4 h 39 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the dead still belong to the places where ordinary people live?
In Indian Ghost Stories, S. Mukerji gathers short supernatural tales rooted in the ghost lore of the subcontinent. Spirits linger, places carry fear, and the restless dead remain close to daily life. The plain telling feels like listening to someone pass on what neighbours and elders believe.
These tales explore a world of belief where ghosts have different names, habits and favourite haunts. Old houses, village ponds, riverbanks and empty roads at dusk give fear a familiar shape. Ordinary people know customs for living alongside spirits, while stories of sudden or troubled deaths suggest why some bonds with the living endure.
What you’ll discover
- Ghosts close to home Discover tales where the supernatural belongs to everyday life rather than a distant, separate world.
- Many kinds of spirits Meet a tradition of ghosts with distinct names, habits and places they favour.
- Places that hold fear Explore how houses, trees and riverbanks become unsettling through the beliefs attached to them.
- The weight of custom See how ordinary people understand spirits and shape their behaviour around what they believe.
- A quieter kind of horror Enjoy short, old-fashioned tales whose plain voice lets familiar places carry the unease.
Who will love it
Readers who love haunted houses, omens and visits from the dead, or who enjoy voices from Calcutta, Benares and Agra a century ago, will find plenty here. Fans of true-ghost accounts and family customs will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Strange proof comes through cameras and open doors
- Haunted houses test the brave and the doubtful
- Imagination can build a ghost from nothing
- Strange visits cross the distance between loved ones
- Insults to holy men and spirits bring payment
- Families live beside their omens and customs
Who’s who
- JonesAn office clerk and keen amateur photographer who finds a third woman in a portrait of two.
- Major BrownA newly arrived army officer who leaves his rented house after three weeks and ends up in court with his landlord.
- Mr. HunterA skeptical government official who rents a haunted house in the Madras Presidency and decides to meet its ghost.
- Ram LalA schoolboy who swears that ghosts do not exist and takes a dare to prove it at a burning ghat.
- AndersonA rich railway contractor whose bad temper with a beggar leaves him unable to eat.
- Hasan KhanThe black artist of Calcutta, who answers an insult by putting out all but one lamp around Government House.
- JogeshA medical student who says his young wife visits him at night and helps him before an examination.
- The ProfessorA Calcutta chemistry lecturer who meets his sick brother on a lit street after midnight.
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 39 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Indian Ghost Stories
by S. Mukerji · 1914
A photographer finds a third woman in a portrait of two, and a clerk knows her face.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Why would a ghost sit for a photograph, appear in a rented house, or ask a doctor for roast mutton? In Indian Ghost Stories, S. Mukerji gathers tales he says came from judges, officials, friends and his own memory.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Strange proof comes through cameras and open doors
The author opens with cases that seem to leave something a listener could check. In His Dead Wife's Photograph, an office clerk named Jones takes a portrait of two women and finds a third figure standing between them. In The Open Door, a storeroom door at a country house in Bengal will not stay shut.
The narrator lists the camera, lens, plate and developer for readers interested in photography. The third woman wears a necklace and earrings, and a window bar shows faintly through her body. A clerk named Smith goes pale when he sees her face. At the country house, the narrator wonders whether wind could shake a loose bolt out of place.
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What is Indian Ghost Stories by S. Mukerji about?
It is a collection of tales of ghosts, haunted houses, omens and visits from the dead in British India. The author presents them as true accounts from friends, officials and his own memory, and often adds his own view.
Are the stories in Indian Ghost Stories true?
The author says they are true to the best of his knowledge and belief, and he cites witnesses, judges, officials and newspaper reports. Whether you accept them is left to you, and he admits that some may sound far-fetched.
When was Indian Ghost Stories written?
Mukerji writes about these tales from Calcutta in 1914 and returns to the subject in Allahabad in 1917. The tales reach back through the author's childhood and earlier decades.
The author
S. Mukerji
Indian writer
S. Mukerji writes as an educated Bengali from a circle of government officials, judges and clerks in early twentieth century India. Mukerji writes from Calcutta in 1914 and Allahabad in 1917. He draws on newspaper reports and accounts from friends, but excludes the childhood tales he hears from his nurse and coachman.
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