Think India Journal

Reimagining The Sundarbans: Ecology, Culture and Postcolonial Space in The Hungry Tide

Amarjit Kumar Singh, Shawan Roy — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide offers a powerful literary reimagining of the Sundarbans as a complex ecological, cultural, and postcolonial space where human survival, environmental precarity, and historical memory intersect. Situated in one of the most fragile and politically marginalized regions of South Asia, the novel foregrounds the entangled lives of humans, animals, tides, and landscapes, challenging anthropocentric and nationalist narratives of progress and development. This research article examines how Ghosh reconstructs the Sundarbans as a contested postcolonial space shaped by colonial legacies, ecological vulnerability, and subaltern resistance. Drawing upon postcolonial ecocriticism, spatial theory, and environmental humanities, the study explores the representation of the Sundarbans as a liminal zone where nature and culture constantly negotiate power, survival, and belonging. The article argues that The Hungry Tide not only critiques developmentalist and state-centric discourses but also reclaims marginalized ecological knowledge and cultural memory, thereby positioning literature as a vital medium for environmental and postcolonial consciousness.

Urban Decay, Addiction, and Alienation in Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis

Puja Priyadarshini — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis is a dark, lyrical meditation on Bombay’s underbelly, foregrounding the intertwined themes of urban decay, addiction, and alienation. Set primarily in the city’s opium dens and marginal spaces from the 1970s onwards, the novel presents an alternative history of Bombay that resists narratives of progress, globalization, and urban glamour. This research article examines how Narcopolis constructs the city as a decaying organism, where addiction becomes both a symptom and a metaphor for social disintegration, and alienation defines the existential condition of its inhabitants. Drawing on urban studies, postmodern literary theory, and addiction discourse, the study explores how Thayil’s fragmented narrative structure, polyphonic voices, and hallucinatory prose mirror the psychological and spatial fragmentation of the modern metropolis. The article argues that Narcopolis exposes the moral and cultural erosion underlying urban modernity, revealing how marginalized individuals—drug users, queer bodies, migrants, and the dispossessed—are rendered invisible within the dominant narratives of the city. Through its poetic engagement with decay and desire, the novel challenges readers to confront the costs of urban transformation and the human toll of addiction and isolation.

Polyphonic Narratives and the Multiplicity of Voices in the Fiction of Amitav Ghosh

Rakesh Kumar Singh, Somnath Jha — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Amitav Ghosh’s fiction is distinguished by its rich polyphonic texture and its sustained commitment to representing multiple, often marginalized, voices within complex historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. Drawing upon Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony, this research article examines how Ghosh employs multiplicity of voices as a narrative strategy to challenge monologic histories, nationalist grand narratives, and Eurocentric epistemologies. Through an analysis of selected novels including The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and the Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire), the paper explores how Ghosh constructs dialogic narratives that accommodate diverse perspectives such as migrants, subalterns, traders, women, scientists, indigenous communities, and colonial subjects. The study argues that Ghosh’s polyphonic narrative mode enables a reimagining of history as fragmented, contested, and plural, thereby democratizing storytelling and foregrounding ethical responsibility toward silenced voices. By blending oral histories, archival materials, myths, scientific discourse, and personal memories, Ghosh creates narrative spaces where no single voice claims absolute authority. The article concludes that polyphony in Ghosh’s fiction is not merely a stylistic choice but a deeply political and ethical intervention that reflects the complexities of postcolonial identity, global interconnectedness, and historical consciousness.

Effect of Contrast vs Traditional Strength Training on Selected Physical Fitness of Athletes, Wrestling Players

Rakesh Dinkar Vadje, Narayan N. Jaybhaye — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of the study was to investigate and compare the effects of two different types of strength training i.e., contrast training and traditional strength training by observing their effects on selected dependent variables among collegiate wrestler. It was hypothesized that different types of strength training will have a significant effect on selected physical variables among collegiate wrestler; also, there would be a significant difference in the effects of both strength training which help in concluding which strength training is better for enhancing the performance of trained wrestler.

