This blog post is a response to the thinking activity task on 'Gun Island' by Amitav Ghosh given by our professor Dr.Dilip Barad Sir. To know more about this task, CLICK HERE.
- About the Author:
Amitav Ghosh is an Indian author who is very famous for his writing in the context of Climate Change. Along with Climate Change, has written historical fiction and also written non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honor. Amitav Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest honours, by the President of India. In 2010 he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood of a Dan David prize, and 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019 Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade. (wiki/Amitav_Ghosh) (www.amitavghosh.com/)
- Gun Island:
- How does this novel develop your understanding of a rather new genre known as 'cli-fi'?
This is the first novel that I introduced to the genre of Climate Fiction. The novel deals with the exploration and research of such areas that are connected with Climate and also explores the Ecocritical concern. Dinanath, Piyali Roy, Lisa, and Larry - these characters are the lead key of the door to reading the novel in a Climate context. However, a very important thematic concern along with Climate Change, the theme of Histrorification of Myth & Mythification of History also explored how the Global Climate affects growth and is woven around the myth in Sundarban. The way characters are suffering the environmental changes, the encounters between nature and humans seem in a tragic trajectory. However, after the class discussion, this tragedy ultimately is the trajectory of Climate Change.
- How does Amitav Ghosh use the myth of Manasa Devi to create the myth of Gun Merchant ('Bonduki Sadagar') and initiate discussion on the issue of Climate Change and Migration/Refugee crisis / Human Trafficking?
Bonduki
Sadagar is a fictional myth in the story created by Ghosh. We introduced Gun Merchant and the word in the very first part of the novel. Here is some description of Gun Merchant appearing in the novel.
"The strangest thing about this strange journey was that it was launched by a
word – and not an unusually resonant one either but a banal, commonplace
coinage that is in wide circulation, from Cairo to Calcutta. That word is
bundook, which means ‘gun’ in many languages, including my own mother
tongue, Bengali (or Bangla). Nor is the word a stranger to English: by way
of British colonial usages it found its way into the Oxford English
Dictionary, where it is glossed as ‘rifle’."
"But there was no rifle or gun in sight the day the journey began, nor
indeed was the word intended to refer to a weapon. And that, precisely, was
why it caught my attention: because the gun in question was a part of a
name – ‘Bonduki Sadagar’, which could be translated as ‘the Gun
Merchant’."
"Flipping it open,
she showed me the entry: at the top of a page, in Bangla script, were the
words ‘Bonduki Sadagarer dhaam’ – ‘the Gun Merchant’s shrine’. Below
was the date ‘November 20, 1970"
"Like Chand, the Gun Merchant was said to have been a rich trader who
had angered Manasa Devi by refusing to become her devotee. Plagued by
snakes and pursued by droughts, famines, storms, and other calamities, he
had fled overseas to escape the goddess’s wrath, finally taking refuge in a
land where there were no serpents, a place called ‘Gun Island’ – Bonduk - dwip"
Climate Change:
As per the given description of the myth of Bonduki Sadagar, he migrated to Gun Island to protect himself from Manasa Devi's anger. However, there might be some possibility that the merchant migrated to another island, and because he refused to worship Manasa Devi and how he Plagued by snakes and pursued by droughts, famines, storms, and other calamities, he had fled overseas to escape the goddess’s wrath. and then he decided to leave the place.
The myth was explored while Deen traveled to Venice and he conclude that the Merchant was one who went to Venice his Arabic name was “al-Bunduqeyya”. During that in Los Angeles that he learned about massive wildfires going on. So ultimately the myth is roll up over the narration of the story around the characters who are situated around the Globe Climate effects.
Read List_of_Wildfires.
Some news clips:
.jpg) |
| Like Sundarban in the novel and real also. |
Migration/Refugee crisis / Human Trafficking:
Recent Migration issue in India:
 |
| These news clips were shared by Dilip Barad Sir. |
Reasons for Migration:
Calamities: Lubna Khala:
‘It was Munir’s father who saved us,’ Lubna continued. ‘He came in a
boat and got us out. But after that we knew we couldn’t live in that village
any more. We sold our land and moved to Khulna. Munir and I got married
later that year and he decided that instead of wasting three years chasing a
degree in Dhaka he would go overseas. It was easier in those days – he
went first to Russia and then came to Italy, through Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia. After receiving his papers he sent for me – that was almost
twenty years ago.’
