An Ecocritical Insight into Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
Sushanta Sarkar
Ph. D. Research Scholar
Veer
Kunwar Singh University
Ara,
Bihar, India
Abstract:
Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer writing in English. His
novels present the panorama of the Indian cultures, history, tradition,
politics, social issues. The novel Sea of Poppies narrates the story of
colonialism and its effect on Indian Subcontinents. The novel discusses the
growing of opium in Bihar and Calcutta for the British for their mercenary
growth and its effects on environment and nature. Due to the growth of opium,
the entire ecosystem affected. Thus Ghosh with the literary theory Eco
criticism tries to show how the cultivation of opium leads to the destruction
of both human and nonhuman world. Thus the paper presents how literary theory
can bring to focus on the environment issues.
Keywords: Ecocritism, Ecology, Ecocide, Environment
Degradation, Ecologist
Our Earth has very limited source of natural resources.
The moral responsibility of every individual is to utilize the resources in a
limited way and preserve it for our coming generation but the human beings even
though aware of the fact is over utilizing the resources, thus, disturbing the
peace and balance of nature. In order to make himself economical strong they
are continuously constructing islands, impuring the rivers and seas, cutting
down the trees their by leading to deforestation, hunting the wild animal etc.
But what is the result of it man is economically building itself strong but
making the nature worst.
It is the law of Nature that ‘Nature never
did betray the heart that loved her’ (William Wordsworth 1798) but the
extravagant lifestyle of human is destroying the nature there by provoking the
nature to act against human beings.
Glen A love in “Revaluing Nature: Towards an
Ecological Criticism’ an article published in Eco criticism Reader says, “…mankind
now has the power to make the biosphere uninhabitable and that it will in fact produce this suicidal result within
a foreseeable period of time if the human population of the globe does not now take prompt and vigorous concerned action to check the
pollution and the spoliation
that are being inflicted upon the biosphere by short sighted human greed.” (225)
Many Indian writers like Amitabh Ghosh,
Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, R.K. Narayan have written most of his fictions
and nonfictions on environment and nature. This writing will definitely change
the present situation and will create path for the present writers to write
about the environmental criticism there by setting an example for each and
every one to preserve the nature. His novel The Glass Palace, Calcutta
Chromosomes, Shadow Lines, Hungry Tides, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke,
The Gun Island and the nonfiction The Great Derangement And
Climate Change and The Unthinkable, etc all presents his views on
the nature environment.
We live in the World of pollution, industrial
waste, and forest degradation. For the sake of mankind the human beings are
overtly exploiting the natural resources there by leading to hazardous effect
on nature and human beings themselves. In this context, literature places a
very vital role to make aware the society the drawbacks cause due to their over
utilization of natural resources. Literature is a link to connect mankind with
nature. These ecological disasters need a theory to acquaint the society about
the pollution. Such theory is called Eco criticism which studies the
relationship between literature and environment. The primary aim of ecocritisim
is to discuss on the environment problems like deforestation through the
literary text thereby highlighting problems. Eco critics with the help of
literature try to bring awareness about environment. The Ecologists are of
opinion that human beings are neglecting nature.
The task of Eco criticism is to inform the
reader through reading the cultural text which will create in them
consciousness of nature. But also develop thinking about how to preserve
nature. The novel studies the ecological relationship with the humankind. How
the ecology is affected by the human hunger for their mercenary profit. the
growing of opium in the northern part of Bihar and Calcutta by the Britishers
for their economic gain leads to the exploitation of the land and the nature.
The poor people of Northern parts of India are totally depending on the
farming. But due to the British imperialism they were forced to grow opium in
their fields rather than the regular crops of wheat, jawar, bajra etc. so sea
of poppies is an account of imposed opium monoculture on the Northern part of
Bihar and Calcutta . Ghosh exposes the role of raja who supports the British
Imperialists just to gain financial rewards in the opium business. Neel Ratan
and his father also supports the colonizers to earn profits.
Ecological imperialism is the exploitation of
natural resources by the Imperialist for their economic growth. The Imperialist
not only exploit the natural resources but also utilized the labor of native
for their own economic interest. The novel Sea of Poppies was published in 2008
and is the first volume of Ibis Trilogy depicting the opium trade of British
government. It also shows the effect of trade on the lives of ordinary people
like Deeti, a widow, Kalua a subaltern or low caste chamber, Zachary Reid, an
American mulato, Neel Ratan Halder, a landlord, Paulette a French orphan and
Mr. Benjamin Burnham British opium merchant.
The novel Sea of Poppies presents the
anthropocentric views of the author where he keeps the human kind as the most
essential element. Sea of Poppies depicts the condition of poor farmer
due to the growth of opium thus leading to the degradation of the lives of
people. The novel centered on the lives of subjugated people who have no right
to speak for themselves and even no right to leave their life independently due
to the British imperialism. By presenting rules of them are much as non-human
his poor character at the centre, he portray the existence of them are much
non-human beings being even not fit to leave on as human only because of the
imperialist attitude towards them.
