Amitav Ghosh

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Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma

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SOURCE: A review of Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma, in Asian Affairs, Vol. 30, No. 2, June, 1999, pp. 230–31.

[In the following review of Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma, Zinkin commends Ghosh for his proficiency in portraying the strife and harsh living conditions in past and present-day Burma and Cambodia.]

Published in Delhi, this small book by Amitav Ghosh deserves to be available worldwide. Never before has this reviewer had the privilege of reviewing a travel book, if it can be so classified, of such evocative scholarship and empathy. The title, like the presentation and illustrated cover, is deceptive. There are three essays, two on Cambodia, one on Burma.

The author, Bengali by name who leaves one in doubt as to whether he is Indian or Bangladeshi, has such a rare gift of empathy with the people and events he describes that his readers can imagine themselves at his side.

In Burma he meets Suu Kyi, Aung San's Nobel Prize-winning daughter on two occasions. He is at his best when he describes how the Karen guerrillas manage to live in the jungle off the land they cultivate. A messier situation is difficult to imagine, or indeed convey: there are no boundaries, no issues beyond the government's refusal to let democracy and autonomy exist. Unlike in Cambodia there is no genocide or ethnicity at stake. Some of the guerillas are pure Burmese, some are Burmese of mixed Indian or Sikh blood. Taking to the maquis has become such a way of life for so long, it has acquired such normality that harvesting cauliflowers becomes more important than oiling sub-machine guns, while running dispensaries and schools is as important as, if not more important than, the pursuit of the civil war. His two meetings with Suu Kyi are interesting, although they do not add much to what one already knows; it is his description of jungle revolt which make him such an admirable reporter.

In Dancing in Cambodia, he evokes the history of Cambodia from colonial rule to Khmer genocide through his meeting Pol Pot's sister-in-law, the last of the great court dancers. Pol Pot was adopted and brought up in the King's court before being sent to university in Paris where he became a Communist. Amitav Ghosh's gift for lateral thinking brings to life conditions in Cambodia most vividly, whether it is the reluctance of his interpreter to drive even a small distance out of the capital, or the unbelievably normal life Pol Pot led in a village when he had to retire, despite the horrors of his regime. He uses descriptions of the ruined temple city of Angkor to cover Cambodia's past and present by showing the extent to which what the temple stands for dominates every aspect of life in Cambodia even today.

Such is the author's power of evocation and description that to summarise this little chef d'oeuvre would be to do it an injustice. To read it is a must if one wants to understand what is happening in Cambodia and Burma.

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