Nirmal’s Diary

In his novel The Hungry Tide Amitav Ghosh takes his readers into the
journey of human mind and makes us rediscover our benumbed selves.
Among the many brilliantly painted characters of the novel is the
character of Nirmal. Nirmal’s story is only revealed through Kanai’s
memory and his reading of Nirmal’s diary and by the time the novel
begins Nirmal is already dead.

Nirmal’s diary holds a very important place in the novel as it is through

this document that the massacre of Marichjhapi is revealed. For most
part of the narrative, the regular story is interrupted by the in-between
diary of Nirmal till the climax of the Morichjhapi massacre. It is this
incident around which the narrative revolves; it is this massacre which
puts a big question mark on the modem day theory of conservation and
looks at the age-old binary of nature/nurture from a slightly different
angle.

Another importance of the diary is that it brings out the history of the
Sundarbans which is the primary setting of the novel. The depiction
through the eyes of Nirmal is both apt and significant as it holds the all
important theme of the novel- The man versus nature dialectic. It is in
his journal Nirmal tells Fokir about the terrible storms and floods that
struck the tide country in 1737, 1930s and 1970. This loss of life and of
property is not only a tragic and terrible phenomenon in the history of
the Sunderbans, it is also a recurrent one due to the ceaseless hunger
of the tide: "it will happen again. A storm will come, the waters will rise,
and the badh will succumb, in part or whole. It is only a matter of time'
". Ghosh also subverts and decenfralises the concept of Western history
by describing an actual historical event from Nirmal's diary about the
refiigee's struggles for settlement, their eviction, and massacre of many
of them by the Leftist government of West Bengal in May 1979: "The
Hungry Tide is about relationships, which are configured around
metaphors of 'home' and 'homelessness' ". Ghosh, thus like Guha,
contradicts elitist history by illustrating that these subalterns had an
autonomous domain, whose existence and social struggle had nothing
to do with elitist politics. And this is done through Nirmal’s diary.

The journal also reveals Nirmal’s own character and ideology. Nirmal’s
harmonious relationship with Kusum across the barriers of class and
gender which represents bridging of gap between the non-subaltern
and the subaltern as well as man and woman, making them identical
members of an idealistic, classless and syncretic society. After his
retirement he often visits Kusum in her thatch-roofed hut where he
enjoys Duino Elegies. But more than the book Kusum inspires and
transforms his life with her idealistic, socialistic and subaltern-centric
movement. At the mention of Kusum's name Nirmal becomes alive and
eloquent, and experiences a change in his gait. Kusum, with whom he
has most probably a Platonic relationship, is both poetry and revolution
for him. Nirmal’s journal thus unfolds not only the history of
Sundarbans but also Nirmal’s own soul and it is a device though which
Ghosh is able to convey a multiple number of important issues.