From the individual to the historical: a commentary on amitav ghosh as a writer of historical fiction with reference to the glass palace

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh is widely known as a historical novelist in Indian Writing in English. He recreates the colonial past of the subcontinent from the colonized point of view. However, he is not one who merely recreates history. He is appreciated for writing history with life. He narrates the story of an individual who often turns out to be the representative of a community and its untold history. The Glass Palace is one such novel that recreates the history of the colonial past of India and Burma. The focus is mainly on the life of Rajkumar who is an Indian orphan struggling to survive in Burma after being unfortunately transported to the country by accident. This paper is an analysis of Ghosh’s novel, The Glass Palace in order to show how the author recreates a lively history by narrating the life story of his protagonist.