Think India Journal

Reimagining The Sundarbans: Ecology, Culture and Postcolonial Space in The Hungry Tide

Amarjit Kumar Singh — 2026-01-16

Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide offers a powerful literary reimagining of the Sundarbans as a complex ecological, cultural, and postcolonial space where human survival, environmental precarity, and historical memory intersect. Situated in one of the most fragile and politically marginalized regions of South Asia, the novel foregrounds the entangled lives of humans, animals, tides, and landscapes, challenging anthropocentric and nationalist narratives of progress and development. This research article examines how Ghosh reconstructs the Sundarbans as a contested postcolonial space shaped by colonial legacies, ecological vulnerability, and subaltern resistance. Drawing upon postcolonial ecocriticism, spatial theory, and environmental humanities, the study explores the representation of the Sundarbans as a liminal zone where nature and culture constantly negotiate power, survival, and belonging. The article argues that The Hungry Tide not only critiques developmentalist and state-centric discourses but also reclaims marginalized ecological knowledge and cultural memory, thereby positioning literature as a vital medium for environmental and postcolonial consciousness.

Urban Decay, Addiction, and Alienation in Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis

Puja Priyadarshini — 2026-01-16

Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis is a dark, lyrical meditation on Bombay’s underbelly, foregrounding the intertwined themes of urban decay, addiction, and alienation. Set primarily in the city’s opium dens and marginal spaces from the 1970s onwards, the novel presents an alternative history of Bombay that resists narratives of progress, globalization, and urban glamour. This research article examines how Narcopolis constructs the city as a decaying organism, where addiction becomes both a symptom and a metaphor for social disintegration, and alienation defines the existential condition of its inhabitants. Drawing on urban studies, postmodern literary theory, and addiction discourse, the study explores how Thayil’s fragmented narrative structure, polyphonic voices, and hallucinatory prose mirror the psychological and spatial fragmentation of the modern metropolis. The article argues that Narcopolis exposes the moral and cultural erosion underlying urban modernity, revealing how marginalized individuals—drug users, queer bodies, migrants, and the dispossessed—are rendered invisible within the dominant narratives of the city. Through its poetic engagement with decay and desire, the novel challenges readers to confront the costs of urban transformation and the human toll of addiction and isolation.

Polyphonic Narratives and the Multiplicity of Voices in the Fiction of Amitav Ghosh

Rakesh Kumar Singh — 2026-01-17

Amitav Ghosh’s fiction is distinguished by its rich polyphonic texture and its sustained commitment to representing multiple, often marginalized, voices within complex historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony, this research article examines how Ghosh employs multiplicity of voices as a narrative strategy to challenge monologic histories, nationalist grand narratives, and Eurocentric epistemologies. Through an analysis of selected novels including The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and the Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire), the paper explores how Ghosh constructs dialogic narratives that accommodate diverse perspectives such as migrants, subalterns, traders, women, scientists, indigenous communities, and colonial subjects. The study argues that Ghosh’s polyphonic narrative mode enables a reimagining of history as fragmented, contested, and plural, thereby democratizing storytelling and foregrounding ethical responsibility toward silenced voices. By blending oral histories, archival materials, myths, scientific discourse, and personal memories, Ghosh creates narrative spaces where no single voice claims absolute authority. The article concludes that polyphony in Ghosh’s fiction is not merely a stylistic choice but a deeply political and ethical intervention that reflects the complexities of postcolonial identity, global interconnectedness, and historical consciousness.

Effect of Contrast vs Traditional Strength Training on Selected Physical Fitness of Athletes, Wrestling Players

Rakesh Dinkar Vadje — 2026-01-17

The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the effects of two different types of strength training i.e., contrast training and traditional strength training by observing their effects on selected dependent variables among collegiate wrestler. It was hypothesized that different types of strength training will have a significant effect on selected physical variables among collegiate wrestler; also, there would be a significant difference in the effects of both strength training which help in concluding which strength training is better for enhancing the performance of trained wrestler.