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Unit 6: Amitav Ghosh: Shadow Lines:Characterisation

expulsion by the college authorities. The concerned student had asked a girl to walk up to his Notes
room for a cup of tea or some such thing. The students union was unanimous in calling for a strike
but Roby alone in the whole college reused to go along with every one else. He did not argue or
make speeches; he merely refused to attend the union meetings. And when some of the union
leaders threatened to give him a beating, they found to their surprise that he was relieved at the
prospect of settling the issue by a straightforward physical contest. Such was his standing in the
college that eventually made the leaders call off the strike. For him a rule is a rule. If you break one
you have to be willing to pay the price. He did not know the nitty-gritties of right and wrong but
he had a certain sense, which told him about the morality. He certainly had his conscience or
intuition, which led him directly to what he knew he ought to do.
The same thing he follows when as a collector he has to govern his district. He would tell the
policemen, ‘You have to be firm, you have to do your duty, you have to kill the whole village if
necessary. We have nothing against the people; it is the terrorists we want to get. We have to be
willing to pay a price for our freedom.’ And often when he would get back home, he would find
an anonymous note waiting for him saying‘ we are going to get you, nothing personal, we have
to kill you for our freedom.’ It would be like reading his own speech transcribed on a mirror. This
concept of freedom baffles him a bit. ‘Everyone is doing it to be free’, he muses. In Assam, The
North East, Punjab, Sri Lanka, Tripura—people shot by terrorists and separatists and the army
and the police. One would find a single word behind all this, ‘everyone is doing it to be free.’ Even
he wanted to be free of the scaring and horrible killing of his brother Tridib in the mob frenzy at
Dhaka. But he couldn’t. He also reinforces the theme of the novel, which was earlier state by
Tha’mma: can anyone divide a memory? Perhaps none. If it were possible then Tridib’s death would
have done it; it would have set him free. That is, he would have forgotten him and the manner of
his death but it is not the case. Fifteen years later thousands of miles away at the other end of the
globe, a chance remark by a waiter in a restaurant about Jindabahar locality— the place where he
was killed sets his hand shaking like a leaf.
6.1.7 Khalil
Justice would not be done if this character is not spoken about. Simple-minded, naive, short
statured and jovial by heart, Khalil is not stupid as reported. His simplicity and love of mankind,
which are rare these days, have given that impression though it is corrected in the novel itself.
Khalil is a refugee from Murshidabad and has come to stay with Tha’mma’s old uncle. The
gentleman had given him space in his house so that others of his relations do not claim any rights
in the house. However, it is he who takes to look after him in his old age. The years of service and
care have taught him the old man’s needs and his understanding. He is quite right to say that he
wouldn’t go. He takes him out on the plea of taking him to the court and himself dresses him up,
even ties his shoelaces. He is simple-minded and loving in his care as well. He is a rickshaw puller
and has got his wife and two small kids. He looks after the old man as if he were his own father.
In the past years there has been trouble in that area and he has earned the rage of many a co-
religionist for tending to a Hindu in the Muslim dominated locality. However, this does not deter
him from looking after this old man.
Tha’mma comes to Dhaka to take her old uncle back to India but Khalil refuses to send him back.
He is poor and manages with difficulty the two ends of life but is good enough not to discard the
person who had given him the shelter. He cuts across all the lines that could isolate one man from
another and the factors prompting divisions don’t come to his mind. He becomes disheartened
when Tha’mma insists on taking the old man back and the mechanic Saifuddin seconds her. He is
at loss to think whom his two kids would address ‘grandfather’ . He gives his final nod only on
the condition that if the old man does not feel comfortable in India he would be brought back. The
cruel irony of fate however, does not let this innocent man live long and he is cut in the stomach

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