Impact of Imperialism: As Reflected in The Glass Palace- Amitav Ghosh

Abstract

Colonization is a system of political, cultural and economic domination of the supreme country over the other countries. The political and cultural existence of the colonized country is marginalized by the colonizer. This attitude of the colonizer not only psychologically disturbs the moral conscience of the colonized but also it establishes a sense of inferiority complex over social, religious, cultural and political system of the colonized. The self-confidence of the colonized is questioned and more than their strength their weakness is targeted. The colonizer gradually starts exploiting the strength & weakness in order to establish their identity. The majority of the writers claim the major theme of literature as resistance towards the former colonizer and they represented the life of people authentically. As a result the post colonial writer practices to counteract and resists the approach of colonizer in educational, legal, political and social settings. As Amitav Gosh was born in Calcutta, he had ample chance to witness the cultural life of Calcutta, Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). And during Emergency period (1975-77) the author worked as a journalist with the Indian express group of news papers. All these helped the author to fictionalize his theme with the historical background. The novel The Glass Palace is about the dissolution of the Kingdom of Burma. Because of colonization the last King of Burma ‘Thebaw’ has been dethroned by the British Government and sent on exile to India.