Fictionalization of History: Hazards of the Colonized as Glimpsed in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh is one of the world’s finest novelists. He seems to be interested and preoccupied with the individuals who caught up in the web of cultural, social and political diversities. In Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, People from different social backgrounds are portrayed and re-enacts the history of indentured servant or Indian laborers. The novel focuses on their troubles and position in the society, and also the anguish of departure from their motherland. The paper focuses on the elements of characters that are related to their ocean life, passage of slaves and the experience of violence. Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) is a nautical fictional creation based on a wide research not on various aspects of the colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent. The paper focuses on how the opium war is fictionalized to serve the purpose of depicting ecocide during the colonial period.