Recreation of Subaltern History in Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s In An Antic Land focuses on the history of marginalized people and community of ancient time period. It is complex text which bears the quality of partially history, partially fiction and partially travel writing in which Ghosh trails back to twelfth century and brings the issues on how India came into the contact with Egypt with the story of Ben Yiju, Jewish merchant from Tunisia and his Indian slave Bomma. By trailing to antique past he insight deeply into the cultural and social development of Egypt from religious movements to Operation Desert Storm. Ghosh has not only written the historical novel rather he has evoked the history of marginal people who have been abandoned by mainstream history. Combining keen observations with painstaking historical research, he present the dreams and aspirations of ordinary human beings and the effect of political and historical changes in their lives. With all great qualities of travel writer, Ghosh searches for the hidden history of subaltern in this novel.