MAJOR THEMES IN THE NOVELS

OF AMITAV GHOSH

THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
ENGLISH
OF
KUMAUN UNIVERSITY, NAINITAL

Supervisor Research Scholar

Professor Nirmala Pant Meenu Pant
Department of English
Kumaun University
S.S.J. Campus
Almora, (Uttarakhand)

Department of English
KUMAUN UNIVERSITY
S.S.J. CAMPUS
ALMORA (UTTARAKHAND)
 Declaration by the Research Scholar

This is to certify that the thesis entitled ‘Major Themes in the Novels
of Amitav Ghosh’ submitted by me to Kumaun University for the award of
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English is a bonafide research work
carried out by me under the supervision of Professor Nirmala Pant. The
content of this thesis has not been submitted to any other Institute or
University for the award of any degree or diploma.

Place: Signature
Date: Meenu Pant
(Research Scholar)
Professor Nirmala Pant
Department of English
K.U.S.S.J.Campus
Almora

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Meenu Pant has completed her research

project entitled “Major Themes in The Novels Of Amitav
Ghosh”, under my guidance and supervision and the thesis being
submitted by her, is her own original research work.
I further certify that Meenu Pant has put in attendance with me
in the department for the prescribed period under research
ordnance of Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand.
I am satisfied with the work and recommend that the thesis be
accepted for evaluation for the award of the Ph.D. degree in
English.

Date: Professor Nirmala Pant

(Supervisor)
 Contents

S.No. Contents Page

1. Introduction 1-15

2- The Circle of Reason 16-36

3- The Shadow Lines 37-59

4- The Calcutta Chromosome 60-96

5- The Glass Palace 97-139

6- The Hungry Tide 140-168

7- Conclusion 169-194

Bibliography 195-200
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To every beginning, there is an end. The journey of a thousand miles ends

with one-step. Today as I take the step of culminating my work, I feel most
privileged to express my unfeigned gratitude to Professor, Nirmala Pant,
Department of English, K.U.S.S.J. Campus Almora, who through her expertise,
has helped me right from the inception, collection, collation and completion of my
thesis, which initially seemed to be a labyrinth and inaccessible riddle for me. Her
guidance, unstained faith, fruitful criticism enabled me to pursue relentingly my
goal.
I also owe a deep sense of gratitude towards Professor, S.A.Hamid, Head
of The Department of English and all the other honorable members of the
Department of English, of the campus, for their love and cooperation.
My tribute will not be complete unless I pay homage to my father Shri
Umesh Chandra Pant who inspired me to begin my work, mother Smt. Devki
Devi Pant whose sacrifices and values paved the way for a privileged education. I
promise to abide by the values inculcated in me and never to falter from the path
of righteousness and hard work that they have ingrained in me. My Dearest
younger sister Himani and my brother Jitendra and Uncle Dr. G.C.Pant, deserve a
very special mention for always cheering me up and spicing my life.
I thank my mother in law Smt. Leela Bisht, brother in law Satish, jijaji Mr.
P.D. Tiwari, and Mr. D.C. Pathak and other family members who supported me a
lot.
I am deeply flooded with emotions to express my gratitude of feelings
towards my husband Shri R.P.Bisht who enthusiastically read, analyzed and
edited my thesis work , provided me his unconditional support and assisted me in
giving it, this final form. He has always been there for me to share my day-to-day
experience and lent a helping hand whatever be the circumstances. His love and
care supported me and developed a sense of confidence to achieve my goal.
 Change is inevitable but memories remain with us for ever, Never can I
forget my dear most friends Usha, Tanuja, Neema and Himani Mehra who have
loved me in spite of my shortcomings and accepted me just the way I am, though
they are far from me their benign presence always surrounds me.
I will always remember the enjoyable and pleasant company of jijaji Mr.
B.C.Joshi, didi and their children Vivek,Priyanka and Divya who were very near
and dear to me. The love and affection given by Kothyari chacha ,chachi and
other family members is also unforgettable which made my stay at Almora really
homely.
The sweet memories of the time I have spent with Mrs. Deepa Bhatt,
Umesh Bhaisahab and family members, especially Chhaya, during my research
are very precious for me as they supported me a lot in many ways with their
amiable behavior.
I am especially thankful towards my younger sister Manju Pant for her
unfailing support, valuable suggestions and encouragement, which helped me in
carrying out this prodigious work.
I cannot forget the environment filled with affection, support and
encouragement given by Sri Lalit Pant, bhabiji, Smt. Lalita Pant and the fun filled
company of Vibhavari, Sweety, Prateek and Nikhil.
It gives me immense pleasure to express my sentiments towards my guide
and supervisor Dr.Nirmala Pant, her husband Dr. Sanjay Pant and their son
Prateek who welcomed me in their midst and showered me with special love and
care during my stay in Almora. I am heartily grateful to them for their valuable
support and affection during my study.
Today as this effort of mine is ready to face the daylight I thank Almighty
for His constant blessings and grace.

Almora (Meenu Pant)

December,2010 Author
 Chapter- I

INTRODUCTION
Chapter- I

INTRODUCTION

India is a land scattered all around with rainbow colours, a land gifted
with so many languages, dialects; a land with various beliefs; culture,
traditions and obviously a land enriched with literature written since time
immemorial. It is a land, where the pious rivers like the Ganga, the Yamuna
and the mythological Saraswati flow like the life vegetating veins of a
breathing creature. There is, no doubt, that India is the country to have the
gems of literature like the Vedas the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the
Mahabharata and the unique literary works of Kalidas. The land has
produced the unthinkable geniuses like Tulsi, Meera, Surdas and the great
saint poet Kabeer.
The literature of all languages, dialects and other regional identities of
the country have such a charm and spontaneity that they have been
translated into the major languages of the world. In the beginning of the 17th
century a new and alien language knocked at the door of the country, it was
brought by the colonial powers of Britain, when they sailed to the shores of
the land with the aim of business and commerce. It was none other but the
international language of today – English. Gradually, the vendors and
traders of the other side of the globe took the rein of the country using their
docile policies, consequently, it became an imperative need of the native
people to learn the language of their rulers and they could not believe how
soon they became surprisingly well-versed not only in this language, but
also began to translate their feelings and thoughts in it. Ravindranth Tagore,
Sarogini Naidu, Raja Rao etc were the precursors of the new clan of
literature – the Indian English writing.
 Today Indian English writing has achieved great laurels. It has
flourished in all genres of literature viz. poetry, prose, fiction and drama and
has won almost all the major literary awards across the globe. V. S. Naipaul,
Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri and Amitav
Ghosh are some names who are familiar in almost every country. They have
been lauded for not only their mesmerising stories, but also for their grasp in
the language, style and craft. Such is the flavour of the Indian English
writing that the writer of Indian origin is the most sought after in the circle
of publishers and readers.
Since the present research work is aimed at exploring the themes of
one of the Indian English novelists: Amitav Ghosh, it becomes exigent to
trace the development of the Indian English fiction. The history shows that
it developed systematically since the beginning of the 19th century. Bankim
Chandra Chaterjee, who carved a very remarkable place for himself by
writing Raj Mohan’s Wife, is regarded to be the pioneer in this field. Then
there started a trail of authors who followed Bankim Chandra and there
were some who wrote in their vernaculars and later their works were
translated into English. Some Bengali novelists like Mr. S.B. Banerjee and
Mrs. Ghoshal etc were those whose works were translated into English. In
this way, Bengal became the land, which gave birth to the Indian English
fiction.
In the pre-independent India, the major novelists who were giving
language to their creative capacity with full vigour were Mulk Raj Anand,
Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Bhawani Bhattacharya and Manohar Malgonkar
who depicted the political, social and economic realities of the
contemporary society in their works. Mulk Raj Anand’s The Untouchable
and The Coolie, Raja Rao’s Kanthapura and R.K. Narayan’s The Guide
mirrored the realities of the then society. The country was going through a
period of transition and tremendous changes were taking place in different

2
walks of life. The suppressed agony and pangs of slavery hidden somewhere
deep in the psyche of the nation began to leak through the writings of these
writers and consequently their writings stirred the consciousness of the
nation.
After achieving the long awaited freedom, the Indian writers find
themselves free to give vent to their thoughts and even anger with utmost
boldness and spontaneity. Their range of choice of subjects has also become
wider and they are trying to achieve a place among the renowned writers of
the world. The early wave of globalization finds its first blow in the works
of Anand Lal, Kamla Markandaya, and Bal Chandra Rajan who use western
techniques in their works and give perfection and lively touch to the Indian
subjects. Independence brings not only confidence to the Indian writers but
also provides them mentors and patrons in the forms of new publishing
houses and growing number of English reading readers.
The post-independence writers have a variety of subjects to deal with;
however, the socio-political problem of the country remains their main
concern. The novelists like Bhabani Bhattacharya discuss human misery and
disasters like Calcutta famine and their immediate aftermath, exploitations
of the marginalised, starvation faced by the poor, forced flesh trade etc in
his novels. The theme of starvation and hunger can also be seen in the
novels of Kamla Markandaya who depicts rural life in her works and with
her eloquence discusses the social life of India. On the other hand, novelists
like Ruth Prawer Jhabwala subtly depict the life of Delhi, which gives the
real image of the metro life. The Nature of Passion by her gives glimpses of
the upper class life in Delhi. Life of metro culture, picnics, committee
meetings and false polite gossips make her novels the comedy of manners.
Her novel Heat and Dust has won one of the most prestigious literary
awards, the Booker Prize.

3
 Khushwant Singh is one of the prominent post-independence writers.
His works provide not only the descriptions of the present state of affairs
but also the great episodes of the history like the reign of Gayasuddin
Balban, the invasion of Taimur, the glorious reign of Shahjahan and the
revolt of 1857. Some unfortunate events of the Indian history like: the
partition of Bengal, the shifting of capital from Calcutta to Delhi,and the
role of Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom fighting; his assassination, the
communal riots, the terrorists activities in Punjab and obviously the anti-
Sikh riots of 1984, which swayed or are still swaying the mainstream of
nation, find their buzzing echoes in the novels of Khushwant Singh. By
giving gloss to the historical writings and by linking the past with the
contemporary society, he has contributed a lot to the development of the
Indian English writing.
The grasp of English language and literature of the Indian writers
continues to grow amazingly, resulting in the wonderfully skilled writers
with international appeal. The rich culture and tradition with a firm
understanding of the English language has been producing great writers of
the world repute like Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa
Lahiri, Arvind Adiga, Arundhati Roy and many others to follow. In the list
of the extraordinary group of modern Indian English novelists, Vikram Seth
is the name of world recognition and popularity. Born in 1952, Seth created
a wave of sensation in the world of literature by his amazingly finished
works.
Besides being a well-known novelist, he is also well versed in poetry,
travelogues, children literature and biographies. His literary career began
with his first novel The Golden Gate that appeared in 1986. It is a narrative
of a group of friends living in California. His other novel An Equal Music,
published in 1999, is a story of a violinist, haunted by the memory of a
former lover. His other novel Two Lives, which came in 2005, is a memoir

4
of the married life of his uncle and aunt. But the book, which has given Seth
international recognition, is A Suitable Boy. It is a wonderful story of a
young girl Lata and her search for a husband. This novel proves Seth’s
literary genius and has won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and the
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Apart from this, Seth has won Thomas Cook
Travel Book Award for his travelogue From Heaven Lake: Travels Through
Sinkiang and Tibet. He has also contributed a lot by writing several poetic
works and short stories.
The other prominent name in Indian English writing is Anita Desai
who has significantly contributed to the Indian English novel by writing
remarkable works as Cry the Peacock, Voices of the City, Bye – Bye
Blackbird, Where Shall We Go This Summer, Fire on the Mountain etc. Her
novels mainly concern with the psychological stresses, problems and
sufferings faced by the people in this world of uncertainty. For her creative
writings, she has been honoured with several prestigious awards. The
Sahitya Academy Award is the first in the series, which she obtained for her
novel Fire on the Mountain. The same novel also won the Royal Society of
Literatures Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. She has also been awarded
with the Authors’ Guild Award for Excellence in writing Where Shall We
Go This Summer. Her two novels Clear Light of Day and In Custody were
short-listed for the Booker Prize. Thus, by her amazing and marvellous
creativity, she has given Indian English novels a new dimension. However,
her daughter Kiran Deai has won the Booker Prize, which she could not so
far obtain.
Arundhati Roy, one of the most inspiring women of the world
according to an international magazine, is a writer of great fame and a social
activist of influencing presence. She created a wave of sensation by winning
the Booker Prize in 1997 for her very first novel The God of Small Things.
She has also been awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004 for her social

5
activities, especially, her active participation in the cause of the Narmada
Dam evacuees.
The Indian writer who has earned great popularity not only because of
his novels but also by his controversial writing and life style is Salman
Rushdie. An author of captivating books like Satanic Verses, The Midnight
Children, Shame, Haroun and the Sea of Stories and the latest Shalimar the
Clown is regarded the most influential novelist of the Indian origin. He is
also regarded as a writer of his own style and school. His book Satanic
Verses (1988) provoked the anger of the Muslim community around the
world. The anger was heightened to the extent that the Iranian spiritual
leader Ayatullah Khomenei issued a fatwah for his assassination, as a result
he had to live an underground life for many years. His masterpiece The
Midnight Children is the milestone in the history of Indian English fiction,
which has won not only the Booker Prize but also the Best of Bookers. The
novel narrates many important events of the history of India and especially
the children born in the first night of independence. His novel Shame
describes the political turmoil in Pakistan. Shalimar the Clown focuses on
the problem of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian writers writing in English and the writers of Indian
diaspora have done a great job by producing the world-class pieces of
literature and they have contributed a lot to the world literature. Indian
writing in English has made a distinct place in the world literary scene with
its rich cultural heritage and language control. While the novelists of the
pre-independent India were usually concerned with national, political and
social issues, the post-independent novelists have innumerable stories of the
past, the present and the future. The novelist of 1960’s mainly focused on
the individual problems, struggle for personal meaning, existential crisis and
social relationship.

6
 A discernible change came in the history of Indian English fiction in
1980’s with the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Midnight Children, a
novel that achieved worldwide recognition and global attention by winning
the Booker Prize. It has inspired several novelists to express the national and
international issues with the special concern of individual existence. The
impact of national and international problems on the individual and social
life is the main theme running through their works. Their works expose the
hypocrisy of the politically influenced people who keep on exploiting the
masses which consequently results in terrorism of different types.
However, in the novels of 1990’s, we can view a tendency for a
movement towards internationalism. The novelists, through their typical
characters represent a new man with international identity, a man brought
up in different cultures, an heir of world heritage. Vikram Seth’s An Equal
Music, Anita Desai’s A Journey to Ithaca, Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow
Lines and many other novels of the Indian English writers are crowded with
such characters who have craving for international identity. In contrast,
there are many other novelists at the same time,who don’t go far to seek the
characters of international identity, but they give vent to the local, regional
and religious issues and even endeavour to raise the problems of religious,
linguistic and racial minorities. They try to give voice to the voiceless
marginalised downtrodden, women and the children who are forced to do
labour in inhuman conditions. Shashi Despande’s The Binding Vine,
Arundhati’s The God of Small Things, Alan Sealy’s The Trotter Nama are
some examples of the novels of such issues.
The novels of the present time express the contemporary
circumstances with full confidence. The novelists have their own style,
independent in both manner and content. They are doing experiments with
language, form and style. They are using the language of the Queen in their
own way, coining new words and even using words from Hindi and other

7
native languages without any hesitation. They do not even care about
grammar, syntax and other rules of the language, which was once the
language of their rulers. The content of their writings comprises of the
Indian experiences: either it is the description of the Indian villages, cities,
people, culture, festivals and costume or a commentary on the socio-
political issues of the country. In this way, they are giving Indian flavour to
their creative talent. The rich cultural heritage of the country and a vast
arena of life help them to invent new and enchanting stories to tell, not only
to the compatriots but also to the westerners who so far regarded India as a
country of poverty and ignorance.
Today, the means of communication and travel have shortened the
distance and the world has shrunk into a miniature globe. Young creative
writers with a talent of expression, brought up in a culturally rich society,
are wooed by national and international publishers. This favourable time of
creativity has helped the writers to produce amazingly finished works,
which are highly appreciated by the critics. The works of these authors have
contributed a lot to the development of Indian English writing which in a
very short span has gained a popular place in the world of literature. Today
novel reading is not only a pastime but a means of exchanging ideas. It also
stirs the mind and heart of the readers to ponder over the issues raised in
them. Since the novels of the Indian authors have such themes, which can
charm the readers of any country, they are widely read with curiosity across
the globe.
Thus, the history of Indian English novel is known for its systematic
development, which started with Bankim Chandra Charterjee’s novel Raj
Mohan’s Wife. Then there came a great wave of English writing. Mulk Raj
Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Bhabani Bhattacharya and Manohar
Malgonkar were the prominent writers of the pre-independence period.
They took the political and social problems in their novels. The great Indian

8
freedom struggle finds echo in their works. They proved to be great social
reformers through their works.
Soon after independence the concern of the writers was to record the
post-partition incidents, hatred and communal tensions. Khuswant Singh is
one of those writers who wrote on the topics of the mass – massacre
incidents after the partition. Simultaneously, a stream of feminism
developed with the arrival of some women writers like Nayantara Sahgal,
Kamla Markandaya, Sashi Despande etc. who took the cause of women in
their works. They voiced the feminist concerns quite objectively and
appealingly.
Then came the golden era of Indian English writing with the arrival of
Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa
Lahiri, Upamanyu Chaterjee and undoubtedly the wizard of narrative power
and style Amitav Ghosh. It is the period of literary renaissance, which
started in 1980’s. These authors have taken diverse themes and made
themselves free from the Gandhian era. The east-west encounter, hunger for
identity, rootlessness, the hangover of colonial rule, exploitation, corruption
and the man-woman relationship in the changing society are some of the
topics, they deal with. They have become successful to make a distinct place
in the world literary world with their individual talent and the rich tradition
of their country. Thus, the Indian English writing is on the move and here I
feel myself fortunate enough to carry out the present research work on one
of the most prominent Indian English writers: Amitav Ghosh.
R.K. Dhawan introduces Amitav Ghosh as ‘the finest writer among
those who were born out of the post-Midnight Children revolution in Indian
English fiction.’(Dhawan – 11)
Amitav Ghosh has become a very popular and legendary Indian English
writer of the new generation. He was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956. His
father Shailendra Chandra was a diplomat and mother Ansali Ghosh was a

9
housewife. He studied at Dehradun, Delhi, Alexandria and Oxford. In
Dehradun, he attended the prestigious Doon School, then after graduating
from Delhi University, he went to Oxford to study Social Anthropology and
received a Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in 1982. He also worked, for a
while, as a journalist for the Indian Express. He worked as visiting fellow at
the centre for Social Sciences at Trivandrum, Kerala in 1982-83; from 1983
to1987, he worked in the Department of Sociology in Delhi University. He
also remained a visiting professor of anthropology at the University of
Virginia in 1988. He also taught at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989,
at the American University in Cairo in 1994 and at the Colombia University
from 1994 to 1997. At present, he is a distinguished professor of
Comparative Literature at Queen’s College of City University of New York.
He lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker and their children Leela
and Nayan.
In the process of making a writer, Amitav got inspiration, influences
and an immense treasure of knowledge from his parents, his relatives, his
travels and, of course, from his own curiosity and exploring nature. He has
been greatly influenced by the political and social environment of India. The
stories and great events of history, which his parents narrated to him, also
impressed him. His mother’s memories of Calcutta and his own childhood
experiences of the city, the movements and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi,
the partition of the country and its effects on the people of both countries
left a deep impression on the mind of this young writer. The stories, which
he heard from his father, who worked in the British Colonial Army, also
helped Amitav to expand his faculty of imagination. The stories told to him
by his father enabled him to perceive the conditions during the British rule
in India and other countries. Amitav’s uncle Shri Satish Chandra Ghosh has
also inspired him a lot. He was a headmaster of the Rural Reconstruction

10
Institute, the high school founded by Sir Daniel Hamilton in Gosaba. His
stories help him to produce his seductive novel The Hungry Tide.
Ghosh spent his childhood in Calcutta, Dhaka and Colombo. He
received his D.Phil. in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. He
frequently visited Egypt and many other countries for his research work. His
campus life and travels contributed a lot to his career as a creative writer.
The great personality who inspired and influenced Amitav the most was
Satyajit Ray, the great Bengali storyteller and filmmaker. Ghosh admits that
the influence of Satyajit Ray on his childhood and youth was so deep that it
played an important part in shaping his imagination. Ray’s masterpiece
Pather Panchali is one of his favourite films. For Amitav, Ray was not just
an artist but also a great craftsman who crafted him to make a writer. He
himself admits the indelible influence of the Oscar winning filmmaker in his
life:
‘Ray’s influence extended even to the material world
that inhabited in my early years; a world he formed to a
quite astonishing degree through his influence on
typography and through his visual style – a style that was
itself a development on the distinctive design he was a
rivet in an unbroken chain of aesthetic and intellectual
effort that stretches back to the mid-nineteenth century – a
chain in which I too am, I hope, a small link.’
( Khair,2006:6)
Amitav has a keen interest in History, Sociology and Anthropology
and this special interest and knowledge thoroughly reflect in his novels. The
present research work is aimed at the exploring the major themes of
Ghosh’s novels which generally address nationalism, multiculturalism,
communal violence, political and geographical freedom, restlessness,
rationalism, peaceful co-existence, identity crisis, futility of boundaries,

11
humanitarian attitude, scientific quest, causes and consequences of partition,
obsession, inevitability of death and many other issues.
It is said about Amitav Ghosh that all his novels have different
themes and this variety of themes makes him one of the most innovative
writers. He has an ability to weave history, sociology and anthropology
together and to connect the past and future with the present. Kavita Daiya
remarks on the uniqueness of Ghosh’s novels:
‘Ghosh’s novels occupy a unique place in the arena of
post colonial literature: they critique both globalization and
post colonial nationalism, by depicting the experiences of
those in transition, those in – between nation – states, those
going back and forth as travellers and migrants in search of
lost homes and better lives.’(Bose-37)
Ghosh objects the existence of dividing walls, lines and boundaries.
He is a cosmopolitan thinker, who with his creative genius tries to discard
all kinds of differences, which divide the humanity. G.J.V. Prasad very
excellently opines about Amitav’s cosmopolitanism:
“Amitav Ghosh is arguably the most cosmopolitan of
contemporary Indian English writers as also the most
significant. His significance has its roots in his
cosmopolitanism, for he is a writer who travels and re-
maps the world drawing connections across the boundaries
of modern nation states.”(Bose, 2005: 56)
Ghosh’s novels are of international recognition and appeal. They
reveal his creative capacity and hence put him in the queue of world’s
leading novelists. He has the capacity to sway his readers according to his
moods. His narration of the touching issues make the readers introspect and
retrospect. Both manner and matter of the author are wonderful. His grasp
on the language is so firm that he has been lauded by the leading critical
journals of the world. He weaves the words in such a manner that each

12
detail seems to be breathtaking. His style of narration is so original that it
evokes a sense of reality.
Ghosh has bagged a number of national and international awards and
prizes for his great contribution to literature. The Government of India has
honoured him by bestowing on him The Sahitya Academy Award for his
novel The Shadow Line in 1989 and The Padma Shri in 2007 for his
distinguished contribution to literature. The same novel won the Ananda
Puruskar of India, for Bengali literature in 1990. For Circle of Reason he
was given the Prix Medicis Estranger Award of France in 1990. In 1997 for
his Calcutta Chromosome, he was honoured with the Arthur C. Clarke
Award for the Best Science Fiction. In 1999, he won the Pushcart Prize for
his essay The March of the Novel. Only two years after in 2001, he won the
International e-book Award, a grand prize for fiction given by Germany.
The Hungry Tide received the Hutch Crossword Book Award in 2004. The
Italian International Prize Grinzane Cavour was given to him in 2007. In
2010, he has been awarded by Dan David Prize by Israel. Ghosh is the third
Indian to win this prize after chemist C.N.R. Rao (2005) and musician
Zubin Mehta (2007).
Ghosh is, no doubt, one of the greatest of the Indian English writers.
He is a prolific writer who has written several prose writings in a very short
span and achieved significant fame. He is a great humanitarian novelist who
is concerned with the welfare of the laymen. His novels deal with a variety
of themes, which have an attribute to leave a deep impression upon the
readers. Ghosh minutely observes the life around him, ponders over its
various aspects and then gives language to those which appeal him. He does
not limit himself to a peculiar place or country but freely roams around
collecting various experiences to make his works rich. Perhaps this is the
reason that his novels have a variety of themes. Every novel of Ghosh can

13
be expected to have something new and different. He has something new to
tell in his every work.
Ghosh’s creative capacity can be seen in all his novels, prose writings
and essays. Even the reading of his single work can make the reader
understand the he is a writer of intellectuals. Though a winner of several
awards and prizes of international level, it is sometime felt that a proper
critical attention has not been paid to the works of this creative genius. The
present research work attempts to fill this lacuna in understanding his novels
from different perspectives.

14
 Works Cited

Dhawan R.K., The Novels of ‘Amitav Ghosh, in An Introduction’,

New Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999:11-30. Print.

Ghosh, Amitav, Essay on Satyajit Ray, in ‘Amitav Ghosh: A Critical

Companion’, ed. Tabish Khair, New Delhi, Permanent Black, 2006: 3-8.
Print.

Daiya, Kavita, ‘No Home But in Memory’: Migrant Bodies and

Belongings, Globalization and Nationalism in the Circle of Reason and The
Shadow Lines, in Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives, ed. Brinda Bose,
Delhi, Pencraft International, 2005, 30-53. Print.

Prasad, G.J.V., ‘Re-Writing the World: The Circle of Reason as the

Beginning of the Quest’, in Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives, ed. Brinda
Bose, Delhi, Pencraft International, 2005, 56-66. Print.

15
 Chapter- II

THE CIRCLE OF REASON

16
Chapter- II

THE CIRCLE OF REASON

The Circle of Reason, written in 1986, is Amitav’s first novel which

enabled him to ascend to the pinnacle of India-English writing and included
him in the group of luminous writing fraternity. This work vindicated him as
a master craftsman. This very first novel of Amitav Ghosh broke the
traditional shackles and followed a style, which was his own with his
innovative genius and exploring capabilities.
The Circle of Reason develops gradually, in three sections; from
‘Sattva: Reason’ and ‘Rajas: Passion’ to ‘Tamas: Death’. The circle’s other
meaning is here ‘restlessness’ to find Reason which does not end but begins
with hope in this orderless world. The novel is full of several obsessed
characters who are striving to find their ideals in this anarchic world;
everybody seems to be restless to complete the circle.
From the very beginning of the novel, everybody is obsessed and tries
to find his own ideals. Balaram is obsessed with phrenology, carbolic acid
and the book, Life of Pasteur. He also bestows its one copy upon Dantu.
Gopal too has a copy of it, Balaram seems crazy about phrenology and after
the death of his brother, he is extremely happy because his extraordinary
head is a very suitable material for him to go on with his research work on
phrenology. Nachiketa’s brain is very unusual and extraordinary having
several knots and bumps. It is like a rock covered with fungus, and that is
the reason that Bolaida has given him the nickname ‘Alu’. When first time
he sees him, he at once remarks: ‘A huge freshly dug, lumpy potato’. (The
Circle of Reason-3)

16
 As soon as Balaram reached home, he appeared again in front of him
with the ‘Claws’, Balaram himself made this instrument, for measuring
skulls. He did not care about the child’s mental state as he had lost his
parents but was only obsessed with his own passion i.e. Phrenology. He had
nothing to do with anybody’s feelings or emotions. Alu was afraid of
Balaram’s instrument, but for Balaram: ‘It was all very confuring and very
exciting a wealth of new stimulating material’. (9)
Balaram was busy in studying Alu’s head. He also wrote a paper on
the indistinctness of the organs of the brain and sent it to the Bombay
Natural History Society and to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. He also
declared that the lumps of the back and the sides of the head showed that
they would drive the poor boy to some crime. He also foretold about his
self-esteem, vanity, cautiousness, firmness, language, eventuality,
perceptive and reflective faculties with the help of studying Alu’s
protuberances. For Balaram, Alu’s head was a matter of keen interest, ‘It
was like sitting down to a wedding feast after years of stewed rice’. (9)
Balaram told about Dantu seeing a veneration organ on his head that
he would be turned out into a saint. But his theory did not come true as
Dantu was more interested in politics than religion. He himself found that he
could be a better teacher. When his friend Gopal asked him, what made him
think that he could teach, he at once showed Gopal, the upper parts of his
temples and the sides of his head. ‘Look: Hope, Wonder, Ideality and
Firmness. What could make a better teacher’? (19)
Balaram also judged Bhudeb Roy’s nature and behaviour on the basis
of the distinct swellings on his head. He judged Bhudeb’s idealism and
benevolence with the help of Phrenology but his friend Gopal and wife Toru
Debi did not believe him because As soon as he saw Bhudeb’s portraits
hanging up all over the school and he came to know that he was charging
fifty rupees from the parents of each child only for himself.

17
 He began to say that the sign of idealism on Bhudeb’s head began to
disappear; instead, there appeared some protuberances of vanity, self-esteem
and acquisitiveness.
Balaram was so confident of his pedantry that he did not hesitate a bit
to tell Bhudeb, about his newborn child, that he would be a homicidal. ‘It
was the first time he had been consulted like a doctor or surgeon, In a way it
was more than a triumph for his science-it was a personal victory’.(23)
He also did not forget to warn Bhudeb to nurture the child properly
otherwise, he himself might be perhaps his first victim. Balaram perked up
that he had the knowledge of Phrenology as he himself said with full
confidence: ‘I may as well have phrenology. After all, it’s scientific; and
I’m a man of future’. (22)
He thought that his predictions could never be wrong. But ironically
Bhudeb’s child died of double pneumonia very soon after that, but still he
remained adamant to his theory. Even in such a bitter and sorrowful
moment, he was busy in studying Bhudeb’s head. Balaram’s obsession for
everything was out of limit, he was not only obsessed with phrenology but
also with criminology, carbolic acid and study of several languages.
For him Alu was a promising boy. He could study phrenology and
can do any experiment, at any time on him. He was also very pleased to
know that the boy had learnt several languages such as French, English,
Bengali and Hindi, which Balaram himself could barely understand.
Balaram became too much possessive for the boy and could not imagine a
life without him and he had so much belief in phrenology that to take
possession over the boy, he again took the help of this very science. He
himself accepted his possessiveness for Alu and his belief in phrenology:
‘Perhaps said Balaram, ruminating, I could try massaging him on the
accipiter bone where the emotions and sentiments are’. (27)

18
 Balaram was a rationalist. He believed only in science and reason. He
had firm belief that with the help of science and reason he could change the
world. Pursuing reason, he once knocked down the image of Ma Saraswati,
which he thought was nothing but a means to fulfil the selfish needs of
Bhudeb.
‘This, he said to the electrified crowd, is not Saraswati.
This is not learning, he said, knocking the clay with his
knuckles. This is vanity’. (31)
Toru Debi never liked preoccupied world of books. She, with the
help of Nonder Ma and Maya, put all of the books on fire. But, Alu saved
one of the books and gave it back to Balaram and that was ‘The Life of
Pasteur’.
Bhudeb was also familiar with his extremist passion and obsession. He
always remained afraid of Balaram’s inhesitant plans. This became more
obvious when he went to Assistant Superintendent of Police, Jyoti Das and
told him about Balaram’s blind obsession. He called Balaram: ‘a confused
extremist’ (35)
Balaram had passion for science since his childhood. When he was
thirteen, Balaram’s house was filled with electric light in and it was a great
enchantment for him. He became glad beyond measures. ‘He read about the
Chinese and Benjamin, Franklin and Edison became one of his first heroes.
In school, he pursued the physics teachers with questions’. (40)
After being matriculate with distinctions, Balaram’s teachers decided
to choose history as a subject for further study and suggested him to study in
presidency college, Calcutta. In order to inspire him they acquainted him
with the name of Suniti Chatterji, the professor of philology and told him
about a young brilliant philosopher Radhakrishnan. However, Balaram had
nothing to do with any of these subjects,

19
 ‘For him it was the city in which Ronald Ross discovered
the origin of malaria and Robert Koch, after years of effort,
finally isolated the bacillus which causes typhoid. It was
the Calcutta in which Jagdish Bose first demonstrated the
extraordinary life like patterns of stress responses in
metals; where he first proved to a disbelieving world that
plants are no less burdened with feeling than man’.(41)
Balaram’s affection for Presidency College was undaunted. For him,
it was the place where two students of Jagdish Bose had been taught- Satyen
Bose and Meghnad Saha, the former told, half the universe of elementary
particles and the latter’s formulation of the likeliness between a star and an
atom had laid the foundation of a whole branch of astrophysics.
In Presidency College Balaram was befriended by Gopal and Dantu.
Once, Gopal lent Balaram a book, a copy of Mrs. Devonshire’s translation
of René Vallery-Radots ‘Life of Pasteur’. This book left a remarkable
impression on Balaram’s young mind. He was very much influenced by
Pasteur’s life, his experiments and their result. He liked Pasteur’s passion
very much. Balaram never believed in empty talks. He believed in practical
application in any subject. He was highly impressed by Pasteur’s discovery
of ‘infinitesimally small – the Germ’. (49)
The Germ, which Pasteur discovered, was responsible for the
rottening of beer in France and damaging of silk in Europe. Pasteur also
strived to get rid of hydrophobia. For Balaram there was no difference in
saying ‘He Bhogoban’, or ‘Hail, Cosmic Boson’. For him reason and
passion were important. He himself opined:
‘It wasn’t talk of Reason, it wasn’t the universal atom. It
was passion; a passion, which sprang from the simple, and
the everyday. A passion for the future, not the past’. (50)

20
For him passion was the most important thing. It could change men’s life as
well as the whole world’s conception. ‘It is the passion which makes men
great’. (50)
Balaram never forgot his passion and his this passion dominated his
whole life. He always used to talk of reason and science. Even when asked
to choose his birthdate, he chose none, but the date between May and June
when Jagdish Chandra Bose invented that plants also have feelings.
According to Balaram Reason defies countries. It connects people all over
the world. For him: ‘Science doesn’t belong to countries; Reason doesn’t
belong to any nation. They belong to the history-to the world.’(54)
Ulka Joshi in her essay, Caught Up in Circles frankly opines:
‘Balaram stands for reason,’ (The Fiction of Amitav Ghosh ed.by-Indira
Bhatt &Indira Nityanandam Page: 26)
In one of his meetings of the Rationalist Society, Balaram told Gopal ‘If we
can’t make them change their lives; if we can’t make them see Reason, what
can we ever have to say to the masses of Hindustan?’(Circle of Reason: 50)
Balaram’s obsession for carbolic acid and cleanliness is seen when a
large scale of genocide took place in Bangladesh as a result Lalpukur began
to swell with large number of people. The sudden increase of people
resulted in extraordinary refuge and Lalpukur was filled with foul odour and
stagnant water. The place was pregnant with diseases. Flies, mosquitoes and
rats were seen everywhere. It was a challenge for Balaram and he had only
one solution i.e. carbolic acid. He called a meeting and appealed to the
people to contribute so that they could buy it. He himself started by making
a small contribution and soon they had enough amounts to buy the
disinfectant. Now Balaram was a changed man, highly obsessed with
disinfectant and cleanliness. He began to disinfect every exposed inch of
Lalpukur. Watching him Bolai Da said: ‘This is a new Balaram-babu. It was

21
true: Balaram, antiseptic and pungent with disinfectant, had never so
happy.’(61)
However, Ulka Joshi points out some ironical elements in Balaram’s
unusual passion. As she says:
‘Balaram, who talks of reason all the time, practically,
seems to lose it himself. It is also ironic that he, who
swears by science, relies on nineteenth century
pseudoscience, Phrenology which is close to the Indian
Superstition of popular religion and astrology that he
opposes.’ (Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandan.2001:27)

This carbolic acid was also used by Balaram against Bhudeb Roy,
which shows his negative passion i.e. destruction.
Inspite of his business in disinfecting Lalpukur, Balaram could not
make any compromise with his passion for Phrenology. Bhudeb was also
surprised as he could not understand why such a strong believer in science
and reason was sending his nephew to a weaver’s house to apprentice
weaving. But there should be no surprise in that decision as Balaram had
taken that decision after making a long calculation. He had firm belief in
destiny and phrenology. He had even measured the parts of weaving
machine and Shombu’s body parts and then matched his calculation with the
measurements of Alu’s body parts. According to him: ‘His intuition was
proved right in every detail.’ (The Circle of Reason-55)
When Gopal tried to oppose his decision of sending Alu to Shombu
Debnath, Balaram strictly claimed that nothing but weaving was Alu’s
destiny and he could not neglect that. He explained:
‘Once the organ was identified everything else became
blindly clear- Alu’s huge hands, his squat stocky frame.
Even the mysterious attraction that drew him to Shombu

22
 Debnath’s home. How could he cheat his destiny?’(55)

As soon as Balaram’s interest in weaving sprouted, he declared that:

‘Weaving is reason, which makes the world mad and make it human.’(58)
He told the whole history of cotton to Gopal, that William Lee in
England began it with his invention of stretching frame for yarn. He even
tried to prove that Charles Babbage had taken the idea of inventing
computer from the draw looms. He also told that in 1981, Joseph Jacquard
invented his automatic selective device based on the same principle and
Babbage took ideas for his calculating engines from Jacquard loom, and
Holleville, who patented the first punched card machines, took his ideas
from Babbage. In this way, Balaram proved his opinion. He said very
proudly: ‘And so weaving too is hope........... Weaving is hope because it has
no country, no continent.’ (58)

In Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study, Sarika Pradiprao Auradkar concludes:

‘When Balaram decides to make the young Alu a weaver,
he tells him a history of technology of weaving that evokes
cultural idea that culture is process of circulation that has
nothing to do with national borders.’ (Sarika Pradiprao
Auradkar.2007: 25)
She also explains how Amitav Ghosh describes through the history of
cotton, that: ‘the routes of international trade are over determined by
economic forces,’ (Auradhkar: 25)
When Bhudeb decided to put an end to his career as the school’s head
master, he invited the villagers to hear his speech. He proceeded on by
saying that it was the time to serve the people and the need of hour was
straight lines, straight houses, straight roads, straight vehicle etc. But
Balaram knew that it was not because of that reason but it was to put an end
to carbolic acid. So the very moment, he conceived the idea of opening the

23
Pasteur School of Reason, which would have two main departments: The
Department of Practical Reason and the Department of Pure Reason.
It was decided that Balaram himself would be the head of the
Department of Pure Reason where students would be given lectures on
history of science and technology and would teach elementary reading,
writing and arithmetic. In the Department of Practical Reason, tailoring and
weaving would be taught by Toru Debi, Maya, Alu and Shombu. It was also
decided that Rakhal would be appointed as the School’s Sales Manager.
But when Balaram saw that the project was doing better than his
expectations, he desired to open a third department in that school and that
was the Department of The March of Reason and he explained that the task
of that department was to disinfect the whole village with carbolic acid and
make it germ free. With that school, Balarm had found the means of
fulfilling all his desires.
He collected some volunteers in order to fulfil his want for
cleanliness. He went straight to the banyan tree where Bhudeb- ‘The Germ’
was delivering speech. Balaram and other volunteers sprinkled and poured
all the disinfectant over there. The result was that Bhudeb Roy, the money
minded man straightly went to Shombu’s house. When Shombu and Maya
were at school and Rakhal was at Naboganj he burnt the house to ashes. He
was still dissatisfied so he went to the police station and filed a case and sent
a telegram to the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Jyoti Das.
On the other hand, Balaram’s obsession was on its surge. Bhudeb was
very much afraid of his passion. He asked Jyoti Das for raid. He described
the appearance of Balaram “his hair is like a bird’s nest and his eyes are
blood red” (130). Bhudeb had now become so much ferocious that, taking
revenge had been his only obsession.
It also seems ironical that when Balaram was coping with all the odd
situations, Toru-Debi was still busy in her preoccupied world of tailoring.

