Ecocriticism in Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fir...

Ecocriticism in Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of Fire

Author Name : Dr Priyanka Maral

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56025/IJARESM.2023.120124171

ABSTRACT Amitav Ghosh is one of the most prominent novelists in Indian English literature. The part of the Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies (2008), describes the production of opium in India and the journey of indentured laborers, girmityas, on the ship, the Ibis. The second part, River of Smoke (2011), deals with the lives of girmityas in Mauritius and the opium trade through ships from Calcutta to Canton in China. The third part, the Flood of Fire (2015), describes the circumstances that led to the opium war and the British idea of free trade. Ghosh begins the novel with the Emperor banning the opium trade due to its harmful effects on the country. The Ibis, Anahita, and other Indian and British ships assemble on the Chinese seaboard along with armed forces to compel the Chinese to allow opium trade and compensate all losses due to the destruction of opium by Commissioner Lin. In my paper, I will focus on the effect of the Opium War on the environment and the life of the people in China