Narrativizing the Undocumented Indigenous History A Reading of Amitav Ghoshs Sea of Poppies

Name of Author : Dipanjoy Mukherjee

Abstract:  Amitav Ghoshs novel Sea of Poppies narrativizes the undocumented and unspoken history with a view to countering and demystifying the myth of Eurocentric dominant discourse. Historically the novel is set just prior to the opium wars and it deals with the colonial politics in India and their commercial practice of exporting opium from India to China. The novel discloses the dark domains of colonization and capitalist exploitation. The alternative narratives of history are communicated through representations of indentured labour and slave trade, devastation of native industry and agricultural base, colonial exploitation of natural resources in Burma and the thriving trade of opium in India under the imperial rule. Ghosh gives privilege to the perspective of marginalized migrants who were not only displaced, dislocated and dispossessed but also had suffered manifold problems of social deprivation, cultural crisis, economic exploitation, political humiliation and fractured identity. Sea of Poppies mirrors migrations of the girmitiyas or indentured labourers who were forced to migrate because of the socio economic miserable conditions. My paper will locate the marginalized discourse of the indigenous people who have been attributed an authoritative position in the novel.

Keywords : Colonization, Imperialism, Exploitation, Migrant, Indigenous, Discourse.

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