Flipped Learning Activity : Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh
This blog is assigned by Dilip barad as part of Flipped Learning Activity of Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh To engage in an in-depth exploration of Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island through video lessons, worksheets, and blog writing. The activity will develop analytical skills, critical thinking, and creativity in expressing your understanding of the novel’s themes and narrative. ( Worksheet )
Characters and Summary
Characters and Summary - 1 | Sundarbans | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
This video introduces the protagonist, Dinanath (Deen), a rare book dealer living in Brooklyn who returns to Kolkata. He meets Nilima Bose, who recounts the folklore of the Gun Merchant (Bonduki Sadagar) and his conflict with the goddess of snakes, Manasa Devi. Deen travels to the Sundarbans to visit a remote shrine dedicated to this merchant. In the shrine, he discovers mysterious symbols: a circle within a circle (representing an "island within an island") and a spider. The narrative establishes the overarching themes of climate change and migration that connect the myth to modern reality.
Characters and Summary - 2 | USA | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
The focus shifts to Deen’s time in the United States, where he reconnects with his friend Chinta, an Italian historian, and Pi (Piali Roy), a cetologist. The sources describe a terrifying wildfire in Los Angeles that forces a seminar to be relocated, illustrating the immediate threat of climate change even in wealthy nations. A significant etymological discovery is made: the word "Gun" (Banduk) is revealed to be a linguistic link to Venice. Through Arabic and Byzantine influences, "al-Bandukiya" refers to Venice, meaning the "Gun Merchant" was actually a merchant who had visited Venice rather than an arms dealer.
Summary - 3 | Venice | Part 2 of Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
The final summary focuses on the novel’s second half, set in Venice. Deen travels there to assist with a documentary and discovers that the city is being destroyed by shipworms, which have migrated north due to warming waters. The city of Venice is compared to Varanasi, both being described as "portals in time" and cities of mortality and decay. The climax involves the arrival of a "blue boat" of refugees, accompanied by a mystical, bioluminescent gathering of marine life. The novel concludes with the death of Chinta, who chooses her own time to die, and the rescue of the migrants.
Thematic Study
Etymological Mystery | Title of the Novel | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
This session delves into the linguistic puzzles that drive the plot. It explains that the title Gun Island is a mistranslation or a forgotten meaning; "Gun" is an etymological derivative of the Byzantine name for Venice, "Benedict". The video also explains the word "Ghetto" as originally meaning "foundry" in a Venetian dialect, where metal and bullets were cast. Furthermore, it explores the Sanskrit root of "Bhuta" (meaning both "being" and "past"), suggesting that ghosts are the past existing in the present. "Possession" is reinterpreted not as a demonic haunting, but as an "awakening" to new, uncomfortable realities.
Historification of Myth and Mythification of History (Parts I, II, & III)
These three videos discuss the process of re-reading myths as historical facts.
• Part I: Explains that the Gun Merchant’s legend is actually a historical account of a 17th-century merchant’s journey through Venice, Egypt, and Sicily to escape the "wrath" of nature.
• Part II: Applies academic tools like functionalism and ritual study to the text. It posits that rituals (like the pilgrimage to the Sundarbans shrine) exist to maintain social cohesion, and myths are created to explain these rituals when their origins are forgotten.
• Part III: Uses structuralism to examine the binary oppositions between the East (irrational, magical, ecocentric) and the West (rational, scientific, anthropocentric). However, it concludes that Ghosh challenges these stereotypes by making Western characters (like Chinta) believers in the mystical, while Eastern characters (like Pi) remain strictly rational.
Climate Change | The Great Derangement | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
This video explores how Gun Island serves as a fictional response to Ghosh’s non-fiction work, The Great Derangement. The sources argue that modern literature often fails to address the "uncanny" nature of the climate crisis. Ghosh uses myth as a tool to understand the present and future, suggesting that indigenous knowledge systems—which often warned against building too close to the ocean—were dismissed by colonialism and capitalism. The video also discusses a "digital humanities" approach, listing recurrent climate-related words in the novel like "cyclone," "fossil fuel," and "global warming" to track the theme's prominence.
Migration | Human Trafficking | Refugee Crisis | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh
The sources highlight the human face of migration through characters like Rafi, Tipu, Bilal, and Kabir. Migration is shown to be driven by three factors: natural calamities (like the cyclones that displaced Lubna Khala), communal violence, and socio-economic aspirations. The novel draws a parallel between modern human trafficking and the 17th-century slave trade. A key insight is Deen's observation that while his generation was driven to migrate by novels, modern youth are propelled by mobile phone images of a "perfect" Western world.