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When Parboti Debi, Bhudeb’s wife, came with Shombu Debnath to take
refuge in her house, she even did not think about the unusual thing behind
that but thought that Parboti had come for the blouses and so she had to
wait for a couple of hours saying that:

‘Just wait here Parboti didi, she said, assuming her smile
again, have some tea. It won’t take long; I’ll finish them in
a couple of hours. And, forgetting her both, Toru debi
hurried back towards the room.’ (The Circle of Reason:
135)
Sewing was Toru’s passion. She could forget to eat, sleep or bathe for
the sake of tailoring. When Alu tried to explain her the reason of Parboti’s
arrival, she became irritated as she did not want any interruption and
slapped him for the first time in anxiety. For her sewing was everything as
she cried out: ‘Can’t you see how serious it is? He’s coming, and it’ll be the
end of everything if the blouses aren’t ready. Only the sewing machine can
save us now.’(136) Toru’s obsession for sewing machine is obvious from
the very beginning of the novel. She was a childless woman who knew
nothing about the world inhabited by children. It became clear when she
said in panic about Alu:

‘Children inhabited another world. A world without

sewing machines. They neither hemmes, nor chain
stitched, nor cross stitched, nor quitted. What did they they
do?’(5)

Toru could not spare much time with Alu, as due to her obsession,
she always remained busy with her sewing machines, but the same sewing
machine rescued Alu, because when the whole house was engulfed by fire
he was out of the home as Toru Debi compelled him to throw away the

25
machine at that time. Sewing machine accompanied Alu in his future also.
In the collapse of the Star, Alu was saved only by two sewing machines. But
Toru and Balaram’s passion found nothing but death as culmination.
Alu fled away from Lalpukur in order to save his life but Jyoti Das,
the bird watcher did not forgive him and wandered here and there in search
of Alu. His duty as a police officer and watching birds were Jyoti’s
obsession. He wanted to find out Alu at any cost. In search of Alu, he came
to Mahe with Alu’s sketch.
Alu was also pursuing his passion of weaving as besides hiding
himself from the police he did not stop himself to see the working technique
of weaving .He befriended a boy Rajan and one day he visited the mill,
where Rajan was a worker. He was quite fascinated to see the webs of yarn.
Jyoti Das and Dubey were searching Alu day and night with all leaps
and bounds. Jyoti persued Alu from Al-Ghazira to El-Qued. Alu had to
suffer a lot due to Jyoti Das. He came to Al-Ghazira to hide himself. He had
to remain under the debris of the star for several days without eating and
drinking anything. It was only miracle that he survived in that harsh
condition. But under such drastic and unfavourable condition, he was very
restless for nothing but cleanliness. Abu Fahl’s speech proves this very
clearly:

‘Abu Fahal said: For a while he was quiet. Then he told us

that he was thinking. We said: what are you thinking
about? And he answered: I’m thinking about dirt and
cleanliness. I’m thinking and I’m making plans.’(235)
Alu was buried inside the concrete but he was not worried about how
to come out of that place as his matter of concern was something else and
that was dirt and cleanliness. But after some days when Abu Fahl again
asked him if he wanted to come out or still wanted to lie there and think

26
about dirt and cleanliness, at that Alu replied that he wanted to come out,
not because he had to face any physical problems but because he had
thought enough and now he wanted to apply his thoughts actively. He
himself told Abu Fahl, ‘I have thought enough and now I know what we
must do.........’(241). Alu’s intention was to have a war, when Abu Fahl
asked him what kind of war he wanted to start. He replied: ‘We shall war on
money, where it all begins.’ (241)
Alu had a deep passion for weaving and for Germ cleaning.
Jeevanbhai’s words are apt to prove this: ‘The rest of the time, when he
wasn’t at work, he was at Hajj Fahmy’s weaving.’(278)
While weaving Alu did not sit silent. He also used to tell people about
the life of Louis Pasteur. He took both these passions from his uncle
Balaram. He told people how passionate Pasteur was for cleanliness. Alu
wanted to transfer this passion to all the people of Ras. He used to weave
and tell people about germs. Following lines indicate this clearly:

‘He told them about the germs: how they are everywhere
and nowhere; how they flow freely from hand to hand,
how they sweep through a thousand people in a day, in a
minute, faster than a man can count, throwing their coils
around people wherever they may hide.’(280)
According to Alu, he himself came to know about germs by reading
the book Life of Pasteur and from that reading, he also acknowledged why
Pasteur was defeated and bewildered. He himself told the reason: ‘Because
for all his genius Pasteur had never asked himself the real question; where is
the germs battleground?’(281)
He also told that he was the real heir of Pasteur and so now it had
become his duty to inherit Pasteur’s thought and solve the real problem. He

27
shouted in Arabic: ‘Wa ana warisu, and I am his heir, for in the ruins of the
star I found the answer, Money. The answer is money.’ (281).
Alu was so obsessed with Pasteur’s thought that he wanted to drive
out all the money from the Ras: ‘No money, no dirt will ever again flow
freely in the Ras,’ (281) ----------‘We will drive money from the Ras, and
withoutit we shall be happier, richer, more prosperous than ever
before.’(281)
Alu had already made a proper plan. His effect on the people was so
deep that they had a deep concern for the germs and dirt. They did not buy
eggs from Abu Talba’s shop even in a very low price, ‘They were afraid;
afraid of the dirt and the germs. Germs! In Romy Abu Tolba the Fayyumi’s
shop.’ (301)
When Abu Tolba found no customer, he went to Hajj Fahmy and
asked to do whatever he wanted with his shop. But at first, they did nothing
but washed the whole shop with carbolic acid, in order to remove germs and
dirt. ‘The day after that they went to the shop and washed every inch of it
with carbolic acid. They washed the selves, the floor, the walls, the counter,
even the lane outside.’(301)
They even did not spare Adil the blue and his cousin and drenched
them in antiseptic. People of Ras were with Alu. They carried his idea with
full enthusiasm, tied cloth on their sleeves, and set out their wage to cleanse
the society by pouring carbolic acid. They also wanted to cleanse the dirt i.e.
money from the society, for that they collected money from everybody and
deposited the money in account books. They wanted to make a society
where money did not matter much. They compelled the shop owners to
convert their shops into public property and all that was happening under
the leadership of Alu. According to Ulka Joshi: ‘Alu seeks refuge doing
nothing but weaving.’(Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam, 2001:27)

28
 But this passion of Alu also could not find any culmination because
he became unable to weave as his thumb had gone stiff. Jyoti Das’ passion
for bird seems dominant from the beginning to end. His observation of
various birds continued from Calcutta’s zoo to desert.
When Jyoti was taken to Calcutta’s zoo, on his birthday he got quite
fascinated seeing:

‘Shimmering, velvety carpet of ducks and cormorants and

storks covering the lake. Somewhere in that mass of birds
his eyes picked out a pair of purple herons with their long
bills raised to the sky and their brilliantly coloured wings
outstretched.’ (The Circle of Reason: 37) ‘Jyoti wandered
in search of paradise flycatchers.’ (52)

Jyoti was again found to be lost in the memories of birds when he was
with Dubey. ‘Das spotted a Malabar Kingfisher on a telegraph pole and
turned in his seat as they drove past it.’(159) Jyoti was also aware of the fact
that his job might fall in danger due to his passion for bird watching.
‘If Dubey ever heard him talking about some less familiar
species, like Siberian cranes or something like that, he was
more than likely to send off a telegram to their
superiors.’(159)

But still he could not help his attraction for birds, when he was about
to land in Al-Ghazira. He was eager to see ‘Barbary Falcon and the Saker
Falcon’ (269)
Jyoti till the end of the novel could be seen staring at the birds. In El-
Qued, he was with vulture. Zindi did not hesitate to call him the ‘Bird Man’
(391). Besides the vultures, Jyoti was also seen looking at cory’s
shearwaters and honey buzzards and many other birds also. ‘He saw a sky

29
alive with cory’s shearwaters and honey buzzards, white storks and steppe
eagles, Montagu’s harriers and sparrow hawks circling on the
thermals.’(421)
Das’ obsession of persuing Alu was still with him. He took
Jeevanbhai’s help to find Alu. He also chased Alu in the Avenue de France
but Zindi and Alu managed to lose his sight. But for Zindi and Alu the bird
man’s other name was fear and death. Jyoti’s fear always haunted Zindi as
she thought every time that he was behind them and chasing them
everywhere. ‘He knows all that; he’s like a bird- he hears us every time we
say we’re going west.’(392)
K.Damodar Rao in Magic and Irony as Principles of Structure: A
Reading of The Circle of Reason opines: ‘For Jyoti Das more than
professional obligation, it was the prospect of seeing more birds on his
travels that urges him to move on his pursuit of Alu.’(Dhawan, 1999:37)
Pradip Dutta in ‘A Voice among Bullet Holes: The Circle of Reason
says:
‘The main source of continuity is the story of Alu and Das
which structured on the thriller format, and talks of
relationship whish, being based on officialdom and
oppressive power.’(R.K.Dhawan, 1999:40)

Zindi’s obsession for Durban Tailoring House was not hidden from
anyone. She appeared to be gold digger who wanted to make money. She
was also obsessed for Boss. She was a childless woman who could do
anything for the sake of Boss. Zindi wanted to make money so that she
could take hold on Durban Tailoring House. For her Durban Tailoring house
was an obsession. She always dreamt of Durban Tailoring house which was
full of possibilities and promises , she always remained busy in thinking

30
about a number of people coming, seeing, buying clothes from tailoring
house.

‘People flowing in and out, their hands digging into bags

full of money, looking, choosing, buying, asking her,
enthroned behind the cash desk, What’s the best? What’s
the cheapest? What’s from America? from
Singapore?’(The Circle of Reason: 220)

Zindi always dreamt of spreading her business and wanted to earn

money by working in Durban Tailoring House. But Zindi knew that in
Durban Tailoring House Jeevanbhai and Forid Mian worked on daily wages.
For Jeevanbhai Durban Tailoring House was not only a shop, but also a
temple of memories of his best years.
Zindi was a money-oriented woman; she knew very well that it was a
promising shop. She wanted to own that shop. But it was very tough job to
make Jeevanbhai sell it. He was emotionally attached to that. She could get
that only when Forid Mian would agree to leave the shop. According to
Zindi, it was a lucky shop and it could bring good luck for her. She herself
admitted this before Rakesh. ‘It’s a lucky shop. It brought Jeevanbhai luck
once.’ (223)

Her obsession for Durban Tailoring House can be felt when she took
Rakesh aside and whispered to him: ‘Rakesh, do you think he will
come?’(224)

When everybody was worried about Alu she was thinking how to
own Durban Tailoring House. When her house was full of people who were
just discussing about Alu, she was only thinking about Forid Mian and his

31
arrival and staring out into the lane.Next early morning when Abu Fahl and
many others were busy in making plans for the expedition to the Star to get
Alu out of there, Zindi still unaffectedly thought about Forid Mian’s arrival.
She without thinking about anything else implored:

‘Go one last time, she said, just one more time. Go to
Romy Abu Tolba’s shop and tell Tolba to give Forid Mian
another message- Zindi will be waiting for you this
evening. Just that.’(238)

She did not falter to promise Forid Mian that Kulfi would become his
better half if he helped her in occupying Durban Tailoring House. Zindi told
Forid Mian: ‘What if we get you married here?’ (294) ‘..............To Kulfi
didi,’ (295)

Zindi had another obsession also, and it was her love for Boss. Zindi
could not think of a single moment without Boss. She loved him
passionately. Since his birth, she always cared for him more than his own
mother. We see many instances of Zindi’s love for Boss. She was a childless
woman. Karthamma defied her many times for the sake of Boss.

‘For she was the one person in the house who was never
afraid to defy Zindi. Anyone else who did that, Zindi
would have thrown out long ago, but not Karthamma. For
Karthmma has a baby- the child Zindi was holding in her
arms that night and poor, childlee Zindi treasured her for
that alone; because she was a mother and because she had
given her son. If pure will could change flesh and blood,
that baby would be more hers now than his mother’s.’(278)

32
 Zindi never forgot the set routine of Boss as when he had to be fed,
what was the time of his sleeping etc. She could be seen everywhere in the
novel worrying about Boss. For instance, when she was talking with
Jeevanbhai about the shop, suddenly she interrupted and hurried across the
courtyard because it was time to feed Boss.
Once again when she was talking with Jeevanbhai about papers of
shop and Jeevanbhai was trying to compell her to make physical relation
with him, she instantly denied him saying that, ‘Boss has to go to sleep; it’s
very late.’(319)
Other instance is: ‘She lifted Boss into her arms and pressed him to
her breasts.’(319)
Zindi always took care of Boss’ everyneed. She could not bear that
Boss had to face any problem at any cost until she was alive: ‘Zindi was
testing Boss’s forehead with the back of her hand, trying to decide whether
he was running a temperature or not,’ (355)
Apparently, the novel suggests that life is very short and death is the
culmination. In this novel, all the characters seem to face irony. Alu’s love
for Maya ends with Maya’s death, Alu’s love for weaving is not carried out
due to his stiff thumbs. Mast Ram’s one sided love for Kulfi and Kulfi and
Abusa’s infatuation for each other culminates in failure.
Jyoti’s affection for Kulfi ends as soon as Kulfi dies due to heart
attack.Balaram’s obsession for carbolic acid at last becomes the cause of his
death. Toru Debi’s obsession for tailoring also does not find any
culmination. Shombu and Maya do not pursue their art of weaving. The
chasing of Alu by Jyoti Das results in his own suspension. Ulka Joshi
rightly remarked: ‘All characters are caught up in a non-productive
circle.’(Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam, 2001:32)

33
 There are also many other characters in the novel who have their own
obsessions. Dr. Samuel was obsessed with the theory of guesses, Forid’s
obsession to get married, Dubey’s for money, Mrs. Verma’s worry about
her protruded teeth, Mawali’s obsession for name and fame are quite
obvious. Not only this, the obsession of British is also shown for oil
excavation. Thus the novel deals with the theme of obsession, emphasizes
on how people in this world spend their time like in an exile achieving their
ideals, and in pursuing their obsession, but the fate of humanity is
inevitable. Sometimes we get achievements and sometimes failures and feel
restlessness, still the main thing in life is hope. The novels last line takes us
towards hope and it seems as if it is not the end but: ‘Hope is
beginning.’(The Circle of Reason, 423)
Perhaps through this line the novelist wants to express that without
hope or desire it is impossible to live in this world. We all are living here
with our own obsessions and desires i.e. the ‘Cobweb of Maya’ from which
nobody can escape.The novel also appeals for a humanitarian outlook.
Pasteur’s restlessness for the welfare of the society, Balaram’s dream to
make a germ free and clean country, Gopal’s kind behaviour towards Alu
and most of all, Mrs Verma’s actions after Kulfi’s death are immitable.
Zindi’s wordings prove Mrs Verma’s generosity when she told Alu: ‘I don’t
think I would find a Mrs Verma, Alu not everyone is lucky as Kulfi and
what would become of me then?’(420)
Mrs Verma was not a very close friend of Kulfi, nor she had any
family relation with her, still she proved that the most important relation
between two humans was that of humanity. As soon as Kulfi died, ‘Very
gently Mrs Verma closed Kulfi’s eyes,’ (401)
She had a deep regret that she, with two other doctors could not save
Kulfi’s life. To purify Kulfi’s body, she brought solution of carbolic acid
and also made all the possible arrangements for her cremation . She did

34
everything within her approach. Even she did what perhaps could be done
by her. Her behaviour touches the soul of the readers and makes them think
over the humanity, charity and benevolence.
Not only this, the novel also shows a clash between modernism and
tradition. The use of carbolic acid as a substitute of Ganga Jal shows that
modern rationalist people do not think about the trend, but think over the
need of the hour and work according to it. Mrs Verma’s reason behind using
carbolic acid proves this:
‘Carbolic acid has become holy water’
(411).............. ‘She cried. What does it matter whether it’s
Ganga Jal or carbolic acid? It’s just a question of cleaning
the pace, is not it? People thought something was clean
once, now they think something else is clean. What
difference it make to the dead?’(411)
The novel’s categorically emphasis on the germs and proves that
germs are both harmful as well as beneficial. Alu and Mrs. Verma had
pondered over those lines about germs written on the life of Pasteur, when
the book suddenly fell and a page was open. The lines which where written
there were that without the germ life would become impossible, because
death would be incomplete without it.
Thus, the novel shows that life is a hopeful journey. People should
have the humanitarian outlook i.e. to live and let live. Nothing is
everlasting. The fate of humanity is inevitable. Therefore, instead of being
restless, we should be hopeful, because hope is beginning.

35
 Works Cited

Ghosh,Amitav,’The Circle Of Reason’ New Delhi,Ravi

Dayal,Permanent Black,1996.Print.

Joshi ,Ulka,’The Circle Of Reason:Caught Up In Circles’,in The

Fiction Of Amitav Ghosh,ed.Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam,New
Delhi,Creative Books,2001,25-33,Print.

Auradhkar Sarika.P.,’Amitav Ghosh:A Critical Study’, in The Circle

of Reason,New Delhi,Creative Books,2007,17-31.Print.

Rao, Damodar K.’Magic and Irony as Principles of structure:Reading

of The Circle Of Reason’, in The Novels of Amitav
Ghosh,ed.R.K.Dhawan,New Delhi,Prestige Books,199931-39,Print.

Dutta, Pradeep,’A Voice Among Bullet Holes:The Circle of Reason

‘,in The Novels of Amitav Ghosh,ed.R.K.Dhawan,New Delhi,Prestige
Books,1999,39-45.Print.

36
 Chapter- III

THE SHADOW LINES

36
Chapter- III

THE SHADOW LINES

Amitav Ghosh is not only a novelist but also a writer of journalistic

pieces on travel. His works are full of sketches, memories and glimpses of
past as well as present and they give clear view of the personal and the
historical aspects. His novels deal with a profound historical sense and a
strong humanitarian attitude, and attempt to vindicate cosmopolitanism by
defying boundaries of any type.
He himself muses in one of his interviews that he hates extreme
nationalism and it is clearly visible in his novels or other prose works.
Ghosh’s novel The Shadow Lines, being such a work, focuses on peaceful
co-existence and humanitarian attitude among cultures, beyond the
distinction of castes, colour and creed and defies shadowy border lines, the
consequences of which are riots, partition and violence.
In this chapter of the the novel The Shadow Lines, an attempt is made
to study the peaceful coexistence and humanitarian attitude among the
people belonging to different class, caste, creed, religion and habitat and to
emphasize the futility of borderlines that put the whole community in
fetters, a very baneful condition to the humanity. Apart from invalidating
the borderlines, the novel also depicts the incidents of riots, the sad episodes
of partition and the violence instigated by it and simultaneously peels off the
truth that such incidents only bring disasters to the entire human race.
In the novel The Shadow Lines, Ghosh mainly narrates the story of
two families- Mr. Justice Chandrashekhar Datta Chaudhari and Lionel
Tresawsen, who became friends despite the fact that they hailed from
different regions, religions and races. Lionel Tresawsen left his native

37
village, called Mabe, in southern Cornwall, to work as an overseer in a tin
mine in Malaysia. He was a wanderer and visited many places across the
world like Fiji, Bolivia, The Guinea Coast and Ceylon for livelihood,
crossing the geographical boundaries and finally set up a small factory at
Barrackpore. In his old age, he opened a homeopathic clinic in a village near
Calcutta and settled there. However, his interest began to grow towards
spiritualism and he joined séances. In one of those séances, he chanced to
meet Mr. Justice Chandrashekhar Datta Chaudhari and the bond formed by
them was further nurtured by the succeeding generations of the two
families.
Lionel Tresawsen later went to England, where his daughter married
her teacher Mr. S.N.I. Price, nicknamed Snipe. In the passage of time, the
couple was blessed with a son, named Nick Price and a daughter May Price.
The Price’s family finally settled in London but continued their cordial
relations with that of Datta Chaudhari and proved all the so-called
boundaries of caste, creed, region and religion futile.
There was another family living in Dhaka, which also helps in
mirroring the futility of dividing lines. This was the family of Thamma’s
grandfather, who had two sons, both of whom were lawyers by professions.
Jethamoshai, the elder son had three sons and the younger one had two
daughters- Mayadebi and Thamma. After the demise of their father, the
elder brother failed to maintain the unity and discipline in the family and
consequently the house was divided by erecting the walls and even
communication between their families was snapped. As we go through the
novel, we realise that the members of the family proved that all the
geographical, cultural and communal borders are futile.
Thus, characters in the novel are knit in one fabric with a harmony,
despite belonging to different colours of nation, race culture and creed. They
produce the message that humanity is above all distinctions.

38
 In the novel the narrator’s grandmother, Thamma is a very powerful
character who contradicts everyone. She did not approve Tridib and thought
him a loafer and wastrel who was good for nothing. She strictly forbade the
narrator to join Tridib’s company and did not let Tridib stay long in her
house as she thought that the evil influence of him could corrupt other
members of house as well. However, whenever Tridib visited her, she, being
delighted, hurried into the kitchen in order to fetch him some edible things,
which shows her humanitarian attitude despite her disapproval of him. This
is obvious from the following lines:
‘My grandmother would hurry into the kitchen to make
him an omelette - a leathery little squiggle studded with
green chillies, which would lie carefully on his plate..........
This was the greatest sign of favour she could show to a
visitor.’(The Shadow Lines-2006:5)
Thamma’s humanitarian attitude is further seen when despite the
dispute between her father and Jethamoshai’s family, she staggered with
delight when she heard from Minadi that one of her cousins was living in
Calcutta. She at once wished to meet him despite of her son’s disapproval
forgetting all the bitterness of the past.
‘It doesn’t matter whether we recognise each other or
not. We’re the same flesh, the same blood, the same bone
and now at last, after all these years perhaps we’ll be able
to make amends for all that bitterness and hatred.’(129)
Nevertheless, Thamma’s belief in coexistence and humanitarianism is
limited to her nation. She believed in love and fraternity within the citizens
of her nation and considered any contact between the people of two
countries encroachment on the rights of other. So her extreme nationalism
seems to belittle the feelings of love and fraternity.
Thamma is an extreme nationalist; she could not resist her strict
utilitarian drive for national interests. She distinguished Robi from other

39
family members on the basis of his strong physical appearance. Robi
appeared to her a gigantic killer of national enemies. She considered Robi a
soldier living offshore having Indian blood in his veins, strong enough to
enable him to serve his country at the time of emergency. She herself mused
to Robi: ‘You’re strong; don’t ever forget that, you’re strong.’(35)
She, while praising Robi, satirises the other members including the
narrator: ‘Watch Robi, he is strong; he’s not like the rest of you in the
country.’(35)
Thamma had a strong antipathy to all foreigners. She did not want
them to encroach on the country. Once when Robi had beaten a notorious
boy of his class, in spite of getting angry, she praised him. Narrator tells
about her attitude in her words in the following lines: ‘Of course Robi had
to fight him, she said with a dismissive flick of her fingers. What else could
he have done? Maya ought to be proud of him.’ (36)
Thamma’s humanitarianism was not of cosmopolitan type. Her
humanitarian attitude seems biased and limited to her nationalistic interests.
Once she told that she even would not hesitate to help the terrorist who
wanted to kill the English. It shows that her love and humanity was only
limited to her nation and her people. She had no sympathy for those who did
not belong to her nation. Her attitude is apparent in these lines:
‘She had wanted to do something for the terrorist, work
for them in a small way, steal a little bit of their glory for
herself. She would have been content to run errands for
them, to cook their food, wash their clothes anything.’ (39)
Thamma’s sense of nationalism sometimes seems to be destructive,
for instance, she wished to kill the English Magistrate herself and justified
the relevance of the lines, demarcated between the countries and considered
border an essential necessity. Moreover, she had a strong repulsion for
foreigners especially the English. The deep-rooted hatred and repulsion

40
compelled her to think about their murder. She herself said to the narrator in
this context that she had no regret for the killing, as it was committed for the
sake of freedom. She had strong belief in borderlines, which separate one
nation from the other geographically.
Through the character of Thamma, Amitav Ghosh tries to illustrate
the extremity of nationalism, which advocates the inevitability of
geographical and cultural borderlines. Eventually, the inevitability of the
dividing lines fall flat before cosmopolitanism, which falsifies the borders
and upholds the religion of love and humanity crossing all boundaries. For
Thamma, the people of a nation, either of any caste, creed or religion are of
the same blood. Crossing the borders and visiting or settling in other
countries was crime according to her.
She believed that the people of one country ought not to establish any
relation with that of other country. Geographical borders have much
importance for her. According to her, the people of a country take a long
time to build up a nation after the sacrifices of many generations.
The freedom struggle of a nation claims the unendurable torture,
exploitation, blood shedding and the lives of many people. The stories of the
bitter experiences endured by many patriots have filled her heart with
avenge for the foreigners whom she thought her prime enemy and wanted to
wage a war against them, forgetting all the internal differences:
‘War is the religion, that’s what it takes to make a country.
Once that happen people forget they were born this or that,
Muslim or Hindu, Bengali or Punjabi. They became a
family born of the same pool of blood.’ (78)
Thamma shows her deep intention to serve the people of her country
who were fighting against the Europeans. She herself asserts before Tridib
that she could do anything for the welfare of her nation, be it the help to
terrorists, who were fighting against the enemies of her country. Her

41
extreme nationalism is manifested in her own confession that she would not
hesitate any type of menial work in order to serve the terrorists: whether it
was cooking, washing clothes, running errands for them or anything else.
But Neelam Srivastava feels an inconsistency in the grandmother’s
nationalistic views, and states:
‘Though earlier she said to her grandson that once
members of a nation have drawn their borders in blood,
“people forget they were born this or that, Muslim or
Hindu, Bengali or Punjabi. They became a family born of
the same pool of blood”. She is unconsciously identifying
religion with nationality, in the peculiar conflation that
characterises nationalist spirit in India after partition.
Those who live in “her invented country” “are Hindus” and
“the enemies”. She must rescue her uncle from, are
Muslims, the inhabitants of east Pakistan’. (Brinda Bose-
2005: 86)
In contrast to Thamma, the nature of May and her mother is devoid of
extreme nationalistic passion. For them humanity is universal beyond the
divisions of religion, nationality and race. When Ila’s father once joined a
newly founded institute of development studies in England, as he was
invited there to be a Visiting Professor, Ila and her mother stayed in Price’s
house in West Hampstead London and were provided homely atmosphere
there by Price’s family. Mrs. Price had even arranged for Ila to go to school
with her son. Her treatment with them vindicates that the relation of man-to-
man is of prime importance irrespective of caste, religion and nationality.
May’s attitude was also very friendly and full of humanity.
She even forgave the narrator in spite of his animal like behaviour. In
a drunken stupor, the narrator twice attempted to force himself upon her and
tore off her brassiere but May managed to push him out, and like a true
human, the next day she was very friendly with him, forgiving his entire

42
mistake. May was a cosmopolitan having humanitarian attitude, her love for
human and animals was alike.
She was panicked when she saw a dog writhing in agony, smeared
with blood, and asked Tridib to stop the car, as the dog was whimpering and
blood was trickling slowly out of its mouth. She at once knelt beside the
dog, wrapping her handkerchief around her left hand, tried her best for the
dog’s relief without caring about herself and finally with Tridib’s help
succeeded in making a cut at its jugular with the blade of penknife to
provide it relief.
She also used to fast every Saturday for the sake of poor and needy
people and went out on the streets in order to collect money for the victims
of natural disaster especially for the famine relief in America; she even
spent most of her time working for various relief agencies like Oxfam,
Amnesty etc.
Her humanitarian attitude also obviously came to the fore when she
jumped out of the car to save the old man, overriding all the concerns of the
rest party. She never minded the shadowy distinction of nation, caste,
religion and age. She was quite friendly with everybody, with the narrator,
Tridib, narrator’s father, mother, grandmother, Robi, Ila, Khalil, Saifuddin,
Mayadebi, Jethamoshai and whosoever either human or animal. When she
visited India, she easily adjusted herself with the narrator’s family.
Tridib’s humanitarian outlook was very different and his view about
life was not common, his thoughts were beyond the range of a common or
less sensitive man. He liked to live a life of freedom and believed in the
principle of live and let live. He was a cosmopolitan who had love for the
entire human race.
He had a habit to wander in the streets in order to develop his sense of
worldly wisdom, as a result he became a well-acquainted figure among the
people. His humanitarian and friendly attitude made him favourite of all and

43
they loved to talk to him. Tridib’s this quality put the narrator at wonder. He
himself said about Tridib’s friendly relation to all.
Someone would always be able to tell me where he was: he was a familiar
figure within the floating , talkative population of students and would be
footballers and bank clerks and small-time politicos and all the rest who
gravitated towards that conversation loving stretch of road between Gariahat
and Gole-Park.
Anjali Gera in her essay Old wives Tales aptly remarks in this
concern presenting several instances of Tridib’s amicable nature, from the
novel:
‘His cosmopolitanism is evident in the wealth of ‘abstruse
information’ he possesses on subjects ranging from
Mesopotamian stellae to the plays of Garcia Lorca, We are
told he was ‘happiest in neutral, impersonal places coffee
houses, bars, street-corner adda- the sort of place where
people come, talk and go away without expecting to know
each other’.(9) he reveals a marked disdain for ‘creatures
who sink to the bottom of the sea of heartbreak when they
lose sight of the herd’(18).In his correspondence with
May,he expresses a desire ‘to meet as the completest of
strangers-strangers-across-the-seas-all the more strangers
because they knew each other already….in a place without
a past,without history,free,really free, two people coming
together with the utter freedom of strangers’(144,His
favourite story is that of ‘a man without a country ,who fall
in love with a woman across-the seas’(186),which is re-
enacted In his own encounter with May.Tridib is cast as
the paradigmatic figure of migrancy and hybridity hinting
at imaginings of the self other than the traditional ones.’
(Tabish Khair-119)

44
 Some minor characters in the novel like Shaffuddin and Khalil are
also of prime importance who fill the readers’ heart with deep respect.
Khalil and Shaffudin’s behaviour presents a good instance of humanity, in
spite belonging to different castes; they both loved the old man deeply.
Khalil was the caretaker of him, his love for the old man was inseparable,
his family members also loved him very much and his children called him
grandfather.
When Thamma asked to take the old man away with her, Khalil
became very anxious. He could not resist himself and expressed his love for
the old man when he mused: ‘You can’t take him away; he won’t
go.Besides, he’s like a grandfather to my children now-what will they do
without him?’ (The Shadow Lines: 215)
He loved the old man deeply. He did not have enough money for food
and other necessities but still he was not willing to send the old man away.
The following conversation gives enough prove of his love for the old man,
which is beyond all limitations:
‘You can’t take him away’, cried Khalil; He’ll die; Then a
female voice broke in; it was Khalil’s wife, half hidden by
a curtain. ‘Take him with you, Khalil doesn’t know what
he is saying .He dosen’t have to cook and feed him. We
have two other children too. How long can we go like this:
where will the money come from? (216)
His love had such a deep and miraculous impact on the old man that
he, who was once so orthodox that he would not let a Muslim’s shadow pass
within ten feet of his food, got so much attached with Khalil that he did not
want to go back to India leaving Khalil and his family, and at last none but
only Khalil succeeded in persuading him to return to India. This shows their
intimacy beyond the limit of caste and nation.

