History being Reconstructed

‘History’, the English word is derived from the Greek word ‘istoria’ meaning inquiry, exploration, research which defines the origin and development of humankind and also depicts a record of the various and distinct events and movements in its time. As Thomas Carlyle defines history, it is a subject that traces the essence of the past innumerable biographies of great men. Here arises a question if history recognizes only the people worthy of talking about or if it is worthy of reading only about the historical figures – more of Kings, Queens, and great leaders. But E.H.Carr has a different view on history-defining it as ‘history means interpretation’ which states that the past can be read in various ways. Therefore, history in literature reflects the author’s subjective or objective observation of life which naturally makes history more interesting.

In this way, a writer interprets or perceives history that suits his views and ideas for his purpose of creating a literary piece. He attempts to interpret history from a different viewpoint giving it a different perspective. It approaches history through the reading of the past that also regards the lives of the unnoticed or the lives that are considered unimportant by the historians, as he might be subjective rather than being objective. Hence, history can be no longer considered as the record of historical events and that documents the lives of great people, in the context of literature. Recent modern historiography approaches re-examining these events with nearly emerging ideas and interpretations. This rereading of history covers the disregarded or the usually uncovered and forgotten documents as literary pieces. They pave way for the marginalized subjects to come over by throwing light on their ignored lives and lifelessness.

This is where Amitav Ghosh comes in as a writer who uses history and the great historical events as his main plot that covers the ignored lives and parts of many ordinary people of that time. He tries to create a connection between these events and the ordinary people by throwing lights on them and their roles in history. His works focus on the overshadowed lives of innocent and ordinary people who become either violent or subjugated due to their unavoidable circumstances, by breaking the traditional historiography.

He focuses on the reality that lies on both sides of history – the covered and the uncovered. Through his imagination and narration, he gives out the reality in his fictions that are more real than fiction. He stresses on the past of the nation that belongs to everybody, both the rulers and the ruled alike. Therefore, he looks at the Partition of India and Pakistan in The Shadow Lines through the eyes of Tha’mma, who loses her grandson in a riot. She once had a passion for her country’s freedom and wanted to join the freedom struggle desperately. Later on, when she witnesses her grandson Tridib being killed in a riot in Dhaka, she undergoes traumatic conflicts within her and screams out her feelings when she is stressed. Her passion for her country is devastated through the loss of her kith and kin unnecessarily and without a valid reason.

Akin to it, Kusum, a young woman in The Hungry Tide sacrifices her life for the sake of her people in the Morichjhappi Massacre. She leaves her son, a young boy without protection and goes willingly to give a ray of hope for the lives of her people. Yet, these kinds of sacrifices and sufferings find no place in history, as they are people belonging to ordinary lifestyle or people of unknown areas.

History and historical events change an individual’s life with the intervention of historical reality and the truth. With characters like these, Ghosh tries to reinvent and recreate history that talks of the mere lives and hardships of the ordinary people, who equally have their parts that are played in the events of history. He further succeeds in reinventing history as a writer and not as a historian who fails.

Through the process of reexamining, Ghosh is able to look into the true meaning and value of history which has an ideal construct of the personal as well as the public lives. He has focused on the stories of the normal individuals that are affected seriously by the public history which focuses exclusively on the great loss of lives, property, etc. it puts forth a question if any historian has attempted to mention the impact of the Partition of a country in the common men like Tha’mma or the struggles of the refugees like Kusum that is worth a price of national history in their records. Rather, they focus only on the public history that deals with loss and tragedy by easily neglecting the personal or private history of such people who have also played a major role in their nation’s welfare.

This uninvited space has been comfortably handled by the contemporary writers to mark a note of respect on the sacrifices and the struggles that these people have undergone and also to hit the nail sharp on the historian’s viewpoints and on the history of a nation. Thus, creative authors convince themselves to come in terms with history to write the unwritten parts in history that would create a positive air and also would encourage the people or the readers to give away a cordial bow on those unknown faces and the real citizens who have sacrificed a lot of dear ones and properties for the sake of the country’s freedom, reconstructing the stories that were considered unusual r even unique on their own paths.

In other novels like the Ibis trilogy, he comes out with the ever-devastated lives of people in the Opium War that went on between India, China, and Britain. This war took away the lives of so many uncountable people on both sides. British’s idea of creating an addiction of opium drug on Chinese for the want of slavery and dictatorship that arose due to their debts for china created rage upon the victims and their government to ban such drugs. Growing this opium-producing poppy plants in India also created addiction on Indians that also ended up with ruining many families and indentured laborers.

These meek and innocent victims and indentured laborers who either volunteered or were forced are given prominence in this trilogy by recreating and reconstructing a live history once again in the present era. Such narrations and histories that are unnoticed and the stories narrating the past I the present create a burden in the hearts of the readers which paves way for the success of the author in the process of recreating and in the reconstruction of history.