Deeti is forced to grow opium in her field.
In spite of her hard work, she is unable to meet her day to day necessities.
she is unable to manage her household responsibilities and ultimately leads to
poverty and hunger and is caught in debts. She is helpless. She couldn't grow
regular crops. Though not willing, she has to adapt this new crop to grow. The
British would go from home forcing cash advances on the farmers and their forged
thumbprints. If the farmer refused, British soldiers would hide silver in their
houses to make them culprit and then they were declared as convict and
transported to the foreign land as an indentured labours for working for the
Imperialist on the sugar plantation. In this way there is no escape from opium.
Deeti herself was a victim of this. Seeing herself as over burden with the
debts, she was compelled to become indentured labour for her survival. Thus the
novel presents the mono cultural growth of poppies leads to the exploitation of
farmer and destroyed their lives and even caused migration for the survival.
East India company plays very crucial role in
crushing the lives and growth of the regular crop the peasants are force to
sales their opium to the East India company who is sold responsible for growing
of opium it is the Monopoly of East India company the British government to
produce and pack the entire opium under the supervision of East India Company.
The sadder opium factory in Ghazipur where the
opium is packed had a very environmental injustice. Deeti witnessed the inhuman
condition of the workers in factory, who goes to take her sick husband Hukum
Singh to home. Deeti saw the unhealthy environment of the factory. Ghosh has
very well portrayed that environmental injustice imposed on the poor workers in
the opium factory through the character Deeti, when she goes into the factory.
“…her eyes were met by a startling sight- a host of dark legless torsos was
circling around and around, like some enslaved tribe of demons. This vision
along with the over powering fumes made her groggy and to keep herself from the
fainting she begin to move slowly ahead. When her eyes had grown more
accustomed, she discovered the secret of those circling torsos, they were bare
bodied men, sunk waist- deep in tanks of opium tramping round and round to
soften the sludge.” (94-95)
Amitav Ghosh not only shows the effect of
opium on the living and nonliving things but it also shows it effects on river.
The holy river Ganga which have been polluted due to the waste of the opium
factory. Ghosh has depicted how the aquatic lives are also affected. The
chemical that’s getting mixed into the water due to the opium waste from
factory effect the life of the fish. The fish were under the tranquil effect of
opium which made easy access to the fisherman. River Ganga which is the symbol
of purity is also contaminated. Ghosh compares River Ganga with the river Nile,
the lifeline of Egyptian civilization. Due to the opium, it leads to the environment
issues. the novel presents all these issues caused due to opium growth having
human , animals, birds, insects and the natural world. Kalua gives opium to his
ox to eat so that it can relax. the insects suck the nectar in the flowers of
poppies and are induced due to the opium. the effect of opium has not only left
to birds about animals like monkey who due to the effect of opium are in
constant and didn’t behave like other monkeys but behave strangely. “…this
stretch of river bank was unlike any other for the ghats around the caracanna
were shored up with thousands of the broken earthen gharas- the round bottom
vessels in which raw opium was brought to be factory. The belief was wide
spread the fish were more easily caught after they had nipped at the result the
bank was always proud will fisherman.” (92)
The role of the Indian merchants for the sake
of profit the Indian merchants in order to get profits financial profit in the
business of opium supports the British imperialist. The very good example is
Raja Neel Ratan Halder the Raja and his father supports the colonizer to earn
the financial profit. It is not only the British who were enjoying the opium
business fruits. In India many merchants also took imperialist. Neel Rattan ,
the owner of Halder estate was largely dependent for the family fortune on
Benjamin Burnham, a British merchant but later Neel was trapped by into the
debts by Mr Burnham for not supporting him to sell his property due to the
debts incurred on him of opium business. Neel is transported as a convict to
Mauritius Island as an indenture labour to work on the sugar plantation. Thus
the paper studies the ecological issues affecting the life of everyone. The
hazardous effect of opium troubles the life of people in Northern part of
India, thus cutting them out of their lives and forced them to migrate to
aboard for their survival.
Bibliography
Ghosh, Amitav. Sea of Poppies. Penguin India,
2008.
Love, Glen A. “ Revaluing nature towareds an Ecological
Criticism.” Western American Literature. vol . 25, no. 3 (FALL 1990),
pp. 201-215.
Wordsworth William “ Lines composed a few miles above
Tintern Abbey” 13 july 1798.
Jha, Vivekanand. ‘ A Tribute Poem to Amitav Ghosh.’ Jha
I.
Bhatt, Indira and Indira Nityandan, eds. The Fiction
of Amitav Ghosh. Creative books, 2001.