45
 Ghosh always tries to chew the cud that humanity is above all the
divisions, and longs for universal fraternity. As Murari Prasad comments in
‘A Quest for Indivisible Sanity’:
‘The message of the novel underlines the need of friendly
ambience for co-existence and humanitarian ties across
cultures independent of political managers. The
‘indivisible sanity’ of people beyond borders has the
potential to ensure warm and wholesome international
amity and exercise divisive streaks and madness.’(R.K.
Dhawan: 1999: 94)
The Shadow Lines presents an extreme example of crossing
boundaries and frontiers – especially those of nationality, culture, language,
caste, and religion. As A.N. Kaul remarks:

‘The novel according to the blurb, focuses on nationalism,

the shadow line we draw between people and nations,
which is both an absurd illusion and a source of terrifying
violence.’(The Shadow Lines Educational Edition:
2006:299)

Crossing the geo-cultural boundaries, Amitav globalizes the human

feeling of love and fraternity. The title of the novel is also symbolic and
suggests the futility of frontiers, which cause nothing but violence and
sorrow. As the words of Shakuntala Bharvani prove this:

‘The title of the novel is symbolic of barriers and

partitions. Individuals stand divided, as do families,
nations and countries. Tridib, who had tried to teach the
narrator “to use his imagination with precision”, meets his
death because of the violence of nationalism ironically
enough when he trying to guard his friend, the English girl,
from blind Hindu-Muslim hatred. Ghosh subtly suggests

46
 that shadow-lines divide, tear, embitter human beings; this
artistically leads to the sudden revelation or Joycean
epiphany experienced by the narrator towards the end of
the novel.’(R.K. Dhawan, 1999: 50-51)

Everybody in the novel is floundering for freedom either geographical

or cultural. They are struggling to achieve their dream of living life without
the hindrance of any type of division. Through the novel The Shadow Lines,
Ghosh tries to depict that in this imperfect world, everyone is shackled, and
always yearns to come out of these shackles.
Thamma is striving for political emancipation, Ila is struggling to
break the cultural barriers, Tridib, in his imagination, is trying to fill the gap
of distance and May is trying to bring equality and welfare for whole
humanity as well as the animals. Robi is also trying to get out of the
haunting memories of his brother’s death. The people are busy in crossing
different types of borders: political, geographical, mental and spiritual.
Nevertheless, in doing so, they get only anxiety and restlessness, as their
extreme expectations make their conditions quite perilous.
The limitation of man’s capacity to materialize his dreams is reflected
in the novel very visibly. These limitations are referred to as shadow lines,
which exist in the forms of geographical, political, cultural, social and
spiritual boundaries. But as the novel progresses, these shadowy lines begin
to disappear gradually. The narrator’s grandmother is shocked to find out
that there are no clearly marked differences on the border between India and
East Pakistan. So far, she thought that there was a long black line between
the two countries called border. Her ignorance about the border reflects in
the following lines of the narrator:

‘For instance, one evening when we were sitting out in the

garden, she wanted to know whether she would be able to

47
 see the border between India and East Pakistan from the
plane. When my father laughed and said, why, did she
really think the border was a long black line with green on
one side and scarlet on the other, like it was in a school
atlas.’(The Shadow Lines: 151)

The theme of futility of borders again comes in the conversation

between the grandmother and her son. When he explained to her the reality
of borders and their shadowy existence, she got disillusioned as well as
offended. She questioned with anger why the people of both countries were
divided and why they were not allowed to visit freely from Calcutta to
Dhaka and vice versa, as they used to travel without any restriction from
one place to another in the undivided Bengal. She laughed at the idea of
partition and the violence caused by it.
As a girl, she dreamed of fighting against the British and of dying for
the freedom of her country. She viewed national identities not in terms of an
imagined community, but as a deeply rooted authority to a geographical and
political identity, born out of the blood sacrifices of many generations. She
thought that the citizens of one particular country should live within that
national identity and there should be no legitimacy of any foreigner to settle
there.
She was also not in favour of those Indians living in England, because
according to her, England belonged to the natives of that country, who and
whose ancestors sacrificed to the freedom and development of their
motherland. She did not support Ila, who was living in England, as she was
doing the same crime what the Britons were doing in India and elsewhere.
The grandmother view of nation and nationality was of a different and
strange type. In her own words:
‘Ila has no right to live there......She does not belong there.
It took those people a long time to build that country;

48
 hundreds of years, years and years of war and bloodshed.’
(The Shadow Lines: 77-78)

The grandmother’s dogmatic views of nationalism obviously did not

come to her spontaneously; in fact, they were caused by the psychological
afflictions and material loss, which she underwent during the colonial
invasion. She even gave away her gold chain, the only asset and a precious
memory of her husband, for the cause of freedom.
The undue suffering endured by her caused a strange nationalistic
feeling within her psyche, which hardened her so much that she did not even
hesitate to use violent methods to obtain emancipation from colonial rule.
The outburst of her suppressed anger towards the British is revealed in her
musings with the narrator:

‘I gave it (the chain) away, she screamed. I gave it to the

fund for the war. I had to, don’t you see? For your sake; for
your freedom. We have to kill them before they kill us: We
have to wipe them out.’ (237)

The second part of the novel reaches the climax in the return visit of
the narrator to the family home in Dhaka in 1964. But that home coming
was marred by a number of ironical situations. Thamma wanted to bring her
uncle back from Pakistan to Calcutta and she believed that her children
should not mix with English people, she was particularly critical of the
narrator’s cousin Ila for living in England.
For grandmother, the people of a nation either of any caste or religion
were of same blood but the person belonging to the other nation should not
have any relation with the person of any other nation. Geographical and
political borders had much importance for her. Suvir Kaul writes about her:
‘the exemplar of militant nationalism....who has lived the nationlist dream

49
and experienced the setbacks and successes that give it its character.’(John
C.Hawley-78)
But for Ila, the meaning of freedom was much different. She and
Thamma stood on the two extreme poles. Ila did not believe in the geo-
political lines marked by man. She freely roamed here and there but never
travelled at all. She failed to cultivate roots and sense of belonging for any
place and became a victim of cultural maladjustment. She never hesitated to
light a cigarette or drink before her elders and going to nightclubs and dance
there against her culture.
Her activities were opposed by her family members: ‘You shouldn’t
have done what you did; you ought to know that; girls don’t behave like that
here.’(The Shadow Lines-88)
In Ila’s character, the theme of belonging and loneliness is treated by
the writer very beautifully. Ila suffered the pangs of separation from her
culture as she could identify herself neither in Indian nor in the western
culture. She represents those people who have settled in foreign countries,
forgetting their culture and traditions and ultimately feel themselves
rootless. Her frustration, caused by identity crisis, comes to light in her
sudden outburst of anger:

‘Do you see now why I’ve chosen to live in London? Do

you see? It’s only because I want to be free. .............. Free
of you! Free of your bloody culture and free all of
you.’(88)

But question is that whether she had got that freedom in the foreign
culture. In real sense, her desire to be free from the border of culture was not
fulfilled because such desire results not in true freedom but in rootlessness
and ultimately in utter frustration and identity crisis. She suffered a lot

50
because she could not adjust herself either in Indian culture or in the
western.
Ila could never realize the freedom from patriarchal oppression that
she had imagined for herself and in the same way the grandmother was also
not fortunate to experience the pleasure to live in a national community free
from the British subjection.
Thamma confuted herself when she revisited Dhaka with a wish to
meet her uncle and bring him back to India. The partition of 1947 was a
very painful experience for her because Dhaka had become the capital of
East Pakistan, which was no more her country.
Her character is a true representative of the millions of people of the
sub-continent, who had to suffer emotional and spiritual pangs caused the
politically motivated partition. Her first visit to Dhaka after partition was a
bitter experience for her, as it was when she practically realized the dividing
lines between two nations. However, the happiness and joy she experienced
in this visit mitigated the very existence of the borders.
Thamma’s parents, her uncle, and aunt’s view about the dividing
walls also proved to be futile because the cousins still played with each
other, stealing their parents’ eyes. Thamma herself tells the narrator how she
and her cousins played together secretly with the same zeal, defying the
dividing walls. ‘When the cousins played now, it had to be in secret so their
parents would not see them together.’(123)
The wall proved to be ironical when the conversation between the two
families had been stopped because the wall, which had been erected for the
peace among the family members brought more bitterness to them. Thamma
tells her bitter experience to the narrator that she felt very nervous when the
members of the family called one another brother.
But in spite of the bitterness created by the dividing walls, there was
something very strange in the house. In the atmosphere of eerie silence

51
within the house, Thamma’s aunt helped in arranging the marriage of
Mayadebi and Saheb. She, by her efforts, proved the futility of the walls.
Tridib in his memories had been trying to cope with distance and
anxieties. Through his memories and imagination, he widened his world.
According to him, true imagination could fill the gap of distance of time and
place. To get free from the limitations of borders and distance, Tridib
continued his love affair with May and shared his all feelings with her
through correspondence.
He even sent her a pornographic letter describing an imaginary
physical intercourse between them. He loved her so much that, he sacrificed
his life for the sake of her. But in future, Tridib’s death proved to be
ironical. May thought herself responsible for his untimely death and Robi
also could not forget that incident which brought nothing but anxiety and
loss. Sharmila Guha Majumdar in The Shadow Lines and In An Antique
Land: Some Thematic Considerations aptly remarks:

‘Robi’s loss in the 1964 riot was no less than many others.
He was too young to register anything than fear; fear that
haunted him in his nightmares. In his adult consciousness,
Tridib’s death signified the futility of our
freedom.’(R.K.Dhawan-1999:182)

Some other characters as Thamma’s uncle, Jethamoshai and

Saifuddin’s father ignored the border lines altogether and refused to leave
their homes just because some politicians were drawing a line somewhere to
divide the people to fulfil their interests. As Jethamoshai puts it:

‘Once you start moving you never stop.....I don’t believe

in this India-Shindia.....but suppose when you get there

52
 they decide to draw another line somewhere? What will
you do then?’(The Shadow Lines: 215)

The anxiety and floundering of characters can also be seen in Urbashi

Bharat’s ‘Imagination and Reality in The Shadow Lines’, when she writes:

‘Everyone in the novel, in fact, hovers over the shadow

lines between imagination and reality; everyone has his or
her stories and memories that are based partly on reality,
and when they are retold they are relived as well. They
interlink and participate in each other, so that in the end,
the boundary between fact and fiction, imagination and
reality disappears, and everything becomes part of an
imaginatively perceived experience of real life. The
shadow lines between people and between the countries
they inhabit and call their own, too, merge and become
one.’(R.K.Dhawan:118)

The question remains unanswered even after achieving the freedom

dreamed by many generations and nourished by the blood and sacrifices of
millions of people. The freedom could give only political emancipation but
could not give social, religious and other freedoms as imagined. The riots
and violence put a big question mark on the reality and relevance of the
freedom. The dissidence and unrest among the people resulted in deep
hatred ultimately culminating in violent riots. Sharmia Guha Majumdar
rightly remarks:
‘....... nobody seems to know the meaning of freedom. If
they did there would not have been so many killings in
Assam, the north east, the Punjab, Sri Lanka, Tripura.
People who kill or get killed, do so in the name of
freedom. The very concept of freedom is a mirage.’(R.K.
Dhawan: 182)

53
 Thus, every character of the novel has his or her own desires and to
fulfil them, they want to be free in order to enjoy themselves fully. But the
hindrances in realizing them causes frustration, anxiety and sadness. Ila’s
attraction towards western culture and her love for Nick, a blonde young
man, brings pathos in her life.
The narrator also suffered a lot due to the inaccessible beauty of Ila
herself. Ila was also not satisfied with Nick and tried to pretend that her
husband really loved her. ‘Nick wouldn’t dream of doing anything that
might upset me, really, believe me.’(248)
The narrator’s infatuation for Ila was also the reason behind his
anxiety and hopelessness. At last, he very mysteriously found solace in
May’s arms, but could not feel satisfaction.
Ghosh tries to interrogate the necessity of so-called man made
borders either they are geographical or mental. He thinks that these borders
are meant for nothing but only to give rise to chaos, anxiety, terror and fear,
communal violence etc. Amitav takes very keen interest in depicting the
communal strife and its futility.
In The Shadow Lines, Amitav Ghosh very skilfully depicts the terror
among the people due to violence. When once the narrator was reading
newspaper in the Teen-Murti House Library with his friend Malik, he
remembered an incident of 1964, related to his childhood memories.
It was his first dreadful experience when he was outside the home in
his school bus and a few of his bus mates told him about the poisoning of
Tala Tank, which put the entire Calcutta in fear. The classes were cancelled
and the streets were quite empty, except for squads of patrolling policemen.
After some time a mob started to throw stones upon their bus. He even did
not forget the fear of that violence.

54
 The narrator describes the fear in his own words: ‘It is like the fear of
the victims of the earth quake, of people who have lost faith in the stillness
of the earth.’ (The Shadow Lines: 204)
He felt that the whole atmosphere had converted hostile. The novelist
tries to point out that the main cause of riots and violence is the difference in
the views and thoughts of people, which give rise to various problems. Jon
Mee, in ‘Imagination and Difference in the Shadow Lines’, depicts:

‘The riots are as much a subversion of difference, the

difference between India and Pakistan, as they are the
product of difference, the difference between Hindu and
Muslim.’(Tabish Khair: 105)

The narrator also remembered the theft of Hazratbal; a holy relic

enshrined in a mosque near Srinagar, which triggered off the communal
riots at Khulna, East Pakistan. He remembered its horrible effects on Dhaka
and Calcutta, when his grandmother Thamma, very ironically, lost her old
uncle and nephew Tridib, who were were killed very brutally by some
people having animal instincts.
Tridib’s throat was cut from ear to ear and his death was given a
name of sacrifice, Khalil’s stomach was ripped apart and the old man’s head
chopped off by the crazy people. Amitav interrogates the cause of Tridib’s
murder. Through the novel, the novelist asks the readers about the relevance
of such murders in the name of communalism. Robi also giggles at this
hypocrisy at the name of freedom. Robi’s speech is noteworthy here:

‘I think to myself why don’t they draw thousands of little

lines through the whole sub-continent and give every little
place a new name? What would it change? Its a mirage; the
whole thing is a mirage. How can anyone divide a

55
 memory? If freedom were possible, surely Tridib’s death
would have set me free.’ (The Shadow Lines: 247)

Thus, through various incidents and characters, Ghosh tries to put

forth the futility of shadowy borderlines, communal strife, riots and violence
in the name of nationalism and freedom. The narrator felt himself very
helpless when he pondered upon the meaning of these shadowy borders. He
himself got terrified when he realized the grave consequences of the
brutality, blood shedding and cold-blooded murders of the people in the
name of communal and religious welfare.
The news headline, visualized by the narrator shows this: ‘Curfew in
Calcutta, Police Open Fire, 10 Dead, 15 Wounded.’(224)
But on reading newspapers thoroughly, the narrator came to know
that in that communal strife local people had no enmity, instead they were
helping and shielding each other at the cost of their life irrespective of any
community. Still they had to pay a great cost, which can never be
compensated.
This nationalism and the borders drawn for the sake of it, cost many
innocent lives, which left nothing behind it except regret and helplessness.
There are many incidents, depicted in the novel, which can be marked as
harsh and depressing. The breakout of riots in Dhaka, the rioting mob
attacks on the old man, Khalil and Tridib are definitely sensational and their
death is hearttearing.
Thus, the novel, The Shadow Lines can be viewed as a continuous
struggle by the author to negativate the demarcation, to check the
establishment of the borders. Ghosh in the novel has attacked extreme
nationalism, communalism and religionalism and has advocated the bond of
global love, fraternity and unity among the people and emphasized on the

56
powerlessness of the drawn lines asserting that love knows no boundaries
and sees the whole world as an entity.

57
 Works Cited

Ghosh, Amitav, The Shadow Lines, Delhi, Oxford University Press,

2006. Print.
Srivastava, Neelam, ‘Fictions of Nationhood in Amitav Ghosh’s The
Shadow Lines’, in ‘Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives’, ed. Brinda Bose,
Delhi, Pencraft International, 2005, 79-88. Print.
Gera, Anjali, ‘Old Wives Tale’, in Amitav Ghosh: A Critical
Companion, ed. Tabish Khair, New Delhi, Permanent Black, 2006, 109-127.
Print.
Prasad, Murari, ‘A Quest for Indivisible Sanity’, in The Novels of
Amitav Ghosh, ed. R.K. Dhawan, Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999, 87-95. Print.
Kaul, A.N., ‘A Reading of The Shadow Lines’, in The Shadow Lines,
Educational Edition with four critical essays, New Delhi, Oxford University
Press, 2006, 299-309. Print.
Bharvani, Shakuntala, ‘Some Recent Trends in Modern Indian
Fiction: A Study of Shashi Despande’s That Long Silence, Shashi Tharoor’s
The Great Indian Novel and Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines’ in The
Novels of Amitav Ghosh, ed. R.K.Dhawan, Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999,
46-51. Print.
Kaul, Suvir, ‘A Tale of Two Riots’ in Contemporary Indian Writers
in English, ed. John C. Hawley, New Delhi, Foundation Books, 2005, 78.
Print.
Majumdar, Sharmila Guha, ‘The Shadow Lines and In An Antique
Land: Some Thematic Considerations’, in The Novels of Amitav Ghosh, ed.
R.K.Dhawan, Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999, 178-186. Print.

58
 Bharat, Urbasi, ‘Imagination and Reality in The Shadow Lines in The
Novels of Amitav Ghosh, ed. R.K.Dhawan, Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999,
114-121. Print.
Mee,Jon, ‘Imagination and Difference in The Shadow Lines’, in
Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Companion’ ed. Tabish Khair, New Delhi,
Permanent Black, 2006, 90-108. Print.

59
 Chapter- IV

THE CALCUTTA
CHROMOSOME

59
Chapter- IV

THE CALCUTTA CHROMOSOME

The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers,Delirium and

Discovery was published in 1995, just two years after the publication of the
previous novel In An Antique Land. The novel is different from the other
novels of the author, it has its genre; it is a science fiction full of futuristic
projections, Indian mythology, mystery and suspense.

The novel has received both severe criticism and appreciation. Some
critics have even called the novel a disappointing story by one of the leading
English writers of Indian origin. However, the book is interesting and the
narration is so powerful that it makes Amitav a successful writer of science
thriller. About the varied

‘Ghosh makes a unique experiment in The Calcutta

Chromosome by combining various themes and
techniques. He amalgamates here literature, science,
philosophy, history, psychology and sociology.’(Dhawan,
1999:26)

Amitav Ghosh received the prestigious Arthur C’ Clarke award for

the best science fiction for this novel in 1996, owing to its unique story
including thrill, ghost stories and scientific quest. The story shuttles back
and forth mainly in search of the elusive Calcutta Chromosome and in the
course of the facts finding, it leads us to a series of ghost stories, mystery
and hair rousing episodes.

The novel begins with a poem by the Nobel laureate Sir Ronald Ross
(1857-1932) who received the prestigious prize for medical science in 1906

60
for his discovery of the mosquito as a vector for malaria. The poem reads as
follows:

This day relenting God

Hath placed within my hand
A wondrous thing; and God
Be praised. At His Command,
Seeking His secret deeds
With tears and toiling breath,
I find thy cunning seeds,
O million-murdering Death.
(The Calcutta Chromosome-2)

The novel spans one century and three continents: America, Asia and
Africa. The main characters of this part science fiction, part history and part
detective thriller are Antar, an Egyptian data analyst and Murugan, a malaria
obsessed Indian living in New York, who is determined to solve the ‘other
hand’ mystery in the discovery of the malaria parasite by Ronald Ross.
Murugan is dead sure that there was someone other who systematically and
mysteriously interfered with Ronald Ross’s experiments to take the research
to some concrete directions and conclusions.
Antar, the Egyptian based programmer of the International Water
Council is busy working with his ultra-modern computer called Ava.
Suddenly he happens to see the image of an ID card on the screen of the
super machine. The super computer possesses human like qualities. ‘She’
can even hear very low voice.
When Antar calls Ava a dust counter in Arabic, she translates the
Arabic phrase into many languages. Being irritated by her pedantry, he
shouts, “Ishuti, shut up”, but to his great amazement, Ava spits the phrase
back at him on the screen.

61
 Antar’s retirement is very near, and to his dismay; he receives a
notice from his employer that his retirement benefits may be reduced owing
to the ‘declining productivity’ from his part. In fact, he is eager to leave
New York for his native country as he is fed up with the silence and
emptiness amidst the din of the city. The theme of loneliness in the crowd
comes to light in the life of this computer programmer.

‘For years he’d been dreaming of leaving New York and

going back to Egypt: of getting out of this musty apartment
where all he could see when he looked down the street
were boarded-up windows stretching across the fronts of
buildings that were almost as empty as his own.’(The
Calcutta Chromosome: 5)

There is the theme of memory and the readers visit the flashback in
which they find the childhood of Antar in a small hamlet in Egypt. As a
child, he used to help an old Hungarian archaeologist who was in the desert
to do some research.
The village boys would sit around her and watch her sifting and
examining the sand. They would ask Antar, as he was supposed to be the
brightest boy of the village, what she was doing. And Antar, puzzled
himself, would answer: ‘I know what they are doing: they are counting the
dust; they are dust counters.’(5)
Antar is impatient to join his neighbour in the appointed dinner but in
the meantime, Ava shows the ID card and the chain on the screen and Antar
recalls that the chain of the card resembles that one which he used to wear
while working with ‘Life Watch”. The machine further reveals that the card
originated in Lhasa, the International Water Council’s continental command
centre for Asia and was found in Calcutta.

62
 The novel explores the theme of memory and it comes to light again
when Antar is lost in his reverie in which he recalls the time when his
apartment homed many Middle Eastern and Central Asian families. His
wife Tayseer lived with him but unfortunately, in her pregnancy an amniotic
infection killed her and the baby. Slowly the apartment was left by the
inmates one by one.
A time came when Antar had only two neighbours – an old man with
whom he sometimes played chess, and an old woman from Azerbaijan who
was later killed by the delivery boy. With the passage of time, the nephew
of the old man carried the chess player to North Carolina where the rest of
the family had settled.
The theme of memory continues and the readers come to know that
Antar continued to live alone in the fourth floor for four years. The building,
by and large, became a centre of commercial activities. Then suddenly
Maria, a Guyanese woman from the doughnut shop requested Antar to
arrange an empty apartment for Tara, a young woman of Indian origin.
Accustomed to live alone for a long time, Antar was not willing to have a
neighbour again.
However, he had to relent before the constant begging of Maria. Still
he hoped that the scaring neighbourhood of the apartment would prevent
Tara to move in, but to his surprise, Tara liked the apartment and moved in
within a month. Tara’s arrival, however, gave Antar reasons to open his
kitchen window and look outside.
Ava is busy working to search the details of the ID card. A man’s face
appeared on the screen and Antar took no time to recognize that the man is
an Indian. The theme of memory and technology are working
simultaneously. Here Antar’s mind is trying to recollect the name of the
person and there Ava is surfing the old records of the Council’s vast

63
archives. The name flashes on the screen: L. Murugan, who has been
missing since August 21, 1995 and last seen in Calcutta, India.
From New York, the setting suddenly turns to Calcutta in 1995. L.
Murugan was in the city to look for the memorial of the British scientist
surgeon-Major Ronald Ross I.M.S. who in 1898 discovered the manner in
which malaria is conveyed by mosquitoes.
Walking through the rain, Murugan arrived in the Ravindra Sadan
where a big event was taking place. Amidst the crowd, he happened to see
two women, both wearing the tags of Calcutta Magazine and from the tags,
he came to know that the younger woman was Urmila Roy and the older
was Sonali Das.
Amitav Ghosh has beautifully utilized the themes of history and
memory. The theme of history is in the description of Ronald Ross’s old
laboratory and the speech being amplified by the loudspeakers.

‘Every city has its secrets,’ the voice began, ‘but Calcutta,
whose vocation is excess, has so many that it is more
secret than any other. Elsewhere, by the working of
paradox, secrets live in the telling: they whisper life into
humdrum street corners and dreary alleyways; into the
rubbish-strewn rears of the windowless tenements and the
blackened floors of oil-bathed workshops. But here in our
city where all law, natural and human, is held in capricious
suspension, that which is hidden has no need of words to
give it life; like any creature that lives in a perverse
element, it mutates to discover sustenance precisely where
it appears to be most starkly withheld – in this case, in
silence.’(21)

64
 The tags worn by the women etched the memory of Murugan and
they create an instant sense of connection with the two women as his
parents had been faithful subscribers to the magazine.
Urmila was looking for a chance to ask Sonali a question, but to her
annoyance, Murugan interrupted her. His unusual English accent confused
both women. Sensing their problem, he talked to them now a little slower.
Then he came to know that the event was, in fact, an award ceremony
for Phulboni, ‘our greatest living writer’ in the words of Sonali. He was
going to be felicitated by the vice-president of India to mark his eighty-fifth
birthday. Phulboni was actually the pen name of Saiyad Murad Hussain.
The theme of spiritual meditation comes to fore when the writer’s
speech is booming out of a loud speaker:

‘Mistaken are those who imagine that silence is without

life; that it is inanimate, without either spirit or voice. It is
not: indeed the Word is to this silence what the shadow is
to the foreshadowed, what the veil is to the eyes, what the
mind is to truth, and what language is to life.’(24)

The readers come to know about the character of both Urmila and
Sonali. Urmila, who had been working at Calcutta Magazine for three years,
was in her twenties. She dealt with the hard news and was the only woman
on the reporting desk. Her acumen in asking sharp questions at press
conferences was well known. But asking Sonali some questions made her
uneasy and shy.
On the other, hand Sonali Roy was a tall, elegant and outspoken
woman in her ‘youthful middle age’. Her image of a celebrity in the city
was due to her mother, who had been a famous stage actress of her time.
Sonali also acted in a couple of Bollywood films, then left Bombay for

65
Calcutta. After returning to her home city, she published a wonderful little
memoir, recounting the memories of her mother and her childhood.
Antar is still busy working at Ava, trying to solve the mysterious
‘missing’ of Murugan. He sends a message to the Council’s headquarter to
inform them the finding of the ID card of Murugan, a former employee of
Life-Watch. Then he begins to study the file consisting of the notices and
newspaper clippings associated with L. Murugan’s disappearance.
The file is fetched by the super-machine from the Council’s archives.
The contents of the file remind Antar the outcome reactions after Murugan’s
disappearance. ‘Disappearance’ word was just a disguised synonym for
suicide or in the words of Ghosh ‘euphemism’ for suicide. The last item in
the file strikes Antar, it was just like an obituary but Murugan was described
as ‘missing’ rather than ‘dead’.
Amitav explores the theme of memory reminiscing the life, obsession
and dare-devilling instincts of Murugan through the so-called obituary.
Murugan is described as the principal archivist of Life-Watch. Being the son
of a technocrat father, he spent his childhood shuttling many capitals of the
world. And while teaching in a college, he developed an obsession for the
medical history of malaria and the early history of the research works
associated with the disease.
Although he had published nothing so far on this topic, still he
boasted himself to be pre-eminent in this matter. He wanted to pursue the
research career of the British poet, novelist and scientist, Ronald Ross who
was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his work on the life cycle of the
malaria parasite.
Amitav again takes the readers to the memory tracks leading towards
the initial works on the subject done by Murugan. In 1987, Murugan wrote
an article entitled ‘Certain Systematic Discrepancies in Ronald Ross’s
Account of Plasmodium B’. However, the article received so negative

66
responses even from his colleagues that Murugan decided to revise it before
its circulation. The revised article with a new title ‘An Alternative
Interpretation of Late 19th Century Malaria Research: Is There a Secret
History?’ received even worse reception. Thanks to it, he was branded as a
crank and an eccentric.
Unaffected by his severe criticism, Murugan wrote to the History of
Science Society, proposing a panel on the early malaria research for the next
convention. But to his dismay, his proposal was not only rejected but his
membership was also revoked. He was even warned to face legal action, if
he ever tried to attend any meetings of the Society. Ultimately, he had to
decide not to argue his case in public.
Murugan’s ostracism from the scholarly community rendered him a
man of increasingly erratic and obsessional behaviour. Under the effect of
this strange behaviour, he began to speak his hypothetic theory openly. It is
that there was some other person or persons who interfered with Ronald
Ross’s experiments and led it to certain directions. This theory was called
‘Other Mind’. This hypothetical and strange notion further helped in the
ostracism of Murugan.

‘It was at about this time for instance, that he began to

speak openly about his notion of the so-called ‘Other
Mind’: a theory that some person or persons had
systematically interfered with Ronald Ross’s experiments
to push malaria research in certain directions while leading
it away from others. His advocacy of this bizarre
hypothesis gradually led to his estrangement from several
of his friends and associates.’(31)

For Murugan, Patarryo’s immunogical work, and the successful

research works on antigenic variations in the plasmodium falciparum

67
parasite were the most important achievements in the subject since Ross’s
works. He believed that these developments would help to vindicate his own
work. His obsession for his work became extreme in 1995, when he
demanded his organisation to send him to Calcutta, the centre of Ross’
discoveries. He was intent to reach there before August 20, the World
Mosquito Day.
Since Life-Watch had no office in Calcutta, it was not practical to
send him. But, eventually, the organisation had to relent at last before
Murugan’s determination and a small research project was manufactured
there. However, Murugan would receive a greatly reduced salary. Despite
all these setbacks, Murugan successfully and delightfully reached his
destination before August 20.
The obituary Anatar is reading asserts that Life-Watch was not
responsible for the disappearance of Murugan, it had done its best to
dissuade him but he was adamant.

‘It is unnecessary therefore,’ the article continued, ‘to seek

to blame Murugan’s well wishers at Life-Watch for the sad
events of August 1995: it would be more appropriate to
join them in grieving for the loss of an irreplaceable
friend.’(32)

The themes of history, politics of scientific research and memory run

together in the novel. Murugan, though a hypothetical and eccentric person,
did not get any support even from the History of Science Society or from
the erudite class. His undeserving ostracism shows how he was victimised
by the politics of scientific research. As noted critic, Sarika Pradiprao
Auradhkar comments:

68
 ‘The Calcutta Chromosome destabilizes the ‘Center’ by
focussing on the actions of otherwise peripheral characters.
Murugan, for instance, the character at the center of the
novel, is marginalised in numerous ways by the society,
both eccentric. The scientific community “brands Murugan
as a crank and an eccentric” because of his outrageous
theories, and the History of Science society subsequently
takes “the unprecedented step of revoking his
membership’. (Auradhkar: 2007:78)

The story of the novel again comes to 1995 in Calcutta as Murugan

had already arrived in the city. He was heading towards the memorial of
Ronald Ross. On his way, he was interrupted by a boy calling out to him, he
was wearing a discoloured T-shirt and so Murugan took no time to
recognise him as he had already met him. Murugan was irritably fed up with
this gap-toothed thin boy who had been chasing him mysteriously.
Finally, when chided, the boy gave a wide grin and asked whether he
wanted to change dollars in good rate. To get rid of this nuisance, Murugan
deposited a handful of coins into his hand. However, very soon he found
himself before the memorial. He critically looked at the medallion and an
inscription, which read:

‘In a small laboratory seventy yards to the southeast of

this gate Surgeon-Major Ronald Ross, I.M.S. in 1898
discovered the manner in which malaria is conveyed by
mosquitoes.’(The Calcutta Chromosome: 34)

Then his eyes caught the three verses of Ross’s poem ‘In Exile’
carved in a marble. In the verses, Ross glorified and thanked God for giving
him the great opportunity to discover the cause of death to millions.
Murugan with a derisory laugh declaimed the poem in a loud voice. He, in

69
two verses, tried to assert that there was no contribution of Ross in the cure
of the disease, which had claimed millions of lives.
The suspense and mystery was again intensified, when the same boy
clapped for Murugan’s poem and called him out. To avoid this chaff of
human seed, he jumped over the wall but his feet landed in some faecal
matter. Amitav, as usual, takes special interest in this mishappening, and as
his habit is to elaborate such bizarre events, describes it literally:

‘His feet landed in something soft and yielding. At first, he

thought it was mud; he could feel the dampness soaking
through the soft leather of his new loafers. A moment later,
the smell hit him. ‘Shit’ he said, under his breath, looking
around.’(36)

Murugan was actually in the deserted backside of the hospital and

even here, he found the boy chasing him. Nevertheless, he kept on moving
and suddenly, he found a little alcove at the back of the memorial arch.
Being curious, he put his hand inside and discovered a small object, which
was in fact a mysterious looking clay figurine in a semi-circular mound with
no features except two large eyes, which bewitched the very faculties of
Murugan.
The novel also deals with the theme of metaphysical exploration and
it creates suspense, mystery and awe. Here the presence of the mysterious
boy and his secret association with the figurine bring this theme. The
figurine has the shape of a pigeon to the right and to the left it has a little
protuberance. Suddenly, the same boy again appeared and Murugan had to
use abusive language to drive him away.
However, as soon as the boy saw the figurine, he snatched it from
Murugan’s hand. He also tried to take it but in this skirmish, the figurine
broke into pieces. The boy gave him a curse and gathered the broken pieces.

