Vulnerability of the marginal communities: An ecological reading of Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide

Abstract

This study examines Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide, representing how a profit-oriented commercial world exploits nature and vulnerable communities simultaneously for materialistic purposes. The novel is set in the region of the Sundarbans that portrays the struggles of refugees, fishermen, women, and marginalized communities who are struggling against the whole corporate culture to protect their indigenous seed. This paper is a qualitative study that focuses on textual analysis and interpretation, incorporating ecological theories and the current world scenario for exploitation through the textual evidences. It is informed by Vandana Shiva’s and David Pepper’s ecological theory, that asserts how corporate culture of the commercialized world pushes back the sustainability agenda and that the profit-making plan of the people leads to the disappearance of the indigenous seed from the world. This study implies that nature and marginal communities simultaneously face challenges in a materialistic society.  The novel revolves around the Morichjhapi massacre, which is about political and state violence against the marginal communities, showing the act of segregation of the marginal people from the center to the margin and from the margin to the process of obliterating their historic narratives. The violence is poised to obliterate the indigenous seed of nature. The characters such as Kusum, Fokir, Kanai, and Piya are the embodiment of victims of materialistic exploitation.  Ultimately, the novel illustrates the tendency of rapid growth of industrialization with the replacement of nature, people, and overall ecology. This study supports generating awareness that seed protection bonds with indigenous culture protection.