Influences and Varied Perspectives of Colonial Science and Technology in Amitav Ghosh’s “The Imam and the Indian” and The Calcutta Chromosome

Abstract

The colonialists’ advances in terms of establishing complete political, economic and often cultural hold in the colonies came with their concurrent advances in scientific and technological arenas. The technological advances of the colonizers were also a means of showcasing their superiority over the colonized, and in turn, holding the colonized in awe of the colonizers’ scientific inventions. The focus of this paper is on how the technology of the colonizers played a role in the making of the modern world, and the way it has been reflected in literature and science thriller writing. Taking Amitav Ghosh as an example, it will also focus on the varied viewpoints and encounters of the colonized people with the technological advancements of the colonizers.