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Murugan turned to the left and stoped before a dilapidated redbrick
outhouse, which seemed to be an abandoned house with branches of peepal
growing out of the cracks. There was no human being; a flock of pigeons
with flapping sound flew past him and suddenly to the great amazement of
Murugan and the readers, the boy was there too.
Amitav once again takes the readers to the memory track through
Antar. Actually, he was designated to dissuade Murugan from going ahead
in his self-harming mission. Both had a meeting in a restaurant where they
shared their sad married life, and then Murugan told him his first hand
knowledge of the life and works of Ronald Ross. He very confidently told
Antar that Ross was not a scientist like Pasteur and Koch and his research
work on malaria was not a serious and original one.
Ross was a man of colonial type and his days were spent in hunting,
fishing, shooting and playing tennis and polo. He was not sure what he was
going to do in his life. Then suddenly one big general in the British Army in
India suggested him to join the Indian Medical Service, as there were
Rosses in every other Colonial Services except the medical service.
Then he decided to pursue the medical study and came out from the
paradigm of poetry, history and medieval romances. What a curious joke
that he even dreamt of obtaining Nobel Prize for malaria in advance without
starting any work.
‘And then one morning he gets out of bed and finds he’s
been bitten by the science bug. He is married; he’s got
kids, he’s about to hit his mid-life crisis; he should be
saving for the power lawnmower and what does he do
instead? He looks himself in the mirror and asks himself:
what’s hot in medicine right now? What’s happening on
the outer edge of the paradigm? What’s going to bag me a
Nobel? And what does the mirror tells him? You got it:
malaria – that’s where it’s at this season.’(45)

71
 The theme of history is brought forward in the conversation between
Murugan and Antar. The former told that malaria is not only a disease but
also a cure, which was discovered by the Austrian Nobel laureate and
psychologist Julian von Wagner-Jauregg.
He discovered that artificially induced malaria, when it is in the
dementia stage or the brain attacking stage, can cure syphilis. Murugan
continued that malaria is a universal disease and sometimes it is in disguised
form showing the symptoms of lumbago, flu, cerebral haemorrhage and
yellow fever.
The theme of history continues as Murugan told how the research
work on malaria in the nineteenth century had colonial connections. All the
colonizers of Europe, except England, were giving funds and other
incentives to the scientists to discover the cure for this fatal disease because
they were plotting to colonize the countries highly prone to the disease.
Ronald Ross, a Brit, without much support of government and other
agencies jumped into the circus of malarial games.
Without any sophisticated instruments and the study of the works
done in this subject by other scientists, he ventured alone to solve the
mysteries of malaria. Murugan used very bitter satirical language to
comment on Ross:

‘That’s right. At least that is how it began. And you know

what? He did it; he beat the Laverans and the Kochs and
the Grassis and the whole Italian mob; he beat the
governments of the US and France and Germany and
Russia; he beat them all. Or that’s the official story
anyway: young Ronnie, the lone genius, streaks across the
field and runs away with the World Cup’. (49)

72
 The theme of history of scientific research proceeds as Murugan
shared his malarial mystery with Antar. He told that Patrick Manson, who
discovered that filaria is the bug, which causes elephantiasis, was the man
who persuaded Ross to study the malarial bug. Even before Ross started his
actual work, some scientists like Meckel and Alphonse Laveran had
discovered something very crucial.
Laveran found the crescent shaped granules moving in the organs of
malaria patients and thus he announced that a protozoan was the cause of
malaria. In 1886, Camillio Golgi demonstrated that the recurrence of
malarial fevers has its links with the asexual reproduction of the bug.
Nevertheless, Ross did not support the Laveran theory. His mentor
Manson who believed that the malaria bug was transmitted from mosquito
to man via drinking water, sent him to India to find out the reality. Ross
reached India in 1895 and luckily, he found a malaria patient Abdul Kadir to
do practical. On June 26, 1895, he saw the crescent shaped parasite in the
patient’s blood.
The ‘Other Hand’ story becomes known when Murugan told that for
this experiment no patient was ready to volunteer because the people
considered Ross’s experiments nothing but witchcraft. Therefore, the
mystery arises why this man Abdul Kadir was ready. Ross never thought of
this. Meanwhile, Manson wrote him to prepare some healthy man drink the
cocktail from dead mosquito in order to ascertain his theory.
Once again, Ross did not have to search for such a man, surprisingly a
man called Lutchman who was a sanitation worker, came in and volunteered
to drink the cocktail. But to the dismay of both Ross and Manson, the theory
fell flat as Lutchman didn’t receive malaria. The suspense rises to think -
Was there someone who was sending the people like Abdul Kadir and
Lutchman to Ross to correct his understanding of malaria? Lutchman’s

73
arrival vindicates that ‘they’ were not happy to see Ross digressing from the
right track of experiments. As Murugan told Antar:

‘...they’re leading Ronnie exactly where they want him to

go. And then Ronnie get’s his letter from boss-man
Manson; suddenly everything flies off track. Ronnie goes
off into left field, with this mosquito powder stuff. They go
wild: they know there’s nothing at the end of that trail;
they have to find a way to turn him back in the right
direction. So what do they do? They send him
Lutchman.’(64)

The sending of Lutchman had also an interesting but secret planning

by the ‘other hand’. He was sent because he was healthy without any
malaria parasite; perhaps ‘they’ knew something about microscopy. If he
already had the parasite in his blood, there would be a great fiasco, as Ross
was sure to link the parasites to Manson’s theory.
The planning worked and Ross was again on the right track. To take
his research to some concrete conclusions, Ross with his man and
microscope reached the Nilgiri Hills, where with the help of Lutchman, he
was struck with the idea that the malaria vector might be a particular species
of mosquitoes – anopheles and he named them dappled-wing mosquitoes.
Ross made his first real breakthrough on August 20, 1897, when he
saw the placement of plasmodium zygotes in the stomach sac of Anopheles
Stephensii. He was not only happy with his success but also with his man
who put the idea of mosquito species in his mind.
To Ross’s question where he got this idea from, Lutchman replied
that he heard about this from the villagers talking while grazing their goats
on the hills. Ross was elated for his successful experiment oblivious of the
fact that he was an instrument in the hands of some other players.

74
 ‘He thinks he’s doing experiments on the malaria parasite.
And all the time it’s he who is the experiment on the
malaria parasite. But Ronnie never gets it; not to the end of
his life.’(67)

Urmila, the journalist wanted to write an article on Phulboni, a

Bengali storywriter, and for this purpose; she needed the help of Sonali who
could give her some information about him. She told Sonali that Mrs
Aratounian, her childhood teacher, suggested her to meet her if she wanted
to get some real information about Phulboni. Urmila came to Sonali’s flat
given to her by her friend Romen Haldar, an influential contractor.
Sonali was disappointed to find that her boy servant had left her and
Romen was also not being traced. Urmila told her that while Phulboni was
young, he wrote a set of stories called The Lakhan Stories; the stories were
believed to be some kind of secret message to someone in order to remind
him or them something.
Sonali told Urmila that Phulboni was very close to her mother when
he was young and he frequently visited them in their flat. He was a
vagabond type of man from Orrisa and Phulboni was his pen name. He was
also a very good shooter. One day when he was boozed, he told her mother
a story and made her promise never to tell anyone.
But strange enough, after that he began to avoid them and gradually a
change came over him as he became more and more introvert and impatient
as if he was looking for someone. Her mother was convinced that he rued
for his disclosing the story.
When the readers again come to the 19th century part of the story
related to Ronald Ross, the suspense and mystery wrapped on Lutchman
becomes more complex. Ross received a Cambridge scholar, J.W.D.
Grigson, in Secunderabad who was there to study the phonetic structures

75
and dialects of Eastern India. Grigson arrived there to spend some time with
Ross. Being a linguistic expert, he took no time to recognise that Lutchman
was not the real name of the man. He had changed it to make it look like as
if he was a local person. Grigson found that the name could be Lakhan,
Lakhkhon and Lakshman according to the different parts of the country.
He began to take notice of the man as he found something suspicious
in him. He saw that the man had only four fingers and no thumb in his left
hand.
One night Grigson out of curiosity, managed to meet Lutchman in the
servant quarters. There he saw that Lutchman had a lantern, which was
generally used by the railwaymen to give signals. He frankly told him that
he was not a local as his pronunciation and accent were different. Lutchman,
being exposed, could not chew the insult and took Grigson near the railway
tracks, probably to dispose his threat, but fortunately, Grigson narrowly
survived an accident. Grigson had to pack his baggage to leave
Secunderabad.
Antar was puzzled with the story of Murugan and he asked his
colleague if there was some other team working on malaria and even if they
had already discovered something concrete, so why they did not come
forward to publish their findings.
Antar replied that those were on fringe and marginalised people far
from the mainstream without modern equipments and guts. Nobody would
have believed them, had they even tried to propagate their knowledge, so
they needed a conventional scientist of colonial background to give their
findings a big push. It was a counter-science, which had the first principle to
remain in secrecy.

‘It would have to use secrecy as a technique and procedure.

It would in principle have to refuse all direct

76
 communication, straight off the bat, because to
communicate, to put ideas into language would be to
establish a claim to know – which is the first thing that a
counter- science would dispute’.(88)

Murugan and Antar had a sad parting, as the former was not happy
that his colleague had no belief in his story. Antar, when he was back to his
apartment, found three messages left by Murugan in his answering machine,
but being convinced that Murugan had gone mad, he deleted the messages.
One day while he was emptying the shelves, he found a cassette and as soon
as he played it, he heared the same voice of Murugan.
The voice of Murugan tried to give proof to his story. He reminded
Antar that W.G. Mac-Callum was the first scientist who got the first
breakthrough in malaria in 1897. He showed that the little crescents that
Laveran had seen coming out of the parasite’s hyaline membrane were not
flagellae but they were spunks for sexual reproduction. Then Mac-Callum
made a team to work, the team comprised of Eugene L. Opie and Elijah
Monroe Farley. The latter left the team after some time and as a missionary
shipped out for India.
Murugan’s voice continued to utter that one day he found a letter
written by Elijah Monroe Farley to Eugene L. Opie at a library in Baltimore.
Farley wrote the letter in 1894 after visiting a lab in Calcutta run by D.D.
Cunningham, the predecessor of Ross at the lab.
The letter proved that Farley had already discovered the role of
flagellae in sexual reproduction long before Mac-Callum. The voice
categorically said that after the minute study of the dates and the matters, it
was sure that Farley discovered it in Calcutta.
But the mystery was that who could he had learnt it from. The
possible agent could be none other but Lutchman or Laakhan because he

77
was very close to Farley also. The voice of Murugan regreted that he could
neither find the letter again nor he xerox it.
Amitav’s novel The Calcutta Chromosome deals with many themes
together. It centres round the major themes of history, politics of scientific
research, psychological afflictions, technology, memory and even spiritual
meditation. The super computer Ava deals with the theme of 21th century
super technology.
The machine is not a simple computer but much more to outwit the
imagination of a simple man. Antar is thinking of the letter of Farley sent to
him by Murugan which he instantly had deleted. But he still hopes that Ava
can help him reconstruct the document.
After a long surfing, reconstructing and ordering, the machine
informs him that the text is too corrupt to give it an image. However, it can
give a verbal output of the document. Ava’s amazing technology can be
understood in the following lines:

‘Ava took a moment to answer. It would mean sifting

through about six thousand eight hundred and ninety-two
trillion cunabytes, came the response, in other words,
roughly eighty-five billion times the estimated sum of
every dactylographic act ever committed by a human
being. It was certain to take at least fifteen minutes.’(107)

Through verbal rendition, Ava begins that Farley left for India in
October 1893, where he installed a charitable clinic. Very soon, his research
instinct arose and without losing any time, he wrote a letter to one Surgeon-
Colonel Lawrie posted in Hyderabad enquiring into the present state of
validity of Laveran’s theory.
The reply letter informed him that a young Army doctor named
Ronald Ross, without any practical knowledge of the disease, was busy in

78
doing experiments but with no success. Dr Lawrie suggested Farley to visit
D.D. Cunningham’s laboratory, which had the best facilities in India.
Swayed by the good prospects, Farley took no time to land in Calcutta’s
Sealdah station.
There he got a cold wave down his spine to see something strange in
the behaviour of Mangala, the sweeper woman and a young assistant of
Cunningham. Farley did not fail to understand that they were deliberately,
under a planned connivance, trying to hinder his research by producing only
old and useless slides of blood samples. They tried their best to keep the
genuine slides he was looking for to detect the Laveran parasites. Why these
illiterate and uncultured folks were doing this – tormented Farley.
Farley had some bizarre experiences there. He saw the sweeper
woman Mangala treating the patients of syphilitic dementia in the way of
witchcraft. The patients regarded her as a deity who was giving them
treatment through the malaria infected blood of pigeons. To see their
devilish act, he became furious and wanted to expose their quackery:

‘His conscience called out to him to go outside and tell

them not to waste their hopes on whatever quackery it was
that this woman offered; to expose the falsehoods that she
and her minions had concocted to deceive those simple
people. It was his duty, he knew, to tell them that mankind
knew no cure for their condition; that this false prophetess
was cheating them of money they could ill afford.’(126)

When Farley vehemently insisted to produce the genuine slides, the

young assistant went up to Mangala who smeared the blood of infected
pigeons over the clean slides and handed them to the assistant. Farley
examined the slides under the microscope and found the granules of
malarial pigment, and saw Laveran’s rod like creatures.

79
 ‘But then suddenly he saw movement; under his eyes
amoeboid forms began to squirm and move, undulating
slowly across the glassy surface. Then all at once, there
was a flurry of movement and they began to disintegrate: it
was then that he saw Laveran’s rods appear, hundreds of
them, tiny cylindrical things, with their pointed,
penetrating heads piercing the bloody miasma.’(128)

Overwhelmed by the vivid show, he was startled to hear the strange

voice of Mangala, still holding the decapitated bird with blood oozing from
the wound, explaining him the sexual reproduction of the microbes. He was
much surprised to hear Mangala: ‘Tell him, tell him that what he sees it the
creature’s member entering the body of its mate, doing what men and
women must do......’(128)
At last, Ava tells that in the postscript of the letter, Farley assured to
write more about the subject as he was going to the birthplace of the
assistant, who had promised to reveal him everything there. But
unfortunately and strangely Elijah Farley disappeared during his journey.
The unexpected and mysterious disappearance of Farley further complicates
the labyrinth of the novel.
The theme of spiritual affliction comes to light in the character of
both Murugan and Saiyad Murad Husain, pen-named Phulboni. Murugan
was obsessed with the Calcutta chromosome so much that he was branded
an eccentric and even mad by his colleagues.
He had nothing else in his mind but the mystery of malaria as if he
was haunted by any evil spirit. On the other hand Phulboni had the same
afflictions, he once told a secret story to Sonali’s mother when he was
young and since then he was afflicted by the pangs of regret and remorse.
His torments come to light when he gave the speech after receiving the

80
National Award for his eminent writings from the hands of the Vice-
President.
‘For more years than I can count I have walked the
innermost streets of this most secret of cities, looking
always to find her who has so long eluded me: Silence
herself. I see signs of her presence everywhere I go, in
images, words, glances, but only signs, nothing
more...’(104)
The atmosphere of suspense and mystery, which starts at the very
beginning of the novel, surges incessantly to new heights, and thus gives
new starts and perspiring experience to the readers. The reverie Murugan
saw lying on the bed at the mansion of Mrs Aratounian where he was
staying, makes the novel a thriller. Lying on the bed, he was bitten by
mosquitoes and he imagined as if he were the object of malarial experiments
done in the late nineteenth century.
He saw different faces around him doing experiments on his body.
They were doctors, nurses, assistants trying to find the bug in his infected
blood. In his fist, he still held some coins he had been given at the hospital
gate. They were just like the money he was being offered for handling on
the bug that lived in his blood. As he woke up from his reverie, he was
surprised to see real blood on his fingernails and on the sheet, when
reasoned he knew that he had been scratching himself in his sleep.
Just then, he heard a strange sound coming from the bedroom of his
landowner Mrs Aratounian, the sound was so puzzling that he got worried
for her. To increase the suspense further, he was stabbed by a sharp thing in
his heel and when he put it out, it was none but a piece of tube.
In the novel, there are people disappearing at different times:
disappearance of Murugan, of Farley and of Romen Halder and the sporadic
coming and disappearing of the T-shirt clad gap-toothed boy. These
mysterious disappearances make the novel a story of suspense and thrill.

81
Sonali, when tired of waiting Romen, was worried and decided to look for
him and reachesd his old house, where she was stupefied to witness a
strange scene of rituals being performed.
The inmates were beating drums and cymbals, chanting hymns as if
they were performing a special puja. There she saw the thin boy in a T-shirt,
a woman of her late acquaintance with a bamboo birdcage and a small clay
figure. She heard the woman saying the crowd to pray for the welfare of
some Laakhan. Then she caught a glimpse of a human body lying on the
floor and an appalling scene of offering oozing blood on the fire. Sonali
could not see this scene for long and fell unconscious.
The readers come to know more about the character and family
background of Urmila. She was from a lower middle class family from
Calcutta. Her father had retired and her elder brother was a small salesman.
Besides doing her job, she had to perform many household works.
One night, when she reached home, her mother informed her that her
younger brother Dinu, a football player, was going to have a contract with
some club and a senior representative of the club was going to visit them in
order to discuss his prospects. Her mother also instructed her to arrange for
fish in order to give the guest a good dinner. When asked, she came to know
that the expected guest was Romen Haldar.
Next morning Urmila was busy in completing the household works so
that she might reach the Great Eastern Hotel for press conference in time.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, and since nobody else was ready to answer, she
had to go and see. To her surprise, she found a boy in T-shirt who was
grinning mysteriously outside.
When asked, he told that he had come to sell fish and like a clever
vendor added that he had been selling fish to all the best houses of the
locality like Romen Haldar. Urmila had no other option but to buy some fish
from this vendor. When she opened the package in her kitchen, she was

82
surprised to see that the fish was wrapped in the photocopies of some papers
of The Colonial Services Gazette dated back to twelfth January, 1898
announcing some official transfers and appointments of that time.
The next piece of paper dated January 10, 1898, contained a list of
passengers of the South-Western Railway dated January 10, 1898. The third
sheet dated January 30, 1898 had an announcement that Surgeon-Major
Ronald Ross of the Indian Medical Service would replace Surgeon-Colonel
D.D. Cunningham. There was a common name, D.D. Cunningham,
mentioned on the three papers. But to her utter surprise, Urmila found the
fish sticky and so stinking that she nearly vomitted.
Being outraged at this humiliation of cheating, she went outside to
look for the vendor, hoping that he must be in the neighbouring apartments,
but to her dismay, there were not even any signs of the vendor in the
vicinity. The fish vendor baffles the readers, as he resembled the boy who
was found lurking at various places: the mysterious boy chasing Murugan,
the boy working with Sonali, the boy in the hotel of Robinson Street and
undoubtedly Lakhaan. About the haunting appearance of the boy, the
learned critic K.K. Parekh writes:

‘One doesn’t fail to notice that the gap of 100 years is

cemented up through this device. It seems that some
incomprehensible power is working there. It is rather the
Counter Science, which seems more powerful than science
in the Indian scenario. Some supernatural power wants
connections to be established between the 19th century
scientific inventions and the 20th century miraculous
events. Urmila too is one of the puppets in the hands of this
supernatural power.’(Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam,
2001:216)

83
 Determined as she was, she sneaked into the mansion of Romen
Haldar, where the secretary told her that Haldar had disappeared. To make
the matter more complicated and mysterious, she was informed that there
was no appointment of Haldar in her home for which she had been
preparing. During some skirmishes with the chowkidar, Urmila stumbled
and fainted, and when she came to consciousness, she found herself
surrounded by some people in the shade of the Haldar portico.
A man just before her face was shouting at her, when asked he told
her that his name was L. Murugan and he was from Life Watch. He tried to
remind her that they had already met at the auditorium. Actually, he was
curious to have the custody of the papers Urmila had with her at that time
and he told her that the papers might be helpful to solve one of the great
medical mysteries of history.
Like a hypnotised rabbit, Urmila was ready to follow this stranger,
being oblivious of the fact that she was getting late for her job. When they
reached the Ravindra Sadan Auditorium, Murugan showed her a brick wall
on which something was written.

‘In the small laboratory seventy yards to the southeast of

this gate Surgeon-Major Ronald Ross, I.M.S. in 1898
discovered the manner in which malaria is conveyed by
mosquitoes.’(The Calcutta Chromosome: 163)

Since morning, Urmila had been a witness to many surprises and

shocks and it was a new and big one because she had been to this place
countless times but never saw anything written there.
Like an enchanted animal being carried to the altar, she followed
Murugan and heard him telling her the history of this hospital and how it
was once the best equipped research laboratories in the Indian sub-

84
continent. Some Surgeon-Colonel D.D. Cunningham, who was later
succeeded by Ronald Ross, set up the hospital. Murugan then showed her
the servant quarters, one of which was occupied by Lutchman who used to
supply malaria-infected pigeons to Ross for his research.
Amitav takes the themes of the history of scientific research and
spiritual meditation simultaneously through the story narrated by Murugan,
as he told Urmila not only the strange replacement of Cunningham by Ross,
but also the former’s elusive psychotic episode in Madras. It is again
suggested that the replacement and the Madras episode were pre-planned by
the ‘other hand’.

‘But it’s clear that something happened round the middle

of January 1898 that made Cunningham change his mind.
And it was no accident either: somebody worked pretty
hard to set it up.’(168)

Murugan informed Urmila that the papers she had were the missing
links, which could connect the Cunningham, and the C.C. Dunn stories,
which were so far unsolved. He continued to unravel many veiled mysteries
by narrating curious incidents of the remote past and the present. Once he
came across a report of a strange epidemic, which broke out in a small
hamlet in Egypt killing all villagers except a fourteen years old boy, who
could be a clue to the disease for the expert, but strangely and mysteriously
he disappeared without any concrete reasons.
The disease had symptoms of swollen neck glands and tiny skin
perforations as if bitten by some insect. The disease with same symptoms
came into light some twenty or more years before in Luxor, which claimed
the life of an archaeologist.

85
 The threads of the incidents of far Egypt and of Madras seem to
mingle when Murugan told Urmila that in order to solve the enigmatic
disease; he posted some queries on internet and one day received a long
anonymous mail informing about a Hungarian archaeologist Countess
Pongracz,who was last seen in 1950 in the hamlet, where the epidemic
broke out. It was the same archaeologist who was also seen by Antar and his
playmates in the desert sifting sand. At her late teens, she came to Madras to
join the Society of Spiritualists headed by Mme Liisa Salminen, the arch-
rival of Mme Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society.
C.C. Dunn or D.D. Cunningham’s psychological afflictions, his
spiritual agonies and finally his refuge at the Society’s weekly séance and
the so-called psychotic breakthroughs by Mme Salminen further increase
the atmosphere of suspense and mystery. Mme Salminen held a special
sitting of spiritual meditation to cure the psychological affliction of that
Englishman whose distress can be felt in his imploring tone: ‘Great
distance...see….you...dreams...visions...death...implore….you......madness...
annihilation.’(173)
The agonies of Cunningham seem to have links with ‘the other hand’
for ‘they’ thought him to be old and incompetent and in order to replace him
by their selected new scientist Ross who could take their experiments on the
right tracks, they created such horrible situations before Cunningham that he
had to quit. But the agonies were so deep that even Mme Salminen failed to
pacify him. As she admitted, ‘There is nothing I can do: the Silence has
come to claim him.’(176)
Later Countess Pongracz decided to leave Madras for Egypt. The
decision seems to have two obvious reasons: firstly she wanted to search the
most sacred place of the ancient Valentinian philosophy taught by her guru,
and second she had possibly some connections to the malarial mystery and
her departure to Egyptian village was to discover the cause of the

86
mysterious epidemic. The Valentinian cult was a pagan religion of early
Christian era and its followers worshiped two deities Abyss and Silence and
the teachings of this cult was revealed to her by her guru.

‘...... it was Mme Salminen who had revealed to her the

truth of the Valentinian cosmology, in which the ultimate
deities are the Abyss and the Silence, the one being male
and the other female, the one representing mind and the
other truth, few disputed her account of the matter....’(177)

The mystery behind the replacement of Cunningham by Ross

becomes clear when Murugan told Urmila that the lab in Calcutta was the
best equipped and Ross was ‘their’ chosen man. However, the main hurdle
was to persuade Cunningham to leave for England and ‘they’ manipulated it
so secretly that everything seemed normal.

‘If someone was looking over Ron’s shoulder at this stage,

it wouldn’t take them long to figure this out. So what do
they do? They call a timeout and go into a huddle and
when they go back on the floor, they’ve got a new
gameplan: Cunningham’s got to go. And sure enough, that
is exactly what happens: suddenly in January 1898,
Cunningham changes his mind; he throws the game and
takes his tail off to England. In between he makes a pit-
stop in Madras where he goes through some kind of
psychotic-episode.’(178)

‘They’ were desperate to engage more and more individuals to push

‘their’ work since the latter half of the 19th century and the coincidences of
Murugan’s meeting with Urmila and Sonali, the phone call to Urmila’s
home, the fish business, the ring of the doorbell, Romen Haldar and many

87
other were not simple accidents but the parts of the gameplan. Someone or
something was trying to connect them, and one by one each individual was
entering the trap. As Murugan told Urmila:

‘Fact is we’re dealing with a crowd for whom silence is a

religion. We don’t even know what we don’t know. We
don’t know who is in this and who isn’t, we don’t know
how much of the spin they’ve got under control. We don’t
know how many of the threads they want us to pull
together and how many they want to keep hanging for
whoever comes next.’(180)

The events of the 1995 were neither the end to this episode nor
Murugan and Urmila were the last instruments, for ‘they’ were in hope of
someone with the knowledge of the unsolved mystery and symptoms of the
undiscovered malaria which broke out in an Egyptian village. ‘They’ were
waiting for an advanced technology which could make it easier and quicker
to deliver ‘their’ story to whom ‘they’ had kept it and the man was no other
but Antar with super machine Ava.
Amitav’s novels whatever theme they deal with, are not without some
episodes of man-woman encounter in odd situations and this novel is no
exception. Without any expectation, the readers have ‘dramatic relief’ in the
form of a sexual encounter between Murugan and Urmila in an open field of
the hospital compound where Cunningham and Ross worked for malaria.
The author describes the ‘experiment’ with gusto leaving no play
untouched.
The novel abounds with mysterious things, mysterious episodes and
undoubtedly with mysterious men and women. The figurine for which
Murugan had a small brawl with the T-shirt clad, gap toothed boy again
comes to baffle the readers. Murugan told Urmila that the figurine was

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actually an old-fashioned microscope. To unravel the mystery of the image
Urmila took Murugan to Kalighat, the centre for making images of goddess
for puja, where they came to know more facts that a big puja was going to
be held as Mangla-bibi is going to enter a new body. The mystery of Mangla
and Laakhan or Lutchman continues until the end of the novel.
Mangla and Laakhan are present in all three times: the time of
Cunningham and Ross, in 1990’s in the form of Mrs. Aratounian and
Romen Haldar and finally in New York in the form of Tara and Lucky. The
conversation between Murugan and Urmila further explores the origin of
these witch and wizard like characters. Elijah Farley’s letter, which he wrote
before his sudden disappearance after boarding the train at the Sealdah
station, was the only record with Murugan to trace Mangla and Laakhan.
Unlike the other workers, Mangla and Laakhan or Lutchman were not
simple assistants but much more.
They took special interest in the research and within a few years,
Mangla was ahead of the scientist. Her intuition was so sharp that she knew
the fundamentals of malaria without even knowing the basics of biology and
medical science.
Mangla was actually interested in the discovery of the Calcutta
chromosome more than the malaria bug; it was something related to both
malaria and syphilis. While in Europe a clinician and psychologist, Wagner-
Jauregg discovered after experiments that the malaria-infected blood, when
injected to the syphilis patient, could cure this sexually transmitted disease,
and here in Calcutta Mangla also knew this and to perform this bizarre
treatment, she, with the help of Lakhan, infected pigeons so that she could
inject the blood with malaria bug into the veins of the patients.
The theme of scientific discoveries continues. Murugan narrated
Farley’s letter to Urmila and told the reason why the malaria vaccine could
not be discovered so far.

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 ‘......one of the extraordinary things about the malaria bug
is that it has the capacity to “cut and paste” its DNA –
unlike any creature we know of except the trypanosome.
Remember that’s one of the reasons why it’s been so hard
to develop a malaria vaccine. Because what’s special about
malaria bug is that, as it goes through its life-cycle, it keeps
altering its coat-proteins. So by the time body’s immune
system learns to recognize the threat, the bug’s already had
time to do a little costume-change before the next
act.’(208)

As far as Luchman was concerned, he was the same man who took
Farley to his village and after his ‘disappearance’ turned up at Ross’s door
on May 25, 1895. The probability was that this assistant plotted to do away
with Farley and after successful execution of the plot turned up to the house
of his new boss. The main clue was that both had their thumb missing in the
left hand. This clue reminded Urmila a story told by Sonali who heard her
mother saying that something horrible happened with Phulboni, who later
turned to be Sonali’s father.
During the monsoon of 1933, Phulboni as a representative of a British
firm was sent to Renupur where he had ghostly experiences and had a
narrow escape from death. The horrifying experience rendered him a
changed personality for the rest of his life.
He had to spend the night in a deserted station where he was offered
dinner by a strange looking station-master. At night, when he was alone, he
found the signal lantern haunted and while following the lighted lantern, he
narrowly escaped from being run over by a ghostly train. From the running
train, he heard, some inhuman howl screaming the name – Laakhan. The
same name he again heard when he came back to the haunted signal-room.

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There he also saw a mat with the marks of a couple of palms with the thumb
of left hand missing.
A chill went down the spine of Phulboni, when the chief engineer
informed him that the Renupur station had no station- master for thirty
years. It means that the man who served him dinner was a ghost. The guard
of the train told him that once a foreigner’s mangled corpse was found on
the tracks of Renupur.
It means the body was of Farley. The guard further told him that a
young lad named Laakhan lived in the signal-room for some years. He was
useful for the railway as he worked as a signal- man, so the railways had no
objection for his staying there. But one day a station-master of upper-caste
family was posted there who did not like the presence of an untouchable in
the station .So he hatched a plot to kill him but, unluckily instead of killing
Laakhan, he himself was killed. In order to save him, Laakhan drove away
to Sealdah, where a woman, surely Mangla, gave him shelter.
After connecting the scattered threads of Mangla and Laakhan, they
set out in search of Sonali who had been missing. Murugan gave a great
blow to Urmila by declaring that he was once a syphilis patient. He got
infected with this disease when at the age of fifteen he visited a brothel.
Urmila was alarmed to think of her future as they had the encounter the
same day. However, Murugan assured her that nothing was going to wrong
her as he was properly cured.
They found Sonali in a trance at the old mansion of Romen Haldar.
She informed them that a puja was held in the house. In the puja Mrs.
Aratounian and Romen Haldar were in the forms of Mangla and Laakhan
respectively. Having found new and amazing clues, they with Sonali rushed
to the house of the new Avtar of Mangla but they found somthing puzzling.
Aratounian had left after selling her property to some dealer and the dealer’s
clerk informed them that she had left for Renupur with Romen and

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Phulboni. Now they had a new destination – Renupur. In between, Sonali
declared that Phulboni was her father. This declaration solves the strange
relationship of her mother with the poet.
During their ride to the station, Murugan made Urmila do a promise
that she would not leave him anyway because his work had finished and for
‘them’ he was now useless. He touched his head, like a helpless man, to her
feet in the manner of Laakhan touched the feet of Mangla. He told her that
his role was nearly closed: ‘My part in this was to tie some threads together
so that they could hand the whole package over in a neat little bundle some
time in the future, to whoever it is they’re waiting for.’(253)
The story, which started in the latter half of the 19th century in the
laboratories of Cunningham and Ross with the other people like Mangla and
Laakhan, who discovered the so called Calcutta chromosome, takes a new
dimension in the last decade of the twentieth century with the obsessive
efforts done by Murugan with the help of Farley’s letter and the information
provided by Urmila and Sonali, and finally culminates in the super machine
Ava and its manipulator Antar, an Egyptian programmer settled in New
York. Antar, who so far has thought his neighbour Tara an ordinary woman,
comes to a big surprise that she has some secrets.
He senses that her personality is wrapped in some mystery. One
stormy evening, he finds Lucky and Tara in a very odd situation: Lucky is
touching Tara’s feet with his forehead. It means that Antar is the chosen one
by ‘the other hand’ and Tara and Lucky are the new incarnations of Mangla
and Laakhan.
To follow the command of the Council’s Assistant-Secretary General
for Human Resources, Antar proceeds further to investigate the case of
Murugan with the help of his super machine. He connects himself to the
Director of the Council’s office in Calcutta, who informs him that the
council has no work there except to manage a shelter or asylum. The

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inventory which Antar found on the screen, actually originated from there.
He further informs about an inmate who resembles none other but Murugan.
The Director brings Murugan to his office and Antar has some talks with
him through Ava.
The end of the novel is very confusing and mysterious. Murugan’s
sudden disappearance suggests that he may have got the same fate of Farley
and the stationmaster as he, too, took the train to Renupur with Urmila and
Sonali on 21th August 1995. They went there to follow Phulboni,
Autorinian and Romen Haldar; the new incarnations of Mangla and
Laakhan. However, in the last chapter of the novel, Ava locates him in the
Department of Alternative States in Fort William. In this way, Antar comes
to know the missing links of the sudden disappearance of Murugan.
He finds Murugan in the condition of lunacy. Antar is also not well,
as the malaria fever has again gripped him. They both have to suffer in order
to make atonement for the sin of knowing the forbidden knowledge.
Murugan’s pitiable condition can be understood in these lines:

‘Sitting gnome-like in the middle of the living-room was a

naked man. A blanket of matted, ropy hair hung halfway
down a swollen, distended belly; his upper body was
encrusted with dead leaves and straw, and his thighs were
caked with mud and excrement. His hands were resting in
his lap, bound together by a pair of steel handcuffs.’(242)

Antar also sees the ghostly images of Murugan in his room, perhaps
caused by his feverish hallucinations. Suddenly he is interrupted by the
arrival of Tara in his room who whispers him: ‘Keep watching; we’re here;
we’re all with you.’(256) Then he hears many voices in his room, in his
head and even in his ears calling him that they are with him to help him.

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About the final incident of the novel, the learned critic, Thieme John has
aptly remarked:

‘The final chapter provides an even more startling

instance of a discoverer who is discovered. The text returns
to Antar who, in his New York apartment with his super-
computer, appears to be the ultimate discoverer of meaning
within the novel.’(Khair, 2006:140)

The Calcutta Chromosome, the winner of prestigious Arthur C.

