Element of Memory in The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh

Abstract

It is a historical novel with flesh-back mode narration. It covers the time span of 1964 to 1984. Here we found the elements of biography with reference to author upset by the riots that followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination and that his novel came out of the turmoil of that moment. The incident revived his memories of 1964 riots in Calcutta, Dhaka and elsewhere. It is principally organized through the weaving together of ‘personal lives and public events.’ The finished form ultimately excavates personal and social history agest to the racial riots in some parts of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and mainly Calcutta in India.