• Suvetha A B
• Sujatha D

Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke (2011), the second book of the Ibis Trilogy, explores the socio-economic and political dynamics surrounding the opium trade in the nineteenth-century Indian Ocean world. Although not explicitly a philosophical novel, it is deeply embedded with implicit existentialist themes. The narrative interrogates the tensions between economic determinism and individual agency, the struggle for selfhood amid cultural displacement, and the search for meaning in systems defined by coercion and global capitalism. Characters such as Bahram Modi, Neel Rattan Halder, Paulette Lambert, and Fitcher Penrose confront “the absurd” a condition in which the world appears indifferent to human values, identity, and suffering. Their journeys illustrate existential anxieties related to freedom, choice, moral responsibility, alienation, and the unstable quest for belonging in a fragmented multicultural environment. By depicting characters who must shape identity and purpose in contexts marked by colonial violence, commodification, and uprootedness, River of Smoke demonstrates that existential meaning is not bestowed by social institutions whether family, nation, race, or religion but must be negotiated by individuals through deliberate action and ethical accountability. This article examines the implicit elements of existentialism in River of Smoke, arguing that Ghosh’s historical narrative ultimately doubles as a philosophical reflection on the human condition under imperial modernity.

Existentialism, Absurdity, Freedom, Identity, Displacement, Alienation, Capitalism, Colonialism, Choice, Human Condition

"Implicit Elements of Existentialism in Amitav Ghosh’s Novel", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 1, page no.b643-b645, January-2026, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2601195.pdf

"Implicit Elements of Existentialism in Amitav Ghosh’s Novel", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.13, Issue 1, page no. ppb643-b645, January-2026, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2601195.pdf