The Circle of Opium Trade, Indentured Labour, and Imperialism in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy: A Study

Abstract

Postcolonial scholars have always tried to rewrite history to reclaim the lost space. Though Amitav Ghosh has never clearly endorsed himself as a postcolonial scholar, the traits he shows in his writing fall under it. His Ibis Trilogy has talked about the lost history of the girmitiyas, the Parsi opium trade and the Indians as soldiers in the First Opium War, where memory, interior monologue, and the stream of consciousness have played major role focusing on the opium as a major link that bridges the gap between three things like the indentured labour, Parsis’ opium trade, and British monopoly. Present paper aims to explore the same, where it will concentrate on a little background information about the pre-war Indo-China relationship and then will move to Amitav Ghosh’s trilogy which consists of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire to support the argument in showing opium as a link connecting History’s three dark phenomena.