1. Is Shakespeare mentioned in the novel? Or are his plays referred to in the novel?
Yes, Shakespeare and his plays are referenced. The sources mention a connection to the "Shakespearean story" of Othello when discussing black characters in Venice. Additionally, the text clarifies that the "Gun Merchant" is not to be confused with a character from The Merchant of Venice.
2. What is the role of Nakhuda Ilyas in the legend of the Gun Merchant? [Nakhuda means Captain].
In the legend, Nakhuda Ilyas purchased the Gun Merchant (Banduki Sadagar) as a slave. However, he recognised the merchant's skills and chose to treat him as a friend rather than as a slave.
3. Character and Profession Table
Character
Profession
Dinanath (Deen)
Dealer in rare books.
Piali (Pi)
Cetologist / Marine biology researcher.
Chinta
Italian historian and academician.
Giza
Documentary maker.
Lubna Khala
Manager of construction workers.
Palash
Former manager in a multinational corporation.
Lisa
Entomologist (studies insects/bark beetles).
Larry
Arachnologist (studies spiders).
4. Character Trait Table
Character Trait
Relevant Character
Believer in mystical happenings & presence of the soul of dead people
Chinta.
Rationalises all uncanny happenings
Piali (Pi).
Skeptic who is in-between but slightly towards centre-right
Dinanath (Deen).
5. What sort of comparison between the book and the mobile is presented at the end of the novel? Dinanath observes that while his generation was driven to migration by reading novels to escape "the narrowness of the world," modern youth are driven by mobile phone images. He suggests that both mediums function as a "powerful medium of dreams," but whereas books were a form of academic exodus, mobile phones create a visual "hunger" to travel among those who may not be equipped for the harsh realities of illegal migration.
II – Use ChatGPT > chat.openai.com and type these prompts to write the answers
6. Tell me something about Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island in 100 words
Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh blends myth, climate change, and migration in a contemporary narrative spanning India, the Sundarbans, Venice, and the Mediterranean. The novel follows Deen, a book dealer, who investigates the legend of the Gun Merchant, only to find ancient stories echoing present crises. Ghosh weaves folklore with realism to show how rising seas, displaced people, and endangered species are interconnected. Through coincidences and cross-cultural encounters, the book challenges rigid rationalism and suggests that older ways of understanding the world may help us grasp the uncanny scale of today’s environmental and human upheavals across continents and generations worldwide.
7. What is the central theme of Amitav Ghosh’s novel ‘Gun Island’?
The central theme of Gun Island is the interconnectedness of climate change, migration, and myth, showing how environmental crises and human displacement are deeply linked across time, cultures, and continents.
1. Write 10-12 words about climate change in the novel. Mention number of times they recur.
Term
Frequency
Floods
20
Cyclones
2
Storm
33
Calamities
2
Drought
9
Wildfire
17
Tsunamis
3
Global warming
1
Fossil fuel
1
Greenhouse
1
Coal
3
2. Explain the title of the novel. [Key words: venedig, hazelnut]
he title Gun Island is an etymological mystery rooted in the Arabic and Byzantine names for Venice. The word "Gun" (Banduk) derives from the Arabic word "al-Bandukiya", which itself is a derivation of the name "Venedig" (the German/Byzantine root for Venice). In Arabic, "Bandukiya" is linked to hazelnuts, bullets, and guns because the rounded shape of a hazelnut is similar to that of a bullet. Therefore, "Gun Island" is not an island of weapons, but literally "Venice Island".
3. Match the characters with the reasons for migration (Video 4 Human Trafficking/Migration)
Character
Reason for Migration
Dinanath
Some uncanny sort of restlessness
Palash
To better socio-economic condition
Kabir and Bilal
Violence and riots due to family feuds and communal reasons
Tipu and Rafi
Poverty (seeking survival outside the Sundarbans)
Lubna Khala and Munir
Natural calamities (escaping cyclones and floods)
4. Match the theorist with the theoretical approach to study mythology (Video 2 Historification
Chakraborty posits that humanism is deeply rooted in Eurocentrism and what he calls "Cartesian hubris"—the philosophical tradition starting with Descartes that separates humans from animals based on rational reasoning. This worldview created a hierarchy:
• The Vitruvian Man: Leonardo da Vinci’s model became a universal standard for "human perfectibility" and cultural hegemony.
