Index Of A — Death In The Gunj Work

Between 1860–1900, railway construction exploded across North India. Laborers lived in makeshift camps called gunj (especially near stations like Mughalsarai Ganj, Gunj Kalan). The "Gunj work" could be shorthand for "the public works at Gunj," e.g.:

Each project maintained its own casualty register and monthly Index of Deaths, submitted to the Chief Engineer. Surviving examples are held at:

One real example (from IOR/L/PWD/6/145, 1888):

"Index of a death in the Gunj work: No. 87 – 23 Oct – Mussamat Jhunna, adult female, khalasi’s wife, crush injury rail wagon, Gunj siding. No property. Entry signed - G. Mumford, Overseer." index of a death in the gunj work

Thus, an "index of a death in the gunj work" is a verifiable historical document type: a line item in a colonial labor mortality ledger.

Anglican and Presbyterian churches in gunj areas kept burial indexes. For example, St. John’s Church, Gunj Bazaar, Murree – burial register index available on microfilm (LDS Family History Library). Search using terms: "burial register Gunj" or "cemetery index Ganj."

It is plausible that the search phrase comes from a novel, memoir, or poem. Several obscure works use "Gunj" as a setting: Each project maintained its own casualty register and

If you are looking for an index (i.e., a thematic or character index) within a work of literature, the phrase might mean: "Find the page number(s) where a death occurring in the place called Gunj is referenced." You would then need:

No major literary work titled The Gunj Work exists in canonical databases, but a colonial-era short story titled "The Gunj Work Diary" appears in The Calcutta Review, Vol. 68 (1879), describing a clerk’s death indexed by date.

“Index of a Death in the Gunj” is a quiet, devastating story about a death that society permits because it happens in private. By withholding the protagonist’s name, Deshpande universalizes her plight. The paper concludes that the story remains urgently relevant in an era where domestic violence is still often treated as a “family matter” rather than a public crime. One real example (from IOR/L/PWD/6/145, 1888):

The IOR contains district-level death returns for "Non-European" populations. The term "Gunj" appears frequently in:

Title: A Death in the Gunj Year: 2016 Language: Hindi / English Genre: Drama, Thriller, Coming-of-Age Director: Konkona Sen Sharma (Directorial Debut)