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Unit 1: Amitav Ghosh; Shadow Lines: Introduction to the Text

2. What are Tha’mma’s views on Nation and Nationalism? How do her experiences account for Notes
these? How are her views challenged in the novel?
3. How does the author use the trope of a divided feud-ridden house to discuss the issue of
Partition of India?
4. According to the author “The Shadow Lines” was influenced by the 1984 Anti- Sikh riots. How
does the book deal with the question of civil strife and rioting in Modern India? Discuss in
detail the narrator’s description of his experiences as a schoolboy caught in the 1964 Calcutta
riots, their lasting influence on the narrator and also his subsequent questioning of their depiction
in history?
5. Discuss the growth of the narrator’s relationship with Ila from being a schoolboy in Calcutta to
an adult in London.
6. How does the book question the writing of history? Discuss the portrayal of the Partition of
India in history books and how in this regard “public chronicles” are challenged by “private
chronicles”?
7. What are the “Shadow Lines” that the author talks about? How is the question of invented
Nationhood esp. in relation with the Partition of India discussed in the book?
8. How does the non-linear structure of the book compliment its theme?
9. Discuss the relationship of the English family of the Prices and the Dutta-Chaudhary family of
Bengal spanning three-generations.

Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(c) (ii)(d) (iii)(c) (iv)(c)

1.9 Further Readings

1. Bagchi, Nivedita. “The Process of Validation in Relation to Materiality and
Historical Reconstruction in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines.” Modern Fiction
Studies 39:1 (Spring 1993). pp. 187-202.
2. Bose, Brinda. (ed.) 2003. Amitav Ghosh : Critical Perspectives. Delhi: Pencraft Couto,
M. 1988. ‘Threads and Shards,’ (review of The Shadow Lines), Times Literary
Supplement, 28 October –3 November 1988, 1212.
3. Dhawan, R.K. (ed.). 1999. The Novels of Amitav Ghosh, New Delhi: Prestige Books.
James, Louis and Jan Shepherd. “Shadow Lines: Cross Cultural Perspectives in
the Fiction of Amitav Ghosh.” Commonwealth Essays and Studies (Dijon, France)
14:1 (Autumn, 1991): pp. 28-32.
4. The Oxford UP (India) – Delhi: Oxford UP, 1995 – edition contains 4 articles:
Kaul, AN. “A Reading of The Shadow Lines.” pp. 299-309.
5. Kaul, Suvir. “Separation Anxiety: Growing up Inter/National in The Shadow lines.”
pp. 268-286.
6. Roy, A. 2000. ‘Microstoria: Indian Nationalism’s “Little Stories” in Amitav Ghosh’s
The Shadow Lines,’ Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 35:2 (2000),
pp. 35-49.
7. Sundar Rajan, Rajeswari. “The Division of Experience in The Shadow Lines.”
pp. 287-298.
8. Mukherjee, Meenakshi. “Maps and Mirrors: Coordinates of Meaning in The Shadow
Lines.” pp. 255-267.
9. In Viney Kirpal, ed. The New Indian Novel in English: A Study of the 1980’s (New
Delhi: Allied Publishers Ltd.

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