Amitav Ghosh quotes

Amitav Ghosh is an acclaimed Indian author known for his richly detailed novels exploring history, culture, and migration. His works, such as "The Shadow Lines" and "The Ibis Trilogy," have garnered international recognition and numerous literary awards. He is celebrated for weaving complex narratives that bridge the past and present, often addressing global issues. Here are 8 of his quotes:

Thailand has railways and the British never colonised the country,... In 1885, when the British invaded Burma, the Burmese king was already building railways and telegraphs. These are things Indians could have done themselves.

Amitav Ghosh

To use the past to justify the present is bad enough-but it's just as bad to use the present to justify the past.

Amitav Ghosh

The government to you is what God is to agnostics--only to be invoked when your own well being is at stake.

Amitav Ghosh

I know nothing of this silence except that it lies outside the reach of my intelligence, beyond words - that is why this silence must win, must inevitably defeat me, because it is not a presence at all.

Amitav Ghosh

If the charter of your liberties entails death and despair for untold multitudes, then it is nothing but a license for slaughter.

Amitav Ghosh

How do you lose a word? Does it vanish into your memory, like an old toy in a cupboard, and lie hidden in the cobwebs and dust, waiting to be cleaned out or rediscovered?

Amitav Ghosh

(He) was in love with the idea of revolution. Men like that, even when they turn their backs on their party and their comrades, can never let go of the idea: it's the secret god that rules their hearts. It is what makes them come alive; they revel in the danger, the exquisite pain. It is to them what childbirth is to a woman, or war to a mercenary.

Amitav Ghosh