The Shadow Lines PDF

Amitav Ghosh’s problematization of nation in Tha’mma’s identity in “The Shadow Lines”.
“People like my grandmother, who have no home but in memory, learn to be very skilled in the art of
recollection.”
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He started out with
“Circle of Reason”, which was published in 1986 followed by “The Shadow Lines” which was published in
1988 .The Shadow Lines circumferences around the idea of a nation and the variety of identities that
shape themselves around it. Ghosh aims at questioning the political cognizance intensely wrapped and
tightly enmeshed inside the national flags.The plot concerns itself with the family and friends of a
nameless narrator which has its roots in broader national and international experience. In the novel, the
past, the present and the future combine and melt together erasing any kind of line of demarcations.
Combining the ideas of relationships that move beyond borders and the ideas of borders in the minds of
the characters, Ghosh hence endeavors at understanding the complex notions of homeland and nation.
The narrator, Tridib and the grandmother – despite their differences in age, location, ideology and
varying perspectives on reality, share an innate Indianness, even a conceptual formulation of
nationalism, which Ila, the Indian located in the West cannot envisage. The narrator’s grandmother is
one such character who conforms to the thinking that the nation is a clear marker of identity. She is a
votary of the nation in a sense in which none of the other character is. In fact, she represents a
legitimate view of the nation against which the viewpoints of others like those of Tridib, Ila and the
narrator, may be perceived. Though she lives in the frozen past, the reality of nationhood is largely
stable in her case. As a fervent and militant nationalist, she worries about her old uncle dying in a
country not his own, almost abandoned and alone in old age. It is clear that she cares for the ties of
blood and nationhood, and is prepared to let go the bitter memories of family feuds. It is also interesting
to note that the terrorists fascinated her, and she wanted to act like them for her freedom. Her quest
for freedom is a quest for attaining nationhood; and she is prepared to pay any price for it. But Tha’mma
thinks that Ila does not understand the true spirit of England, and, so, does not have the right to be
staying there. Her nationalist fervor gets articulated when she gives away her cherished necklace, the
first gift that she had received from her husband after her marriage, for the war fund in 1965.
Tha’mma’s sense of nation receives a severe jolt when she undertakes a rescue mission to Dhaka to
bring back her Jethamoshai to India. Before her departure she wonders whether she would be able to
see the border between India and East Pakistan from the window of the plane, to which her son
sarcastically replies that did she think that the border would actually be a long black line with green on
one side and scarlet on the other as in a school atlas! True, her response to the question of the border is
native, but her expectation to find trenches or soldiers or guns pointing at each other or even no-man’s
land there, makes sense. But when she is told that she should expect clouds, and at the most some
green fields, she is simply amazed. Tha’mma feels utterly bewildered when she is further told that’ the
border is not on the frontier. She is pained to know that she is much more a foreigner in her place of
birth than May, as the latter does not need a visa to come to Dhaka. As for her Dhaka, it had long since
disappeared into the past and she can visit and revisit it only in her memory. Her poor consolation is
that the memory cannot be divided.
The Shadow Lines is the Partition novel that really questions the concept of the border, questions very
seriously whether the shadow line that we inscribe to separate people into different nations has any
validity, or whether it is an absurd illusion. It is Ghosh’s contention in this novel that borders themselves
are fictive and illusive, that they defeat and negate the very reason behind their ostensible existence.
Thamma in The Shadow Lines inquires whether she would be able to see the boundary between India
and East Pakistan. Thamma epitomizes nationalist movements of India and has been an inspiration for
the narrator. He uses his grandmother’s eyes to see her life in Dhaka as a young girl, her uncle and
cousins, the other side of the big house where everything was upside down. Thamma represents India’s
national identity in the Nationalist Movement. The Common prudence of Thamma fails to understand
the justification of creating two nations. D. K. Pabby( while presenting comparative study of themes in
his article viz. theme of partition and freedom in Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan and Amitav
Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines comments), “In The Shadow Lines, the development and growth of Thamma
character encapsulate the futility and meaninglessness of political freedom which was otherwise
supposed to usher in an era of peace and prosperity for all”.
VIPASHA SHARMA
88

The Shadow Lines PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Shadow Lines PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Shadow Lines PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Amitav Ghosh’s problematization of nation in Tha’mma’s identity in “The Shadow Lines”.

You might also like