Alienated Suffering of Divide and Cross: A Study of Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines

Abstract

This article attempts to examine the melancholy and sadness of nostalgic feelings and alienated sufferings of divisional and cross of the nation. The novel deals with the partition of India, is the subject of many Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi writers. Some of them were the direct victims of the event while others have the inherited the legacy of Partition from different members of their family, friends and community. In fact, the people of South Asia are still occupied with the partition and the attitude of many generations to history suggests something never to be forgotten. The writers of the Partition have focused on various issues like violence, migration, alienation, nostalgia, rape, abduction etc. The attempt in this paper is to read out displacement, nostalgia, and alienated sufferings in context of Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines. The Partition and the creation of the border have formed the politics of the continent as well as the thinking of its people. Amitav Ghosh deals the subject of border as futile and false lines. The study focuses on how the protagonist of the novel deals with these lines showing their sufferings through alienation and nostalgic emotions to what extent they shape the psyche of different characters. Since Amitav Ghosh speaks up from West Bengal, and is the second generation to experience partition through stories, beautifully describes the context of Bengal and the meaning of the Partition to different generations. The paper also focuses on the theme of exile or sense of belongingness, the partition of India, and consequent of trauma of the East Bengal’s psyche.