“CASTE MOBILITY AND COLONIAL CAPITALISM IN AMITAV GHOSH’S SEA OF POPPIES”

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between caste mobility and colonial capitalism in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies. Set against the backdrop of the nineteenth-century opium trade and the expansion of the British Empire, the novel portrays how colonial economic structures disrupted traditional Indian social hierarchies while simultaneously producing new forms of exploitation and inequality. The study argues that colonial capitalism weakened rigid caste boundaries by forcing individuals from diverse social backgrounds into shared spaces of labour, migration, and displacement. Characters such as Deeti, Kalua, and Neel experience significant transformations in social identity as they negotiate the changing realities created by imperial commerce and indentured labour.