Even Vigilante Groups are not Perfect: Examining the Administration of Community Policing and Human Rights Violation in Enugu State, Nigeria

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigates Community Vigilante Groups and Human Rights Violations in Enugu State (2015–2024), focusing on the rising involvement of non-state security actors in community protection and the human rights concerns associated with their operations. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design, supported by the Noble Cause Corruption Theory, which explains why security actors justify unlawful actions as necessary for public good. This study adopts a mixed method of data collection that includes questionnaires, interviews, academic publications, NGO reports, newspaper documents, and human rights records. Findings revealed that the roles of community vigilante groups, particularly in arrest operations, patrol activities, and dispute interventions, have significantly contributed to extrajudicial actions, including torture, forced confessions, unlawful detention, and mob-style executions. The study recommends the strengthening of legal frameworks guiding vigilante operations, professionalisation and standardisation of the Neighbourhood Watch structure, adoption of human-rights-compliant operational codes, enhanced protection for journalists and human rights monitors, and the implementation of inclusive security frameworks aligned with national gender policies. These measures are essential for balancing community-based security with respect for human rights and the rule of law in Enugu State.

Prevalence, Causes and Consequences of Oil Theft in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Onwuchekwe Stanley Ikenna, Ezeah Peter, Ikezue, Emeka Clement — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The mean aim of this paper is to examine the prevalence, causes and consequences of oil theft in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Niger Delta is a geo-political region with the highest oil and gas production capacity in Nigeria. Oil theft is illegal act of stealing crude oil or refined oil products from pipelines, storage tanks, and other facilities belonging to the government or private oil companies. The study findings show that the problem of oil theft in the Niger Delta region has reached its crescendo and from the casual observers to the stakeholders, everyone agrees that it is a menace that must be tackled head-on. The study findings also observed that not much has been achieved by the Nigerian state in curbing this menace due to a number of reasons including enthroned corruption in the country, high level of youth unemployment in the Niger-Delta, poverty, ineffective and corrupt security agents, and international oil thieves’ collaborations, among others. The paper concludes that, there should be multi-stakeholder approach in solving the problem of oil theft in Niger-Delta oil producing communities. This approach should include effort to tackle poverty, youth unemployment, corruption among security agents and officials of oil regulatory agencies, etc.

Romantics and their Contribution to English Literature

C. Anitha — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to highlight romantics and what they had contributed to English Literature. The focus will be on William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and some others. Their theories for literature and their views about poetry will be examined and analyzed. Furthermore, some of the poems of every writer will be analyzed as first hand sources to prove the point with regard to romanticism in English Literature. Poetry, its language, its subject will be focus and whom it is addressed will be given stress. Romanticism focused on imagination, lyrical quality, simple language, rural subject matter, nature, justice, freedom, equality

Motherhood and Feminist Guilt: Emotional Labour in the Works of Anita Desai and Githa Hariharan

Aparna Mishra — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Motherhood has long occupied a privileged position within nationalist and cultural discourse as the highest expression of feminine virtue, moral endurance, and self-sacrifice. Feminist literary texts from India, however, repeatedly complicate this ideal by foregrounding the emotional labour, guilt, and ethical exhaustion embedded in maternal roles. This paper examines representations of motherhood in Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain and Clear Light of Day, and Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night, to analyse the tension between motherhood as moral obligation and feminist selfhood. Drawing on feminist theories of emotional labour, ethics of care, and nationalist ideology, the paper argues that motherhood in these texts is not a stable or fulfilling identity but a coercive moral structure that produces feminist guilt. By resisting the nationalist glorification of maternal sacrifice, Desai and Hariharan reveal how maternal identity is sustained through silence, erasure, and unacknowledged labour. The paper positions feminist guilt not as individual failure but as a structural consequence of ideological motherhood, thereby reframing maternal dissatisfaction as a legitimate feminist critique rather than moral deficiency.

Voices of Resistance: Rewriting History in Postcolonial Narratives

Anita Dwivedi — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Postcolonial literature has emerged as a powerful intellectual and cultural movement that challenges the dominant narratives constructed during the colonial era. Colonial historiography often represented colonized societies through Eurocentric perspectives that portrayed them as backward, passive, and in need of Western intervention. Such representations silenced indigenous voices and marginalized the histories of colonized communities. In response, postcolonial writers and theorists have sought to reclaim history by reinterpreting the past from the standpoint of the colonized. This process of rewriting history has become a central feature of postcolonial narratives, enabling marginalized voices to challenge colonial authority, reconstruct cultural memory, and assert new identities. This research paper explores how postcolonial narratives function as voices of resistance by rewriting historical narratives and reclaiming suppressed histories. It examines the theoretical foundations of postcolonial resistance through the works of major theorists and investigates the narrative strategies employed by writers to reinterpret colonial histories. The paper further analyzes how memory, subaltern voices, hybridity, and cultural identity contribute to the reconstruction of historical consciousness in postcolonial texts. Through the analysis of representative literary works from various postcolonial contexts, the study demonstrates that postcolonial literature not only critiques colonial power structures but also constructs alternative histories that empower previously silenced communities. Ultimately, rewriting history becomes a transformative act that challenges imperial authority and restores agency to marginalized peoples.

