LITERARY FULCRUM

The Jnanpith Award is the highest literary honour conferred upon a civilian of Indian origins. The 54^TH Jnanpith award was given to Amitav Ghosh, the youngest author to receive it and writing in the English language. The latter made history of sorts because this was the first time that the awardee was an Indian writing in English. Since so many writers are writing in English, it seems appropriate that the jury members of the Jnanpith committee were able to recognise the call of the hour. We may recall here the occasion when the renowned Ruskin Bond had said that a time may soon arrive when there will be more writers in India than readers. Well, with the onslaught from the digital media platforms, one cannot rule out the possibility.

Amitav Ghosh’s novels are a genre in themselves. Intricately woven plots which hardly disguise the author’s concerns for social and climactic issues, these novels move in a peripatetic order. They involve the readers’ minds and hearts and hold them in thrall. Bengali literature, culture and folk lore find an indelible space in the author’s heart. Even though he belongs to the diaspora of Indian emigrant writers, his works are firmly rooted in his homeland. When the writer had won the Sahitya Akademi award for his The Shadow Lines in 1986, Calcutta and, more importantly, Bengal was all set to usurp his psyche. He is a hardcore Bengali at heart. In each of his novels, this perplexes as well as intrigues his readers.

Where his The Hungry Tide had left off, his new novel The Gun Island has begun. Ghosh’s prophecies regarding climate change exemplifies more in his works of fiction than non-fiction. Ghosh has been prolific if his vast oeuvre is taken into account. His language is simple, yet the feelings which he conveys are profound. There is hardly any novel of his which is devoid of concerns for society, for impending climactic disaster. Novel writing is far from easy. And one needs to read Amitav Ghosh in order to realise this. In each of his novels, right from his debut The Circle of Reason, meticulous and careful research work lie at the core and is evident to his readers.

His recently launched book, The Gun Island published by Penguin, harps back to his earlier novel, The Hungry Tide. No. Many of us haven’t read it yet. Yet the very name of the book is a telling commentary on recent times. Ghosh is definitely a social commentator. His concerns for the global community are glaring in all of his works. His latest novel bridges gaps, fills vacuums and ultimately satiates the reader. Piya Roy, the marine biologist researching on river dolphins in The Hungry Tide, has resurfaced in The Gun Island. Has Kanai also made an appearance as well? Amitav Ghosh knows that he is a Bengali and that his primary concerns lie with this verdant land. In this, he stands apart from authors like Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi.

My association with Amitav Ghosh’s works began with The Shadow Lines, which I had purchased at the Calcutta International Book Fair. As soon as I started reading the book – the year of purchase coincided with my final year at Masters’ – I realised that here’s a book which delved into personal history in a way as to effectively reflect social history. After that, with a few exceptions, I can boast that I’ve read most of Ghosh’s oeuvre. Besides the riveting erudition, I have found in his works a looking back as well as a looking forward. I have been to the Sunderbans myself. Yet after reading his The Hungry Tide and delving into the history of the Marichjhapi incident, I realised, again, how little I had seen of that region. Ghosh paints through his pen social and personal histories. These pictures remain in the readers’ minds long after one has turned the last page.

Ghosh’s wife, herself an acclaimed novelist, Deborah Baker, had been an editor first. They live in New York. Yet, the author, it seems, experiences yearnings for his homeland which he visits at regular intervals. Most of his novels have been launched in India, more specifically Calcutta, where his heart lies. Ghosh’s novels cannot be classified as best sellers in the rigid sense of the term. Instead, they are literary masterpieces which will withstand the test of time. The Egyptian author, Naquib Mahfouz had also written a trilogy, named as the Cairo trilogy. Ghosh’s In an Antique Land had been my companion when I and my mother had visited Egypt in the early years of the present millennia. It had been one of my most memorable trips.

By conferring Amitav Ghosh with the Jnanpith award, the Indian government has created history of a kind. It is of the same kind as when the Nobel Committee had decided to honour the iconic lyricist Bob Dylan with the Nobel Prize for Literature. The latter had made for heated debates. But, perhaps because authors are usually entitled to literary awards, there hasn’t been much hype regarding Amitav Ghosh receiving the Jnanpith. Which is very surprising, to say the least. This is the first time in the history of the award that Indian writing in English has been recognised. Previously, authors writing in the Indian regional languages have been receiving the award. Noteworthy among them were Ashapurna Devi, Amrita Pritam, Bishnu Dey, Subhash Mukhopadhay, Mahasweta Devi, Girish Karnad, Sankha Ghosh, Krishna Sobti among others.

Times they’re a changing. Since a large chunk of literature is being written in the English language, it appeared quite appropriate that the highest literary honour should recognise current trends. In terms of his contribution to the enrichment of literature, Amitav Ghosh’s works provide a perfect foil to scholarship. He has effectively wrought the language and has produced a literature which is unique and thought-provoking. His vast span of topics has placed him in the firmament of world literature. There have been very few writers before or after him whose works have traversed so many boundaries – geographical, political and sociological. He has delved into history and into science. The author remains the living embodiment and the fulcrum of learning. So it is a fitting tribute that the Jnanpith 2018 was conferred upon him. We, his readers, are ecstatic and also fervently hope that he’d continue writing such literary works for many more days to come.