Clarke prize for its amazing treatment of various themes to make it a science
thriller, is undoubtedly a wonderful fictitious work by Amitav Ghosh, a
prominent Indian English novelist of the present era.
The novel is centred in the investigation of the colonial truth – the
discovery of malarial bug and how it enters the human body. The central
theme of scientific research is bracketed by the themes of counter science,
Indian superstitions, ghost stories, murders, hallucinations, transmigrating
souls and futuristic advanced technology.
Amitav questions the credit, which Ross has received for malaria
research. He questions how a man with little knowledge of the disease could
so easily discover the truth. He tries to say that there were the marginalised
and less known people behind the discovery who used Ross as their
mouthpiece and handed him the truth they had discovered in their
indigenous way. There was a syphilitic woman Mangla and Laakhan, a man
with a deformed hand, who did the actual discovery.
They were the assistants of Cunningham in his laboratory but due to
their intuition, they even surpassed their masters. Mangla discovered not
only the malarial truth, but at the same time, came to know the cure for
syphilis. In her groping the medical mysteries, she stumbled upon a
chromosome, which Murugan called Calcutta chromosome. It is a

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chromosome only by analogy with great objectivity. It resides only in the
non-regenerative tissue of the brain and survives only through mutations.
Like the malaria bug, it has the ability to cut and slice DNA. Murugan
relates the traits of this chromosome with human soul and tries to prove the
theory of transmigration of souls.
The novel beautifully amalgamates the themes of science, history,
memory, spiritual affliction and supernaturals. Simultaneously, Ghosh in
Derridian style deconstructs the western hierarchy of superiority. By
bringing the marginalised people like Mangla and Laakhan on the forefront,
he tries to mitigate the hierarchy and caste-system.

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 Works Cited

Ghosh, Amitav, ‘The Calcutta Chromosome’, New Delhi, Ravi

Dayal, Permanent Black, 1995. Print.
Auradkar, Sarika Pradiprao, ‘Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study’, in
The Calcutta Chromosome, New Delhi, Creative Books, 2007, 70-88. Print.
Dhawan, R.K., ‘The Novels of Amitav Ghosh’, in An Introduction,
New Delhi, Prestige Books, 1999, 11-30. Print.
Thieme, John, ‘The Discoverer Discovered: Amitav Ghosh’s The
Calcutta Chromosome’, in Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Companion, ed.
Tabish Khair, Delhi, Permanent Black, 2006, 128-141. Print.
Parekh, K.K., ‘The Theme of Quest in the Calcutta Chromosome’, in
The Fiction of Amitav Ghosh, ed. Indira Bhatt and Indira Nityanandam,
New Delhi, Creative Books, 2001, 206-221. Print.

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 Chapter- V

THE GLASS PALACE

96
 Chapter- V

THE GLASS PALACE

Colonialism, directly or indirectly means to acquire and control over a

country and make it subordinate to another powerful country. In the novel
The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh redefines the term colonialism in his own
way.
The Glass Palace is a novel, which not only grasps the rise and fall of
empires across the twentieth century, but also opens the mysteries of human
heart and maps human psychology with unerring skill. Through the fictional
world of the novel, the author raises a long series of questions before the
readers, which make them think and rethink repeatedly.
The novel begins with the introduction of an eleven-year-old Indian
boy Rajkumar, working in a food stall rendered by a woman named Ma-Cho
in Mandalay. He arrived there at the time of great upheaval, when the
British forced the Burmese king, Queen and their court into exile.
Colonial displacement is manifested from the very beginning of the
novel. In iBurma, there was booming of English guns and the imminent
imperialist threat. A transfer of power and culture was taking place rapidly.
Rajkumar, an alien to Burma had to face a great upheaval due to the British
encroachment over the country. As Rakhee Moral writes in 'In Time of the
Breaking of Nations': The Glass Palace as Postcolonial Narrative –

‘The postcolonial space that Rajkumar inhabits first by

virtue of being a 'kala', a foreigner in alien territory, then
by being subjected to colonization of another more
veracious kind in participating in the great national

97
 upheaval that the British occupation of Burma entails,
followed by yet another turbulent experience in imperial
India and his forays into the Malayan forest resources,
makes him a true transnational. Out of the interstices of
race, class and nation in which his life is enmeshed
emerges the 'in-between' space that his culture and identity
circumbulate." (Brinda Bose, 2005:145)

Not only Rajkumar but Saya was also facing this double burden. They
both had identity crises. Rajkumar, an orphan under the refuge of Ma-Cho's
pity, could never get rid of his identity of being a 'kalaa'. Ma-Cho often
would address him as a 'half wit kalaa'. Likewise, Saya belonged to
Malacca. He was also an orphan, brought up by Catholic priests in his native
country. He shared his pangs with Rajkumar:

‘for I am, like you, an orphan, a foundling. I was brought

up by Catholic priests, in a town called Malacca. These
men were from everywhere- Portugal, Malacca, Goa. They
gave me my name- John Martin, which was not what it has
become. They used to call me Jacao, but I changed this
later to John. They spoke many many languages, those
priests, and from the Goans, I learnt a few Indian
words.’(The Glass Palace: 10)

Saya's memory had very harsh and saddening experiences of

humiliation caused by his identity crisis. He told Rajkumar how humiliated
he felt himself when he went to Singapore in search of a job. There, he
found a job of orderly in a military hospital where the soldiers were mainly
Indians. Saya's words reflect his anguish:
‘The soldiers, there were mainly Indians and they asked
me this very question: how is it that you, who look Chinese
and carry a Christian name, can speak our language? When

98
 I told them how this had come about, they would laugh and
say, you are a dhobi ka kutta - a washer man’s dog - na
ghar ka na ghat ka - you don't belong anywhere, either by
the water or on land, and, I'd say, yes, that is exactly what I
am.’ (10)

Rajkumar and Saya, the victims of colonization and displacement had

to undergo double problems. First, they were uprooted from their native
lands due to the unfavourable circumstances and second they had to face
throat choking turmoil caused by the British encroachment.
The British were moving ahead towards Burma to take full possession
over the teak plantation in Burma. Rajkumar, being too young to
understand, could not believe Mathew's fear when he told him that turmoil
is going to take place very soon in Burma. Rajkumar thought it a bad dream
which Mathew had the night before.
For Rajkumar's assurance, he tipped him the information imparted to
him by his father Saya, how secretly the English were planning to dethrone
the King with the help of force, because the King was not yielding. The
theme of colonization and displacement becomes evident here. The British
policy of forcefully occupying other country's natural resources is treated by
the author very minutely.
Mathew's premonitions proved true only two days later when the
whole city was gripped by the rumours of war. The British troops marched
across the city; there was uproar and an atmosphere of anxiety was looming
large in the bazaar; the fisherwomen, being fear stricken, dumped their
wares into dust heaps and took shelter into their homes.
Everybody in Mandaley was anxious running here and there for
safety. They could not decide what to do. The king and Queen were also
restless and thus, in hurry, issued a Royal Proclamation, 'issued under the
King's signature'( 15 ). The Royal Couple sought the support of their subjects to

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check the imminent occupation by the British, in the proclamation the king
made an appeal to his subjects to co-operate him to abolish the British from
his territory, so that he could uphold the nation's honour and dignity.
Following lines prove this:

‘To uphold the religion, to uphold the national honour, to

uphold the country's interest will bring about threefold
good - good of ourselves and will gain for us the important
result of placing us on the path to celestial regions and to
Nirvana.’ (Glass Palace 15-16)

But for the people's surprise, the market reopened and normalcy was
restored again in the business activity, however a mysterious change was
seen as the foreigners who had inhabited Mandalay for a long time were no
more seen in streets. The rumours of the withdrawal of the menacing war
were at its peak. In the words of Amitav Ghosh:

‘The one most noticeable change was that foreign faces

were no longer to be seen on the streets. The number of
foreigners living in Mandalay was not substantial - there
were envoys and missionaries from Europe, traders and
merchants from Greek, Armenian, Chinese and Indian
origin; laborers and boatmen from Bengal, Malaya and the
Coromandal Coast; white - clothed astrologers from
Manipur; businessmen from Gujrat - an assortment of
people such as Rajkumar had never seen before he came
here. But now suddenly the foreigners disappeared.’ (16)

It was a great relief for the people of Mandalay. The rumours were at
full swing all around that the invaders were defeated and expelled out of
Mandalay. The King and the Queen were also relaxed and certain of their

100
victory over the English troops. They even made the announcement near the
Minhla fortress. ‘The English troops had been repulsed and sent fleeing
across the border.’ (16)
Everywhere there was an atmosphere of joy and celebration taking
place, in comparision with the previous atmosphere of fear and anxiety. But
it was a temporary joy which disappeared in no time, and this silence proved
to be the silence before the storm which destroys everything when it
approaches. Rajkumar got unexpected news from a boatman: ‘The English
are going to be here in a day or two.’ (17)
Mandalay was to be colonized by the English colonialists and their
preparation to occupy the territory was on war footing. This fact is obvious
in the following lines told by a boatman to Rajkumar:

‘They are bringing the biggest fleet that's ever sailed on a

river. They have cannon that can blow away the stonewalls
of a fort; they have boats so fast that they can outrun a tidal
bore; their guns can shoot quicker than you can talk. They
are coming like tide: nothing can stand in their way. Today
we heard their ships are taking up positions around
Myingan. You'll probably hear the fireworks
tomorrow......’ (17)

The very next day the words of the boatman proved to be true as a
booming sound was heard at the distant plain. It was the precursor of the
resurrecting atmosphere of anxiety, worry, slavery, poverty and turmoil. The
colonizers were heading with booming guns making the nervousness of the
people more intense. Rajkumar in nervousness went to Ma-cho and
informed her about the arrival of the English fleet.
The news was so terrifying that all customers at Ma-Cho’s stall
disappeared. There was panic and chaos all around, in deserted streets only

101
dogs were left: ‘dogs were fighting over scraps of discarded meat, circling
in packs around the refuge heaps.’ (18)
Amitav's picturesque narrative style comes to light in this chapter. He
describes the whole story in such a way that each and every incident stands
alive before the readers. He presents a very vivid picture of colonialism and
its effects. The encroachment brought direst distress to the Royal family
who were accustomed to live a luxurious life.
The Queen who was expecting her third child could not digest it that
her family was going to be enslaved. She, in a fury, fired several questions
at the soldiers demanding to give her every detail. But the soldiers were also
not well informed about the secret strategy of the English; however they did
not fail to tell her that the English had guns more powerful than theirs.
The panicked and impatient Queen kept on thinking how it was
possible that the enemy who retreated a week ago at Minhla, two hundred
miles downriver, had became so powerful in no time. ‘How was it possible
that the invaders were now close enough to make their guns heard in the
capital?’ (21)
The bone of contention was the treasure hidden in the forest of Burma
in the form of teak and the greedy eyes of a British company were fixed on
it. The company wanted to usurp the teak logs illegally by violating all the
Royal rules and regulations. Mr. Ghosh has focussed light on the colonial
character of the British, how with their undemocratic policies they occupied
foreign natural resources illegally.

‘It was clear that the company was in wrong; they were
side-stepping the kingdom's customs regulations cutting up
logs to avoid paying duties. The royal customs officers had
slapped a fine on the company, demanding arrears of
payment for some fifty thousand logs. The Englishmen had
protested and refused to pay; they'd carried their

102
 complaints to the British Governor in Rangoon.
Humiliating ultimatums had followed.’(21)

Amitav very minutely describes the humiliation suffered by the local

royalty as well as the common populace. The foreign invaders forcefully
usurped the whole kingdom and revoked the basic rights of the inhabitants
only to fulfill their colonial and imperialist aims.
The Queen of Mandalay, Supayalat strictly refused to accept the
proposal of the English colonizers. It was quite unimaginable for her to
accept the terms and conditions of the foreigners in her own palace. The
British offered her to remain in the Royal Palace under their conditions but
how could a sovereign queen accept such utter humiliating terms in her own
kingdom. Amitav writes:

‘The British might allow the Royal Family to remain in the

palace in the Mandalay on terms similar to those of the
Indian Princes - like farmyard pigs in other words, to be
fed and fattened by their masters; swine housed in sties
that had been trickled out with a few bits of finery.’ (21-
22)

The Queen was not ready to hand over the whole kingdom to the
British. She knew the fate of her neighbouring kingdoms like Thailand,
Assam, Manipur etc., which fell in the vicious trap of the colonial powers.
Moreover, to add to her worries, she was pregnant at that time and she did
not want to give birth to a male child as he would be a prince destined with
prenatal slavery.
The British were allured by the fine teak logs and they wanted to set
up teak business there and to meet their interests they did not even hesitate

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to dethrone the Royal family and deprive them of all their royal
prerogatives.
However, for Supayalat it was impossible to surrender her patrimony
and her pride on account of the teak logs. But the storm never knocks
anybody's door to forecast its arrival, it comes without any warning, the
same thing happened with the Queen when one day an officer told her about
the imminent imprisonment of the Royal family. The Queen was both
furious and worried. There was contradiction in the news coming to her, the
news of a minute was changing in the very next moment. Everyone was
anxious to know about the latest news. Uncertainty of war was everywhere.
Dolly overheard some talks: ‘The British had destroyed the fort at Myingan
with immaculate precision, using their canon, without losing a single soldier
of their own.’ (25)
The question of colonial authority was there. As Sarika Pradiparao
also states this in her own words:
‘The opening scene of The Glass Palace also introduces us
a question that is repeated throughout this momentous epic
narrative, the question of authority and, in particular, the
authority to interpret new signs as they appear on the
constantly changing landscape of colonized territory.
Question of economic, artistic, cultural and national
authority emerges in the novel's portrayal of two families
over three generations, pushed apart and pulled together by
the forces of capitalism, colonialism and insurgency
movement.’(Pradiprao, 2007: 89)

Ghosh has a particular talent to explain various typical issues through

his characters and the events of their life. In the novel Glass Palace, he
explores various aspects of colonialism. The readers can feel the intricate
pulse of this political doctrine in the novel. As Sarika Pradiparao remarks:

104
 ‘It is Ghosh's particular talent to interlace these questions
with the telling of his characters’ lives and to use them to
probe deeply into the intricate nature of colonialism as it is
lived on a daily level and as its legacy is transmitted over
time.’ (90)

Ghosh very vividly describes the miserable condition of the Royal

family, on the one hand, the dagger of imprisonment was impending; on the
other, their own subjects were making benefits of this opportunity. Some
people of Mandalay were busy in collecting gilded gems and stones, while a
few of them were spying on the family and giving secret information to the
British authorities with the greed of getting plump rewards.
Ghosh uncovers the very ugly policies of colonial powers, how they
made the people of the country divided or made them against their own
native king or queen.

‘They knew the British would be grateful to whoever

handed over the royal couple; there would be rich rewards.
The foreigners were expected to come to Mandalay very
soon to take the king and queen into captivity.’ (The Glass
Palace: 25)

The occupation of Burma by the British army took place very quietly
and smoothly, "the imperial fleet crossed the border on 14 November, 1885." (25)
Thus the era of colonialism began in Mandalay. Ten thousand soldiers
among whom about two - third were Indian sepoys with their newly
manufactured British equipments fought against Burma and the Burmese
army surrendered without informing King Thebaw.
The war lasted only fourteen days, during which many of the soldiers
changed their party and loyalty. The invasion increased panic and fear

105
among the people, everyone was trying to get safety resulting in mayhem;
an unprecedented movement of the people in the streets. Rajkumar was also
attacked by a group of men; he would have been killed, had Saya not
rescued him. The people were bloodthirsty which is a common phenomenon
after the transfer of power.
Sarika Pradiparao tries to prove The Glass Palace as a symbol of
fragility of power and imperialism in the following lines:

‘The Glass Palace is symbolic of power as well as fragility

of imperialism. It was the dazzling emblem of the country's
elegance and self-sufficiency until devastated by the
British rule. In the Glass Palace, 'Glass Palace' functions as
a metaphor, Glass is brittle and implies transparency.
Palace is the symbol of power. Glass Palace is an illusion
that is created around power.’ (Pradiprao: 92)

The colonizers took hold of the palace, the common people were
trying to utilize this time for their own benefits, being oblivious of their
previous obeisance, and they had their own interests to fulfil so they were
busy in saving things for their future. They did not even hesitate to
vandalize the palace.

‘Everywhere people were intently at work, men and

women, armed with axes and das; they were hacking at
gem-studded oak offering boxes; digging patterned
gemstones from the marble floor.’ (The Glass Palace: 33)

The Queen became totally powerless and helpless. Her orders were
not heeded anymore, they were meaningless. It became manifest when she
asked Ma-cho to return the brass candle stand; she defiantly refused to do

106
so. Ma-cho thought that those things did not belong to her anymore as she
was herself a lost queen.
The rising sun is saluted and the setting sun is forgotten everywhere.
Now the British colonizers were all in all in Burma, they decided to depose
the Royal family into exile but it was yet to decide where they would be
sent. ‘The Royal family was being sent into exile, they were to go to India,
to a location that had yet to be decided on.’ (41)
The Royal family was reduced to a helpless, powerless and enslaved
party. When the attendants were asked if they willingly wanted to
accompany the king and the queen, there came no reply except "an outburst of
embarrassed coughs, a flurry of awkward throat cleaning." (41) But some attendants

in the palace had no knowledge of the outside world and its affairs, they
were literally ignorant of the ways of life; these orphaned girls Dolly,
Augusta, Evelyn had lived their life so far only in the palace, these girls at
last gave assurance to accompany them.
Thus, to the great relief and consolation of the royal couple, they had
none except these helpless girls to face the coming challenges. These girls
‘never had a home other than the palace; never woken to a day whose hours
were not ordered by the rising of the king; never known a world that was not
centered on the nine-roofed hti of Burma's monarchs.’ (41)
There was the question of existence before the royal couple. The
Queen, who was expecting, was more anxious as she had to protect her
swollen belly from being battered. When they reached Rangoon with their
daughters and attendants, the king Thebaw met his half - brother, the
Thonzai Prince, who informed him that the town was founded by their
ancestor named Alaung Paya, but the British had seized the town along with
all Burma's coastal provinces even before his (Thebaw's) birth.
The king was also informed that in 1857, the last Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah Zafer was similarly exiled into Rangoon. He was surprised to

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know that in Rangoon, there lived more Indians than Burmese. The Indians
were brought there to do mean jobs such as ‘to work in docks, mills, to pull
rickshaws and empty the latrines.’ (49)
The couple was ghastly exploited and victimized by the forces of
colonial powers. The King's ruby ring was taken away and their royal
facilities were stripped off. They felt themselves dwarfed before the
invincible colonial power. This very feeling is echoing in the following
speech of Thebaw:

‘What vast, what incomprehensible power, to move people

in such huge numbers from one place to another - emperor,
kings, farmers, dock workers, soldiers, coolies, policemen.
Why why, this furious movement - people taken from one
place to another, to pull rickshaws, to sit blind in exile?’
(50)

The exile period was very difficult consequently, the attendants and
maids, except Dolly, left the royal couple one by one. ‘Dolly was now one
of the last members of the original Mandalay contingent.’ (52)
In order to support themselves, they hired some new servants and it
was up to Dolly to teach the raw recruits the manners and etiquettes. They
had to shiko i.e. to walk on their hands and knees, a local manner of
saluting. They found it very hard, as they were not habitual to crawling or
shiko. With the help of a midwife, the Queen delivered a baby girl without
any complications.
It was very pathetic as well as ironic on the part of the royal couple,
who wanted a baby boy, was happy because they did not want that their
succeeding prince would face the pain of exile. ‘A girl would be better able
to bear the pain of exile.’ (56)

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 The British occupation brought with it many drastic changes in the
country. The British people used every technology to exploit the natural
resources of Burma especially the teak forests. They modified everything
according to their convenience. In the words of the author:

‘The British occupation had changed everything. Burma

had been quickly integrated into the Empire, forcibly
converted into a British Club, the Queen's Hall of
Audience had now become a billiard room; the mirrored
walls were lined with months old copies of Punch and The
Illustrated London News; the gardens had been dug up to
make room for tennis courts and polo grounds; the
exquisite little monastery in which Thebaw had spent his
novitiate had become a chapel where Anglican priests
administered the sacrament to British troops, Mandalay, it
was confidently predicted, would soon become the
Chicago of Asia.’ (66)

The colonization brought drastic changes not only in the system, but
also in the lives of the local people. Being colonized now, they had to face
many difficulties. Rajkumar joined Saya in his teak business as an assistant.
They had to struggle a lot for their survival. They had to bear the pangs of
humiliation frequently. The Britishers used very offensive language and
treated them like lower animals. One day when Saya forgot to follow an
order of the Assistant, the latter rudely scolded him: ‘Take that grinning face
out of here.......", the Englishman shouted, “I’ll see you in hell, Johnny
Chinaman.’ (72)
The hapless victims of colonization could not withstand their
exploiters. Many times, Rajkumar would be hot with indignation seeing his
mentor being insulted, but Saya would forbid him because he knew it would
be foolish to challenge the Empire. He tried to make Rajkumar understand

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the relation of colonizers and colonized. He even praised the Britishers for
their technology what if they had occupied their land. He had a deep respect
for the Europeans for they thought what his own people could not. ‘Yet until
the Europeans came none of them had ever thought of using elephants, for
their purposes of logging.’ (77)
Before that, the elephants were used only in pagodas and palaces, for
wars and ceremonies. It was only the Europeans who used elephants for
logging and other works. They brought the system of floating the logs
downriver. For Saya, the plan of the tai, the use of bamboo thatch and rattan
was also the idea of the Europeans. Like a blind devotee, Saya was unaware
of the fact that the colonizers were sucking the treasure of his land and
filling their own coffers.
The King, the Queen, and their family could terribly felt the pain and
suffering of being colonized. The princesses were living a life of ostracism,
as being the members of the royal family, they had no freedom to mix with
other girls; thus they were doubly victimized. They would ask their parents:

‘Why should they be prevented from visiting local

families; from forming friendships with Marathi children
of good education? Why should they grow to womanhood
never knowing any company other than that of
servants?’(76)

The readers could feel the dilemma and suffocation experienced by

the princesses, for even their coachman Sawant was luckier who did not
have to put on the mask of false vanity and was free to talk and walk. The
maid-servants, attendants and the royal relatives could not bear the pain of
exile, and knowing the reality of the Royal Palace, drifted away one by one,
except a few.

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 The situation became worst when plague broke out in Ratnagiri. The
royal couple was almost out of money and the panic of epidemic was
growing day by day. Due to the fear of contamination, the Queen allowed
the Palace workers to build their houses around the palace compound and in
a few days, there appeared a small village. There was no provision of
sewage so very soon the whole Out Ram House was filled with foul smell,
making the situation horrible. Nobody wanted to live there. The governess,
who was appointed to teach English to the princesses, also withdrew soon.
The English wanted to suck up even the soul of the people of Burma.
They wanted to make them learn English language and etiquettes. The very
irony is that the royal couple who were once habitual to enslave others, were
now enslaved by the British colonizers. Their condition was growing bad to
worse. The Out Ram House began to turn into a neglected place devoid of
tiles and other amenities. The Queen was so frustrated that she did not want
to mend it. She considered it as a jail. ‘They chose this to be our gaol, let
them look after it.’(87)
The House was filled with unbearable stinking smell and thus, "the
residence of Burma's last king had become the nucleus of Shantytown." (88)
The plight of the royal couple was miserable, the Queen could not control
over her frustration and frequently she would give words to her anguish and
annoyance:

‘Yes, we who ruled the richest land in Asia are now

reduced to this. This is what they will do to all of Burma.
They took our kingdom, promising roads and railways and
ports, but mark my words, this is how it will end. In a few
decades, the wealth will be gone - all the gems, the timber
and the oil - and they too will leave’. (88)

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 The theme of colonial displacement comes to fore in the novel very
literally, the exploiting policies intrigued by the colonizers leave a rich
country to destitution, ignorance, famine and despair. Ghosh has very
brilliantly highlighted the theme of colonizer and the colonized, the greed of
the former and the suffering of the latter. Shubha Tiwari in Amitav Ghosh: A
Critical Study very aptly remarks – ‘The process of colonization and the
state of the colonized are very relevant thought components of this
novel.’(Shubha Tiwari, 2003:104)
The critic appreciates the author's skills of emphasizing the unjust and
immoral character of the colonizer in draining out the natural resources of a
country in order to strengthen it further: ‘Ghosh also deals with the larger
question of Europe's greed. Everything becomes a resource to be exploited -
woods, water, mines, people, just everyone and everything.’(105)
It is a universal phenomenon of the colonization that it not only
brings changes in the political and economic system but simultaneously
tampers with the opinions of the people. Saya's thoughts about the British as
their superiors, Arjun's boasting of his connection with the Westerners,
Dinu's understanding that it was Europeans who helped Arjun and his fellow
officers to see themselves builders and Rajkumar's musings that Burma's
economy would collapse without the British - all illustrate this.
The British occupiers had engaged the young Burmese men and
women in teak business. Likewise, Rajkumar was working in a temporary
teak camp at Huay Zedi where he learnt how to fight against the tough
conditions in order to survive, as there was death in different garbs. The
animals and the human beings, all who were dwelling in the camp, were
badly stricken by the fear of anthrax infection. Amitav describes the plight
of the locals who were left helpless at this time by their rulers to suffer:
‘An entire working herd of a hundred elephants could be
lost within a few days. Mature tuskers were valued in

112
 many thousands of rupees and the cost of an epidemic was
such as to make itself felt on the London Stock Exchange.
Few were the insurers who would gamble against a disease
such as this.’ (The Glass Palace: 92)

Ghosh, like a seasoned historian, describes the growing discontent

among the colonized people. The wave of political awareness was ebbing in
the mind of the masses; they began to realize the politically and naturally
unjust occupation of their native land by an outsider usurper. Some flickers
of opposition began to simmer and gradually the Indian freedom struggle
and the growing power of Japan pokered this fire of discontent into a
movement.

‘Every day, there were reports of meetings, marches and

petitions: people were being told to boycott British made
goods; women were making bonfires of Lancashire cloth.
In the Far East there was the war between Russia and
Japan and for the first time it looked as though an Asian
country might prevail against a European power. The
Indian papers were full of news of this war and what it
would mean for the colonized countries.’ (105)

Through the hot conversation between the Collector and the King
Thebaw, Amitav represents the frustration of the colonized people. Though
the collector was not a European but an Indian, still he had a false pride of
being a part of the authority.
The King was very much interested in Russia-Japanese war, he as
well as the people was aware of the implications of its outcome in the
political scenario of the colonized countries like Burma. They were always
anxious to know the latest developments in the war zone. The King was

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naturally the mouthpiece of the colonized masses who wanted to witness the
fiasco of the Western powers.
The Collector, on the other hand, represented those Indians; who
sided the English for their petty interests; suffered from the identity crisis as
he was working for the paltry incentives in return of his life and honour
costing service. These puppets of the imperial power had no self-pride and
identity as they belonged to nowhere. They were nothing but donkeys
carrying out the orders of their masters blindly – dhobi ka kutta, na ghar ka
na ghat ka. (10)
Thebaw had firm belief that one day some Eastern power would
definitely win and they would help to get rid of the European slavery. He
told this to the Collector- “did you ever think that we would live to witness
the day when an Eastern country would defeat a European power?” (107)
Amitav juxtaposes the king with the collector who had a strong feeling of
belonging with the British Empire. He very flatly supported the British point
of view:
‘that Japan’s victory has resulted in widespread rejoicing
among the nationalists in India and no doubt in Burma too.
But the Tzar’s defeat comes as no surprise to anyone, and
it holds no comforts for enemies of the British Empire. The
Empire is today stronger than it has ever been. You have
only to glance at a map of the world to see the truth of
this.’(107)

Colonialism renders the colonized not only slave but also identity
less, it happens everywhere whoever falls victim of such political intrigue.
The people of Burma underwent the same, they could not understand to
which place they belong. Dolly was one such victim like Rajkumar, Saya,
Macho and many others. The theme of belonging is highlighted in the novel
by the author by the loss of belonging in the life of the colonized due to

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continuous slavery. Dolly refused to go back to Burma, her native land, as
she told to Uma:

‘If I went to Burma now I would be a foreigner – they

would call me a kala like they do with Indians – a
trespasser, an outsider from across the sea. I’d find that
very hard, I think. I’d never be able to rid myself of the
idea that I would have to leave again one day, just as I had
to before.’(113)

Dolly was, likewise, victimised by the same crisis. She was so scared
that she did not want to recall the memories of Burma. Previously she was
confined to the Out Ram House to serve the Royal family, now she had the
double burden of slavery.
She, on the one hand, lived under the control of the British, and, on
the other, that of the Royal family. So far, she had spent her life in
confinement and did not know any place where she could go. She confessed
her agony before Uma: ‘And where would I go? This is the only place I
know. This is home’ (119)
The British colonialism prevailed not only in Burma but also in its
neighbouring country India. People like Rajkumar and Baburao wanted to
make money and the British were using them as their trump cards. Burma’s
Yenangyaung became a golden land for the foreign exploiters, as ‘this was
one of the few places in the world where petroleum seeped naturally to the
surface of the earth.’(122)
The colonial powers from the nations like France, England and
America set their greedy eyes on the oil wells. They were offering good
money to the twin zas. They were mining the natural treasure of Burma and
for this enterprise, they needed cheap labour. Amitav points out this fact in

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his own words: ‘Many foreign companies were busy digging for oil and
they were desperate for labour.’(124)
The colonizers employed the poor Burmese as workers in digging
mines. They took advantage of their poverty as the workers put their life at
stake only for a few coins. For making money some Indians like Baburao
and Rajkumar agreed to provide the foreigners cheap labourers from India;
and they made labour transportation their business.
By offering them good incentives, they took the poor people to
Burma. In this business of human trafficking, many people lost their life
during the journey. In this tremendous well of exploitation, both Indians and
Burmese were drowning for a paltry sum of money.
The giant companies were exploiting the oil fields and the teak forests
of the country. A cutthroat competition was going on in this process; some
Indians and Burmese were also trying to make money but their survival
before the strategies of the big companies was very desperate.
Rajkumar was such a case. When he tried to deal a contract with
Indian Railway Company, Saya was sceptic of this contract and he told his
concerns to him: ‘But consider the risk, Rajkumar. The big English
companies could destroy you; make you a laughing stock in Rangoon. You
could be driven out of business.’(130)
But, to Saya’s surprise, Rajkumar overcame all difficulties and was
sure of getting the contract. He was highly proud of his prodigy but the
feeling of being a colonized still haunted his psyche; he could not get rid of
the fact that Rajkumar was an orphaned and homeless boy.

‘In that instant there flashed before Saya, John’s eyes a

clear vision of that Mandalay morning when he had gone
racing down an alley to rescue Rajkumar – he saw him

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 again as a boy, an abandoned Kala, a rags-clad Indian who
had strayed too far from home.’(132)

Ghosh has highlighted the suffocation and dilemma of the colonized,

irrespective of their position. Beni Prasad, a collector was not even able to
help his wife’s uncle in favouring Rajkumar. He was only an instrument in
the hands of his masters, as he himself admitted- ‘The Government
instructions are quite clear. Their Highness are not to have any
visitors.’(135)
The English colonizers never wanted to take any risk. They adopted
the policy of divide and rule and separated the king from the rest of Burma
by sending him in exile because his presence could unite the broken
kingdom and thus creating challenges to the empire. The Collector knew
that very well but he was nothing but a puppet of the colonizers. In the case
of Rajkumar, he denied him access to the Out Ram House, as he could not
use his own discretion.

‘Burma is their richest province and they don’t want to

take any risks. The King is the one person who could bring
the country together against them. There are more than a
dozen different tribes and peoples there. The monarchy is
the only thing they have in common. Our teachers know
this and they want to make sure that the king is
forgotten.’(136)

The English had occupied Burma, they even had set up their colonial
office there and everything in the colonized country was under their rule.
They had double standards, on one hand they made the people rebel against
the royal family calling them tyrants, enemies of freedom and murderers,

117
and on the other, they did the same to occupy the land by dethroning the
King with humiliation.
Many people were so much frustrated and disillusioned with the
British rule that they joined the Indian Independence League to fight against
it. Uma joined the League in New York formed by some closely connected
Indians living in the city.
Her apartment became a meeting place where they discussed how to
adopt new things, new patterns of movements, new thoughts and modern
education in order to bring about freedom to the colonized countries. They
came to know that Japan and Siam were moving quickly in this direction by
adopting these patterns.
Lala Har Dayal’s speech disclosed the grim reality of the Empire.
Instead of using the country’s revenue for her development, it was drained
to raise army to repress the rising revolts. The speech clarified that India had
become a vast garrison and more than sixty percent of the government
revenue was consumed by the military and it was the common man who had
to suffer the most. The impoverished peasant was not only paying for the
upkeep of the army but also to support the other campaigns. The blood-
sucking tendency of the empire would render the country crippled in the
coming generations; it was felt by the Indians living in America.

