Voicing The Voiceless: Subaltern in Amitav Ghosh's Novel Sea of Poppies

This paper describes the Indian socio-cultural scenario of the nineteenth century through Amitav Ghosh’s novel Sea of Poppies in which society does not give proper place to women and at the same time it exploits her also. Its ramifications correspond with social and cultural differences in the Indian society. Women face physical, mental, intellectual harassment etc in their society. The character of Deeti in this novel is a live example of those women who are trumped under the male dominating rules of society. After her husband’s death Deeti was forced by her family to commit suicide but Kalua saver her life. Ghosh has brought to light the social conditions of the time as well as the status of women in a male dominated society by presenting the history of opium trade and indentured labor in India. During the medieval period, the practices of polygamy, caste system, purdha system, dowry and sati degraded the status of women in society. Thus we find that Deeti an uneducated poor village woman suffered much by her relatives and society. Ghosh uses metaphor to project the idea of freedom, individual independence and a need for identity. Deeti is metaphor of transformation and also a transformer.