The Indian Ocean as an Archive: A Blue Humanities Perspective on Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies

The Blue Humanities is an emerging interdisciplinary field that focuses on the ecological, historical, and philosophical engagements with the ocean and aquatic environments. Despite their immense importance, oceans have often been overlooked in humanities scholarship, which has traditionally focused on land-based perspectives. The Blue Humanities aims to correct this imbalance by bringing attention to the ocean’s centrality in human life and the ways it shapes cultural narratives, identities, and histories. The current paper uses the lens of blue humanities to explore Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies which stands as a cornerstone of his literary exploration of oceanic themes. As the inaugural volume of the Ibis Trilogy, Sea of Poppies charts a world on the brink of profound historical change, where the rippling effects of empire, migration, and colonialism converge. Set aboard the Ibis, a ship traversing the seas of Southeast Asia, the novel intertwines the fates of a diverse cast of characters—indentured labourers, sailors, and opium traders—against the backdrop of the turbulent prelude to the First Opium War. The current paper aims to explore how oceans served not only as routes for transporting goods but also as medium for transmitting ideologies, technologies, and cultural practices. It also seeks to foster regional awareness of the vital need for oceanic sustainability.