VAR'S Applicability to Rehabilitate Violent Victims in Sudan

Oluchukwu Sunday Nwonovo — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The victims' humanitarian problems have been made worse by the international community's passivity and disregard for the humanitarian crisis brought on by political upheaval in Sudan. Humanitarian aid is still inadequate, even when it is given. Thus, this article investigates the viability of rehabilitating and empowering victims of political upheaval in Sudan through the use of virtual and augmented reality. Newspapers, journal articles, textbooks, technology blogs, social media commentary, and websites were the secondary sources of data for the study. In order to eliminate obvious duplications and difficulties in handling the issue, consequently endangering the victims' humanitarian requirements, the paper concludes by recommending the immediate use of virtual reality and augmented reality in rehabilitating and re-empowering victims of the Sudanese crisis. Adopting this technology in a timely manner can greatly lessen the victims' humanitarian requirements and the aftermath of the war, given the precarious nature of the situation. The most effective approach to accomplish this is for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other relevant parties to use technical visuals and animation from augmented reality and virtual reality into the treatment of the victims.

Examining the Use of Film in Nigerian Prisoners' Social and Psychological Rehabilitation

Oluchukwu Sunday Nwonovo — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Movies are used to support social rehabilitation, improve self-awareness, and encourage psychological healing. In Nigeria, where there are few mental health resources and stigma persists, this study explores the potential of using films in rehabilitating prisoners. The study highlights how Nollywood may improve cinematic therapy by producing culturally relevant films that address social issues and mental health. Despite its potential, integrating cinematic therapy into Nigeria's mental health system faces challenges like poor awareness, cultural barriers, and accessibility concerns. Incorporating films into mental health programs, training experts, improving infrastructure, and encouraging collaborations between Nollywood and mental health organisations are some of the policy recommendations.

Gaps in Governance and the Growth of Organised Crime in Nigeria

Paulinus Ejiofor Ezeme, Jonas Ohabuenyi — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Organised crime does well in places with weak governments, corruption, and poor service delivery. This is a good example of a problem. There is a lot of illegal oil bunkering, human trafficking, and insurgency going on there, which makes it hard for the country to grow and run itself. This essay analyses the shortcomings in Nigeria's governance that facilitate organised crime and suggests practical remedies. The study analyses the interaction between institutional failure and systemic injustice in enabling criminal enterprises. The study utilises a qualitative methodology based on the examination of secondary data obtained from official documents, policy reports, and scholarly publications. Thematic coding was utilised to identify patterns in organised crime and governance issues in critical domains. The results show that Boko Haram's insurgency, illegal oil bunkering, and human trafficking networks are mostly caused by poor governance. Things like bad laws, pollution, unemployment, and corruption are examples of these. Systemic injustices and institutional failure keep the cycles of violence and loss of money going. The analysis arrives at the conclusion that addressing organised crime in Nigeria requires substantial reforms rather than superficial security measures. The study says that anti-corruption groups should be stronger, that it should be easier for people to get health care and education, that borders should be safer, and that countries should work together.

Public Perception of Factors Associated with Antenatal Care Utilization among Women in Awka South LGA of Anamabra State, Nigeria

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examined public perception of the factors associated with antenatal care utilization among women in Awka South LGA. The objectives of this study were guided by conceptual issues such as; the state of antenatal care utilization among women, factors influencing antenatal care utilization among women, effects of poor antenatal care utilization among women, measures that could be put in place to improve antenatal care utilization among women in Awka South LGA. The research employed a mixed methods research design using a sample size of 204 respondents. Data collected from the questionnaire were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software application version 23. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and simple percentages. The hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square () statistics. The qualitative data collected from the field were transcribed which was thoroughly edited, analyzed thematically using narrative method of qualitative data analysis. The study identified distance to clinic as primary socio-cultural factors that determine the utilization of antenatal care service among women in Awka South Local Government Area. The study also found out that maternal death, pregnancy complications, infant death among others as effects of poor antenatal care services in Awka South Local Government Area. Finally, the research recommends that free and subsidized antenatal care service, improved facility infrastructure, community mobilization among others were listed as measures to improve antenatal care utilization among women in Awka South LGA.