The preface to the present study contains the first words in respect of the issues which impelled me to undertake research work on the history of the national movement of Contai. In my student-life I used to attend Harikatha and Dharmasabha sittings where the kathaks discussed Epic and Puranic tales with emphasis on their essence. In almost all cases, the kathaks emphasized that pride of rulers like king Kamsa of Mathura, the Kurus of Indraprastha and so on had all met with their falls for their pride, arrogance and insolence. They also made it fully clear that a 'pararaj' would not look after the wellbeing of his subjects, so it should have to be rejected and exterminated. The essence of the Harikatha sittings greatly impressed me, and since then I had been thinking for a long time of the epic and puranic base of nationalism of the Contai people. Bankimchandra's Kapalkundala which was written when the author was in government service in Contai, bore in this respect the torch to me a little, and Dr. Amalesh Tripathi's The Extremist Challenge made the point in question fully clear to me. That is why I decided to work on the religious nationalism of the Contai people.
In the completion of the present work, I am indebted to a large number of scholars of Midnapore and West Bengal, and among them I must mention the names of Prof. Pranabananda Jash (Visva- Bharati University), Prof. Chittabrata Palit (Jadavpur University), Prof. Smriti Kumar Sarkar (Former Vice-Chancellor, Burdwan University), Prof. Ranjan Chakravorty (Vice-Chancellor, Vidyasagar University), Prof. Bijoy Kumar Sarkar (University of North Bengal), for their valuable suggestions and other academic help extended so kindly to me whenever I had approached them.
I am indeed extremely grateful to the authorities and staff of the Nihar Press, West Bengal State Archives, Contai Town Library, Smriti Soudha Library Tamluk, Midnapore District Library, National Library, Calcutta University Library, Bangiya Sahitya Parisad Library, North Bengal University Library, Bankura University Library etc. for the required academic help.
In this connection I beg to humbly note that my respected school and college teachers of Contai and my dear learned colleagues of the North Bengal University and Bankura University gave me constant encouragement and suggestion to prepare the thesis. I cannot but note it humbly that without their sincere help and co-operation the thesis could not have been written.
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