A Panoptical View of Womanhood in Amitav Ghosh’s Select Fiction

Feminism is a much argued topic in the past and present centuries wherein woman are shown to be suppressed, oppressed, smothered, controlled, governed, dominated and subjugated. The scenario continues to persist and myriad writers have brought to light the sufferings of women in their works But only some writers in their portrayal of women subjugation acknowledge the strength of women to withstand sufferings and their incumbent boldness to handle life. Amitav Ghosh, an accomplished Indian English writer, stands among the few to voice out the subaltern voices. His kaleidoscopic view communicates the impact on social, cultural, economic and psychological aspects of people from different social set-up and age. His Ibis trilogy encompassing, Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015), set in the precincts of the First Opium War, brings to the fore the colonial desire of the British in promulgating the opium trade between India and China thereby vandalizing the material and cultural wealth of the nations, for its monetary benefits. This paper aims to highlight the voices of women in the first two novels of the trilogy, Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke.