The East and the West Conflict in Amitav V Gosh’s Novel the Calcutta

Abstract

Though Amitav Gosh had an upbringing in the west, he is able to portray the true Indian cultural mileu in his novels. He uses his novels to display the rich hues of our country. Colonialism had made us to depend on the British for social and political needs. The imperialists enforced the western education system for us. This had a lot of adverse effects on us. The effect of this system bore its effects on writers, as they began to wield their pen for English words. The Calcutta Chromosome presents a scientific -religious sect, led by Mangala and her assistant Laakhan. This sect had been active since the colonial times. The group had meddled in the process of the discovery of plasmodium. The novel depicts the mystery represented by the sect. The author is able to weave several narrative strands, each has a different chronotypes. In this novel Mangala’s sect builds a knowledge system which is alternative to that of science. But it was not the opposite of it. Both these seem to cross borders ' this adds to the momentum to the plot as it brings two different ways .One is counter science while the other is traditional science. Mangala's group goes beyond the limit between self and other. This is so central to Western epistemology. The use of silence as their method and the rhizomatic organization of its encyclopedia implies the fact that complete knowledge is unattainable. This removes the subalterns from the gaze of western epistemology. Ghosh highlights the aspect of the western scientist, Ross getting the acclaim for his discovery, while Mangala and her chromosome is kept under wraps. Ghosh deflates the pompousness of the west by deterring his credit. Murugan becomes his mouthpiece when he says so Murugan tries to establish the fact that Ross's research was controlled by two members of "dhooley bearers'. He make a reference of Lakaan and Mangala. The flair of Ghosh is made better by the fact that he never preaches. Nor does he take sides. There will be an important character who is pitching to be on the other side. This article tries to portray Gosh’s views on the ideas and counter ideas, as he puts science against myth, belief against skepticism, progress/ survival against environmentalism, the rustic against the refined, the east against the west.