Postcolonial Concerns in Amitav Ghosh's The Circle of Reason

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle of Reason examines the postcolonial concerns. This thesis focuses on the adverse effect of postcolonial rationality as exemplified in the novel. Balaram, one of the main characters of the novel has obsession with reason. In the novel, he represents the innocent people who are accused of terrorism and are compelled to be fugitive by the repressive force of government. The character Balaram, who has the campaign of hygiene and reason- based practical planning, is destroyed by the brutish force of postcolonial India. The government fails to maintain the order and rule of law. It also disturbs the utopian projects. The main focus of the research is to bring out the concern of the novel as to the postcolonial reality of India. Its main motto is to examine the issues of diaspora, migration, rootlessness, search for identity, etc. It also examines whether postcolonial rationality and police administrative force of government are really to prosper the life of citizen or not. The study explorers that the police force is deployed to maintain the order and peace in the society but it becomes the cause of suffering of the innocent people; hence postcolonial rationality has no sense, no reason and no principled and pragmatic value. Ghosh’s focus is on hybridity, formation of new connections and that history is not unchangeable.