Amitav Ghosh's novel The Calcutta Chromosome: Historicizing western medicine in Colonial India

Abstract: This paper analyzes Amitav Ghosh’s novel, The Calcutta Chromosome, as a work of historiographic metafiction that critically examines the history of Western medicine and colonial scientific research in 19th and early 20th-century India. The novel fictionalizes the historical figure of Ronald Ross and his discovery of the malaria parasite’s transmission, but uses this narrative to expose the hegemonic and coercive nature of colonial power. Ghosh challenges the grand narrative of British medical philanthropy by highlighting the institutional and financial motives (such as safeguarding European soldiers) behind the establishment of the Indian Medical Service (IMS) and the rise of ‘tropical medicine.’ The paper notes the official sidelining of native healing practices (Ayurveda and Yunani) following Macaulay’s educational minute. Crucially, the novel introduces a parallel, ‘silent’ narrative of indigenous knowledge and occult practices—represented by characters like Murugan and Mangala—who manipulate mainstream research from the fringes, suggesting that Western scientific history is incomplete, filled with absences and hidden realities. Ultimately, Ghosh’s work de-centers the Nobel Prize-winning narrative to explore the complex intersection of power, knowledge (as theorized by Foucault), and colonial control over the colonized body.