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Nationalism In The Shadow Lines, By Amitav Ghosh

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The Shadow Lines is a novel written by Amitav Ghosh. In this novel he talks about the main purpose and meaning of political freedom in modern world and the influence of Nationalism. The Shadow Lines are the borders drawn across the nations dividing its people and places which sometimes lead to violence. Nationalism is an ideology, it is a sentiment that people have regarding their nation, and it is part of a cultures and a movement that focuses on nation. It is formed of a collection of movements that were part of the Nationalism itself. In the novel, The Shadow Lines the author tries to give the idea of Nationalism to its readers and even raise a question regarding the same. The emergence of Nationalism is also seen in the character …show more content…

For Tham’ma nation is one such thing that is directly linked with one’s personal identity. She still lives in her past that is all illusionary, and she still had that feeling of nationhood embedded in her deeply. Being a furious militant nationalist herself, she gets worried about her uncle who was abandoned and left without a thing and was dying in a country which was not his own. This thing made it clear that she do cares about her blood relations and even for the people whom she had a problem with in the beginning. She is even ready to forgive and forget her bitter past and want to accept the life as it is, keeping aside the family feud which started a long back. In order to get her freedom Tham’ma wanted to act like a terrorists, they fascinated her a lot. Her search for freedom is linked with her search for nation and in that she wants to find herself as well and is even ready to on any extent for it. Another character Ila, who is Tridib’s cousin has never really lived in India and has grew up in different parts of the world and so she does not really understands the true meaning of nationhood. Tham’ma is a true nationalist at heart when she gives away her fond necklace given by her husband to raise the war fund in 1965. She herself takes a rescue mission to go to Dhaka and bring back her old uncle, Jethamoshai to India. When she was ready to leave we see how eager she was to see the border between India and East

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