• Anomanimality: The West used these standards to relegate "natives" and the "Orient" to the level of animals, characterizing their behavior as purely instinctual. This served as a "historical prescription" that legitimized colonization and cultural violence.
Myth as Postcolonial Resistance
The article suggests that Ghosh revives the "exoticism" of native myths, such as the legend of the Gun Merchant, as a site of postcolonial resistance. These myths represent "popular knowledges" (les savoir des gens) which act as "rupturing" elements against systematic colonial power structures that dismiss native traditions as "naïve" or "nonsense".
The "Fall" of Rationality in the Sundarbans
A central focus of the essay is the symbolic "fall" of the protagonist, Dinanath (Dinu), which represents the stripping away of colonial logic:
• Physical Deconstruction: To reach the shrine, Dinu must discard his trousers—symbolising Western technology and rationality—for an indigenous lungi.
• Reclamation by Nature: When Dinu falls into the mud, he describes his body as being "reclaimed by the primeval ooze," signifying the abolishment of his institutionalised Western education in favor of native land and interpretation.
Rafi and the Posthuman "Creature"
Chakraborty highlights the character Rafi as a harbinger of a new world order. Rafi is described as a "creature," a term that historically included demons and angels and thus blurred the human-animal distinction. Rafi is neither purely a "rationale" nor a "relegated animal"; he uses memory and indigenous myth to reconstruct knowledge systems.
Heterotopia and Posthuman Communities
The Sundarbans are described as a "heterotopia"—a counter-space of alternative practice. These spaces function as "posthuman communities" because they allow characters to question existing ways of living and resist humanistic ideals. By centering a "world comprised of more than human" elements, Ghosh moves literature away from human-centric arrogance.
6. Suggest research possibilities in Amitav Ghosh’s novel ‘Gun Island’
• Linguistic Archaeology: Investigating how migration and trade routes are mapped through etymological shifts in terms like "Ghetto" and "Banduk".
• Comparative Ecocriticism: Analyzing the sinking of the Sundarbans versus the sinking of Venice as symbols of global climate inequality.
• Digital Humanities in Literature: Tracking the recurrence of climate-related terms to measure the "presence" of the environment in contemporary fiction.
• Myth as History: Exploring the historification of folklore as a tool for understanding the 17th-century "Little Ice Age" and its parallels today.
7. Sonnet on Gun Island
Where ancient tides and restless winds convene,
A legend stirs in marsh and salt-worn sand;
The Gun Merchant’s voice threads through scenes unseen,
A whisper from another time and land.
Across the seas, where monsoon tempests cry,
And skies ferment with prophecy and fear,
The past and present in one story lie,
As humans, beasts, and fables draw us near.
We tread on currents pulled by urgent change,
Through shifting borders, loss, and borrowed dreams;
In storms that break all futures into strange
Unmapped domains, where hope dissolves and teems.
Yet from these depths a tenuous grace we glean—
A world entangled, fragile, and unseen.
8. Multiple Choice Questions
1. What does the word "Ghetto" originally mean in the Venetian dialect?
a. Jewish settlement b. Foundry c. Slum d. Fortress
2. Which character serves as the primary "rational" voice, providing scientific explanations for uncanny events?
a. Chinta b. Deen c. Piali (Pi) d. Rafi
9. With the help of Google Translate, write Hindi & English translation of 5 Italian words from
the novel
Italian Word
English Translation
Hindi Translation
Secondo me
In my opinion
मेरी राय में
Ghetto
Ghetto
यहूदी बस्ती
Reglio
Reglio
रेग्लियो
Salute
Health
स्वास्थ्य
Sicilia
Sicily
सिसिलिया
Reference
Barad, Dilip. “Gun Island.” Gun Island, 23 Jan. 2022, blog.dilipbarad.com/2022/01/gun-island.html.
DoE-MKBU. “Migration | Human Trafficking | Refugee Crisis | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh.” YouTube, 21 Jan. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLeskjjZRzI.
DoE-MKBU. “Part I - Historification of Myth and Mythification of History | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh.” YouTube, 21 Jan. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLsFEKLGd0.
DoE-MKBU. “Part II | Historification of Myth and Mythification of History | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh.” YouTube, 23 Jan. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP2HerbJ5-g.
DoE-MKBU. “Part III - Historification of Myth and Mythification of History | Gun Island | Amitav Ghosh.” YouTube, 23 Jan. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVLqxT_mUCg.
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