PANORAMIC HISTORY IN AMITAV GHOSH’S THE RIVER OF SMOKE

Historical writing usually involves a record of historical events and in the case of literature, especially in Indian English Literature, documenting historical happenings has been a remarkable theme to the writers to carve their fiction. Like wise, one among the writers of Indian origin , often referred as a diasporic writer , Amitav Ghosh makes his creative fiction to mark all the historical events into his fiction. This paper is a critical analysis of Ghosh’s fiction, his intertwining of history into his fiction and more importantly the seas, oceans occupying a keen role in the novel. Ghosh deals with the major issue of opium war that took place in 1849 as the one that has to be reflected in his fiction and made it a part of his biology where in he discusses the war between Britain and China, the export of opium and his unintentionally intentional representation of waters.