Questioning of Nationalist Historiography in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide

Abstract

This research, based on Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide, explores the marginalization of peasant culture and the history of rebellion in Indian ‘nationalist’ historiography. Ghosh chronicles the gauged voice of refugees and peasants of Sundarban area, the victims of partition in West Bengal. Nilima, Nirmal and Kanai represent the social activists and visionaries of modern India whereas Fokir, Kusum and other settlers of Morichjhapi are illiterate rural peasants. The attempt of central government to flush these organized settlers from their settlement stands for the reluctance of Indian nationalist politics to recognize the alternative voice of these peasants. Moreover, this research is the analysis of how through the decades Indian nationalist history has attempted to reject the voice of illiterate local peasants as their own