Ibis trilogy

The Ibis trilogy is an as yet unfinished work of historical fiction by Amitav Ghosh. The first two novels in the series — Sea of Poppies (2008) and River of Smoke (2011) have been published. The story is set in the first half of the 19th century. It deals with the trade of opium between India and China run by the East India Company and the trafficking of coolies to Mauritius.

The Trilogy gets its names from the ship Ibis, on board which most of the main characters meet for the first time. The Ibis starts from Calcutta carrying indentured servants and convicts destined for Mauritius, but runs into a storm and faces a mutiny. In the same storm are caught two other ships, the Anahita, a vessel carrying opium to Canton and Redruth, which is on a botanical expedition, also to Canton. While some of the passengers of the Ibis reach their destination in Mauritius, others find themselves in Hong Kong and Canton and get caught up in events that lead to the First Opium War.

A wide range of characters from different cultures make their appearance in the novels, among them Bihari peasants, Bengali Zamindars, Parsi businessmen, Cantonese boat people, British traders and officials, a Cornish botanist and a Mulatto sailor. In addition to their native tongues, the novels also introduce the readers to various pidgins, including those spoken by the lascars and the original Chinese Pidgin English.

According to Ghosh, when he began working on these novels, he intended to focus on the lives of the indentured workers who left Bihar for Mauritius. But he soon learnt that the story could not be written without writing about the opium trade originating from India, about which he, (like most Indians according to him) was completely unaware.

The Trilogy has been well-received for the most part. The Sea of Poppies was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize, while the River of Smoke made it to the long list of the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011.

Amitav Ghosh recently tweeted that the title of Book III of the Ibis Trilogy will be Flood of Fire. The estimated date of publication is spring 2015.^[1]

Historical Background

Two major historical phenomena act as a backdrop to the plot of the Ibis trilogy - the Great Experiment, which involved transport of indentured labour from India to work on the sugar plantations of Mauritius, and the trade of opium between India and China. The British played a significant part in both of these.

References