Flood of Fire

The Opium Chronicles

Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy is a masterwork of research, historical fiction and all the small things that make for the big picture. The range of characters, the breadth of imagination, the flair for multiple dialects, the detailing—all wrapped in a very entertaining package.

Flood of Fire, the last of the trilogy, comes out after Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke, tying up all loose ends, giving all (or almost all) main characters a proper narrative arc and a kind of closure, while telling the sprawling tale of events leading the Opium War (1839-42) between China and the UK.

Of particular interest to India readers is the contribution of Indian sepoys and Mumbai’s Parsi traders to the spread of the East India Company’s (EIC) influence that had once ensured that the sun never set on the British Empire. In spite of their intolerable racism and air of superiority, the British knew how to lead men, how to fight the enemy with military might or subterfuge and their absolute faith in profit and Free Trade, even if it meant fighting wars, exploiting the poor, or ruining a country by getting its people addicted to opium.

Sea of Poppies, focused on how the people of north and east India were forced to cultivate poppy and produce opium. Deeti was a heroine, who escaped being killed on her husband’s pyre and sailed to Mauritius on the Ibis, along with other indentured labourers or ‘girmitiyas’.  River of Smoke moved to Canton to see how the opium business flourished— a Parsi trader Behram Modi taking centrestage here, as one of the tiny community that built its foundations of fabulous wealth on the opium trade  What links the main characters in their connection to the Ibis.

In the third part, the strands that overlap involves Deeti’s brother Kesri Singh, a sepoy in the EIC’s army, who becomes a volunteer or ‘balamteer’ on the EIC’s China campaign; Behram’s widow Shireen, who is forced out of her sheltered life and into the hurly burly of international intrigue; and the most interesting character, Zachary Reid, the lowly ship’s mate turned carpenter or ‘mystery’, who buries his sordid past and reaches a position of wealth and power grabbing every opportunity that comes his way, biting every hand that feeds him.

The chapters on his affair with Mrs Burnham, the wife of a powerful trader, are over-extended, but amusing for their bawdiness and the Anglo-Indian patios used by the British in India-- Hindi words acquiring their own pronunciation and spelling. (The phrases uses to describe various sexual acts are laugh-out-loud funny). Reid is just the kind of unscrupulous man who would rise to prominence in the new world created by the Raj. Anyone with less gumption would simply drop by the wayside, like the unfortunate Captain Mee, or Behram’s illegitimate son, Freddie Lee.

The bankrupted Raja, Neel Rattan Halder, imprisoned by the British, who had also escaped from the Ibis and ended up in China, plays the part of chronicler, his brave son Raju, with the help of the bizarre Baboo Nob Kissin Panda, also enters the story.

The build up to the war is interesting, but scenes of the battles go on a bit too long and make for dull reading; still the narrative perks up when Zachary, Kesri or Neel appear. Till the end, when Hong Kong is annexed by the British, after thousands of Chinese have been slaughtered, the action never lets up. It is a fascinating glimpse or history, especially in the light of China’s current place in the world’s power hierarchy and the UK’s great decline. Worth reading all three books—the first remains the best!

Flood of Fire

By Amitav Ghosh

Publisher: Viking

Pages: 616