THE OPIUM TRADE AND ITS ECHOES: A DEEP DIVE INTO AMITAV GHOSH'S SEA OF POPPIES
Shantanu Chakravarty
English
June 2024
Historical fiction is a recherché genre that is challenging to write, hard to research, and hard to keep readers interested. Amitav Ghosh's "Sea of Poppies" explores the opium trade of the 19th century and its far-reaching effects in great detail. The lives of a wide range of characters, all of whom were profoundly impacted by the opium trade and British colonialism in India, are skillfully woven together in this book. Ghosh's story takes place against the backdrop of the Ibis, a ship that represents the voyage both towards servitude and freedom. Ghosh depicts the opium trade's influence on the course of individual lives as well as world history by capturing the socioeconomic and cultural upheavals of the time through colorful storytelling and painstaking historical accuracy. Echoing the ongoing effects of the opium trade on modern society, the novel offers a gripping look at empire, identity, and resistance. In addition to examining the hardships of the main character Deeti, this research study attempts to follow the history of opium cultivation and trafficking in the eighteenth century, from its origins in India to its current destination of China, while also investigating the migration patterns of the people who migrated across the Indian Ocean
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