Review: The Calcutta Chromosome

The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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The Calcutta Chromosome; Detailed Review

Review

In most Colonial era fiction which I’ve read, Indians are usually portrayed as belonging to one of two categories. Either the heroic freedom fighters who engage the British in a symbolic but futile struggle, and martyr themselves. Or, the subservient serfs, who excel in cronyism and would sell their own mother for praise from their White masters. Sort of pigeon holed both.

Hence it was a breath of fresh air to see a tale, where the snooty, bigoted overlords are being led by the nose by those whom they consider virtually nonexistent. The Calcutta Chromosome follows a narrative across multiple time periods and characters; all of whom have brushes with a mysterious secretive cult centered around a seemingly immortal demigod Mangala didi.

A tale bordering on convoluted, science fiction mystery, with a pervasive colonial presence and smudges of the supernatural. And like any good mystery novel, it has peppered throughout its narrative, clues and insight which become relevant on the second or third reading, and give you that ‘AHA’ moment.

The first half of the novel builds up a fascinating world stopped in superstition and intrigue; not in some dark alley in New England or Romania, but among the old cityscape of Calcutta where everything is vintage, unique and probably has been standing since the times of the British. Perhaps that is why the all too fast wrap up in the climax was a let down. Ghosh tries to do some things where he gives up bits and pieces and leaves us with an ambiguous ending. It’s daring in itself, telling the reader to figure out what might’ve transpired. But also unsatisfying.

But credit where it’s due; Amitav Ghosh has constructed an engaging narrative spanning around multiple time periods and characters and has managed to keep readers in anticipation as to what will come next. I could barely contain myself as I ran through one narrative to the next, trying to pick up breadcrumbs and forming conjectures of my own. Which again, was undone by the ambiguous ending.

  Book Cover: The Calcutta Chromosome

Dramatis Personae

• The Society of Counter Science/ Cult of Silence
• Mangala (didi)/ Mrs Aratounian/ Tara: The cult leader; a genius level intellect and body transferring demigod.
• Lakhaan/ Lutchman/ Lakshman/ Lucky: Right hand man to Mangala; as well as Pointman to the cult’s activities. Has been with Mangala for over a century
• Unnamed collaborators and cult members in the shadows

The investigators/ सत्यन्वेषी

• Antar: A systems analyst working for the IWC who stumbles upon a mystery regarding his former colleague who was missing.
• Murughan: Antar’s missing colleague, and a self proclaimed expert on the life of the Nobel laureate Ronald Ross.
• Sonali Das: A former actress and successful writer, currently working as a journalist.
• Urmila Roy: Sonali’s friend and subordinate. Investigating some discrepancies in the life of acclaimed bengali writer Phulboni
• Phulboni: An 85 year old enigmatic writer who seems to have some relations with the cult of Mangala didi.

Synopsis:

Narrative 1: In an indeterminate pre-dystopian future, post 1995, Antar, a New York based Systems analyst working on cataloguing ‘old world’ artifacts with the help of his AI computer AVA, stumbles across an old ID. It belonged to his former colleague Murughan, who while visiting Calcutta in 1995 was reported missing. Intrigued, Antar attempts to follow the trail of the artifact, as well as reminisce of their brief acquaintance to determine the circumstances around his disappearance.

Narrative 2: 1995 Calcutta; L. Murughan, a self proclaimed authority on the life of Malaria researcher and Nobel laureate Ronald ross, is on a personal quest. His purpose, to visit the site of Ross’s research, and investigate some discrepancies he found in regards to the research surrounding the discovery of the Malaria parasite, which earned Ross his Nobel.

Joining him are Sonali Das & Urmila Roy, two journalists following their own investigations and whose paths get crossed.

Narrative 3: Close of the 19th Century, precisely 1894-1898, the period when Ross’s Malaria research took place. We learn of what happened around this time, with several British researchers, colleagues of Ross, all of whom had some brushes with a secretive shadow organization which had some related agenda surrounding their research. Most of this narrative is told as anecdotes, journal entries, letters of correspondence, and some good ol conjecture.

Murughan, who is obsessed with Ronald Ross and discovery of the Malaria parasite, notes some discrepancies surrounding how Ross came to his acclaimed accomplishment. Pouring over historical records and communications between Ross and his contemporaries, he comes to the conclusion that Ronald was in fact guided to his great breakthrough, like a donkey with a carrot, by a shadowy cult. Their aim was to use Ross to make public knowledge of the disease, and through it further their own agenda.

Once in Calcutta, Murughan meets Sonali & Urmila, who in time give insights from their own research. From these as well as other clues he finds over the course of his investigation, Murughan inches closer to the true nature of the cult and what they intend to do with their knowledge of the Malaria disease.

Meanwhile in an undated future, Murughan has gone missing, and his former colleague Antar, thorough a freak circumstance is in a position to investigate the circumstances around his disappearance.

