The Hungry Tide

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Cf. Ghosh’s comments in his UN Chronicle interview: ‘In The Hungry Tide , Kanai is someone from mode (...)

Towards the end of his book Place: A Short Introduction (2004), the geographer Tim Cresswell focuses on two ways in which people can be deemed to be out of place. Both have to do with transgression, ways in which people cross lines—the literal meaning of transgression— and such lines, Cresswell points out, are as much socio-cultural as physical (Cresswell, Place 103). 4 Cresswell’s first focus is on out-of-place sexuality, and he cites a passage from another geographer, Michael Brown, whose book Closet Space (2000) examines the way in which gay sexuality is marginalized, but sometimes offers resistance through claiming particular spaces as its own. Brown describes a scene on a bus in Seattle, in which the heteronormative notion that all space is straight space is challenged by a gay man, who insists that a heterosexual couple who are kissing in public are out of place, while he is not. The scene takes place in a particular part of Seattle:

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On the more brighter note, I loved reading about the landscape shown in the book, it is like I am knowing deeply a character, with its varied shades, in the novel. The fact that such a region exists– with its flora and fauna– is delightful. The immense density of these forests, the presence of white tigers (the Bengal tiger) make this place, among other things, precious. The book is definitely well-written, with interesting characters, and some pretty splendid imagery, and asks some really thought-provoking questions. Where does one draw the line between conservation and development? At what point do we prioritise about the condition that people are living in over nature. Aren't the people part of nature too, and doesn't survival of the people take precedence? The book presents a quite balanced view, with arguments from either side that make you think, and realise that the answer isn't as easy and obvious as one may think. Quadri Ismail takes the view that this conclusion reinforces the Buddhist Sinhala nationalism that (...)

Ghosh does talk explicitly about climate change in the Sundarbans in a 2005 interview for the UN Ch (...) Another reason for concern is the expanding tourism industry in India. Sahara India Parivar's mega tourism project proposes to take over large areas of the Sundarbans to construct floatels, restaurants, shops, business centres, cinemas, and theatres which would disturb the fragile ecosystem and further threaten the already endangered biodiversity of the region. Ghosh vehemently oppose this gigantic hotel project in the name of conservation. Anand, Divya. “Words on Water: Nature and Agency in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide.” Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 34.1 (March 2008): 21-44. D as, Veena. “Subaltern as Perspective.” Subaltern Studies VI: Writings on South Asian History and Society. Ed. Ranajit Guha. Delhi: OUP, 1994. 310-24.The story moves in time and space both. Characters of the present time are Kanai, Fokir, and Piya and the main character of the past is Nirmal. Intricacy and suspense in the plot are kept in the old diary of Nirmal, which is read by Kanai to connect the dots of events. Amitav has touched many issues like refugee, freedom, war, government, and tribal conflict, ecology, marine life and lives in seaside habitats in this book.

The Sundarbans is a constantly mutating location, a region where space is reconfigured by natural forces on a daily basis as a consequence of tidal flows, and this provides Ghosh with a paradigmatic setting for a novel about the shifting dynamics of place. Like the English Fens of Graham Swift’s Waterland (1983) 6 and the Venice of Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion (1987), the Sundarbans of The Hungry Tide is an amphibious location, an environment whose physical geography can be seen as a trope for the fact that the identities of places are not fixed and unitary. Unlike The Passion and unlike Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981), where the Sundarbans is seen as a phantasmagoric ‘historyless’ (Rushdie 360) location, The Hungry Tide ’s meticulously documented details of physical and human geography make a consideration of the various ways in which the region has been and is being shaped by policy-makers and its various other stakeholders inescapable.Coincidentally, Piya in The Hungry Tide comes from Seattle and, although her situation in the novel has little in common with the scene described here, perhaps it is not far-fetched, given her androgynous appearance, to say that disparate ideas on what is and is not in place where external markers of sexuality and gender are concerned provide a common denominator. In Anil’s Ghost , Anil is a similarly androgynous figure. The narrative seamlessly blends elements of historical insights, folklore, and the region’s ecology, creating a rich and immersive tapestry. The Sundarbans emerges as a central character, exuding both enchantment and peril. Ghosh’s vivid descriptions paint a picture of the region’s haunting beauty, as well as the dangers that lurk within its depths, including tidal surges and the ever-present risk of getting lost amidst the mangrove labyrinth. It is when we do not know the other, or when we accept that the other remains unknowable to us, that the other illuminates us in some way, but with a light that enlightens us without our being able to comprehend it, to analyze it, to make it ours. The totality of the other, like that of springtime, [...] touches us beyond all knowledge, all judgement, all reduction to ourselves, [...] the other as other, remains beyond all that we can predicate of him or her. The other is never this or that that we attribute to him or her. It is in so far as the other escapes all judgement on our part that he or she emerges as you, always other and nonappropriable by I. (123-4) The subaltern studies project, a deconstructive historiographic project that is positioned against (...) Ghosh paints a mesmerising picture of the Sunderbans, a part of the country that you don't hear or read about all that often. He doesn't sugar-coat things much, hence you see it in its true light; the description of natural beauty, along with the perils and dangers. My only issue was that he sometimes overdoes the whole ''tide country'' bit, and it sometimes felt a bit forced.

