Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Wild Fictions’ Is a Warning We Can’t Ignore
[Written for and published in YouthKiAwaaz]
Amitav Ghosh is widely regarded as one of the foremost novelists in the country today. Not only is each of his novels extensively researched, he thinks deeply about the issues that he cares about. Wild Fictions is a collection of essays written over a 25 year period, on a wide range of subjects that have obsessed him, ranging from language and literature, climate change and the environment, colonisation, decolonisation and capitalism, human lives, and travel and discoveries. There is even one delightful piece on Indian’s fascination with the ubiquitous undergarment- the banyan.
The very first essay in the collection- ‘The Great Uprooting: Migration and Displacement in an Age of Planetary Crisis”- sets the tone for the rest of the book. While the world watches the United States deportation of illegal immigrants by and from the United States in horror, Amitav Ghosh unpicks the underlying causes and the nature of migration. By speaking to several migrants housed in camps in Europe, he attempts to answer the question “why do individuals risk so much to migrate?” While some migrants are driven to migrate out of sheer desperation, many others actually raise considerable funds to afford the journey- could they not have continued living in their own communities? Could it be that ‘over time a culture of migration establishes itself, and migration becomes a social norm or even a modern rite of passage in which station at home is associated with failure and lack of ambition’?
The essays on climate catastrophes and the effect on vulnerable populations demonstrate why the author is widely regarded as one of the most important global thinkers of today. He brings together contemporary literature and folklore, historical anecdotes, interactions with people affected by climate disasters and the latest research to paint a picture of how the current climate crisis was perhaps inevitable in the post-colonial world where the developed countries do not want to cut back on their usage of resources and the developing countries aspire to the standard of living of people in the developed world. It is only by embracing “wild fiction”- stories that are rooted in traditional ecological wisdom and respect even for non-human species that the world can restore an equitable relationship with nature. These essays challenge the reader to look at the environment in different, more meaningful, ways.
Though the Great War (later renamed World War I) was officially fought between European powers, some of the main battle grounds were in Asia and many of the people who actually took up arms were from the colonised nations. Yet, these soldiers have virtually been written out of history, and few if any accounts written by the soldiers survive. The writer tracks down two books written in Bangla which describe the experiences of people who served in the British Army in the Middle East. It is interesting to read about the racism that they encountered both from the British commanding officers and from the German/ Turkish army after they were captured.
In another essay, the writer describes the world of the lascars- a diverse group of indigenous sailors from the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. They spoke a language called Laskari, which was drawn from English, Malay, Hindustani, Chinese , Malayalam and every other language spoken on board the ships. These were essentially the first Asians and Africans to voluntarily participate in a global workforce, and though they did not leave any written records behind, the author reconstructs their life from other sources. He also writes about the Indians who were working in Burma and had to relocate after World War II broke out. This, too, is not an aspect of history that is written about much. Yet, as the author says, “if a society is ignorant of the consequences of conflict, then it runs the risk of forgetting that conflicts do have consequences”.
More than anything else, this is a book that analyses colonisation and decolonisation to reflect on the unequal distribution of power today. To quote-
The global distribution of power that was created by the British Empire is still very much with us in its post war avatar as a broader American-led system of alliances in which Britan and her former settler colonies are the most important partners and actors.
This affects all aspects of the world today. From the irony of scholars from Asia and Africa not being able to access archives that contain documents taken from their own country and housed in an European archive, to the mistaken belief that advances in science and technology will eventually lead to greater equality and erasure of historical prejudices. To quote-
A world remade in the model of Anglo America is simply not feasible; it would destroy the globe. We can only conclude that they propagate this idea in bad faith- as a mask for a reality that is too ugly to be named, and the reality is this: the world at large must pay the price for Anglo America to be what it is.
This is a set of essays that would force the reader to think about issues that concern us in ways that they would not have thought of them before. Given the nature of the work, the language and tone is extremely accessible, and I would highly recommend the book to readers who want to look at things from a slightly different perspective.
[I received a review copy of the book from Harper Collins. The views are my own.]
