Identity Politics in Amitav Ghosh’s Writing: A Postcolonial Study of The Shadow Lines and Sea of Poppies

Abstract

The present paper is an attempt to explore the identity politics from postcolonial point of view in Amitav Ghosh‘s The Shadow Lines and Sea of Poppies. In The Shadow Lines, Ghosh has interwoven and scrutinized the impacts of colonialism on the culture and society of two main neighbouring cities, namely Calcutta and Dhaka. Presenting a thorough political and cultural change, the novel throws the light on initial awareness of the social, psychological and cultural inferiority enforced by colonizer an displays struggle of subaltern people for ethnic, cultural and political autonomy. Throughout the novel, the writer explicitly and implicitly emits sparks or traces of postcolonial principles to show his interest in depicting the aftermath of colonization especially in the era after the emancipation. This paper aims to explore the overall structure of the novel through postcolonial approach regarding the application of some postcolonial elements such as obscurity, identity crisis, essentialism, otherness, nationalism, unbelonging etc. In Ghosh‘s Sea of Poppies, the challenge against global condition and ever-increasing cultural multiplicity is delineated through a panorama of characters who migrate to an alien place in a slip called the Ibis. In a colonial backdrop, Ghosh draws attention to the historical consequences of imperialism leading to migration and displacement of people. This paper focuses on how the characters face their identity problem while reconstructing their new identity. Cut off from the older personal, familiar and national ties, these migrants forge new identity with a sense of pain, agony and dilemma.