Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies

This paper argues that Amitav Ghosh’s <em>Sea of Poppies</em> highlights the transcultural continuities between indenture in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic slave trade, while simultaneously foregrounding the specificities of servitude in the Indian Ocean World. To do so, it demonstrat...

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Autor principal:	Sneharika Roy
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN ES
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2017
Materias:	amitav ghosh, atlantic studies, freedom, indian ocean world, slavery, social death, karmic rebirth General Works A
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7652faa5cdc94931b87d8c6d7d4cf505
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7652faa5cdc94931b87d8c6d7d4cf5052021-12-02T15:41:56ZFacets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies2339-852310.5565/rev/indialogs.74https://doaj.org/article/7652faa5cdc94931b87d8c6d7d4cf5052017-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/74https://doaj.org/toc/2339-8523This paper argues that Amitav Ghosh’s <em>Sea of Poppies</em> highlights the transcultural continuities between indenture in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic slave trade, while simultaneously foregrounding the specificities of servitude in the Indian Ocean World. To do so, it demonstrates the remarkable relevance of Orlando Patterson’s concept of slavery as “social death” to the Indian experience of crossing of the “Black Water,” one that has traditionally been articulated through the cultural trope of death. However, rather than a simple reconfirmation of indentured labour as social death, Ghosh’s novel offers a nuanced, counter-balancing correlative to social death: karmic rebirth as narrative event and metaphoric idiom. By using the double-level of meaning offered by symbolism and allegory, Ghosh is able to sensitively balance exploitation and oppression on the one hand (the “outward” or objective reality of social death) and resistance and agency on the other (the “inward reality” of karmic rebirth). In this sense, his novel is ultimately a reaffirmation of Patterson’s Hegelian insight that slavery is not antithetical to freedom, but is the pre-condition for its emergence.Sneharika RoyUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelonaarticleamitav ghosh, atlantic studies, freedom, indian ocean world, slavery, social death, karmic rebirthGeneral WorksAENESIndialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies, Vol 4, Iss 0, Pp 51-62 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN ES
topic	amitav ghosh, atlantic studies, freedom, indian ocean world, slavery, social death, karmic rebirth General Works A
spellingShingle	amitav ghosh, atlantic studies, freedom, indian ocean world, slavery, social death, karmic rebirth General Works A Sneharika Roy Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
description	This paper argues that Amitav Ghosh’s <em>Sea of Poppies</em> highlights the transcultural continuities between indenture in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic slave trade, while simultaneously foregrounding the specificities of servitude in the Indian Ocean World. To do so, it demonstrates the remarkable relevance of Orlando Patterson’s concept of slavery as “social death” to the Indian experience of crossing of the “Black Water,” one that has traditionally been articulated through the cultural trope of death. However, rather than a simple reconfirmation of indentured labour as social death, Ghosh’s novel offers a nuanced, counter-balancing correlative to social death: karmic rebirth as narrative event and metaphoric idiom. By using the double-level of meaning offered by symbolism and allegory, Ghosh is able to sensitively balance exploitation and oppression on the one hand (the “outward” or objective reality of social death) and resistance and agency on the other (the “inward reality” of karmic rebirth). In this sense, his novel is ultimately a reaffirmation of Patterson’s Hegelian insight that slavery is not antithetical to freedom, but is the pre-condition for its emergence.
format	article
author	Sneharika Roy
author_facet	Sneharika Roy
author_sort	Sneharika Roy
title	Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
title_short	Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
title_full	Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
title_fullStr	Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
title_full_unstemmed	Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
title_sort	facets of freedom: social death and karmic rebirth in amitav ghosh’s sea of poppies
publisher	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/7652faa5cdc94931b87d8c6d7d4cf505
work_keys_str_mv	AT sneharikaroy facetsoffreedomsocialdeathandkarmicrebirthinamitavghoshsseaofpoppies
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Facets of Freedom: Social Death and Karmic Rebirth in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies

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