The Shadow Lines as a Political Novel

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, published in 1988, is a political novel that focuses mostly on nationalism, the meaninglessness of partition and the 1964 communal riots which occurred in Calcutta, Dhaka and Khulna. This paper attempts to investigate The Shadow Lines from the perspective of nationalism to reflect on the negative impact it had on peoples’ minds because of political uncertainties. This paper will also discuss the patriarchal indifference to women’s contribution in the Indian National Movement with extracts from the novel in the following chapters, “The Shadow Lines & Nationalism” and “Criticism of Nationalism in The Shadow Lines”. Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines chronicles three generations in a family saga that spreads over Dhaka, Calcutta and London. The book is divided into two parts, “Going Away” and “Coming Home”. In the first section, the narrator draws the picture of a war-ravaged London and also depicts the family rapport between the Prices and Mayadebi whose son Tridib enchants the narrator with his story telling and in-depth knowledge of many places. A love relationship between Tridib and May Price, the daughter of the Prices, develops when May returns to Calcutta. The narrator learns about the war from Tridib, his gifted uncle. In the second section of The Shadow Lines, Ghosh pays attention to communal strife in Calcutta and Dhaka caused by the loss of the Prophet’s hair from Hazratbal shrine, Srinagar.