Identity and Belonging in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines and The Hungry Tide

Name of Author : Bimilin Jebarcy N

Abstract: In the midst of historical, cultural, and environmental upheavals, Amitav Ghosh’s novels The Shadow Lines (1988) and The Hungry Tide (2004) deftly examine the ideas of identity and belonging. Ghosh explores the artificiality of borders after Partition in The Shadow Lines, as people like Tha’mma and the narrator struggle with inherited trauma and false divisions and identity is shown as shattered by memory, nationalism, and violence. Tha’mma asked, “But if there is a border, then why can’t we see it?” (Ghosh 149), highlight the pointlessness of using geographic boundaries to define membership. While Mongia (1992) looks at how postcolonial gender boundaries shape identity, critics such as Afshan (2024) contend that borders are unable to hold emotions. Characters like Piya and Fokir in The Hungry Tide transcend societal barriers in the face of environmental hostility and displacement as identity emerges fluidly via ecological interactions in the Sunderbans. As seen in Piya’s remark, “for me home is where the Orcella are” (Ghosh 400), Ghosh’s story, enhanced by myths like as Bon Bibi, emphasizes belonging as a negotiation between human and non-human realms. While Basu (2013) highlights the importance of deep ecology, scholars like Das (2021) see identity as postmodern and power-infused. In order to make the case that Ghosh challenges inflexible national and cultural structures by redefining identity as permeable and belonging as rooted in common vulnerabilities, this paper analyses both novels using textual excerpts and critical insights.

Keywords : postcolonialism, ecology, borders, displacement, identity, and belonging.

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