MERGING OF NATIONAL HISTORY AND INDIVIDUAL HISTORY IN THE NOVEL ‘THE SHADOW LINES’

Amitav Ghosh?s ?The Shadow Lines? published in 1988, is supposed to be a remarkable novel based on the history of post-colonial India. The novel can be read at two levels: one ? personal level and the other, a wider, national, social level. At the personal level, it is the story of the inner psychic experiences and conflicts of a child, who grows into a young man. At the second level; a wider socio-political and national level, the novel deals with the history of post-independent India of the Eastern region. The novel still extends to some other regions, outside India. It thus, deals with the question of Indo-British relations, the coming together of two cultures and races- the White and the Brown. Thus, the history of individuals and families are intertwined with the history of nations. Thus, until now we have seen one of the interesting aspects of this novel as how individual episodes attain a major significance, as they are part of epoch-making history. Family history, hence, becomes national history in The Shadow Lines?.