With his forthcoming novel Flood of Fire, Amitav Ghosh will complete his Ibis trilogy. He spoke to S Mallik about the lesser-known stories of the Opium War
Some authors write about historical facts, some write fiction, some recreate mythology and some share personal accounts. Amitav Ghosh, however, is one author who brings alive, through personal tragedies, incredible details of historical events. Through Sea of Poppies and The River of Smoke he shared with the world little known stories of the Opium War which was fought in the 19th century.
The war fought between China and India, which was then a colony of the British, was the first war that was fought between the two countries. “So much existed in the 19th century that only a few of us know. A former prime minister had once said that India and China have not had a war before 1962, which is incorrect.
The Opium War might have been before India got Independence but it was fought entirely with Indian soldiers. It was even financed by Parsi businessmen from Bombay,” said the author at the preview of his much anticipated book Flood of Fire, which will complete his Ibis trilogy. The author was speaking at Penguin’s Spring Fever.
“Our past is replaced with history,” Amitav explained, “Not all we know is true. Our history books are inaccurate. It was only with years of research and with the help of precise details from various sources that I have tied the many twines of this story. I had to do a lot of historical research about the war. As Indians we do not look back at all. The British Raj was a garrison’s state. The history of 1870s is military history.”
His impeccable attention to details has reflects in his works. The most vivid example would be the scene in Sea of Poppies where the central character Deeti searches for her dying husband. She runs around all the rooms of the Ghazipur opium factory where the functions of every room were minutely described.
Such was the accuracy that months after it was published Ghosh received a mail from the former manager of the factory appreciating him of his imagery. The author shared, “A man named John McArthur used to run the factory and in 1760s he wrote a detailed book about the factory which was meant to be the guide for British tourists. The details were extensive and I borrowed from that.”
The Ibis trilogy, however, did not start with the Opium War. It was Ghosh’s desire to tell a story of Indians who had left India. While he was digging information about the people who migrated, he came across the era and that led him to the Opium War. Although Ghosh writes about historical facts and events, he rarely focusses on any particular historical character.
Ghosh’s body of work includes narrative, both fiction and non-fiction. He believes it is the magic of the written language that makes the difference. language works differently between fiction and non fiction, he said. “Countdown is a non-fiction book so the language there is about communicating ideas and descriptions. The difference with the novel is that it does not reflect reality, instead it creates its own reality. Authors use language constitutively — as if it were clay.
A filmmaker has music, visuals and dialogues but we have only words and we have to understand every aspect of each word.” He gave an example of the works of Melville, most of whose books are about ships and use a lot of nautical vocabulary. “language has repetition and resonances and all sorts of substitution. One may not understand every word but readers can definitely understand the relation of the word to the context,” he added.