In 19th century colonial India, a few British nationals chance upon something which doesn’t quite fit in regards to some of their Indian servants. And their curiosity oftentimes leads them to mortal harm.

Whichever the Narrative, the overreaching presence of the Cult is felt to all those involved. In the form of the seemingly immortal Lutchman/ Lakhaan, who pops up across time in different places, under different personas. In the absence of concrete proof, one is left to ponder as to what nefarious endgame they are prepping towards.

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Narrative and themes explored

Taking back power from the colonial Overlords

One third of the narrative, anecdotal in style, occurs at the end of the 19th century, British India, at the height of their power. Mr. Gandhi was still dabbling in Civil rights protests in S.Africa, the failed Indian Mutiny of 1857 was long past and done with. Britishers were the uncrowned royalty to about 240 million people.

So it is mirthful to read about how, a bunch of lowly Indian cult members, dabbling in counter scientific methods were able to lead around the British researchers and civil servants involved quite magnificently that, no one even knew there was anything wrong. The Britishers, bigoted and blind in their superiority felt themselves the masters of their own life, and barely took notice of the crowds of servants who busied around them. Making themselves prime subjects to be exploited.

In many ways, Ghosh is casting a narrative where the oppressed hold power over their oppressors. Mangala and lakhaan, the central figures of the Cult of Silence are assigned to the lower castes, and are generally looked down upon. But in fact, Mangala was one who possessed a genius level intellect, and despite being born into less than optimal surroundings, managed to exploit her masters to become a demigod-like entity to the cult.

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The Cult of Silence/ Society of Counter-science

The cult, as it would come to be called, was formed at around the time of Ross’s acclaimed discovery. Mangala, a genius level intellect & Lakhaan, who Ross’s predecessor Cunningham had picked up from the streets and trained to become his assistant soon took over the research behind his back. She came to the discovery as to the nature of the disease much before the Britishers.

She also devised a version of the Wagner-Jauregg method, using Malaria to cure Syphilis paresis. Now, any normal researcher, upon such discovery would rush to get published. But Mangala, untrained in the methodology of western science, saw an all different endgame.

In how the Malaria parasite rewired the brains of the patient to match the donor, she found a method of transferring consciousness. Rather one for reincarnation and eventually Immortality.

This is what Mangala and her followers have been working towards, for over a century from the shadows. But, in order to achieve this they have to play the long game. For one of the tenets of the Cult of Silence is in its name. They believe in the doctrine ‘To know something is to change it’. If enough people know of something, that thing’s nature will change, and you cease to know it, only its history.

Which forces them to forego direct action and leave clues and eventualities, which in time can bloom into the results that they wish for. These eventualities are what led to Murughan’s crusade, Sonali & Urmila’s investigations and even antar’s enquiry into Murughan’s disappearance.

Long game indeed. The cult’s machinations stretch from the 19th century to future New York, and in some cases is still going on. After all, for beings who have virtually all the time in the world, schemes which span across a few centuries are at most inconveniences.
 

The Cult’s doctrine

The cult of Silence or the Society of Counter-science, with Mangala-didi as its demigod leader, believe in the doctrine of ‘To know something is to change it’. Where modern science believes in transparency and sharing all new knowledge, the cult tries to compartmentalize and conceal knowledge, preferring to direct the course of events from the shadows to lead to certain eventualities. 

Being virtually immortal, they can afford to keep trying over time periods where normal humans cannot. They perform their experiments, by choosing certain individuals who satisfy some unknown criteria. They then presumably influence the progression of that individual’s life and direct it to a course of their choosing. By giving them clues and half knowledge they made these people, who know nothing of their puppet masters to lead to certain eventualities.

Phulboni & the Ghost train

There is a subplot, towards the end of the novel, involving the writer Phulboni and his run-in with the cult at its presumed home base in Renupur. In 1933, a young Phulboni was assigned to the rural village of Renupur by his company to do some fieldwork. 

Renupur is as deserted as a place as they come, barely paved clearing and an unused signal room, with one bow legged stationmaster. He doesn’t even get to the village, forced to spend the night in the signal room, due to the roads flooded during the monsoon. During the night, he presumably has a run in with Lakhaan, at least the 1933 incarnation of him, which almost leads to his death. 

There is an unclear part in the scene where he is chasing a Red Lantern in a pouring night and is almost run over by a train that shouldn’t have been running at that time. When he wakes up in the morning, being knocked unconscious, he is again almost run over by a train, this one real, and the one that had brought him to Renupur.

Many readers had complained as to what was the need for inserting this subplot which had no bearing on the main story. And the conflicting narrative where he is almost run over by two trains. Compounded by how the train guard informs Phulboni that the station had no master for over 30 years. 