‘They could see that it was not they themselves, nor even
their children who would pay the true price of this Empire:
that the conditions being created in their homeland were
such as to ensure that their descendents would enter the
new epoch as cripples, lacking the most fundamental
means of survival; that they would truly become in the
future what they had never been in the past, a burden upon
the world. They could see too that already time was
running out, that it would soon become impossible to

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 change the angle of their country’s entry into the future;
that a time was at hand, when even the fall of the Empire
and the departure of their rulers would make little
difference; that their homeland’s trajectory was being set
on an unbudgeable path that would thrust it inexorably in
the direction of future catastrophe.’( 222)

There was an atmosphere of panic among the compatriots in America,

many of them took shelter of religion, and many turned communists. Some
of Uma’s contemporaries joined the Ghadar Party whose members were
mostly Sikhs, who once served the British Indian Army as soldiers. Their
experience in America and Canada was so worse that it led them to become
revolutionaries. ‘They had become dedicated enemies of the Empire they
had once served.’(222)
The main aim of these revolutionaries was to convert their
countrymen as rebels of the Empire, they were secretly getting support from
the Irish who taught them the art of sedition, told the tricks of shopping
arms and also gave them instructions and techniques how to prepare their
countrymen, who were serving the Empire as soldiers, to mutiny. But the
party got setbacks during the World War-I, it had to go underground.
It metamorphosed into several new groups. Among them, the most
prominent group was the Indian Independence League. The British Empire
was losing its control over soldiers as they rose to mutiny, and to cope with
this new challenge; they offered the soldiers more incentives. ‘They are
given land and their children are assured jobs.’(223)
The simmering dissidence was gradually taking the shape of flames
not only in India, but also in Burma, Malaya, East Africa and wherever the
people were suffering from undue exploitation. The Empire was using the
native soldiers to repress the opposition of their fellow countrymen by
giving them incentives. It took a long time for these soldiers to understand

119
the reality. One of the former soldiers Giani Amreek Singh was asked by
Uma- ‘But Gianiji, you served in this army yourself; why did it take you so
long to understand that you were being used to conquer others like
yourself?’(204)
Uma came to know how cunningly the British used to take benefits of
the native soldiers in the name of their welfare and so called freedom. The
colonizers’ policy was totally against the colonized. They were cunning,
shrewd and fraud. Giani Amreek’s speech reveals this-

‘We never thought that we were being used to conquer

people. Not at all: we thought the opposite. We were told
that we were freeing those people. That is what they said –
that we were going to set those people free from their bad
kings or their evil customs or some such things’ (224)

Ghosh creates irony when he juxtaposes the contrary parties together,

as the British told the people that freedom existed wherever they ruled, but
in reality, they were snatching their freedom. Furthermore, the author tells
the dilemma of the colonized people who could not recognize the reality, as
they were totally misguided and misused; their power of reason was
chronically digressed.
The displacement caused by the colonialism further gave rise to
quarrel between the Indians and the Burmese. The native Burmese thought
that the Indian businessmen were no less than the colonizers who were
exploiting Burma’s natural as well as human resources. There were frequent
attacks on the Indians by the locals because they thought them outsiders like
the British. ‘Indian money lenders have taken over all the farmland; Indians
live like colonialists, lording it over the Burmese.’(240)
They had an aversion to those Burmese who married the Indians, and
called the children of such couple ‘Zerbadi’. Many agitators or

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troublemakers were just trying to incite the public. The Burmese were
bloodthirsty; they could no more tolerate any Indian in Burma. This hate-
sentiment claimed the life of an Indian rickshaw puller. The author
describes the mis happening: ‘suddenly his toppled over like a lopped-off
branch, hanging down over his spine, held on by a thin flap of skin.’(244)
Gradually the small skirmishes magnified into large scale riots
shooting the toll to hundreds, the number would have been higher, had some
peace loving locals not rescued and sheltered some Indians from the mob.
But the number of miscreants was rising day by day, they wanted to expel
out Indians, they attacked Indian and Chinese owned business centres.
Everywhere there was chaos and panic, which rendered the people
helpless. It shows how the policy of colonialism not only sucks out the
wealth of a country leaving it impoverished, but also disturbs the social
harmony by making the people enemy of one another. Indians were being
used like instruments against the Burmese in order to safe guard the Empire.
When the rumours of a secret coronation of a prince were rife to
liberate the country, Indian soldiers were sent to quell this simmering
rebellion. ‘The colonial authorities fought back by sending more Indian
reinforcements to root out the rebellion. Villages were occupied, hundreds
of Burmese were killed and thousands wounded.’(247)
The exploiters were basking the outcome of this fighting between the
Indians and the Burmese. The situation was very ironical as the real enemy
was safe and both the exploited parties were fighting like ignorant armies.
The author vents this irony in the words of Uma: ‘I can’t believe what I’ve
seen here – the same old story, Indians being mad to kill for the Empire,
fighting people who should be their friends........’(247)
Through Uma, Amitav discloses the ugly reality of the local agents of
the colonizers. They were human traffickers who helped the British to
establish their dominance by transporting cheap labourers from India in the

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name of providing these wretched men employment and money. Uma’s
comments and her arguments with Rajkumar, an agent, reveal the disgusting
reality of the consequences of transporting people from India to Burma.
They were not only uprooted from their homeland but also utterly fooled as
they got exploitation and humiliation instead of good job and living. Uma
blames Rajkumar for this whole tragedy:

‘It’s people like you who’re responsible for this tragedy.

Did you ever think of the consequences when you were
transporting people here? What you and your kind have
done is worse than the worst deeds of the Europeans’ (247)

It was Uma who apparently discerned the divide and rule policy of
the British. While travelling across Burma with her fellow members of the
Indian Independence League, she saw the nakedness of this policy.
Wherever she went, she could see the widening rift between Indians and
Burmese who were once good neighbours.
Likewise, India was no more a free India, but British India, a colony,
where even each puff of breathing seemed to be borrowed from the British.
The people were politically and economically enslaved and gradually their
mindset got rusted. Due to prolonged slavery, they lost the power to reason.
Most of them behaved like puppets in the hands of their masters.
They could not understand the cruel and cunning dividing policy of the
colonizers. But for the British, this policy was indispensable to keep going
their interests: ‘The pattern of imperial rule and its policy of ensuring its
necessity through the division of its subjects.’(243)
The condition of Rangoon was very horrible just like that of a war
torn country. For Uma it was just like waking from a terrible dream not to
remember again. She wanted to fill the gap between Indians and Burmese.

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She sent articles to Calcutta Modern Review, and wrote letters to some other
major newspapers and made every possible effort to make the Indians aware
of the European politics. However, she knew it very well that it was not
easy to wage an armed war against the mighty Empire, as it was supported
by advanced technology and warfare. There were hardly any chances to
defeat such a modern and well-organised military power.
The only feasible alternative was non-violent methods as was
adopted by Mahatma Gandhi in India. She was highly impressed by the
speeches of Gandhi and she became firmly determined to root out the
British Raj from both India and Burma. Therefore, she wrote to him and for
her great delight, she was invited to meet him in Wardha Ashram.
Gradually, she became a staunch follower of Gandhi’s doctrine.
When her nephew Arjun was selected as an officer cadet in the Indian
National Academy, she congratulated him instead of protesting. She herself
joined the Congress Party and was quite agreed with Gandhi’s thoughts. She
told Arjun: ‘The Mahatma thinks that the country can only benefit from
having men of conscience in the army. India needs soldiers who won’t
blindly obey their superiors.......’( 258)
Mr. Ghosh portrays Arjun’s character in such a way that it reveals the
dream world of a young educated Indian and the bitter truth he felt after
disillusionment. When Arjun joined the Indian Military, he was quite
delighted but gradually the misty cover of blind faith began to evaporate,
ultimately leading to disillusionment. In the beginning of his service, Arjun
was proud to be a part of Indian Military.
He was conceited of being so close to the Westerners. His ostentation
comes to light when he told Dinu: ‘We’re the ones who actually live with
Westerners.’(279) He believed that he and his fellow officers were the
pioneers of modernity. In his own words: ‘We’re the first modern Indians;

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the first Indians to be truly free. We eat what we like, we drink what we
like, we’re the first Indians who’re not weighed down by the past.’(279)
But it was not the reality; the reality was wrapped in irony which the
Indians even like Arjun could not understand. The author highlights this
irony by telling how the Indian officers lived in proximity with Westerners
but the reality was unmistakable to discern as the Indian officers were
dreaming of abstractions. They were now and then made to realise that they
were ruled by their superiors. ‘The British Indian army has always
functioned on the understanding that there was to be a separation between
Indians and Britishers.’(283)
There was no doubt that the policy adopted by the colonizers was
biased but most of the Indian chaps could not understand this as they
believed that the British were the upholders of freedom and equality.
However, Arjun could feel this after undergoing acute humiliation and the
true discovery of self. He came to realise that instead of being in the same
cadre, the Indian officers were paid less than their western counter parts.
The stinking side of the colonization becomes known when the
readers come to know that the Britishers could not even tolerate the
umbrellas covering the heads of the locals. They could never see the
sovereignty of the Indians and even the umbrellas seemed to them the
symbols of the same. They could not see any Indian with umbrella as for
them it was a sign of their lessening pride. As Hardy tells Arjun:

‘Because in the old days in the East, umbrellas were a sign

of sovereignty. The British didn’t want their sepoys to get
over ambitious. That’s why you’ll never see umbrellas at a
cantonment.’(285)

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 The British army had double standards and it had a dual character,
one for English officers and other for the native soldiers. There were rules
and regulations but in reality, they were just for ostentation.

‘On the surface everything in the army appears to be ruled

by manuals, regulations, procedures: it seems every cut
and dried. But actually, underneath there are all these
murky shadows that you can never quite see: prejudice,
distrust and suspicion. (285)

But gradually, the people began to realise the devilish policies of the
British. The common people of India and Burma wanted to know the answer
of several questions, which were itching their minds. On Manju’s wedding,
Arjun had to face several unwanted questions asked by some guests such as
Buddhist monks, Burmese student-activists and Congress Party workers,
who had very negative image of the Indian soldiers.
They considered them usurpers and exploiters like the British. The
questions asked by them were very tough to answer: ‘From whom are you
defending us? From ourselves? From other Indians? It’s your masters from
whom the country needs to be defended.’(288)
The circumstances were so ironical that the natives had to face
slavery in their own lands and they blamed the young local soldiers in the
British army equally responsible for their plight. According to them, these
soldiers were the meanest type of slaves of the foreign occupiers and they
were helping them to convert their fellow countrymen slaves like them.
As a Burmese student told: ‘Do you know what we say in Burma
when we see Indian soldiers? We say: there goes the army of slaves –
marching off to catch some more slaves for their masters.’(288)

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 What can be a bigger irony than that the people suffered, women got
widowed, children orphaned, many became maimed and crippled during the
wars, which they fought not to defend their country from the enemy, but to
help the enemy to loot themselves. They did it only to earn some coins and
the petty facilities offered by their English masters.
But it did not last a long as very soon the wave of self respect and
freedom began to blow across the sub-continent. Uma tells: ‘We in
Congress believe that in the event of another war Britain can’t expect our
support unless they’re willing to provide a guarantee of Indian
independence.’(291)
Ghosh uses Uma as a representative of the conscious Indians who
were no more ready to tolerate the slavery of the foreign rule. She was an
active member of the Congress Party and involved in the non-violent
movement to uproot the British from India.
Rakhi Moral writes how the author has successfully felt the pulse of
Indian officers for their fellow country sepoys:

‘In the face of such growing insecurity about Indians

fighting under the Imperial army, the seems to find the
ineffably close and intimate ties between Arjun, an officer
and his subordinate, Kishan Singh, the only lasting bond of
love in the otherwise emotionless ‘mercenary’ exercise of
war’(Brinda Bose, 2005:150)

The feeling of revolt against the empire was growing day by day.
There were demonstrations against colonialism everywhere and rapidly the
people began to join the movement led by Gandhi who was trying to stir the
self-respect of the Indian soldiers working for the colonizers. He wanted to
break the illusion of these young Indians, and for this purpose, he relied on

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his followers who began to distribute pamphlets with anti-colonial
quotations to open the eyes of ignorant soldiers.

‘A marcher dropped a pamphlet through the car window.

Arjun picked it up and glanced down at the front page.
There were quotations from Mahatma Gandhi and a
passage that said: ‘Why should India, in the name of
freedom, come to defence of this Satanic Empire which is
itself the greatest menace to liberty that the world has ever
known?’(The Glass Palace-292)

There was an atmosphere of uncertainty of the future, as the Fascism

of Germany was spreading globally. Dinu expressed his fears when he
talked about his views of fascism. He told that if a war broke out in Europe,
the Germans would take over the Empire and they would replace the present
system. He also told that the fascist ideology considered some certain races
superior to others. He was quite worried as he said: ‘Their rule will be the
most violent and despotic you can imagine, with some races at the bottom
and some at the top...’ (293)
Another fear was caused by the Japanese who were plotting to defeat
the Empire and take over the colonies like Burma and India. According to
Dinu, they were imperialists and racialists like the Nazis and Fascists. They
did not hesitate to murder hundreds of thousands of people in Nanking. If
their army reached India, they would do the same thing there. The victory of
Japanese would be simply the worst catastrophe in all of human history.
But the Congress Party was not in favour of supporting another
foreign power to root out the Empire. Uma, a member of the party, thought
all those powers enemies of humanity and freedom, responsible for the
suffering and death of people worldwide. According to her, they were trying
to create a version of the Empire.

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 However, the young ambitious young men and women like Arjun and
Dinu, preferred the English occupation. They even thought the Western
culture modest and better than that of India, which was raven with evils
like- casteism, ignorance, superstitions, illiteracy, untouchability, widow
burning and sexual discrimination etc. For them being modern meant
adopting western manners and culture. For Arjun modern and western are
the same. Arjun always believed in the relevance of the Western habits and
he was passionate to learn them at any cost because they would enable him
to be a member of the elitist class or the rulers’ class.
Ghosh very skilfully portrays the picture of the then society. He
describes the dilemma of the people when the war broke out between
Britain and Japan. The people were in a fix, whom to support because both
were the sides of the same coin. Neither was going to recognise their rights
and freedom. There was an atmosphere of unrest and unease not only among
the common people but also among the Indian soldiers belonging to the
English battalion. Kumar was not in favour of supporting the British, he told
Arjun and Hardy:

‘Certain officers of this battalion had been heard to say that

Indians should refuse to participate in this war: that this
was a competition for supremacy among nations who
believed it to be their shared destiny to enslave other
people – England, France, Germany.’(318)

Kumar further elaborated the rising unrest and mutiny like situation
within the military. The soldiers were not hesitating in doing the extreme
deeds resulting in the weakening of the Empire and now it was evident that
the colonizers, who were still dreaded and unquestioned, were no more
unchallenged. The soldiers were passionate to take the advantage of the

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situation, as the author describes the passion of an Indian soldier: ‘he shot
an officer and then committed suicide. (318)
The policy of divide and rule adopted by the colonizers, which
hitherto consolidated their power, was also falling flat. When the news of
the censure of a Muslim officer reached out, the very next day many of the
battalion’s Hindu soldiers also laid down their arms to show their
consolidation with the colleague, disregarding their religious differences. It
was a bolt from the blue for the British High Command.

‘That Hindu and Muslim troops could act together to

support an Indian officer came as a shock to the High
Command. No one needed to be reminded that nothing of
this kind had happened since the Great Mutiny of 1857. At
this point half measures were dispensed with. A platoon of
British soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders was sent in to surround the mutinous
Indians.’(319)

The rebellion was flourishing by leaps and bounds not only among
the Indian soldiers but also among the civilians of both countries: India and
Burma, in the same proportion. The prolonged occupation of a country by a
foreign power shook off the very feeling of identity and belonging of the
people. Rajkumar expressed his loss of identity and belonging to nowhere
caused by the foreign rule, when he told his frustration to Dolly. He told
how he and his father kept on running here and there aimlessly and
fruitlessly, ultimately knowing that there was no place to spend the rest of
their lives.
As the action of the novel develops, it is evident that the characters
portrayed by Ghosh, gradually got disillusioned, as they realized the docile
policies adopted by the British to befool and enslave them. They began to

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reason and many questions arose in their minds, which led them think
repeatedly. It is apparent in the conversation between Hardy and Arjun over
an inscription at the Military Academy, which was meant to misguide the
people. ‘The safety; honour and welfare of our country come first, always
and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command
come next......And your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and
every time.’(330)
But as the saying goes the ditch you dig for your enemy, becomes
your own grave, the inscription to misguide the people ultimately became
problematic for the British and an eye opener for the Indian soldiers. The
truth dawned on Hardy and Arjun relating to the contents of the inscription.
Hardy asked many questions how they were so far kept in dark and made
enslaved. He wanted to know his real identity and his loyalty. As he asked:

‘Well, didn’t you ever think: this country whose safety,

honour and welfare are to come first, always and every
time – what is it? Where is this country? The fact is that
you and I don’t have a country – so where is this place
whose safety, honour and welfare are to come first, always
and every time? And why was it that when we took our
oath it wasn’t to a country but to the King Emperor – to
defend the Empire?’(330)

Hardy’s enlightenment left him to a dilemma. He began to think if his

country really was first, why he was being sent abroad to defend another
country. So which was his real country? If it were where he was, it would be
his utmost duty to defend it first instead of going abroad to die for the
welfare of the Empire. ‘There’s no threat to my country right now and if
there were, it would be my duty to stay here and defend it.’(330)

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 The Europeans colonized not only the countries like India and Burma,
but also belittled their self-pride by humiliating them on the basis of their
colour. They always tried their best to establish their superiority over the
other races. Arjun faced such a humiliation when he was in Singapore.
No sooner did he descend the swimming pool with Hardy and Kumar,
than the Europeans, whom they were defending so far and with whom they
had a sense of belonging, left the pool as if they were untouchable.
‘Following Kumar’s lead, Arjun and Hardy jumped in. Within a few
minutes they found themselves alone: the pool had emptied as soon as they
entered the water.’(345)
However, Kumar was familiar with such insults, so he was not much
surprised. He told Arjun and Hardy that such behaviour by the British to the
Indians was very common in Malaya. He narrated them several other worse
episodes that were beyond toleration and anger provoking. He told how the
so-called superior colonizers treated the Indians like animals. Through his
speech, the author uncovers the true face of the colonizers, how they, for
their benefit, changed their policies.

‘It’s like this everywhere in Malaya. In smaller towns, the

clubs actually put up signs on their doors saying, “No
Asiatics allowed” In Singapore they let us use the pool –
It’s just that everyone leaves. Right now they’ve had to
relax the colour bar a little because there are so many
Indian army units here.’(345)

Ghosh very minutely describes the feelings of the Indian soldiers who
were sacrificing their lives for the comfort and safety of the Europeans and
in return, they got only humiliation and loss of self pride. The incidents of
insults were not restricted to the swimming pools only but occurred
everywhere. So Kumar gave them a practical advice, to reconcile

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themselves with such things if they wanted to continue their service because
they were to face them frequently. ‘You may as well get used to it because
you’ll come across it all the time – in restaurants, clubs, beaches, trams.
We’re meant to die for this colony – but we can’t use the pools.’(345)
Many times when they were not in army uniform, they were often
mistaken for coolies. Arjun’s opinion that he belonged to the British Indian
Army got shattered in the very moment. His situation was as ironical and
pathetic as that of Yank in Eugene O’ Neill’s The Hairy Ape.
But as soon as he got disillusioned, he began to wriggle for his
identity: who he was and where he belonged to. In markets and other public
places, they were treated offhandedly, and many times, they had to face
embarrassment. Even the civilians hooted them calling them mercenaries.
Arjun’s batman Kishan Singh told them the thinking of the civilians about
the Indian soldiers, which he overheard: ‘the 1/1 Jats – weren’t real soldiers;
they were just hired killers, mercenaries.’(347)
Kishan Singh could not know the real meaning of the word
‘mercenary’. He could only understand that mercenaries were paid or hired
soldiers. But Arjun could not tolerate having been called so, as it was an
insult to his soldiering. His sense of soldier -ship was shattered. He knew
that how shameful it was to be called a mercenary because mercenaries,
according to him, were just like toys in someone else’s hands. ‘It’s because
a mercenary’s hands obey someone else’s head; these two parts of his body
have no connection with each other.’(347)
He was scandalized after the self-revelation that he was not a real
soldier but a mercenary whose mind was so far clouded with many
delusions. As the novel progresses, it reveals that slowly the soldiers were
becoming aware of the reality. Arjun felt a cold wave going down his spine
after being disillusioned. He was dead by determined to change the system.

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 The Indians were always underestimated by the British. They were
often abused by humiliating words like ‘coolies’ and very often
manhandled. They were not more than paid coolies for their masters.
Everyone was trying to take advantage of their ignorance. Japan was also
trying to occupy Burma and India. Burma was witnessing the frequent
attacks of the Japanese, rendering a number of people homeless.
The Indian soldiers were facing the problem of belonging. Japanese
invasion in Malaya deteriorated their situation resulting in restlessness and
confusion. The Indians had to suffer on two fronts. Amitav describes their
pathetic situation, how they were nowhere after serving and sacrificing so
much. ‘They would be defenceless against hostile sections of the Burmese
public and, what was more, as subjects of the British Empire, they would be
treated as enemy aliens by the Japanese’( 393)
The Japanese invasion was like a catastrophe, which made Indians to
evacuate Burma as soon as possible. Amitav describes the dilemma of the
people who could not understand whether to leave or remain there. The
conditions were too harsh to survive. The soldiers were also divided; some
wanted to escape while others decided to continue to be loyal.
The Japanese side was advancing by attacking the British Army
bitterly; it even sank two English battle ships ‘Prince of Wales’ and ‘The
Repulse’, causing a great material and moral loss to the latter. Some young
soldiers like Hardy were happy at the prospects of falling of Empire and
they decided to quit it in good time. But some, like Arjun, still could not
munch the idea of leaving it, they thought it a part of their job.
The fissure between their views can be seen when Hardy very happily
informed them the ruin of the war ships. He could not understand why
Hardy was so happy: ‘Have you forgotten that those ships were here to
defend us? We’re all on the same side, Hardy. A Jap bullet can’t pick
between you and Pearson.’(394)

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 Such is the effect of being colonized and slave, the victims lose their
discretion; what is right and what is wrong. The same thing happened with
the soldiers. They could not even harbour any ill thought for the English
even after knowing the truth. But if not all, some of them, led by the
circumstances, came to know the reality that they were utterly exploited and
used without getting any credit for their achievements.
Hardy was one of those who got disillusioned. He wanted to make
other Indian soldiers see the reality. He told his fellow soldiers how they
were deprived of the credit they deserved. ‘What would have happened if
we’d held our position on the Asoon? Do you think we – us Indians – do
you think we would have been given the credit.’(405)
He continued to give vent to his anger and frustration. He very bluntly
asked:
‘I sometimes think of all the wars my father and
grandfather fought in – in France, Africa, Burma. Does
anyone ever say – the Indians won this war and that one? It
would have been the same here. If there had been a victory
the credit for it would not have been ours.By the same
logic the blame for the defeat can’t be ours.’(406)

Ghosh explores the multi-sided implications of the colonization. He

highlights the agony of the soldiers, their search for identity and belonging
which very few writers have ever done. The soldiers were killing and
murdering their own people to defend the British colonizers. The feeling of
remorse experienced by those soldiers is recreated by the author in the
novel. Hardy is the representative of all those soldiers who could not tell
their pain and died with their stories untold.
But Hardy shared his views with his friends. He reminded them
repeatedly that they were fighting with themselves without any idea. ‘It’s
almost as if you’re fighting against yourself. It’s strange to be sitting in a

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trench, holding a gun and asking yourself: who is this weapon really aimed
at? Am I being tricked into pointing at myself?’(406)
The colonizers had really treated the soldiers like tools and
instruments so far. They were tools in the hands of the British, and worked
at the instructions of their master’s orders. But by and by the screen of
delusion before their eyes was thinning, giving way to reasoning and
introspection. Hardy continued: ‘It was as if my heart and my hand had no
connection – each seemed to belong to a different person. It was as if I
wasn’t really a human being – just a tool, an instrument.’(407)
Hardy’s words slowly wriggled Arjun’s heart and the haze before his
eyes and the layer of dust on his reasoning began to clear. He could not
understand why he had been so long with the English Army. He felt an
unconscious change within himself and it seemed that he had been living in
a hallucination till that time.

‘His life had somehow been moulded by acts of power of

which he had never acted of his own volition, never had a
moment of true self-consciousness. Everything he had ever
assumed about himself was a lie, an illusion. And if this
were so, how was he to find himself now?’(431)

Following Arjun and Hardy, many other soldiers also realized the
truth and the revelation of truth gave rise to a revolution among the Indian
soldiers. Many of them had already formed a separate unit and decided to
break up with the British. They named their unit – The Indian Army,
supported by the Indian Independence League.
Some Indians suspected the agenda of the League, as it was supported
by Japan because for them Japanese were no less enemy of India than the
British were and directly or indirectly they also wanted to occupy India in a
disguise of India’s well-wisher. They were quite aware of Japanese policy:

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‘What do the Japanese want with us? Do they care about us and our
Independence? All they want is to push the Britishers out so they can step in
and take their place. They just want to use us.’(438)
A conflict was going on in the minds of the dissident soldiers; they
could not decide what to do. Leaving the British army to join the Japanese
was no way giving them freedom and self-respect, as it was just a change of
slavery mode. This change was going to give them freedom only from their
obligation to follow the orders of the British masters and making them
subordinate to the new masters. They had no other option but to be slaves of
some party- either the British or the Japanese. Hardy tells Arjun:

“Think of where we’ve fallen when we start talking of

good masters and bad masters. What are we? Dogs?
Sheep? There are no good masters and bad masters, Arjun
– in a way the better the master, the worse the condition of
the slave, because it makes him forget what he is...” (438)

In the competition of occupying the lands of Burma and India, several

innocent people died in the war between Japan and Britain. The civilians
had to pay the price for this war by being homeless and losing their lives
due to hunger and starvation. There was acute food scarcity as several mills,
warehouses, water tanks and railway lines were being targeted. Chaos,
anxiety and insecurity were reigning everywhere. But the freedom fighters
in both India and Burma were undeterred. They kept on taking their mission
to its culmination.
The author has successfully tried to record the prominent incidents of
history by blending the real facts and figures with fiction. The Quit India
Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the extremist Indian hero Subhash
Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, affiliated to Japan; find their
place in the novel with their great exploits for the sake of eliminating the

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roots of imperialism. The author writes how for the common people both
the British colonialism and the Japanese fascism were evils, enemies of the
humanity. ‘To them Imperialism and Fascism were twin evils, one being a
derivative of the other. It was the defeated prisoners of the Indian National
Army that they received as heroes – not the returning victors.’ (479)
The novel describes the liberation of Burma from the hands of the
British occupation after a prolonged effort by the Burma Independence
Army, which was aided by Japan. Jaya narrates how the British army was in
retreat in 1942 giving place to the Japanese occupation. But interestingly the
new occupiers could not stay for long. As the author writes:

“Although the Burma Independence army had entered the

country with the aid of the Japanese, they had never been
more than reluctant allies for the occupiers. In 1945
General Aung San issued a secret order to his followers to
join the drive to push the Japanese out of Burma. After this
it was clear that the Japanese occupation was almost at an
end.”(514)

The novel closes with Burma being independent in 1946. But there is
a trail of demises of many characters. The colonizer-colonized story ends up
with the description of a very close relationship of Rajkumar and Uma.
Finally, it is concluded that the novel Glass Palace is a genuine
attempt to explore the theme of colonial displacement and its consequences
to the beleaguered people. Amitav Ghosh takes the character of Rajkumar
and many other displaced families. They are located at various parts of the
Asian continent and undergoing the experiences of loss, exile and the search
for a homeland. King Thebaw, Queen Supayalat, the Burmese princesses,
Rajkumar, Dolly, Saya John and many others are the victims of the colonial
displacement.

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 The Glass Palace is a symbol of power as well as fragility. Glass
stands for delicacy and transparency, while Palace is symbol of power and
false vanity. Glass Palace is a story of many contradictions. The inmates of
the palace are always enslaved either under the rule of the native ruler or
that of the colonizers. They are not able to raise their voice against the
injustice and exploitation they undergo, as they are inside the brittle
glasshouse. Thus, the author vividly champions the cause of the colonised
and the exploited through his captivating novel The Glass Palace.

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 Works Cited

Moral, Rakhee, ‘In Time of the Breaking of Nations: The Glass

Palace as Postcolonial Narrative’, in Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives,
ed. Brinda Bose, Delhi, Pencraft International, 2003, 139-154. Print.

Ghosh, Amitav, ‘The Glass Palace’, New York, Random House Inc.
2002

Auradkar, Sarika Pradiprao, ‘Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study’ in The

Glass Palace, New Delhi, Creative Books, 2007, 89-110. Print.

Tiwari, Subha, ‘Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study’, in The Glass

Palace, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers, 2003, 89-106. Print.

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 Chapter- VI

THE HUNGRY TIDE

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Chapter- VI

THE HUNGRY TIDE

Amitav Ghosh’s seductive novel The Hungry Tide appeared in 2004,

only two years after The Glass Palace and chronologically it is the fifth
novel among the prescribed fictional works for the present research. The
novel tries to fasten the readers by the fascinating and picturesque
description of an immense archipelago of islands known as ‘Sundarbans’
which means ‘the beautiful forests’.
The most common species in this ecosystem is mangrove – Heriteria
minor, the Sundari tree. This place is also known as ‘bhatir desh’ among the
local inhabitants, which means ‘the tide country’ as it is frequently visited
by ebbs and tides. The novel is divided into two sections – The Ebb: Bhata
and The Flood : Jowar. The Hungry Tide homes in on the human and
natural ecosystems; it takes the readers around of the wider world through
characters hailing from Delhi and the U.S.
The Hungry Tide also depicts several ebbs and tides which frolic the
human life very mysteriously leaving behind dramatic changes and tumults.
This tumult can be felt in the mind and heart of the characters, their
relationships and their pattern of life. It is a great swirl of recent issues, be
they social, political, or environmental and the author presents these issues
with seductive narration, with romance, suspense and poetry.
The novel shows Ghosh’s concern for the individual against a broader
historical and geographical backdrop. The novel also tries to reassert the
coexisting relationship between man and nature, and among human beings
irrespective of their race, language, social status and nationality. The novel
vindicates the universal truth that man’s over interference in nature leads to

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uncertain devastating tides not only in the sensitive colonies like
Sundarbans, but also in human relations, both internal and external.
The plot also concerns itself with the conflict between government
and the local populace, regarding the issue of the Bengal tiger, which has
killed thousands of people, but the government is keen on protecting this
endangered species at the cost of the human lives. In this way, Ghosh has
raised a very controversial issue: whose interests are more important – local
people’s or local animals’? This issue is creating a conflict between man
and animal or man and authority in all areas near every national park,
sanctuary and protected zone.
The human life is given less priority in the name of wild life
protection, as the tigers frequently attack and kill the people but the
authorities are more interested in preserving the tigers. To quote Sarika P.
Auradhkar:

‘But in the name of tiger preservation, human lives are

threatened; the tigers routinely maul and often kill
islanders. Though there are the obvious modern devices
that might be used to protect the islanders, the state allows
the deaths to continue.’(Auradhkar, 2007:118)

Simultaneously, Ghosh has created such characters as are aware of

the futility of the dividing shadow lines among individuals, be they of any
religion, caste and creed, nation and social status. They are eager to cross
these lines at any cost. The theme of crossing the borders and obliteration of
it through the portrayal of the flood on land is always there.
The theme of disturbance caused by the arrival of outsiders in the life
of the locals reminds the novels of Thomas Hardy, the great Victorian
novelist. Like the novels of Hardy, The Hungry Tide has some characters
like Piyali Roy and Kanai Dutt whose arrival in the far-flung area of delta

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region brings disastrous consequences in the life of the simple and ignorant
locals. The novel, more or less, tries to assert that man is a puppet in the
hands of some unseen power of nature and his actions are determined by
this power.
Many characters of the novel have an extreme trait of obsession to the
extent of craziness for discovering a world of their own dreams, which leads
them to a zigzag whirlwind of tumults and tides resulting in unpredictable
changes in their lives. They have to cope with the unexpected tides, which
are hungry and furious, and which bring with them catastrophe. Nirmal is
obsessed with his political ideology, Nirmala with her social work, Piyali
with her research project, Fokir, Moyana, Kanai all have this obsession to
the extent of madness. They are not simple but very complex characters like
that of Ghosh’s other novels.
The description of Bon Bibi, the goddess of hope and revenge, who
presides over this tide country, also makes this novel fascinating. The
islanders have their local religion and Bon Bibi is their goddess. The lore of
this goddess has been transferred to the next generations orally and it has
some Islamic influences. The people not only worship her but also fear her,
for the goddess has the power to avenge the wrongdoers.
In the novel, The Hungry Tide, Ghosh seems to be more obsessed
with personal divisions between men and women and their individual strife.
It is suggested that the social taboos and barriers created by language and
other social institutions break automatically when the medium of
communication becomes mutual understanding and a shared chemistry
between two individuals.
Despite apparent differences, Piyali and Fokir are able to
communicate with each other when they are out in the sea exploring marine
life. Their platonic love and mutual understanding and finally Fokir’s
sacrifice for the sake of Piya’s life make the novel very intriguing. Amitav’s

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depiction of different individual thoughts, feelings and emotions of his
characters, their obsession, strife, dreams, ideology and their obliteration of
personal divisions makes the narrative spellbinding.
The novel begins with the introduction of Kanai Dutt, an overseer in
an office of translators in New Delhi. He is a man of medium height in his
early forties. There is Piyali Roy or Piya, a self dependent and confident
cetologist. She was born in Calcutta but moved to the United States when
she was just one year old. She is now a graduate student in cetology at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.
Piya and Kanai both are leading towards Canning. Piya’s aim is to get
a permit for the survey of the marine mammals, especially the elusive
Irrawaddy dolphins, of the Sunderbans and Kanai’s destination is Lusibari,
the farthest of the inhabited islands and Canning is the railhead for the
Sundarbans.
Kanai is in fact visiting his aunt Nilima who runs a charitable
organisation The Bodabon Trust; she is a widow in her seventies devoted to
the welfare of the islanders. She has invited her nephew in order to hand
him over some papers left by her husband Nirmal who was a Marxist
ideologist and poet and his papers concern his last days supporting a failed
utopian settlement in Morichjhapi. The papers form a story within a story
and depict the social and political issues of displacement and suppression of
aborigines by the government authorities.
During their excursion Piya and Kanai who belong to the modern
sophisticated world develop an intimacy and at the end of their journey,
Kanai cannot stop himself to give an invitation to Piya to visit Lusibari at
his aunt’s home.
When Kanai reaches Canning, he is received by his aunt who is now
old but still beautiful and graceful. She is a pragmatic woman who believes
in actions not in abstract ideology, just the contrast of her dreamer husband.

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She is a social worker, administrator and manager who with her hard work
established the Bodabon Trust which offers a number of services like
medical, paralegal, agricultural and also services related to the employment
for women. She is a practical side of Nirmal, who was all the time dreaming
of revolution. The relationship between Nirmal and Nilima explores the
theme of individual differences and their own concerns.
Nirmal was originally from Dhaka who came to Calcutta as a student.
He had earned an honour for himself as a leftist intellectual and he was a
writer even in early age. Later, he started teaching English literature at
Ashutosh College where Nilima was a student. She was from a renowned
family, well known for its tradition of public service. Her father was a
barrister at the Calcutta High Court. Nilima was so impressed by Nirmal’s
revolutionary ideas and eloquent lectures that she fell in love with him.
The love could not culminate into nuptial knot easily as Nilima’s
family was against this wedding but the opposition did nothing but further
strengthened their resolution and finally they got married in 1949. Instead of
the blessings of the elders and religious rites and rituals, ‘the wedding was
presided over by one of Nirmal’s comrades and was solemnized by reading
of Blake, Mayakovsky and Jibananda Das.’(The Hungry Tide: 77)
Here Ghosh’s characters again seem to defy the so called man made
traditions by exploring new ways of living life. But The culmination of love
was not the end of problems for the newlywed couple as only after one
month of their marriage the police detained Nirmal for his leftist affiliation
and interrogated him in detention for a day or two.
Although the detention was short but it left a very adverse and
everlasting effect on Nirmal. He was so much shaken and scandalized that it
rendered him bedridden. He had to leave his job and Nilima, seeing no other
hope, sought the help of her parents. The doctors advised Nirmal to stay
outside the city for some time. Nilima was willing to do so for the sake of

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Nirmal’s health as well as to get relief from her asthmatic problems she was
having in the city.
Her father suggested them to go to Lusibari as he came to know that
the manager of the Hamilton’s estate was looking for a teacher to run the
Lusibari School. Nirmal was not ready to work in such an institution which
was founded by a capitalist and even a single thought of it was quite
horrifying for him. However, he had to yield before Nilima’s insistence.
When the besieged couple reached there, they were astonished to
know that Sir Daniel was like a deity for the local people and they cherished
his memories as an idealistic founder who worked for the welfare of the
poor rural populace. Being impressed, the couple decided to stay in Lusibari
for two years.
The first few months were very difficult, for they were pestered by
the strange and unfavourable conditions of the island country. They were
new to the harsh climate and circumstances of the tide region. The following
lines from the novel reveal their problems and explore the theme of man and
nature:

‘For their first few months on the island, they were in a

state akin to shock. Nothing was familiar: everything was
new. What little they knew of rural life was derived from
the villages of the plains: the realities of the tide country
were of strangeness beyond reckoning.’(79)

Nirmal and Nilima, in the beginning, could not adapt themselves to

the adverse conditions of their new habitat, be they natural or manmade.
The people of island lived there without the basic need of living; they were
just passing their life in destitution. The land was not fertile enough to yield
sufficient crops to fill the bellies of the hunger stricken people; neither there

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was any regular supply from outside. The author describes the pathetic state
in his words:

‘....in Lusibari, hunger and catastrophe were a way of life.

