Mapping a Redefined Nation: A Critical Insight into the Select Novels of Amitav Ghosh

Abstract

The notion of nation is imbued with Westernized colour. The nationalistic fervour of the people of pre-independent India was a blind imitation of Western nationalism. The result was a continuous struggle to display nationalistic supremacy. In the post- Independence period, the spirit of nationalism was utilized in building nation-state in which relatively homogeneous people with common culture and language would inhabit. This political process became instrumental in engendering genocide, communal riots, racial discrimination etc. With the advent of postcolonial panorama, the concept of homogeneous nation, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or psychological inclination manifested in a common culture, does not hold meanings. Due to globalisation, immigration and diasporic transnationalism gained currency. Assimilating the immigrants into the hegemonic national culture of a nation-state appears problematic owing to the co-existence of multiplicity of cultural ethos. The heterogeneity has redefined the concept of nation. The new surge of migration has attached plurality and diversity to national framework. The diasporic communities have evolved an environment of technological development which has blurred the borders of nation-states; their language of culture and rituals is echoed with transnational resonance. My paper will find out this remapped nation in the context of four major novels of Amitav Ghosh: The Shadow Lines (1988), The Hungry Tide (2004), Sea of Poppies (2008) and River of Smoke (2011),