Diasporic Sensibility and Reconstruction of Identity in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies

Abstract

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s remarkable novel Sea of Poppies (2008), shortlisted for ?Man Booker Prize? and which is first in his projected trilogy of novels, deals with a chaotic voyage across the Indian Ocean to Mauritus Island returning to a self-reflexive question about the nation. Its story unfolds in north India and the Bay of Bengal in 1838 on the eve of British attack on the Chinese port known as the first opium war. Set in 1838s, just before the opium war (1839-1842), this novel encapsulates the colonial history of East. In the novel, Ghosh assembles the sailors, passengers and marinesfrom different corners of world for the ship Ibis, a slaving schooner now converted to the transport of coolies and opium to China. In bringing his troupe of characters to Calcutta into the open water, Ghosh provides the reader with all manner of stories, and equips himself with the personnel to man and navigate an old-fashioned literary three-decker.