This can all be explained, with some lateral thinking if one were to follow the narrative. Phulboni arrives and meets the Station master (presumably). Famished, he gups down the food prepared for him by the man. It could’ve been that Phulboni was drugged at this instance, and placed on the railway track. His midnight run-in with the train, might’ve been a hallucination in his drugged state. 

When he woke, like dejavu, he was again almost run over by a train, this time real. The parallels of the visions and events might have caused some confusion in his mind, in regards to what had actually happened.

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The interconnectivity across time and geography

Towards the end of the novel, even though the ending is left to your own interpretation, one thing is clear. Most, if not all the characters introduced didn’t just stumble across the mystery of the Calcutta chromosome. They were pieces in a narrative which had been forming for over 100 years. Antar, Murughan, Sonali, Urmila, all the main characters have had direct or indirect run-ins with the cults or their machinations. 

For e.g. Antar and Murughan are survivors of malaria & Syphilis, two central diseases which form part of the plot. And the circumstances which lead to them being afflicted might not have been an entire coincidence. Reincarnation and Parakaya Pravesha (transfer of consciousness across bodies) Another theme explored is the influence of religion, culture and superstition on science. 

Mangala, as mentioned, discovered the method for curing Syphilis using malaria much earlier than the western world. And she used this as means of gaining cult members and consolidating her status as a demigod. Moreover, when she first formulated the method, using blood from Malaria patients, stored in Pigeons (living test tubes) and infecting Syphilic patients with it, she noticed some unexpected side effects. The personality of the patient was altered to resemble that of the donor. 

Now, a western researcher would’ve come to the conclusion that, infecting the brain with the Malaria parasite causes alterations in the cerebral circuits and this can contribute to personality changes. They might even make a research paper out of it. 

However Mangala, who likely grew up influenced by the Hindu religious practises and knew of its lore, saw this and attributed it to the ancient vedic Siddhi popularly known in folklore as Para kaya Pravesha, literally taking over the body of another. 

For Mangala who believed in the eternal soul and reincarnation, who learned quotes from scriptures such as ‘soul is eternal’ & ‘Your soul discards the mortal flesh for a new one, much like one discards clothes’ this was an opportunity to rediscover what the sages had prescribed.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि

नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूय: |

अजो नित्य: शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो

न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे || 20||

Bhagavath gita, Chapter 2.20

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय

नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि |

तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा

न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही || 22||

Bhagavath Gita, Chapter 2.22

In this method she saw a means by which the personality of one person can be made to transfer and take over that of another. More clearly, she saw a method by which a person’s consciousness can pass onto another body and continue to live there, a form of pseudo immortality. 

So her end goal was to perfect this method of long life. This again paints the divide between the Western methodology of medicine and scientific research, and the traditional Indian sciences which run hand in hand to the religious practices.

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The method to Immortality

We are not precisely told how Mangala made the leap from the Wagner- Jauregg esque method of treatment to actual Other Body possession. We are given clues and shown the results of her research. Murugan hypotheses that the process is facilitated by the formation of a somatic chromosome in the brain of the subject, during their lifetime. This chromosome like entity contains all the necessary cognitive information which makes up a person. He christens it as the Calcutta Chromosome. 

The Plasmodium parasite which attacks the brain in case of Cerebral malaria, takes this Calcutta chromosome, breaks it down, changes it and transposes it to the recipient’s brain, thus inducing the personality onto a new host. Mangala and her cult, through her contrived experiment aims to perfect this process and commandeer it to serve their purpose of attaining immortality through transfer of consciousness. 

By the end of the novel, Mangala has been shown to have successfully performed the process at least twice. From Mangala originally to Mrs. Aratounian, and from her to Urmila. Lakhaan might’ve had equal is not more transfers; From Lutchman, to Lakhaan to Roman to Lucky. Do the rest of the cult members also have access to this process? Not clear, but likely. 

Many individuals, like Murughan and Phulboni try to gain entry into the inner circle of the Cult of Silence, sometimes in desperation. Both have had nothing more to look forward to in life and want a new lease at it. So it is implied that the members are at least partially motivated by the promise of eternal life. 

Does taking over another’s body erase the existing consciousness? Again, not clear. But seeing as how Murughan, Sonali and Urmila were willing to become part of the Cult, and in Urmila’s case willing to be Mangala’s new body, there might be some wiggle room. I’d imagine it’s some sort of ‘Being John Malkovich’ situation, where the incoming consciousness merges with the existing one to create an altogether new person, with attributes of both.

