THE IMMORTALS OF MELUHA: A STUDY IN GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Geopolitics is a very sought after research topic these days. It revolves around the political issues related to geography. All the aspects about international politics and foreign policies related to the flora and fauna, mountains, valleys, rivers, demographicsetc. between nations is what geopolitics is all about. The term ‘Geopolitics’ was originally coined by the Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén. Geopolitics has currently emerged to prominence because of awareness amongst the nations regarding the role that geography plays in forming foreign policies. Be it the collapse of the U.S.S.R. or the emergence of U.S.A. as a superpower after the Second World War, the events do have a connection with Geopolitics.As one of the subthemes of the conference is geopolitical issues in literature, the researcher decided to work in this field. The researcher intends to apply geopolitical issues on a currently famous mythology based novel.The novel is the first book in the Shiva trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha. The primary reason for selecting this novel is that the novel is part of the researcher’s PhD thesis. The Immortals of Meluha is all about the rise of a man from oblivion to stardom. It describes a beautiful journey of a man coming from the wilderness to achieving oneness. It describes a journey of a man destined to be a God whom future generations will be referring as Mahadev or Lord Shiva.The Immortals of Meluha certainly possesses the elements of geopolitics. Shiva is a leader of the Guna tribe in Tibet. But Shiva’s land has often been a victim of brutal attacks from Pakratis. The evil intention to misuse the natural resources is what drives the Pakratis to constantly wage attacks on the Guna tribe. Shiva receives an invitation to merge his tribe with the Suryavanshi kingdom, which he accepts. But soon he finds out that the Suryavanshi Empire itself is being devastated by constant terrorist attacks from the Chandravanshi Empire. And the main element of the conflict is the drying up of Saraswati River which in turn creates havoc in the Chandravanshi Empire. Hence, in this short overview, we see that major conflicts are taking place because of the over abuse of natural resources, selfish motives to sabotage the natural balance of the land as well as dirty politics being played on the geographic areas. The aim of the researcher is to analys the novel threadbare with the elements of geopolitical issues.