But, the thing I was bothered the most by was the writing style, which felt like it was by some pseudo-intellectual English student from South Kolkata with a woke mindset who quotes Tagore all day long just because he can, who's writing to impress his teacher (use effusive words in meandering sentences and quote poets whenever possible; at least that's what we were taught, and I am trying to unlearn that for 6-7 years now). One of our characters used Rilke's poems throughout his presence just because he could, romanticizing every goddamn thing he possibly could. That touched on some important topics, though, especially the home vs the world, deep-set patriarchy that can never allow even an educated individual to understand the efforts of a woman. The writing was such that if you try to visualize what you're reading, you will feel that you're watching a movie at 0.25X speed; it lets you catch the details but makes you yawn. Nirmal’s notebook describes another kind of internal conflict, the struggle between love and duty. When government forces decided to evict a group of squatters from Morichjhapi, which had been declared a nature refuge, Nirmal felt it was his duty to support the squatters. However, he knew that in doing so, he would probably be forfeiting his life, thus deserting the wife who loved him. Kusum, too, had to balance love and duty, for her death left her son an orphan. Just like any other Ghosh's book, The Hungry Tide takes you to an unknown territory, The Sundarbans. For Indians, we associate Sundarbans with Tigers. But Amitav Ghosh through The Hungry Tide will make you read a totally different side of Sundarbans. A deep history of marshy swamplands, crocodiles, rebellion during Bangladesh war. The last book that I read by Amitav Ghosh was the Glass Palace, which took me to Burma, a place which was alien to me, but not anymore. And that is the beauty of Ghosh's books, you are enchanted and mesmerized whenever you read any one of his books. The Hungry Tide, initially, could garner general responses from critics and readers. However, once the novel’s ecological aspects became popular among academia, the novel caught momentum. It has been popular thereafter. At the centre of many research papers on ecocriticism and contemporary literature, The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh may be a slow-burner for casual fiction readers, but it does harbour the interests of English literature students and research scholars (read this review – The Hungry Tide Book Review). About 20 years young, the novel has found its place in the syllabus of many prestigious Indian universities with other books in the post-colonial studies unit. The Hungry Tide is the fifth novel by Ghosh, followed by Sea of Puppies in 2008 and preceded by The Glass Palace in 2000. If you want to know more about Ghosh, his writing style, philosophy, vision and biographical details, please follow this link to The Indian Authors – Amitav Ghosh. In the first few chapters Ghosh takes ample time with his two main characters. Their histories and inner lives intermingle well. The plot too advances with a decent pace. But then two things overpower his novelIf Kanai seems to represent the commodification of Indian languages, Piya stands for their suppression. Raised in Seattle, she remembers Bengali simply as the language her parents argued in. As a child she tried to shut her ears to these sounds: "She wanted ... sounds that had been boiled clean, like a surgeon's instruments, tools with nothing attached except meanings that could be looked up in a dictionary - empty of pain and memory and inwardness."