Hello readers !
In this blog I'm going to discuss the novel "Gun Island" by Amitav Ghosh. This thinking activity is assigned by our professor Dilip Barad sir.
Amitav Ghosh is a contemporary writer of the twentieth century. He is an Indian writer and the winner of the 54th Jnanpith award, India’s highest literary honor, best known for his work in English fiction.
Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and Southeast Asia.
Gun Island is also a very complex novel to understand. You have to read all chapters thoroughly. Otherwise you miss the connection of the story and won't be able to know further. We see the use of three languages in the novel; Bangla, Italian and English. The novel has two parts, the first one is Gun Merchant and the second one is Venice. Let's see some questions about the novel.
1. How does Amitav Ghosh use the myth of Gun Merchant 'Bonduki Sadagar' and Manasa Devi to initiate discussion on the issue of Climate Change and Migration/Refugee crisis / Human Trafficking?
With the use of myth Ghosh wants to talk about the serious problem that we are facing today; climate change and migration. Ghosh uses the myth of Manasa Devi and wants to tell us that Gun Merchant changes the places because of climate change and during that journey he realises the problem of migration. The whole story is about the pilgrimage of Gun merchant as well as of Dinanath. Both characters and the events are connected with each other. It is a kind of similar story.
Climate change
In Gun Island we see many incidents that are talking about climate change. The floods in Sundarban and tides in Venice are the examples. We see that Nilima talked about the cyclone that came in Sundarban. Animals and various species are changing their places because of pollution and human disturbance. Fertiliser and other chemicals create a dead zone in water and because of that dolphins have to change their place and path often. The wildfire in Los Angeles; that we can connect today also. For example the wildfire in California, the effect of climate change :
When Deen and all the other characters are going to see the blue boat, they face many problems like, tornado, heavy wind, hailstorm and rain. This is the upheaval in the cycle of the season. We can connect it with today also. Ice is melting because of high temperature, and that becomes serious problem to pay attention.
Some other cutting of newspaper,
This is the effect of climate change.
Migration
Amitav Ghosh talking about the problem and the reality of humans. People are selfish who think about themselves, not about others. There are many reasons behind migration. It may be because of political issues, religious problems or it can be climate also.
If we see the reasons of migration in the novel, we find four main reasons:
Calamities :- Lubna Khala and her family members migrated because of the flood. Everything was destroyed in her village. So they have to migrate to other place. Many other people are also migrating because of drought, cyclone, flood etc.
Communal violence :- Bilal was a kind of person who helped his friend's family. He and Kabir are friends. Kabir's land was grabbed by his uncle.
Poverty :- Tipu and Rafi migrate because of poverty. Rafi hasn't enough money to pay the loan.
Socio-Economic Condition :- There is a character of Palash whose financial condition was good, he is not facing any violence nor calamities. But he has a kind of fantasy or dream to go Finland and for that he is migrating. But then he was not able to make his dream true.
There is the news in the newspaper about Indian migrants,
2. How does Amitav Ghosh make use of the 'etymology' of common words to sustain mystery and suspense in the narrative?
Sometimes we can't understand the meaning of any word, at that time we have to go to the origin of the word. We can see the use of such words that goes into the origin of those words. Let's see some examples.
Gun Island
When we read the title we thought there may be a reference to 'Gun' in the novel. But no, there is no direct reference to gun in the novel. There is 'Island within Island…'
There is one foundry where armaments, including bullets, were cast. And the word used for foundry in Venetian dialect is "getto". And the world "ghetto" is derived from "getto" and it is connected with Jews.
The other vocabulary for Venice is linked to three apparently unrelated things - hazelnuts, bullets and guns ! The shape of hazelnuts is similar to that of bullets which are, in turn, indispensable for guns ! Venice in Arabic language is "Banadiq" - the ancestor of the German and Swedish "Venedig". In Arabic "Banadiq" became "al-Bunduqeyya". So this gun is referred to as Venice, not gun ! So the ultimate meaning of the title is - a merchant who visited Venice and who found ghetto-foundry.
Bhut - Ghost
In part one of the novel in one of the chapter named Brooklyn, there is a conversation between Dinanath Datta and Tipu through email. Tipu asked Deen, ``What is the meaning of "Bhuta" ? Does it mean "ghost" or something else ? Deen explains that in Bangla bhoot/bhuta means according to Sanskrit root "bhu" means "to be" or "to manifest". So "bhuta" simply means "a being" or "an existing presence". This word "bhuta" also refers to the past, in the sense of "a past state of being". Like we use "bhuta-kala" or "times past". So this "bhuta" is not "ghost" but it is "memory". So it can be with you in the form of memory.
Possession
There is reference to the word possession in the novel. Possession is when someone is taken over by a demon. And the demon is nothing but it's just a metaphor for greed, an imaginary thing. So possession is not like someone's soul comes into our body and all things ! It's our greed that we have taken over that greed. It is a kind of awakening also, you are waking up to things that you had never imagined or sensed before. In other words we can say possession is consciousness of things.
Land of Palm Sugar Candy
The Bengali word for this is "taal-misrir-dish". Desh = country, taal= kind of palm tree that produces a sugar syrup, Bengali word for sugar candy is misri. Cinta said that the Arabic word "Misr" is used for Egypt. So this place is referred to as Egypt.
Land of Kerchieves
Cinta asked for the Bengali translation of this word. Deen told her it was called Rumaali-desh. In Bengali Rumaal is a handkerchief. Chinta said it is about Rumelia, and this Rumeli-Hisari is located in Turkey.
Island of Chains
The Bengali word for this is "shikol-dwip". And this is a reference to Sikelia and that is now Sicily. So the Island of Chains is used for Sicily.
This is how we can see the words and it's meanings. We can't easily understand the meaning of those words, which Ghosh used in the novel.
3. What are your views on the use of myth and history in the novel Gun Island to draw the attention of the reader towards contemporary issues like climate change and migration?
The main intention of author is to draw the attention of the readers towards contemporary issues like climate change and human trafficking. For that Ghosh used the myth of Manasa Devi. But the way he is telling the whole story, that process seems like it's real events that happened in the past. To establish the things you have to tell a story around it, so it stays in people's minds. That is why Ghosh used the myth of Manasa Devi and the way it was told it seems the story was not myth but history. But what is important is Ghosh wants to draw attention to these serious problems of climate change and migration.
4. Is there any connection between 'The Great Derangement' and 'Gun Island'?
Yes, this novel "Gun Island" is the answer to another novel "The Great Derangement" by Ghosh. Because this book asks the question, What is the role of literature in the context of climate change ? Why aren't authors talking about it in their works ? And how can they talk with the help of literature ? It argued that not enough contemporary novels were addressing climate change as a central issue of our time.
So Gun Island is a kind of example or explanation of those questions. With the help of literature we can understand serious problems like climate change and migration.
5. There are many Italian words in the novel. Have you tried to translate these words into English or Hindi with the help of google translate app ? If so, how is machine translation helping in proper translation of Italian words into English or Hindi ?
I have tried to translate these words into English or Hindi with the help of google translation. It becomes easy to translate Italian words into English or Hindi. Here is the spreadsheet of these words, click here.
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