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The timeline; Unspooled

• Sometime around 1894, the British researcher Cunningham, working on Malaria in Calcutta, sets up his lab, and recruits several locals looking for work as his assistants and trains them. All from a nearby station called Sealdah, where such persons could be found.
• Among those recruited are a woman named Mangala, presumably suffering from Syphilis; as well as her confidant of sorts Lakhaan, a youth. He teaches them the ways for studying bacteria using microscopes and staining slides.
• Cunningham eventually loses interest in the research. But Mangala, who is infact a genius level intellect, takes what he taught them and made it her own. Behind his back, using the facilities he established, she furthers her own research. Though not trained in traditional western scientific process, hers is colored by local superstition and beliefs.
• Using her incredible intellect, and intuitive leaps of understanding, Mangala discovers the nature of Malaria. Though she doesn’t have any material the kind which the western world of scientific publications can get behind. She instead uses a variant of malaria she developed, using pigeons of carriers to cure Syphilis Paresis. Possibly a method similar to Wagner Jauregg’s 1917 treatment. Presumably at this time, she cured herself as well
• Soon, she and Lakhaan began to treat other patients using Mangala’s methods. The poor folk came to see this as a means of magical phenomenon and started worshipping Mangala as a divine entity. She begins to build her cult base.
• Around the time Mangala notices how recipients of the treatment showed personality changes in line with those of the malaria donors. Again, having no western scientific base, she focused on the aspect of this where personality of one is transposed onto another. In this, she saw a chance to attain Parakaya pravesha, or transferring of your consciousness to a new body. In this she hoped to find the key to immortality.
• It must be also at this juncture when the cultists of Mangala Didi formulated their doctrine of counter science or the way of silence and secrecy. They sabotage the efforts by Cunningham and his colleagues to uncover the nature of the Malaria parasite, for fear that the discovery might change the nature of it. Farley accidentally stumbles onto their secret and is killed while on journey to the village of Renupur, possibly by Lakhan
• It is 1897 and something happened. Likely Mangala hit a stonewall in her experiment, and she needs some change. So now, she needs the research on Malaria to progress. But Cunningham is by now preventing any such progress, stonewalling Ronald Ross who wanted to discover the Malaria parasite. So, through means, they remove him, and allow Ross to arrive and take over Cunningham’s lab. During the course of Ross’s research which lasted for less than a few years, Lakhaan, by now Lutchman manipulated the Brit to reach the right conclusion, make his discovery and release the information to the world thereby changing it. Allowing Mangala to progress with her own research.
• Before his departure, Cunningham makes a covert trip under an assumed name to a spiritual séance society in madras, to one Madame Lisa Salminen. He might’ve been infected by Malaria, given his hallucinogenic visions. I suspect he passed on his affliction to the other members of the seance, among them one Grofne Pongracz, a globe trotting archeologist. Grofne might’ve been an unknown asymptomatic carrier.
• Over Fifty years later, Grofne would travel to Egypt for an excavation, in a remote village. She recruited locals to do her grunt work, and somewhere during the period infected them. The whole village, possibly including her, died of a localized Malaria outbreak. Anecdotal evidence suggests there was a single survivor, a 14 year old boy who escaped to the railway station.
• Curiously, Antar was from a remote Egyptian village. Following the death of his family, and orphan hood, he was adopted by a kind family, whose daughter he later married. So, is the condition for transference that you have to be a survivor of Malaria/ Syphilis, which makes your brain susceptible to be rewired using the Calcutta chromosome?
• During Ross’ research period, Grigson another Englishman linguist, possibly gay, stumbled upon Lutchman’s persona. Through the intonation of his speech he figured out the man was not from the geographical area he claimed to be from. This almost leads to Grigson’s death (by Red Lantern and trains). He is sufficiently spooked and runs back home, abandoning his curiosity (He’s like one of those narrators of Lovecraftian stories)
• When Morgan was 15 he too got Syphilis, via solicitation with prostitutes. Does this have some bearing on the plot? If we assume both Antar and Murughan are of similar age, they both got one part of the two diseases in focus to the story
• 1933: Phulboni was assigned to Renupur. There he meets someone claiming to be the station master. This could’ve been hallucination, or a conspirator. They try to kill him like they did to Farley, but he escapes through luck. Sometime after this Phulboni must’ve made contact with the cult. He tried to make information about them public through his books, but failed. For his transgression he was excommunicated from the group. Perhaps harboring delusions of immortality, the writer spent the rest of his life trying to get back in their good graces. He seems to have succeeded in 1995.
• 1995: Murughan followed his leads to Calcutta, and alongside Sonali Das and Urmila Roy uncovered a good part of the puzzle. But he is being led around, much like Ross to further the cult’s agenda. This time, it is to bring Urmila, the next host body for Mangala into the fold. Lakhaan seems to have been transmigrated to Roman, while, by the end of the story, all the three investigators too are inducted into the cult
• At an indeterminate date in the future, (a couple of years later 1995, we are led to believe), in a pre dystopian New York, Antar is given clues, similar to Murughan, to unspool the mystery. Once he does, he too is inducted into the cult. It’s members include Tara (Mangala, in Urmila’s body), Maria (Sonali Das) & Lucky (Lakhaan).