ABSTRACT
Many of the fictional writers who represent Kala pani crossings discover that the sea plays a significant role in the lives of the immigrants. The sea treasures the history of the crossings and hides the actual lived experience of the coolies, their emotions, friendships and camaraderie. The sea had been a witness to the formation of families and communities. In this sense the sea is really an archive of unknown history of the jahaji bhais and jahaji bahins. It witnesses the great transformations of individuals and communities. Women characters particularly play a leading role in the formation of the community life. They are projected as ‘pioneers.’ In this complex multi-layered history, the territorial-oceanic spaces are viewed as a continuum (and not disjuncture) which heralded new beginnings and reconfigured public/private space relations. In viewing the sea as a space, this chapter will utilise the insights provided by critics like Yi-Fu Tuan, Tim Cresswell and Martin Heidegger. Here Peggy Mohan’s Jahajin (2008) and Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) will be taken for detailed study. It will also examine how, in the process of representation, the authors problematise the land/ocean and public space/private space binaries.
