Lieut. Suresh Biswas His Life and Adventures

The incredible life of Suresh Biswas, adventurer, lion- tamer, and a decorated soldier of the Brazilian Army, has long been one of the most romantic legends in the history of our times, but little or nothing was actually known about him. JUP is delighted to reissue H. Dutt’s rare 1899 biography of Suresh Biswas, along with a wealth of archival material unearthed by Maria Barrera- Agarwal. Lieut. Suresh Biswas was born in Bengal in 1861 and ended his days as an officer of the Brazilian army at the turn of the twentieth century. In between lay a life rich in travel and adventure that took this remarkable young man from Nadia district to the docks of Rangoon, a travelling circus in England, and military fame in the Brazilian Naval Revolt. Biswas’ swashbuckling exploits abroad inspired martial cultures at home and endure in the Bengali popular imagination today. This critical edition by the Jadavpur University Press is a reprint of an 1899 biography by Hem Chunder Dutt, one of only two known contemporary accounts about the life of this extraordinary man. Supplemented by additional archival material and two introductory essays, the edition stands as both historical record and a fantastic story in its own right.