Communal Violence: Kabir, Bilal (illegal migration)
‘A few years ago there was a dispute in my family, over land. One of my
uncles is mixed up in politics and his sons are the local musclemen for the
ruling party. For a long time they had been using their political clout to try
to grab a part of what was rightfully my father’s property. Every time there
was a flood – which was happening more and more – they would try to
move the boundaries. If we protested they would threaten us. (Kabir)
Bilal’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘The loan was from a scafista – a
trafficker. Rafi had taken it out for a friend of his. They had left Bangladesh
together and had got separated at the Turkish border – this often happens
over there, because you have to run like crazy, over steep slopes. The
soldiers on the Turkish side shoot if they see anyone trying to cross. Rafi
got lucky and managed to get across, but his friend got hurt and had to go
back into Iran. He managed to get over the border later but was stuck in
Turkey for a long time. Anyway, a few weeks ago this boy called Rafi and
said that he had spoken to a local dalal who had offered him a way out,
through some other country. He would be able to get on a boat if Rafi could
arrange for a payment to be made in Italy. So Rafi began to ask around and
someone put him in touch with an Italian scafista who was willing to accept
payment in instalments. Rafi was able to make the first payment, but he
missed the second and the third. So . . .’ (Bilal, Rafi)
Poverty: Tipu, Rafi
Tipu already knew some dalals in Bangladesh and he made
arrangements with them over the phone. One night we crossed the
Raimangal River and went over to Dhaka. The money that we had put
together – most of it was Tipu’s – was just about enough to pay for the
cheapest kind of journey, overland, with a little left over, to see us through
on the way. We spent two weeks in Dhaka and then the dalal put us on a
minibus, along with a group of other men. I was carrying only a backpack,
and so was Tipu. We had some clothes, a bit of food, and around 250 US
dollars each, that’s all.
Socio-Economical Condition: Palash
‘I came to Italy as a student, you see, which sets me apart from most
Bengali migrants. Back in Bangladesh, my circumstances were completely
different from theirs. Most of them are from villages and small towns, while
my father is a banker, in Dhaka. My older brother is a civil servant, quite
high up. I studied at Dhaka University and even have a degree in
management. For some years I worked as a manager in a multinational
corporation. I used to go to work in a car every day, wearing a suit and tie.’
Refugee Crisis: Gisa
The word refugees come 39 times in e-text.
Gisa, as we call her, is a very
interesting girl. She makes documentary films for television and has won
some major prizes. She lives in Trastevere, in Rome, with her girlfriend,
and they have adopted two orphaned refugees – a six-year-old girl from
Syria and a boy of seven from Eritrea.
‘But I don’t think I have the necessary
languages. Aren’t the refugees mainly from the Middle East and Africa?’
‘Most of them are, yes,’ said Gisa. ‘But there are also many from
Pakistan and Bangladesh. In realtà last month Bangladeshis were the
second largest group coming into Italy.’
‘Where are these refugees from?’
‘They’re probably a gruppo misto with Eritreans, Egyptians, Ethiopians,
Sudanese, and maybe some Bengalese as well. That’s been the pattern with
boats from Egypt.'
‘If a fleet of civilian vessels shows up to support the refugees,’ said
Palash, ‘maybe it’ll speak to the world’s conscience. Across the planet
everyone’s eyes are on the Blue Boat now: it has become a symbol of
everything that’s going wrong with the world – inequality, climate change,
capitalism, corruption, the arms trade, the oil industry. There’s a lot of hope
that this will be a historic moment. Maybe now, while there’s still time to
make changes, people will wake up and see what’s going on.’
- Views on the use of myth and history in the novel 'Gun Island' to draw attention of the reader towards contemporary issues like climate change and migration.
Myth = Humans + Nature
The very essence of the book is its myth. Ghosh created an open area of reading the story that readers can interpret in different ways. Even the myth of the merchant also attractive because it is the creation of the presence myth that what happened with Chand Sadgar which is the original myth in Bengal and even the myth that is created by Ghosh, in that the similarity of worshiping Manasa Devi is clearly visible. And even in the story, the protagonist also passes the time same like Chand and Bonduki. As we discussed several times in our class that myth is constructed by Humans and Nature. Even the purpose of re-telling the myth also can be considered as the main aspect of reading contemporary the time.
- Fan Literature generated by ChatGPT.
Prompt: Generate micro fiction on Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island; Generate a poem on Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island.
In the ancient city of Venice, a rare book dealer named Deen becomes embroiled in a journey that spans the globe, following the trail of a mythical artifact said to hold the power of the sea. With the help of a scientist named Cinta, they traverse through the treacherous waters of the Bay of Bengal, braving gun-toting smugglers and mythical creatures, all in search of the legendary Gun Island. But as the truth behind the legends begins to unravel, Deen realizes that the fate of the world rests in his hands.
Prompt: Write a tabular format of the characteristics of the characters Dina and Cinta.
No comments:
Post a Comment