The talk will focus on crimes committed by women, primarily in Bengal in the 18th and 19th centuries. While research material is available on crimes against women, but research on women criminals during this period of Indian history remains largely unexplored. Perhaps the number of crimes committed by women was regarded as inconsequential or psychologically and socially it made people uncomfortable to view the woman as the offender. Police, jail and judicial records, diaries and records of officials, case records by private detectives and district records were used as source material. A cross section of criminal activities was revealed - dacoity, wayside robbery, railway banditry, fraud, killing because of superstition and societal pressures and also for greed and lust and even a serial killer. Anecdotes about these crimes will be shared.