They learnt that after decades of settlement, the land had
still not been wholly leached of its salt, the soil bore poor
crops and couldn’t be farmed all year round, and most
families subsisted on a single day meal.’(79)

The people had to struggle a lot to keep their body and soul together.
In order to satisfy their hunger they started hunting and fishing, but
ironically, instead of being able to hunt, they were hunted by the predators.
‘No day seemed to pass without news of someone being killed by a tiger, a
snake or a crocodile.’(81) In this way, the author tries to raise the issue of
the clash between man and wild animal in such areas where there is
coexistence as well as a struggle for life between them.
They had no spare time to read and write. Nirmal and Nilima being
overwhelmed by the pathetic conditions of the people wanted to do
something for them. These poor people were settled there with promises to
be provided free farmlands. But it was beyond understanding what the use
of that barren land was; the truth was that they were befooled. What to say
about living there with peace and happiness in their homes, they were losing
their life one by one in that harsh island country. Most of the women in
Lusibari were widows as their husbands fell prey to misfortune leaving
behind the beleaguered families to suffer endlessly.
What a tortured life they were living can be understood by knowing
the fact that when the men folk went outside for fishing, their wives used to
take off their bangles and wash the vermillion from their heads in order to
prepare themselves for the inevitable misfortune they were likely to face.
Nilima became restless seeing the plight of those women who became

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widow in their young age and the challenges they were destined to undergo
after losing their male counterparts. ‘Nilima learnt, even more than on the
mainland, widowhood often meant a lifetime of dependence and years of
abuse of exploitation’ (81)
There was nothing for the people except a lifelong strife and
difficulties. Nilima wanted to do something for them. She had her individual
ideas and plans and in order to give practical colour to her dreams, she
sowed the seedling of an idea which grew up and ultimately became an
institution named the Badabon Trust. In this way Nilima’s individual and
lone idea and hard work became a source of hope for all the destitute and
poor women of the island. The Union’s work was to make plans for income
generating projects like knitting, sewing, dyeing yarn etc.
Nilima’s efforts and dedication, undoubtedly, brought positive
changes in the life of the people, especially of the women, who were so far
helpless. She had all the requisite qualities of an able administrator and
organiser. She was both strict and compassionate. Her love for Nirmal was
beyond measure. She had a close affection for Kanai. She also seemed to be
affectionate for Piya, Kusum and Moyna. But her tenderness never became
hindrance to her work, when Kusum came to ask her for some aid to
Morichjhapi, she directly refused to help as she did not want to involve
herself in that matter as according to her, the people of Morichjhapi were
squatters who were encroaching on the government property and directly or
indirectly it was going to be a threat for environment as well as for her trust.
Likewise, she did not agree at all with Nirmal’s views for she found
them utopian and impractical. Even when he tried to persuade her, she
strongly opposed his views and denied to go against the government. To
quote her: ‘You have no idea of how hard we’ve had to work to stay on the
right side of government. If the politicians turn against us, we’re finished. I
can’t take that chance.’ (214)

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 Amitav has tried to focus on the individual’s obsessions and
idiosyncrasies in this novel, the hungry tides are raging not only on the
shores, but also on the psyche of individuals and their relationships. For
Nilima, the Trust was everything; she could not bear any kind of harm to it.
She had fostered it like her own child. She had laboured a lot to establish it.
Her attachment to her enterprise can be seen in her words when she was
having an argument with Nirmal:

‘And if you ask me what I will do to protect it, let me tell

you, I will fight for it like a mother fights to protect her
children. The hospital’s future, its welfare – they mean
everything to me, and I will not endanger them.’ (214)

On the other hand, Nirmal was a person who had nothing to do with
the practical side of life. He always remained lost in his ideal dreams and
poetry. He was a poet at heart who routinely invoked Rilke and at the time
of retirement realized that he never lived up to his revolutionary ideals in
comparison to that of his wife. His papers left for Kanai contains an account
of the events at the end of his life, which revolved round Kusum, her son
Fokir, and the catastrophic struggle of the dispossessed to settle a new
colony in Morichjhapi. He knew Nilima’s sacrifices for him, but still he
could not resist his affection for Kusum.

‘I felt myself torn between my wife and the woman who

had become the muse I’d never had; between the quiet
persistence of everyday change and the heady excitement
of revolution – between prose and poetry.’ (216)

Nirmal wanted to do something for the voiceless and choiceless

people of Morchjhapi and being an idealist, what else he could do except

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writing about their struggles. His longing was to empower and give voice to
the dreams and aspirations of those people through his words. But Nilima’s
cautionary words to stay away from Morichjhapi were echoing in his ears.
He felt himself like a pendulum shuttling between Kusum and Nilima.
Ghosh’s style of depicting his dilemma is very realistic which resembles the
modern man’s conflict. Ghosh’s characters are also aware of the futility of
division. Nirmal’s thoughts prove this.
Being a teacher and leftist, he never supported any kind of division,
which separates men from each other. ‘As headmaster I had felt it my duty
not to identify myself with any set of religious beliefs, Hindu, Muslim or
anything else.’(222)
The couple had passion to serve humanity but still they had
differences in their views, they had same aims but different methods to
execute them. One wanted to bring changes by revolutionary methods, and
the other by welfare works without disturbing the present system. One was
an idealist and the other a pragmatic.
Nilima started to run a trust with the aid of the government and did
not want to do anything, which was against the system, but Nirmal like a
dissident Marxist dreamed of a revolution. He visited Morichjhapi against
Nilima’s wish. When he heard that the government was going to take
measures, he became anxious to help the settlers. He wanted to convey the
message to Kusum and the settlers about the Forest Preservation Act and
about Section 144. He could not stop himself from going there. In his own
words:
‘For Nilima’s sake I tried to keep up appearances. I tried to
present as normal as front as I could. But I couldn’t sleep
that night and by the time morning came around, I knew I
would make my way to Morichjhapi in whatever way I
could, even at the expense of a confrontation with
Nilima.’(252)

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 Ghosh’s theme of individual concern cannot be properly appreciated
unless his characters are studied. They are very confident, self-dependent,
brave and daring. They are obsessed to fulfil their aims and visions and they
have potential to do so. Nilima’s ambition to serve the people issued the
trust, Nirmal does not care anything when the welfare of the settlers comes
forward, Piya is single minded to study the marine mammals and for this
she takes a risky expedition, Kusum is a bold and unyielding woman who
does not tire out of the strife for her livelihood, Fokir and Moyna are also
devoted to their individual principles. The unyielding nature of the
characters and their idiosyncrasies make the novel very catching.
From the very beginning of the novel, Piya appears before the readers
as a confident and self-dependent girl who faces difficulties, however solves
them using her discretion. She is used to undertaking journeys alone even
without a guide or interpreter. When she climbs the compartment of the
train, she herself carries her backpacks, without taking the help of any
porter. Seeing her confident, Kanai becomes her admirer at the first sight.
‘There was a strength in her limbs that belied her diminutive size and wispy
build; she swung the backpacks into the compartment with practised ease
and pushed her way through a crowd of milling passengers.’(5)
Piya is a cetologist who wants to get a permit to do a survey of the
marine mammals of the Sundarbans. For this, she uses the guts of her uncle
who has big approaches in the government machinery. But even then, her
journey is not easy, she finds herself cheated as the forest guard and the
launch owner quote a big amount of money to accompany her. But she is
undeterred and her experienced eyes identify Fokir as a potential help to
carry out her research project. She hires him who is unlettered and ignorant
young man of the tide country.
Ghosh creates a strange relationship between Piya and Fokir, the
former is a highly educated and sophisticated woman, while the latter is an

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uneducated rustic. They cannot do verbal communication as both are
unfamiliar to each other’s language. Fokir has no knowledge of English and
similarly Piya knows no Bengali, despite her Bengali roots. But strangely
Piya decides to proceed her research work with the help of Fokir. May be
she perceives his first hand knowledge of the tide country and the marine
mammals and his simple nature.
Being a clever woman of wide experience of a variety of people, she
sees that Fokir cannot be any threat to her. She spends several nights on the
boat and becomes attuned to the waves. Her striving nature is visible in her
physical appearance: ‘Over years of practice, her musculature had become
attuned to the water and she had learned to keep her balance almost without
effort, flexing her knees instinctively to counteract the rolling.’(72)
The theme of individual concern is in the creation of every character,
be it Kanai, Piyali, Nirmal , Nilima or the islanders. They all are concerned
to their individual thoughts and devoted to take them to their practical side.
The mission, they have in their hands, is of first priority; and they are well
prepared for them. Piya is well acquainted with the waves and tides of the
seawater. She always takes with her all the necessary instruments such as
distilled water, high protein nutrition bars, binoculars, global positioning
system etc.
There are many occasions, when she has to depend on a couple of
protein bars or powder of malted milk. She is dexterous enough to manage
even in the most unfavourable conditions. She eats only for her survival not
for any taste or delight. The following lines prove this:

‘On every survey since, she had equipped herself with a

cache of mineral water and portable food – principally high
nutrition bars. On occasion, she also carried a jar or two of
Ovaltine, or some other kind of powder for making malted

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 milk. When there was milk to be had, fresh or condensed,
she managed to get by on very little, a couple of protein
bars a day was all she needed. The procedure had the
added advantage of limiting the use of unfamiliar, and
sometimes unspeakable, toilets.’(96)

She is also prepared to spend the night anywhere in any climate,

weather or terrain. She is always equipped with her own matting. She is
indeed a specimen of a true discoverer, devoted fully to her research work.
She reminds of the great discoverers of the Europe and America, who were
obsessed to their mission zealously. Sarika Pradiprao Auradkar aptly
portrays her distinguished character:

‘Piya Roy is the daughter of Bangla parents who had

immigrated to Seattle. She’s a woman used to solitude and
rigors of the life of a scientist working in the field. Piya
often works in areas where she knows neither the customs
nor the language, and can survive for days on just energy
bars and ovaltine as she studies river dolphins.’(Auradhkar,
2007:121)

But Piya is not only selfishly devoted to her work alone; she is also
concerned with the humanity and environment around her wherever she is.
She is full of the milk of kindness and sympathy. She has real concern and
consideration for Fokir and his son Tutul who is accompanying them in the
boat. On her expedition in the waters, when she comes to know that their
clay stove is not working and the boy and his father have nothing to eat,
except some dry chapattis, she being anxious, offers them some nutrition
bars.
Like a professional and travelling discoverer, Piya has a very
adjusting nature; she can adjust herself to every type of conditions, be they

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geographical, linguistic or cultural. She does not have any problem with
Fokir who is quite illiterate, nothing to do with the modern sophisticated
world.
Ghosh develops the theme of mutual relationship among individuals
through the characters of Fokir and Piya and tries to reassert that there is
something platonic beyond the sphere of physical nature which most of us
occupy. In this sphere of mutual understanding, language is a secondary
thing; dispensable to the level of nothingness. Without the means of verbal
communication, they can understand every message conveyed to each other,
defying the arrogance of languages.
In the novel, Ghosh shows a harmonious blending of Hindu and
Muslim traditions through the character of Fokir. Piya who was raised in the
western society respects all kinds of culture and traditions and when she
finds this harmonious blending of traditions in his society, she appreciates it.
She is pleased to see Fokir performing a strange combination of Hindu and
Muslim rituals. For a time, when she hears him chanting word like Allah,
she thinks him to be a Muslim, but to her great amazement, he begins to
perform some actions, which resemble her mother’s Hindu pujas. In a
country like India, where religious fanaticism has been a great problem, a
simpleton is teaching the lesson of religious tolerance.

‘Fokir began to recite some kind of chant, with his head

bowed and his hands joined in an attitude of prayer. After
she had listened for a few minute, Piya recognised a refrain
that occurred over and over again – it contained a word
that sounded like Allah. She had not thought to speculate
about Fokir’s religion, but it occurred to her now that he
might be Muslim. But no sooner had she thought about
this, than it struck her that a Muslim was hardly likely to
pray to an image like this one. What Fokir was performing

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 looked very much like her mother’s Hindu pujas – and yet
the words seemed to suggest otherwise. But what did it
matter either way? She was glad just to be there as a
witness to this strange little ritual.’(The Hungry Tide: 152)

There is a strange description of a local legendary goddess Bon Bibi,

who protects the local people from the tides and wild animals. Kusum told
the legend to her son when he was a boy. Her father built a shrine in the
honour of this deity and they often visit her to pay their obeisance.
According to the story, Bon Bobi is a good spirit and she presides over the
forests, rivers and seas of the tide country.
She also fights the evil spirit Dokkhin Rai who takes the life of the
people in the form of a tiger. The legend has a deep effect in the very
conscience of the people and every incident either good or evil is associated
with the blessing or wrath of the spirit. The epic of Bon Bibi is
tremendously affected by Islamic influences. The description of this legend
reveals Ghosh’s interests in anthropology, history and mythology.
Piya is portrayed as a specimen of the modern woman by the author.
Her self-confidence is really praiseworthy. It is her daring instinct, which
develops the plot of the novel. When Mashima, this is what Nilima is called
in Lusibari, advises something to protect her in the tide country, she proudly
answers that she can look after herself. She can distinguish between a flirt
and a genuine talk. Being an expert in recognizing people, she likes Fokir’s
simplicity more than Kanai’s ostentation. Her trust in the sincerity and
innocence of Fokir ultimately turns out to be true.
The relationship between Piya and Fokir is the most interesting and
beautiful part of the novel and the author’s description of their tryst is
breathtaking. As a true research student, Piya does not leave any occasion of
learning something new even from a rustic like Fokir. After observation, she

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finds extraordinary abilities in him and his company proves to be one of the
best things in her life. She herself realises his invaluable qualities and many
times, she describes them proudly.

‘I’ve worked with many experienced fishermen before but

I’ve never met anyone with such an incredible instinct : it’s
as if he can see right into the river’s heart.’(267)
‘Fokir’s abilities as an observer are really extraordinary. I
wish I could tell you what it was like to be with him these
last few days – it was one of the most exciting experiences
of my life.’(268)

Fokir tries to be true to Piya’s expectations, he always proves to be

reliable and trustworthy. Without any verbal communication, they develop a
very unique understanding, which is beyond description. Fokir has a strange
feeling of love for her and he is ready to sacrifice his life for her safety. He
never tries to take any wrong advantage of a lonely and alien woman. When
they are struggling against the storm for their survival, he does not leave any
attempt to save her life. The platonic love and concern for Piya ultimately
takes its price in the form of death of Fokir.
At the time of death, he utters his wife and son’s names and she is so
much impressed that it leaves an indelible impression on her conscience and
consequently it culminates in her reciprocating decision to stay in Lusibari
forever with a project dedicated to and named after Fokir. May be it is the
love or a compensatory gesture, she does her best for the welfare of the
grieved family and even raises fund for them. But it was undoubtedly her
love and homage for Fokir that she resolved to devote herself to the family
and the tide country. The unexpressed love between these two individuals
from poles apart, like one from Venus and the other from Mars, forms the
most captivating episode of the novel.

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 The theme of individual strife and concern of one individual to the
other is one of the basic themes of the novel and the author portrays this
theme through many relations, be it between husband and wife or simply
between man and woman outside the nuptial knot. There are many types of
relations and most of them are between two sexes and they have paradoxes.
On the one hand, there are Piyali and Fokir and, on the other, hand there are
Nirmal and Nirmala; both relations are based on love, but there are many
differences between these two relations.
The former is a sui generis and the latter is of prevalent type found in
every next house. No love between two sexes can be the same. The paradox
is that the individuals who cannot communicate with each other in the
manmade language can understand each other better than those whose
marriage is the outcome of the expressed and told love.
Nirmal and Nilima live with each other for many years; they fell in
love, express their love for each other and then are married but still they
prove to be poles apart, but on the other hand, Piyali and Fokir, who seem to
be the real poles apart, leave a memorable impression on the readers. The
former couple have their own conceits, dreams and obsessions and they live
for their conceits, ignoring the commitments they have for each other.
They remind the relation between Balram and his wife in Amitav’s
other novel The Circle of Reason while Piyali and Fokir carry the thoughts
of the readers to the metaphysical love as described by the Pre-Elizabethan
English poet John Donne, especially in his poem ‘Ecstasy’. Thus, the
relation between man and nature and man and man is the central theme of
the novel. As Sarika Pradiprao Auradkar comments: ‘The novel is in part
about mankind’s relationship with nature. But central to the story is the
possibility and impossibility of human relationship.’(Auradhkar, 2007:123)
Nilima who remains always busy in the work of the trust leads the life
like a nun, while her husband’s interests keep on diverting toward

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Morrichjhapi and Kusum. For him Kusum is a source of inspiration, she has
lived a life of great struggle and Nirmal wants to give words to her struggle.
She lost her father in her girlhood and her mother lived a life of destitution.
Her mother was promised a job in the city by a landowner Dalip Chaudhury.
Being in need of some work she went with him and later the landowner
persuaded Kusum to accompany him as her mother wanted her to be in
Calcutta.
Nevertheless, Horen who was her father’s friend told her that Dalip
was not a right person as he was involved in the trafficking of women. So he
took her to Lusibari in the custody of Mashima but Dalip also reached there
to take Kusum. Catching air of Dalip’s scheme, Horen came to her rescue
and took her off with him. Thus, the life of Kusum is very miserable; the
following lines from the novel reveal how difficult it is for a girl to live
alone in this brutal world. ‘Horen appeared in front of them, panting.
‘Kusum’ he said, ‘we have to go. I saw Dilip – he’s here with some men,
looking for you. You’re not safe here. You have to get away.’(The Hungry
Tide: 109)
Later Kususm decided to look for her mother and she reached
Dhanbad, a strange place for her. There she met Rajen who had been lamed
in a bus accident. In such a hostile and inimical time and place, Rajen
proved to be much helpful to her. He offered her shelter in his shack and
helped her by arranging a meeting with her mother in a secret place. Kusum
describes the predicaments of her mother in the following lines:

‘she was working in a place where truck-drivers came, to

sleep on charpais and buy women for the night, I went
there with Rajen and in secret we met: I fell upon Ma, but
couldn’t bring myself to speak. For so long I’d been
waiting, but now my heart broke: her body was wasted, her
face thin and drawn. “Don’t look Kusum”, she said, “Don’t

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 touch me with your eyes; think of me as I was, before your
father died. I blame that Dilip he’s more demon than man.
He said he’d find me work, and where he brought me: to
eat leaves at home, would have been a better fate. He sold
me, that danob, to others of his kind.’(163)

Kusum’s mother was quite insecure about her future but for her relief
Rajen promised her that he could be their caretaker if she let Kusum marry
him. For a mother what could be better than that and Kusum and Rajen got
settled and after two years they were gifted with a son named Fokir. But the
predicament and tragedy of her life did not stop here and her hostile fate
brought her the most tragic episode of her life in the form of the death of her
husband. Kusum again fell in the same darkness of miserable life with her
son Fokir and was forced to leave Dhanbad for the tide country.
Amitav’s experiences in Bangladesh run through his major novels
and The Hungry Tide is no exception. He depicts the political upheaval and
the massacre, which took place in the country leaving several people to
destitution, famine, illegal trafficking and police brutality. The novel is a
sad record of the human suffering in the form of political exploitation, sex
slavery, child labour, and people being killed by the dangerous man eating
predators.
The novel has many compelling stories both beautiful and harrowing.
On the one hand, there are beautiful encounters between men and women
and, on the other; there are the tales of suffering which are pathetic and
heart-rending. Through the following words told by a woman, the author
tries to describe the problem of cross border infiltration of the people due to
political crisis:

‘Once we lived in Bangladesh, in Khulna jila: we’re tide

country people, from the Sundarban’s edge. When the war

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 broke out, our village was burned to ash; we crossed the
border, there was nowhere else to go. We were met by the
police and taken away; in buses they drove us, to
settlement camp.’(165)

The novel is also a sad record of those people who have to struggle
for their identity after leaving their native places, they are either exploited
by the government machinery or they fell in the hands of the local goons.
They have to live a life of predicament and self-denying. Amitav describes
the conflict between the government and the refugees who were trying to
settle in Morichjhapi. They were branded as gangsters who were trying to
occupy and encroach on the land illegally. They were voiceless people
whose point of view was unheeded.
Even their children have no access to education because most of the
time they have to do menial works in order to fill their bellies. What an
irony of fate is that. Going to school for them was wastage of time and a
very unimportant work. Amitav, though living in the U.S., feels the pulse of
the marginalised people of his native country better than the authors who
live in the vicinity of these unfortunates and he does not leave any effort to
bring all the marginalised ones to the centre of the stage.
In the present novel, he not only gives voice to these voiceless people
who are victimised by the political disorder, but also satirises the system for
depriving the future generation of their basic amenities like elementary
education and health. What a shame that the parents of these children repeat
the same tale of irony: ‘Our children here have no time to waste. Most of
them have to help their families find food to eat.’(173)
With the passage of time, the condition of these settlers keeps on
worsening in every aspect. The government does not leave any stone
unturned to take very undemocratic and inhuman measures to evacuate the

159
place. There are police personals fighting with their own fellow citizens
equipped with fatal weapons in the name of rubber bullets and tear gas
grenades and killing thousands of innocent people for the sake of killing,
resulting in the chaos and an atmosphere of panic and anxiety:

‘The very next day, the government announced that all

movement in and out of Morichjhapi was banned under the
provisions of the Forest Preservation Act. What was more;
Section 144, the law used to quill civil disturbances was
imposed on the whole area: this meant it was a criminal
offence for five people or more to gather in one
place.’(252)

The novel has vivid description of the skirmishes between the

helpless settlers and the well equipped government machinery. The settlers
are without any homes and shelters and the tide country, which they see
their future home, is being snatched from them. Where should they go?
None of them knows. The theme of belonging and identity comes to
highlight in this episode of the novel. It is a great irony that the
impoverished human beings are being evicted by their empowered
counterparts in the name of wild life preservation. When no option is left,
the people are forced to protest and confront the police machinery, which
results in the killing of many of them.
Ghosh’s extraordinary themes are the outcome of his colourful
characters, who are lively, defiant and always changing. For example,
Kusum’s character has many colours; on the one hand, she is a victim of
natural as well as super-natural powers and so she is an object of sympathy
of the readers, but on the other, she is a woman whose actions cannot be
predicted. In her teens she befriended Kanai, now she is a widow and a
mother of a boy, she is sought by Nirmal, Dilip is chasing her and Horen is

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protecting her from the evil intentions of Dilip and in the course of
protecting, he falls in love with her and they even have sexual relations, but
the very next day she is killed in a massacre perpetrated by the government
machinery against the squatters. Her life is frequently hit by salt water, like
the tide country, which is not in a fixed shape as the waves keep on
changing them forever even wiping out completely.
Amitav Ghosh is, no doubt, a writer of versatile genius. He is skilled
enough to develop a number of themes in a single novel and they are closely
linked to give it an organic unity. The Hungry Tide discusses many
important concerning subjects and among them is the problem of
environment and eco-system.
Many crucial questions relating to eco-system are raised by the
author. He tries to convey a message through the novel that there are many
sensitive zones in our earth and man’s unnatural activities in these zones
may bring catastrophic results. Like an environmentalist, Amitav tries to
raise the issue of the vulnerability of the tide country of Sundarbans.
While going through the novel, the readers come across the fact that
within six years, over four thousand people have been killed by the tigers in
the region. The question is: who is encroaching on the habitat of the other,
man or tiger? The most accepted answer is that the over population of
human beings is causing in the erosion of the forestlands and consequently a
frequent conflict between man and tiger takes place. But for the tiger
country, things are different.
The atmospheric and geographic conditions of that sensitive zone are
quite different from other parts of the country. Man can be the biggest
enemy and danger to the tigers in other areas but in the tide country,
according to Nilima, tigers are different from those elsewhere. She says that
it is not only man, who disturbs nature but sometimes animals and other
creatures also disturb the harmony. As she tells Kanai:

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 ‘In other habitats, tigers only attacked human beings in
abnormal circumstances: if they happened to be crippled or
were otherwise unable to hunt down any other kind of
prey. But this was not true of the tide country’s tigers; even
young and healthy animals were known to attack human
beings. Some said that this propensity came from peculiar
conditions of the tidal ecology, in which large parts of the
forest were subjected to daily submersions. The theory
went that this raised the animals’ threshold of aggression
by washing away their scent markings and confusing their
territorial instincts.’(241)

The Sundarbans are protected areas where the world famous Bengal
tigers are given sanctuary; they roam about the forest and the human
colonies without any resistance. The dwellers of this tide country have
frequent conflicts with the tigers and in this conflict; naturally the helpless
people become the meal of the predators. The tides of the region wash away
the scent marks of the animals and they, losing their way, enter the human
habitats and the price is paid by the people, by losing their near and dear
ones.
Hence, in the name of wildlife preservation, man’s life is endangered
in the area; the government does not take any measures to protect their life
and property. This irony is expressed by the novelist from the mouth of
Kusum: ‘This island has to be saved for trees, it has to be saved for its
animals, it is a part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers,
which is paid for by people from all around the world.’(261)
The conditions of the islanders are really very much pathetic and
ironical. They are not able to understand why the government undermines
their right to live a safe life in their own native land. If tigers can kill them,

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why cannot they kill them for their safety? After all, they are also a part of
the eco-system.
These problems can be understood by even the illiterate people like
Kusum, but the policy makers of the country do not try to understand and
solve these issues. Kusum discusses these matters with Nirmal in the novel
and her words are very touching, striking, pathetic and ironic.

‘As I thought of these things, it seemed to me that this

whole world has become a place of animals, and our fault,
our crime, was that we were just human beings, trying to
live as human beings always have, from the water and the
soil. No human being could think this a crime unless they
have forgotten that this is how humans have always lived –
by fishing, by clearing land and by planting the soil.’(262)

There have been several killings by the tigers in the Sundarbans, but
the actual figures are always underreported. If such cases had happened in
the developed countries or any territory inhabited by the so-called elites, it
would have created a worldwide debate and even the instant killing of the
man-eaters. But how ironic and revolting it is to think that the killing of
these voiceless people has nothing to do with the government and the nature
biologists. They can feel the suffering of the animals but not that of the poor
people because at present, a wild life lover is regarded as a celebrity more
than a humanitarian.
The theme of individual concern again comes to the fore in the
introduction of many other characters and their breathtaking struggles.
Among them, there is a woman character named Moyna. Her personality is
charming and her character is full of vitality. She is a woman of boldness
and amazing level of confidence. From the very beginning to the end of the
novel, we find her struggling against the odds of life with great perseverance

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and patience. She is a specimen of the new rural women who are anxious
enough to join the mainstream of modern urban women by being self-
dependent, educated and bold. She is doing nursing training in the hospital
run by Nilima. Like Nilima, she dominates her husband and decides the
course of his life herself. Kanai is drawn to her ambition and strong will:

‘Her ambition was so plainly written on her face that

Kanai was assailed by the kind of tenderness we
sometimes feel when we come across childhood pictures of
ourselves – photographs that reveal all-too-unguardedly
the desires people spend lifetimes in learning to
dissimulate.’(135)

She senses that her husband is dumbly and foolishly doted towards
the alien girl and in some occasions, she rudely expresses her anger and
jealousy. Her premonitions prove to be true and, to her great dismay, Fokir
dies in saving her rival. But later the same woman comes to her help and
devotes her life and everything to the tide country; it is not only a ray of
hope for Moyana and Tutul but for the helpless islanders. Piya is a hope for
them because the philanthropic works initiated by Nilima has at least a
devoted successor to take them ahead. The conversation between Kanai and
Piya again throws light on Moyana’s character:

‘If you consider her circumstances – her caste, her

upbringing – it’s very remarkable that she’s had the
forethought to figure out how to get by today’s world. And
it isn’t just that she wants to get by – she wants to do well;
she wants to make a success of her life.’(219)

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 After studying the various themes of the novel, it can be concluded
that the novel is a narrative of the struggles of the people of extraordinary
capacities who are concerned with their individual interests and obsessed to
translate their dreams, they are realist even to the success of the unlikely
potential of their aspirations. The novel is the outcome of Amitav’s
penetrating knowledge of science, anthropology, history, mythology and an
amazing experience of travel.
The novel is a collection of compelling stories, which are both
beautiful and harrowing. It catches the attention by its beautiful stories of
love, obsession, struggle and social work, but there are also the sad tales of
police atrocities, women sold in to sex slavery, children forced into
dangerous work, and men swallowed by tigers, crocodiles and the hungry
tides.
Likewise, the novel has many shadow lines or transcending barriers,
which are defiantly crossed by almost every character without any qualms,
be they moral, social, religious, political, geographical or linguistic. The
land and water in this novel seem to be mutating eternally. There are no
borders between fresh water and salt water. The same phenomena happen
with human beings, no border can separate them, and if there are any, they
are just shadow lines or transcending.
Nirmal is a revolutionary thinker who mocks at the manmade barriers
and social institutions. Piya and Fokir love each other and cross the
shadowy borders, defying the very spirit of likelihood. Perhaps the
geographical and ecological conditions of the ever-changing tide country
have an influence on the inhabitants.

‘There are no borders here to divide fresh water from salt,

river from sea. The tides reach as far as three hundred
kilometres inland and every day thousands of acres of

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 forest disappear underwater only to re-emerge hours later.
The currents are so powerful as to reshape the islands daily
– some days the water tears away entire promontories and
peninsulas; at other times it throws up new shelves and
sandbanks where there were none before.’(7)

The novel also divulges the theme of an ideal state as dreamt by many
political thinkers of the past and present. Sir Daniel Hamilton was such a
thinker, who once thought of such a state where caste, creed and religion
have nothing to do with the individual and social life of the people. He
bought ten thousand acres of land in the tide country from the British
government; the land was then nothing but an abode of tigers, crocodiles,
sharks, leopards and other dangerous animals.
Thousands of people came there in order to get settled themselves,
but they did not bring with them any kind of difference and so they settled
there with mutual understanding and love. Sir Daniel provided the homeless
people free land with one condition that any kind of division would not be
allowed in the country. Through Daniel Hamilton’s dream, Amitav also
expresses his own dream of such a world where the people live with
cooperation without any divisions and in this world the slogan of wild life
conservation will not hurt the interests of human beings. ‘Here there would
be no Brahmins or Untouchable, no Bengalis and no Oriyas. Everyone
would have to live and work together.’(51)
Finally, it is summed up that the novel is a mesmerising experience of
reading on account of its subtle themes of individual concern, abiding
interest in crossing borders and ironic obliteration. The unusual setting of
the novel: the Sundarbans are borderless like the inhabitants of the country.
The comment of the noted critic Sarika Pradiprao Auradkar is apt to give the
finishing touch:

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‘The Hungry Tide is a compelling novel about ordinary
people bond together in an exotic place that can consume
them all. It’s the basest of human emotions, love, jealousy,
pride, and Trust that will make the difference. (Auradkar,
2007:125)

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 Works Cited

Auradkar, Sarika Pradiprao, ‘Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study’, in

The Hungry Tide, New Delhi, Creative Books, 2007, 111-127. Print.

Ghosh, Amitav, ‘The Hungry Tide’, New Delhi, Ravi Dayal,

Permanent Black, 2004. Print.

