2025

Polyphony of the Marginalized; Recovering Subaltern Voices in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies: A Research Study

Author(s): Radhakanta Kar, Dr. Samarendra Nayak

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008), the first novel of the Ibis Trilogy, stands as a remarkable intervention in post-colonial historical novel by highlighting voices erased from colonial historiography. Set against the background of the opium trade and the common agreement system of the nineteenth century, the novel reconstructs history not through imperial administrators or colonial elites, but through peasants, lower-caste labourers, women, sailors, and convicts. The narrative resists a monologic or non-interactive historical voice and instead adopts a polyphonic structure that allows multiple marginalized perspectives to coexist. This study examines how Sea of Poppies recovers subaltern voices through narrative polyphony, linguistic hybridity, and the representation of collective experience, thereby challenging colonial epistemologies and elite historical discourse.