The Calcutta Chromosome:Resistance against Western Hegemony

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome spans from near future in 21 to early Victorian ear, covering almost a century of history, entangled on characters obsessed on the findings of anti malaria parasite. Story unfolds, when Antar, an employee of lifeWatch, an international company based on New York, comes across a battered I.D. of his long lost colleague Murugan, was displayed on the screen of his supercomputer, Ava. Murugan, who is a self-claimed science sleuth, is obsessed with the findings ofthe anti malaria parasite and came to Calcutta in 1995. In the course of his research, Murugan comes across the forgotten history of Mangala, a low caste Hindu woman and a sweeper in designation, practices a mystical cult for curing malaria patients. Mangala is able to cure malaria patients before the findings of anti malarial parasite by a British scientist, Ronald Ross, thereby raising serious concerns on the established belief of western concept of anti malaria parasite findings. st century