In his Novel “The Shadow Lines,” Amitav Ghosh discusses at length the mistaken notion of identity. He shows how one’s search for identity on the basis of separate nationalism and geographical demarcation of one country from another turns out to be a futile exercise. The problem becomes much more complex in case of an individual who lives in a post-colonial country though his root lies beyond the boundary of the particular land. Hence, any attempt to construct one’s sense of belonging in terms of nationalism and nation’s state is meaningless as borders separating one country from another are shadowy and illusory.
Throughout the novel emphasis is laid time and again on the freedom of each individual to create his or her own sense of identity and belonging. Tridib who is really a universal figure warns the narrator that he should not form his judgement about anything on the basis of what other people say to him. The narrator is advised by his uncle Tridib to Judge and believe things on the basis of his own experiences.
In the novel we come across some vulnerable characters who allow themselves to be dictated by various master narratives. For example, we may refer to Ila’s Eurocentric attitude towards life and the idea of nationalism to the narrator’s grandmother. Ila believes that the historical incidents taking place in Europe are the only thing worth recording. She concocts stories about her school year book and she tries to hide marginalized status from her friends. Thus she lives in a world of self-deception. It is Ila’s dislocation and inability to belong to any culture that forces her to fabricate stories about her life in London.
The narrator’s grandmother has constructed her idea of Identity on the basis of militant nationalism. Very early in the narrative, the grandmother’s house in Dhaka serves as a metaphor of the construction of a stable National identity. Such a construction is a dual process — a homogenization lying within a nation, and alienation lying beyond by which the people of nation create their identity on the basis of their difference from other Nation. Thus, we see how Thamma (the narrator”s grandmother) and her sister Maya Devi invent strange stories about the other half of their partitioned house.
The idea of national boundaries and legitimation of a narrow national identity are strengthened by war against a common enemy. It is the notion of nationalism that Thamma tries to impose upon the narrator, but in vain. In the end, however, she realizes that national boundaries are illusory and they are the work of administrators. War, a history of violence, cannot validate them.
The narrator’s grandmother remains a victim of history, forever, at odds with her idea of belonging and national identity. It is only Tridib whose imaginative universe knows no boundary. He lives his life by his own standard of value. He gives the narrator new, free worlds to discover. He talks of himself as bearing within him the longing, carrying “one beyond the limits of one’s mind to other times and other places.” Thus, Amitav Ghosh deals with the problem of identity and belonging in his novel “The Shadow Lines”.
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