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Chapter- VII

CONCLUSION

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Chapter- VII

CONCLUSION

Indian English writing has achieved a great recognition and

worldwide fame in the last few decades. In the beginning, Indian English
writers had to struggle a lot. It was born out of the two cultures – the
Western and the Indian, and these two different cultures gave it a
uniqueness and unprecedented popularity. After independence, the nation
experienced new self-confidence and glory and consequently the Indian
English writers began to express their views and dreams vehemently with a
new and attractive style.
This unprecedented popularity and fame of the Indian English writing
continue to flourish with the arrival of new authors, with their amazingly
accomplished works. Several creative writers like Anita Desai, Shashi
Despande, Githa Hariharan, Amit Chaudhary, Upmanyu Chaterjee, Salman
Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy and undoubtedly Amitav Ghosh have
done a lot to universalise the Indian flavour through their writing and given
it international identity by bagging several national and international literary
awards and prizes.
Since the aim of this thesis has been to study major themes in the
novels of Amitav Ghosh, the five novels selected for this work have been
thoroughly studied by me in order to find the major themes handled by this
internationally recognized author. The novelist is such an intriguing artisan
that it is very hard to spot what is the major theme running through all his
novels, for there are so many themes even in a single novel, and it can be
concluded that there are a number of themes, which are judiciously dealt
with. However, it is evident that Amitav’s novels have universal appeal, as

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he talks about the cross border and cross community affinities, which
promote the feeling of fraternity and endeavour to spread international
understanding by mocking at the shadow lines created by the narrow
interests of the politically and economically fattened colonizers, whether
they are European or the native kings or the so called democratically elected
representatives of the people.
Being a scholar of many streams of learning, Amitav deals with
several issues concerning with the human beings in general; be it history,
geography, science, anthropology, politics, archaeology etc. In this way, he
tries to spread the message of cosmopolitan understanding. All the novels of
the learned author have the imprints of his vast knowledge of the varied
branches of learning and understanding of many complicated issues of
international politics of colonialism, imperialism and the problem of
displacement due to selfish interests of the pseudo politics.
Ghosh is such a great writer that his very first novel The Circle of
Reason, published in 1986, placed him among the world’s renowned fiction
writers. In this creative writing, Ghosh proved his craftsmanship and gave a
new form to the fiction writing. Due to its wonderful narration, style and
universal appeal, it has been translated into many European languages. Its
French version has won the prestigious Prix Medici Estranger Literary
Award.
The novel deals with the theme of obsession. Almost every character
of the novel seems to be obsessed with some passion of different type.
Balaram is obsessed with the whim of cleanliness and the cleansing liquid
carbolic acid. He is equally crazy about Phrenology, the science of studying
heads and the book Life of Pasteur. Toru Debi is obsessed with the world of
sewing machines, as sewing is her passion. She can forget even sleeping,
eating and bathing for the sake of tailoring. Alu has drowned himself into
the art of weaving. He remains busy in weaving or in thinking about dirt and

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cleanliness, as he is a true disciple of his uncle, Balaram. He wants to make
the whole world germ free and considers him a real heir of Pasteur. In the
whole novel, he is found either in weaving or in thinking how to make the
world germ free. Jyoti Das, another dominant character of the novel is
obsessed with the passion of bird watching. He also takes a keen interest in
pursuing Alu, whom he thinks to be a culprit. Moreover, the other characters
of the novel have their bizarre kinds of passions. Zindi’s love for Boss and
her dream to possess the Durban Tailoring House, Dr. Samuel’s obsession
for the theory of queues, Forid’s desire to get married, Mawali’s
expectations for name and fame, Dubey’s extreme craving for money are
not the common yearnings. They are whim-inspired passions, tinged with a
streak of madness.
Hence, the novel The Circle of Reason deals with the theme of
obsession and fantasy. The characters of the novel are crazy to pursue their
obsessions and dreams. In spite of living in the same world, they seem to
live in their own world of exile. They remain lost in the world of their own
being oblivious of the mainstream life carrying the chores around them. For
them, their ideals are of primary concern and they can go to any extremity to
realize them. They are so haunted by their obsessions that they even forget
the inevitable fate of humanity.
The Circle of Reason is thronged with a number of colourful
characters who have their own ideal worlds. Due to these whimsical people,
there is a conflict of the contrasts: the conflict between law and criminality,
humanity and animalism, science and superstition etc. This conflict is
manifested in the behaviour of these characters, who are moving in a
cyclical way and their restless journey ends only in a non-productive circle
of nothingness.
Ghosh has his own art of characterisation. There is a unique
originality and freshness in the characters created by Ghosh. Alu has many

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oddities, with a strange physical appearance and the head with extraordinary
bumps. Balaram has an unbelievable power of prediction, especially, about
the future of Alu. Amitav also describes the odd physical appearances of
Zindi and Karthamma. There is a one eyed Arab strong man, a tongue less
Chinaman, a weak eyed visionary egg seller.
Through the word weaving, Ghosh tries to tell his readers that the
weaving machine is a symbol of reason, for it is one of the oldest
instruments. It has been used by the people to weave cloth for a long time. It
is an invention of the reasoning mind. This machine is a potent means of
producing cloth, which is also a reason. It symbolises the making and
breaking of empires. Cloth is also described as a language. Ghosh tries to
prove it by giving several names of cotton, such as Kapasia in Sanskrit,
Kirpas in Persian, Carbasos in Latin, Kirps in Hebrew and Kutun in Arabic.
The novel explores the theme of imperial exploitation by narrating the
greed of the foreign companies, who behave like colonizers. In order to
occupy the oil fields, they even tried to force Malik to sign a treaty. But
Malik did not yield before the unjust demands of the neo-colonizers.
Through the character of Malik, the novel remembers the patriotic
aspirations of the people, who did not care their own happiness and life for
the sake of their nation. However, there are the traitors in every age, whose
only intention is to fulfil their self-interests. In the novel, there are some
people who remain indulged in treachery.
Ghosh is eloquent about the past heritage and tradition of weaving
and tells that India was the country that gave cotton, Gossypium indicus, to
the world. Cotton, the raw material for weaving cloth, grew in a rich trade,
which attracted the European traders. The cotton cloth has such universality
that it bound the whole world in a single trade. Ghosh also tells that the
invention of modern calculating machine was inspired by the techniques of
the draw loom, for Charles Babbage took his ideas for the calculating

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machine from Jacquard’s loom. He narrates the truth that the history of
weaving is full of bloody past, sometimes throbbing with hope and
sometime lurking with despair. However, in spite of the bloody tale, the
cotton industry and trade always united the whole human race across the
world.
The novel, through its characters and episodes, seems to propagate
the message of humanitarian outlook. Though the characters are obsessed
with their odd passions, yet they are always considerate to the welfare of the
humanity. Pasteur’s restlessness for the welfare of the society, Balaram’s
dream to construct a germ free and clean country where everybody would
remain healthy and prosperious, Gopal’s benevolence towards Alu, Mrs.
Verma’s humanitarian action after the death of Kulfi and obviously Alu’s
concern for the welfare of the whole human society are some of the actions
full of charity and benevolence.
Being a scholar of history, Ghosh treats the great historical events in
almost all his novels. The Circle of Reason is no exception. It deals with the
history of cotton and India’s contribution in making loom. He even attaches
the invention of the calculating machine with the technology of the weaving
looms. He says that Charles Babbage took the idea of his machine from the
principles of the storing information on the punch cards.
The post Midnight Children novelists of Indian English writing,
including Amitav Ghosh, are greatly indebted to the rich cultural heritage of
their country for the unprecedented popularity of their novels. Their works
are full of amazing narratives, for they are imbued with a unique blending of
the east and the west. Amitav’s novels also reveal his love and attachment to
the Indian culture and mythology. He even does not fail to name his
characters after the heroes of the mythological past.
In The Circle of Reason, there is a character Nachiketa Bose whose
name reminds the mythological character, Nachiketa, a sage, the son of

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Uddalaka. The novel has some descriptions of the holiness of the sacred
Ganga River. Indian culture’s cosmopolitanism and its belief in the
welcoming of guests like gods find the echo in the novel. The author depicts
how the guests in Indian homes are believed to be the image of God or the
concept ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’. This character of the Indian culture is seen in
the amicable behaviour of the people of Lalpukur who welcome the people
of Bangladesh, seeking refuge in their locality.
The concern for environment and cleanliness is addressed in the novel
successfully. Though in odd ways, the novel does not fail to give the
message of universal cleanliness and hygiene. Carbolic acid and Ganga jal,
the potent purifying liquid, are the symbols of physical and spiritual
purification respectively. They, similarly, voice the modern means of
hygiene and the traditional Indian way of spiritual cleansing. The characters
of the novel, especially Balaram and his nephew are anxious to make a
pollution free and clean atmosphere.
The Circle of Reason also deals with reason and logic. The characters
are rational, though they seem to have it in extremity. They have a passion
for science and reason. Balaram is fascinated with the world of science and
logic. Alu has also an attraction for carbolic acid and Pasteur’s theory. Mrs.
Verma is so rational that she does not find any difference between carbolic
acid and the Ganga jal. For her they both are the means of cleansing. Her
knowledge of science is seen in her belief that germs are both harmful and
beneficial as without them decomposition is not possible.
Hence, the novel The Circle of Reason seems to suggest that it is the
way of looking and thinking which makes things different. Everybody, in
the world of the novel, is obsessed with his or her own ideals and passions.
In order of realize their dreams, they feel restlessness and anxiety. But they
are invincible in spite of the odds. They do not give up hope until they have
a single thread of it. But in the mission of their persuasion, they keep on

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moving in a circle and even yielding before the real inevitable. The fruitless
attempts made by them remind the lines of the Victorian poet, Matthew
Arnold:
‘And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.’ (Dover Beach)

While attempting to realize their ideals, they experience the eternal

truth: the ultimate fate of man. However, the novel preaches the message of
the Gita, that we should do work without attachment. All the characters of
the novel keep on moving in a circle of illusion without giving up hope and
remain firm in their determination to continue their attempts in the direction
of their Al Dorado.
Amitav takes keen interest in defying the boundaries, walls and
borders created by the unnecessary necessity on the part of the politically
empowered people and leave no effort to question the efficacy, virtue and
genuineness of the borders that divide people in different groups. In the
novel The Shadow Lines, Amitav successfully tries to lay emphasis on the
fact that there is no major difference among the people across the globe. The
drawn lines on the maps or the boarder fences erected are only to separate
the people physically but they are powerless to divide their shared
experiences, cultures, customs, memory, feeling and above all, their
emotional oneness.
In The Shadow Lines, the friendship of Mr. Justice Chandrashekhar
Datta Chaudhary and Lionel Tresawsen who belonged to two different race
and culture represents true example of denying the boundaries. Tridib’s
continuous correspondence to May is sufficient proof of his love across the
borders. Ila and Nick’s married life also giggles at the existence of these
manmade lines of separation. According to Roby, the borders are the chief

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causes of all political troubles and hatred. He thinks that these borders are
made by man in order to create peace and freedom in a particular country or
society, but ironically, instead of peace and freedom, the borders are
creating hatred, war and an atmosphere of anxiety. They give birth to the
feeling of partition and difference. Ghosh makes Roby his mouth piece in
questioning the validity of the borders.
Through the novel, Ghosh attempts to highlight the fact that the
considerations of country, class, race and region have put the people in
fetters. But in spite of these odds humanity is continually striving to achieve
the freedom for all and brotherhood, ignoring these so called barriers. The
novel gives a message of friendly ambience and co-existence. All the
characters of the novel advocate universal love. They enjoy life fully,
crossing all the geographical, cultural, political and communal borders.
Being a cosmopolitan thinker, Amitav does not limit himself within the
shadow lines of nationality and pseudo cultural divisions.
The action of the novel runs across three countries: India, Pakistan
and England, a deliberate attempt by the author to satirize the fighting
politicians. He is against the modern dictatorial tendencies of the modern
nation states and the communal bigotry, which is responsible for the
separation, and segregation of the humanity. These tendencies give rise to
violence, hatred and communal tension.
The novelist tries to peel off the truth that humanity and love are
above all the relations and affiliations. The characters in the novel are knit
in one fabric with a harmony, despite belonging to different colours of
nationality, race, culture and creed. The fabric of this friendship gives the
message that humanity is above all distinctions. Through the character of
Thamma, the author tries to explain the destructiveness of extreme
nationalism. She wanted to kill an English Magistrate only because he did
not happen to be her fellow countryman. She had such extreme nationalistic

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feelings that the people of a nation should not have any relation with the
person of any other nation. For her, geographical lines have much
importance, and she cannot even think to cross them.
Just opposite to Thamma, there is other woman character May. Her
outlook is very humanitarian and considerate. Through her character, Ghosh
tries to advocate the policies of cosmopolitanism and humanity. Tridib,
Roby, Ila, Shaiffudin and Khalil all seem to defy the shadowy border lines
and emphasize the peaceful co-existence of the people across the world.
The novel also highlights the quest for political freedom and
describes the riots after the partition and the role of rumour in instigating
violence and communal tensions. The novel gives ghastly details of the riots
in which thousands of people were killed. Tridib’s death, which was given
the name of sacrifice, leaves an unhealable scar on the psyche of the readers.
They find themselves baffled to think the meaning of the borders, which
cause nothing but hatred and divide the humanity. Ghosh’s treatment of the
theme is so enchanting that it succeeds in presenting the truth that the
human society all over the world has same emotions and feelings, but the
distinction of caste, colour and creed has divided it into small units. The
divisions caused by these borders are almost baneful and worthless.
Nevertheless, the humanity has so powerful bonds that they keep on uniting
in a bond of love.
Through this novel, Ghosh tries to give voice to the inherent wish of
the man to be free. Everybody in the novel has a strong longing for eternal
freedom, which in fact is not possible in this imperfect world, divided in
many fragments. Actually, everybody is bound with the chains of
responsibility, taboos and limitations. The shadowy borders do not allow
anybody to cross them. This dilemma of man reminds the lines of P.B.
Shelly:

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 ‘We look before and after;
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught:
Our sincerest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.’
(To A Skylark)
Thamma strives for geographical freedom, Ila dreams of cultural
freedom and Tridib in his imagination tries to free from the limitation of
distance. May wants to get rid of the distinctions of inequality and poverty.
Roby does not want any shadow lines, which have nothing to do but to
divide the humanity. Ghosh repeatedly tries to convey the message that
these manmade lines bring nothing but anxiety and loss. A number of
families have undergone the tragedy due to the existence of these lines.
Thus, the novel challenges all kinds of dividing lines. The novelist
satirizes the violence and so-called sacrifice in the name of freedom and
nationalism. He tries to propagate the message that humanity and peaceful
co-existence are above the violence and riots instigated in the name of
nation, community and race. Ghosh has a unique quality of creating humour
even in the most serious situations.
The novel has many episodes of humour of various types. For
instance, the depiction of Jethamosai’s eccentric behaviour and character,
the strange attitude of the grandmother, Tridib’s gastric problem, description
of Ramdayal’s fear and the use of Hindi mixed English words by Ramdayal
make the readers tickle. The way in which Amitav portrays the character of
Ramdayal and Ila’s mother is also full of humour. There are many Hindi
words used in the novel very effectively like chhokra boy, bachao, mugger-
much etc. Some Hindi words are used in ‘ing’ form. For example, he uses
bukbukking by adding ‘ing’ in the Hindi word bukbuk.

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 Ghosh is deeply attached to culture. According to him, culture gives
shape to the character of a person and rootlessness of culture can destroy the
very identity of the people. The novel illustrates this notion of its author
repeatedly through its characters and situations. Finally, it is concluded that
the novel The Shadow Lines tries to assert that the boarders and dividing
lines erected by man are shadowy.
They are politically motivated and have nothing to do with the life in
general. Love, affection and humanity are above these lines. Ghosh regrets
the irony of human beings who feel suffocated by entrapping themselves
within the boundaries created by them in order to separate themselves from
those belonging to their own species.
The next chapter deals with the thematic study of The Calcutta
Chromosome, a novel of 256 pages and divided in two parts namely August
20: The Mosquito Day and The Day After. The novel can boast to be the
first science fiction in the Indian English writing. The story of the novel is
very complex because of its treatment of ghost stories, science, superstition
and the futuristic projections. This novel has made a place for itself by being
in the genre of the science fiction and has won the coveted Arthur C. Clarke
prize in 1996.
Ghosh has very beautifully utilized the themes of history and memory
in this novel. The main theme is concerned with the redefining of the
discovery of the malaria vector by Ronald Ross, who in 1906 won the Nobel
Prize for this finding. In this novel The Calcutta Chromosome, Amitav tries
to deconstruct the story of Ross’s discovery of the life cycle of malaria
mosquito in Derridian style. Like Derrida, he attempts to place the
marginalised in centre.
Ross is a very well known scientist. His discovery of the cause of
malaria and winning Nobel Prize made him a renowned personality. Ghosh,
in Derridian style, deconstructs the western hierarchy of superiority by

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reshuffling and redefining the places. He tries to do this by weaving the
medical history of malaria, Ross’ medical work, Murugan’s obsession for
the discovery, Antar’s curiosity in Murugan, the futuristic projection of Ava
and the ghost stories together in a single fabric.
Ghosh narrates his sceptic views on the research work done by Ross
to find the cause of malaria. Through the finding of L. Murugan, a science
freak, who is obsessed with the idea of investigating the authenticity of
Ross’s findings, the author tries to reopen the case of Ross’s work. For
Murugan it is very hard to believe that Ross could be successful in
discovering the malaria parasite in a very short duration.
He suspects a big conspiracy behind this event because as far as he
knows, Ross and his guide Patrick Manson, a Scottish bacteriologist, were
not a bit close to the theory of malarial cause and thought that it was an
orally transmitted disease, probably through drinking water polluted by
mosquitoes. But almost overnight he unfolded all the mysteries and
concluded that it is caused by a parasite, plasmodium carried by the female
anopheles.
In order to support his views, Murugan even publishes two papers
‘Certain Systematic Discrepancies in Ronald Ross’s Account of
Plasmodium B’ and ‘An Alternative Interpretation of Late 19th Century
Malaria Research: is there a Secret History?’ But he becomes a victim of
the politics of science and even the colonial mindset of the Europeans and
the Americans. Instead of encouragement and incentive, he is branded as an
eccentric and crank.
He is suspended from the membership of the Science Society and
isolated from the science community. Through this hostile treatment meted
to Murugan, the novelist tries to show the biased system and corruption in
many organisations where any truth, which questions the superiority of the
powerful, is awarded in the same manner.

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 The novel The Calcutta Chromosome is not only a science fiction but
also a thriller full of ghost stories, black magic and witchcraft of Bengal.
Murugan, Antar, Urmila and many other characters of the novel are led
forward in the same direction with a special aim by the supernatural as well
as the natural powers.
The marginalised people like Mangla and Laakhan, a sweeper woman
and a scavenger respectively, are eternalised. Mangla, a woman of high
intelligence, who once herself suffered from syphilis, was recruited by Dr.
Cunningham in his laboratory to perform the petty works. But being a
woman of amazing intuition, she came to know that syphilis could be cured
of malaria infected blood, when injected into the body of the patient. She
developed a very weird type of treatment: infecting the pigeons with malaria
and then injecting their blood into the veins of the syphilitics.
Like goddess Kali, she was deified by the people of her time and even
in the late 20th century, she is believed to take incarnation. There are livid
descriptions of Mangla’s weird treatment of the patients with the help of her
associate Laakhan. In fact, Mangla pretended that she had achieved the
godlike power to treat the patients, because she knew that without wrapping
her treatment with witchcraft and magic, the people would not believe her
otherwise scientific treatment.
Ghosh’s aim to centralize the marginalized community is again seen,
when he shows that Mangla and Laakhan, who belong to the lowest rank of
the Hindu caste system, are worshipped by the people treating them the real
incarnations of some divine powers. In this way, he subverts the caste
system by bringing the inferior and underprivileged to the centre. It is also
suggested by the novelist that the real understanding of the basic concepts of
any scientific theory is sufficient to make any discovery. Very often, the
credit goes to such people who do nothing but simply utilize the experiences
and hard toil of those who are not formally trained in that particular faculty.

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 Ghosh’s interest in science and modern scientific invention is
revealed in his futuristic projections like the super computer Ava, which can
perform anything that is beyond the imagination of man. Antar is the
programmer of this futuristic computer. He works for the International
Water Council, a global organisation that performs researches on the
depletion of the world’s water supplies. Amitav, with his imagination and
interest in science, makes this machine, which can produce detailed
information of anything with a miniature clue. With the help of the badly
damaged I.D. card, it helps Antar to trace Murugan, who has been missing.
This futuristic projection shows Ghosh’s love for the world of science and
machines.
The Calcutta Chromosome, connects many countries like India,
America, Egypt and England. These are the countries, which he has visited
many times, and they find place in his other novels also. His love for all
religions, castes and races can be seen in his characterisation. His characters
are Hindus, Muslims, Christians and even the followers of the very ancient
belief of Egypt. Murugan, Sonali, Urmila and others are Hindus, Antar and
Phulboni are Muslims, Maria and Lucky and the scientists like Dr.
Cunningham and Ross are Christians, Countess Pongracz is a follower of
the Valentinus, a pre-Christian philosophy. The characters are from the very
high as well as the lowest stratum of the society.
The story with a variety of themes and a wonderful treatment of them
makes the novel one of the best writings in the annals of the Indian English
fiction. The novel is terrific amalgam of many themes blended with a high
narrative skill of the author. The scientific quest of Murugan leads to a
haunting experience not only for him but also for the readers.
The chapter V of the present research work deals with the thematic
study of the novel The Glass Palace, a novel with a thick volume in which
there are 547 pages in seven chapters. It is an interwoven story narrating the

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tales of many families and grasps the rise and fall of empires across the
twentieth century. Simultaneously, the novel opens the human heart and
reads the psychological complexes of man with unerring skill. Through this
piece of fictional work, Ghosh raises a long series of questions before the
readers dealing with the issue of colonial displacement, which begins from
the very opening of the novel. Similarly, the novel also explores the theme
of belonging and identity crisis.
Ghosh, like a seasoned historian, describes the British invasion in
Burma on November14, 1885 and its aftermath. The description of the panic
and fear among the people after the occupation of the kingdom is narrated
like a true historian’s point of view. The process of seizing the power of the
Queen and King of Burma and sending them into exile shows the
helplessness and humiliation suffered by the native kings in the hands of the
colonial powers.
The greed and docile policies adopted by the British colonisers come
to the fore from the very starting of the novel. The colonisers are depicted in
their true colours for whom everything is a resource to be exploited, whether
it is wood, water, mines or people. They considered the countries like India,
Burma and other Asian and African countries their common wealth to be
looted. Burma, which was once recognised a country abounding in extreme
wealth in the form of timber, mines, gems and oil, was so deeply exploited
by the colonisers that they rendered it a crippled country with torn national
fabric. Even the cultural identity and self-respect of the people were reduced
to the level of self-denigration.
The character of Saya represents those people who have lost their
trust on the self and the culture of their country because of the recurrent
humiliation by the European colonisers. Colonisation is such a human
disaster that it has not only obliterated the socio-political system of a

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country, but has also mutated the mentality of the colonized. Saya thinks
them as superiors and mentors who have taught the art of proper living.
Like Saya, Arjun and Rajkumar are also the people who have lost
their selfconfidence and begun to worship the false gods. Colonization
leaves such an indelible mark on the mindset of people that they think their
colonizers as the super race and being very close to them is a matter of
respect for them. Rajkumar even boasts of his connection with the
westerners with great pride. He thinks that the western culture is far greater
than his own culture.
Similarly, Rajkumar is also convinced with the superiority of the
British in every aspect of life and has developed a false notion that without
the British, the Burmese economy would collapse. Even the collector, a part
of the administration, feels grateful to be a part of the colonial system. The
instances suggest that colonisation not only destroys the occupied land
physically, but also usurps its cultural and spiritual heritage and self-respect.
There are many instances of brutality and mis-behaviour, which the natives
of Burma and India had to undergo. But extremity has its roots of
destruction in it and when the upsurge of nationalism sprouted due to long
humiliation and suffering, the disillusioned natives began to revolt against
the system of loot and encroachment.
Ghosh does not forget to mention the episodes of human trafficking
by the colonisers from one country to another in the name of employment
and better future. The outsourcing of people uprooted them from their native
countries. The colonisers transported the labourers from India to Burma, not
for the better future of the poor people but for their own sake of accelerating
the oil excavation. For the British, Burma was their richest province and
they did not want to lose their possession on the land at any rate. They even
had set up their colonial office there and kept everything under the
supervision of their own officers. But when the injustice touched extremity

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and the people became aware of their national prestige, they began to unite
to the revolting parties against the unjust and exploiting system of the
colonisers. They even realized the double standards adopted by the British.
Consequently, many people joined the Indian Independence League and a
number of soldiers who were so far loyal to the British Indian army also got
disillusioned and stood against their British rulers.
The Glass Palace narrates how the flames of opposition against the
British Empire began to rise in the colonised countries like India, Burma,
Malaya, East Africa and wherever the awareness of self respect and
nationality grew out of the exploitation and suppression. The novel
graphically depicts the docile and biased policies adopted by the colonizers
in order to fulfil their unfair interests. They even tried to divide the people
of one country in the name of religion and caste. The Indians and the
Burmese who had been living like good neighbours for ages developed an
unprecedented enmity due to the misunderstanding created by the British.
The Burmese began to think that the Indian businessmen were no less than
the colonialists and hated them from the core of their hearts.
They became bloodthirsty and did not want to see any Indian in
Burma. The brutal murder of an Indian rickshaw puller is one such lively
examples of the animosity planted by the colonizers in the minds of the
Burmese. To add more fuel to fire, the British rulers deployed the Indian
soldiers in Burma to kill two birds with one stone: to put down the
dissidence in the erstwhile kingdom and to make the neighbouring brethren
spiteful to each other.
The novel presents the divide and rule policy adopted by the British
rulers in order to make their business of rule and exploitation smooth and
unquestioned. The author highlights the irony how the Indians working in
Burma either in army, administration or in business were unable to
understand the cruel and cunning policies of the Europeans. They were

185
nothing but mindless and reasonless puppets in the hands of the colonisers
working for the destruction of their own and their neighbours.
The gap between Indians and Burmese was widening day by day.
However, some people came forward to fill it with understanding. If there
were people with self-conceit and greed, the stage was not completely
devoid of the good men and women with understanding of the reality. Uma,
Thebaw, Giani Amreek Singh were some of those who endeavoured to
eliminate the surge of hatred among the neighbouring people. The king had
a firm faith that the much-expected day would come soon with the fresh
waves of freedom and happiness. Uma, who was worried to see the
worsening situation of the people, sent many letters to the major newspapers
in order to alert her compatriots against the well equipped armed forces of
the Empire. In this context, she also wrote to Mahatma Gandhi and to her
great delight, Gandhi invited her to Wardha Ashram.
Gradually, the Indian soldiers, loyal to the British army, discovered
the bitter truth and being disillusioned they began to separate from it and
formed their own unit, the Indian National Army. The same feeling of
disillusionment was gripping the civilians as well; they understood that the
British had been using them against their own brothers by giving them
temptation of petty incentives. The torture and pain suffered by the people
was structuring a firm line of revolt and rebellion. There was a growing
tendency to join the freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. A large
number of pamphlets with anti-colonial slogans were published and
distributed among the people. Some self respecting soldiers understood that
they were worshipping the false gods and threw off the garb of mercenaries.
The soldiers, who got enlightenment, developed their sense of
belonging but found themselves helpless to decide which place and party
they belonged to. They felt the urge to discover their true identity and joined
the freedom struggle. They realized that they were being treated like

186
instruments by the foreign rulers and humiliated in every step. Even for their
good works and achievements, they were deprived of their due credit.
Ghosh has also described the ironical situation how the people of one
country, already ruled by some foreign power, were on the verge of invasion
by another country. During the Second World War, Germany and Japan
were trying to intrude the British colonies and Burma and India were their
targets. Ghosh has very vividly given a picturesque description of the war
between Japan and British India in the northeastern front. The people were
in a queer and hapless condition, on the one hand, they were fighting with
the imperialist power and, on the other, there was a new threat of fascism.
The atmosphere of anxiety and chaos that was looming large over the
enslaved people, is genuinely illustrated by the novelist.
The novel The Glass Palace vividly describes the conditions of the
colonial time. The title of the novel is very appropriate and meaningful.
Glass is a symbol of delicacy and palace is that of false pride. The rule of
the king could not stand before the British army because it was based on the
weak foundations and, that is why, it collapsed. Similarly, the rule of the
British Empire was based on injustice, greed, exploitation and deception and
ultimately the palace made of glass could not maintain its brightness and
was broken to nothingness.
Amitav’s writing has innovative skills and it is manifest in the present
novel. He uses words and phrases very appropriately to create the
picturesque image of the situation before the readers. He uses literary
devices like pathos, irony and humour, which keep the readers glued to the
reading. Amitav’s vast knowledge of varied subjects such as history,
geography, archaeology, architecture and political events make the novel
not only a reading experience for simple delight, but also for intellectual
retrospection and historical understanding.

187
 In the novel Ghosh has used many words from Hindi, Sanskrit,
Burmese and Urdu language. The words hti, da, twin zas, shiko, oo-sis, pe-
sis and pa-kyeiks give the novel Burmese touch, while the words like
bandobast, khansama are from Urdu and Nirvana and mahouts are from
Hindi. Many superstitions of the sub-continent are described in the novel.
Ghosh’s concern for environment is depicted through the description of
deforestation and death of several animals and human beings due to
epidemics and famine. The description of starving people and soldiers and
the dying and decomposing bodies produces very deep pathos and
simultaneously reveals the reality of life.
Chapter VI deals with Amitav’s seducing novel The Hungry Tide,
which appeared in 2004. The novel, consisting of 400 pages, is divided in
two parts namely, The Ebb: Bhata and The Flood: Jawar. The novel has a
mesmerising and lively description of a story, coloured with many
wonderful themes, which has its setting in the beautiful and immense
archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal known as ‘the Sundarbans’.
Unlike the other novels of Ghosh, The Hungry Tide is concentrated on only
one place that is situated in Bengal. However, there are some descriptions of
America, Delhi and some other parts of India.
The novel peels off several layers of human psychology and reveals
the ebbs and tides surging in human life either physically or emotionally. It
also tries to reassert the co-existing relation between man and nature and
among the human beings. The conflict between the government machinery
and the local populace is described minutely on the topic of the Bengal
tiger, which has killed thousands of people, but the government is pouring
sympathy upon the man-eater instead of the poor victims.
As the title suggests The Hungry Tide is a story, which vindicates the
truth of the inevitability of human fate in the lap of cruel nature, which
brings gigantic tides in his life. Like the novels of Victorian novelist

188
Thomas Hardy, the novel exhibits the destiny of man, who is nothing but a
puppet in the hands of nature. No one can predict when the tides will
become hungry and furious and bring catastrophic consequences in the life
of man.
The author’s love for mythology and anthropology is also seen in his
special description of the legend of Bon-Bibi, the goddess of hope and
revenge, who presides over the tide country. The dwellers of the tide
country are the worshippers of the goddess and this particular religious
belief has the touch of Sufism. The belief is a blending of the Hindu and the
Muslim traditions.
Ghosh’s portrayal of characters has cosmopolitanism, which
generally runs through all his works. There are people from all walks of life.
They are educated as well as rustics without any formal education. Piya,
Kanai, Nirmal and Nilima are from educated and intellectual class, while
Fokir, Kusum, Horen and Moyana are from the rural background with little
education. But they all have worldly wisdom, commonsense and
sympathetic attitude.
The description of the research work, done by Piyali Roy with the
help of Fokir, on the aquatic mammals like Irrawaddy dolphin, Orcaella
brevirostris, is the most seducing part of the novel. The terminological
description of Cetology, shows Ghosh’s special interest and knowledge of
this branch of biology. As known, Ghosh’s novels are full of historical
events, political upheaval and geographical descriptions and this novel is no
exception. But the true human emotions are given the central place. The
whole novel moves around the human dilemmas, emotions and spiritual
afflictions. Piya and Nilima, the main women characters of the novel, are
concerned with the welfare of the common people and their selfless
devotion inspires the readers.

189
 The novel explores the theme of individual concern, whether it is for
his or her own life or for others. Every individual is concerned with
something or someone. Their concerns leave an indelible mark on the
memory of the readers. Nilima is concerned with the welfare of the people
of the tide country and her organization The Badabon Trust, which
facilitates not only education, but also medical facilities to the people of this
forlorn land. Her husband, an ideal Marxist, is a born dissident who dreams
of a revolution ushering in a communist state.
He leaves behind him some papers, having his dreams, aspiration and
struggle, to his nephew Kanai Dutt. In the papers, he describes his wishes to
help the people of Morichjhapi, who have been the targets of the
government machinery. Fokir’s concern and sacrifice for Piya’s safety is a
wonderful example of platonic love and subsequently, the latter is decision
to stay in Lusibari with the motive of providing education and protection to
Fokir’s wife Moyana and his son Tutul shows her gratefulness and tribute to
him.
The present fictional work asserts the theme of transcending barriers.
Nirmal never identifies himself with any set of religious beliefs. Nilima
crosses the boundaries of her high middle class family and marries Nirmal,
an intellectual vagabond. Piyali Roy, an American of Indian origin, does not
hesitate to accept Fokir, a rustic, her soul mate emotionally. Their mutual
understanding transcends the shadowy borders of language and words.
Moyana also seems to discard the social taboos and dares cross them. Ghosh
has used water as a symbol of transcending power.
There is no border to separate fresh water from that of salt and the
river water from that of sea. Water is the potent image of defying
boundaries and borders. Through Sir Daniel Hamilton’s dream and the
efforts done by Nirmal, Ghosh presents his Utopian world free of all

190
divisions and differences, where all people have only one religion i.e. love
and humanity.
The description of tide country’s flora and fauna, especially the tigers,
crocodiles and dolphins, makes the novel a travelogue taking the readers
into the labyrinths of a dense jungle. The author portrays a net of human
emotions, with the passions of love, hatred, jealousy, pride, trust and greed
very beautifully. The hungry tides, which rose unexpectedly in the psyche of
the characters, in their relations and in the waters changed and mutated a lot
of things in Lusibari. Like other novels, Ghosh does not forget to use some
local Bengali and Hindi words in this novel. The use of words like gamcha,
are, moshai, bindi and chai gives the novel a Bengali and Indian touch.
Amitav Ghosh is, indisputably, one of the most celebrated and widely
read Indian English novelists of the present day. His extraordinary
knowledge of science, history, geography, psychology, anthropology,
mythology, political issues, philosophy, modern technology and many other
branches of learning enriches his novels, and incorporate them in the works
of the most popular writers of the world.
This vast learning of spiritual and temporal subjects reverberates in
his works and makes them the reading of the learned. He is, at the same
time, one of the most innovative writers who never fully accept the
conventional and set rules. He, through his novels, gives a message to his
readers to ponder over various modern issues with a different and broad
outlook. In his novels, he tries to defy the conservative ideas and in
Derridean style, by deconstructing the set conventions and rules. He does
not inhabit in a culture rooted in a single place, but roams freely all over the
world with the message of cosmopolitanism. He attempts to annihilate every
kind of boundary and dividing line, whether it is geographical or mental.
A thorough study of his novels has enabled the finding that Amitav
Ghosh does not repeat the same theme in his novels. He brings all his novels

191
with a different subject. If any theme is repeated, it is with a new and
original flavour.
The themes, which the study has found out in his novels are:
nationalism with the feeling of peaceful co-existence on international levels,
multiculturalism, the threat of communal violence, political and
geographical freedom, restlessness and anxiety of the modern man,
rationalism, identity crisis, futility of boundaries, humanitarian attitude,
scientific quest, the pangs of partition, obsession, inevitability of the human
fate, the conflict between nature and man, individual idiosyncrasies and
many other itching issues of the day. He has an ability to juxtapose different
things tingeing them with human emotions and feelings like love and hatred,
despair and hope, happiness and sorrow, nationalism and internationalism,
rational views and superstition etc. His vast knowledge and penetrating
insight give the readers pleasant surprise and amazement simultaneously.
Amitav is one of the most cosmopolitan of the contemporary Indian
English writers. He discards all kinds of differences, which divide the
common humanity and create the atmosphere of anxiety, chaos, worry,
hatred, regret and sorrow. His creative capacity and strong command over
the language prove his works amazingly well planned and finished. Even
the reading of his single piece of works proves him a writer of the
intellectuals, not of the layman. His novels are not meant for leisure or
pastime, but for intellectual understanding and contemplation. Like a true
spectator he observes the life around him and selects the pressing topics to
make them the themes of his works. His stay in various countries and the
study of many subjects especially, history and anthropology enable him to
understand many complex issues, which he deals with in his novels.
Amitav’s matter and manner of treating the subject is really admirable
and flawless. His narrative power is binding and enchanting. He narrates a
simple event in such a manner that it becomes extraordinary. His characters

192
are from all walks of life crossing the borders of class, caste, creed, nation
and language. They are types as well as individuals with the common and
uncommon traits of humanity. Whatever society they belong to, they are
obsessive and struggling. Many of his characters are his mouthpieces and
show the traits of their creator. Like the author, they are keen on inventing
new things and dare defy the conventions. Nature also plays a crucial role in
his novels. The eternal conflict between nature and man and the
helplessness of the latter is reflected in his works. He tries to propagate the
message of harmony between them to sustain the life in this earth.
Amitav’s vocabulary is vast and unending. He uses new and wisely
selected words from different languages like Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Urdu
and many other European and American dialects and pidgins. The readers
have to consult help books and dictionaries to understand the text. The
reading of his novels is not only a source of entertainment, but also a session
of new learning and language improvement. It is also noteworthy that his
novels need a retrospection of the story while recommencing it even after a
short gap.
Finally, it is summed up that Amitav Ghosh is a great thinker,
historian, critic and interesting storyteller. He is a man of intellect,
innovation, creativity, craftsmanship and experience. Reading his novels is a
great experience and doing research work on them is really a dream
fulfilment. I feel myself blessed and fortunate to have the experience of
going through his novels, which are packed with astonishing stories narrated
in unprecedented manner.

193
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Website:
www.amitavghosh.com

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