The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide

by

Amitav Ghosh

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Hungry Tide makes teaching easy.

Kanai Dutt Character Analysis

Kanai is a wealthy middle-aged translator who works in New Delhi. When he was ten, he was sent to the Sundarbans to live with his aunt Nilima and uncle Nirmal as punishment for misbehaving in school. He returns to the Sundarbans as an adult to deal with a notebook left to him by his late uncle Nirmal, which helps Kanai and Nilima unravel some of the mysteries of Nirmal's life. Kanai is self-centered and believes that his way of thinking about the world is far superior to how the locals think. He attempts to make advances towards Piya throughout much of the novel, though he's unable to do so due to his habit of treating Piya like an object to be won. This changes when he's the only one who can explain to her why a village would want to kill a tiger—because he doesn't live in the Sundarbans, he has an easier time seeing both sides of the conservation issue. Kanai is forced to confront his own privilege when he and Fokir stop on the remote island of Garjontola, where Fokir finds fresh tiger tracks. There, Kanai falls in the mud, loses his temper, and realizes that people like him are one of the major reasons why poor people like Fokir aren't cared for. After this, he sees a tiger. His terror is so great upon seeing the tiger that he actually loses the ability to form language and instead, feels as though his unspeakable knowledge of how terrifying the tiger is is far more powerful than spoken language. After this, Kanai's self-importance wanes. Nilima explains in the epilogue that following these events on his trip, Kanai decided to restructure his business so he could take more time off and spend time on Lusibari.

Kanai Dutt Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Kanai Dutt or refer to Kanai Dutt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Part 1: S'Daniel Quotes

"It is common knowledge that almost every island in the tide country has been inhabited at some time or another. But to look at them you would never know: the specialty of mangroves is that they do not merely recolonize land; they erase time. Every generation creates its own population of ghosts."

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

"What he wanted was to build a new society, a new kind of country. It would be a country run by cooperatives, he said. Here people wouldn't exploit each other and everyone would have a share in the land.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Trust Quotes

But these elements of an ordinary rural existence did not entirely conceal the fact that life in Lusibari was lived at the sufferance of a single feature of its topography. This was its bãdh, the tall embankment that encircled its perimeter, holding back the twice-daily flood.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Letter Quotes

There is nothing I can do to stop what lies ahead. But I was once a writer; perhaps I can make sure at least that what happened here leaves some trace, some hold upon the memory of the world. The thought of this, along with the fear that preceded it, has made it possible for me to do what I have not been able to do for the last thirty years—to put my pen to paper again.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Moyna Quotes

"Why else?" she said. "Because there's a lot of money in prawns and the traders had paid off the politicians. What do they care—or the politicians, for that matter? It's people like us who're going to suffer and it's up to us to think ahead."

Related Characters: Moyna (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose, Fokir, Tutul
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Post Office on Sunday Quotes

"He loved the work of Rainer Maria Rilke […] Rilke said 'life is lived in transformation,' and I think Nirmal soaked this idea into himself in the way cloth absorbs ink. To him, what Kusum stood for was the embodiment of Rilke's idea of transformation."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Interrogations Quotes

"Because it was people like you," said Kanai, "who made a push to protect the wildlife here, without regard for the human costs. And I'm complicit because people like me […] have chosen to hide these costs, basically in order to curry favor with their Western patrons. It's not hard to ignore the people who're dying—after all, they are the poorest of the poor."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Fokir
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 248-49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Signs Quotes

[…] He had become a token for a vision of human beings in which a man like Fokir counted for nothing, a man whose value was less than an animal. In seeing himself in this way, it seemed perfectly comprehensible to Kanai why Fokir should want him dead—but he understood also that this was not how it would be. Fokir had brought him here not because he wanted him to die, but because he wanted him to be judged.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Fokir, Bon Bibi
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

Wasn't this why people who lived in close proximity with tigers so often regarded them as being something more than just animals? Because the tiger was the only animal that forgave you for being so ill at ease in your translated world?

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Fokir
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

The words he had been searching for, the euphemisms that were the source of his panic, had been replaced by the thing itself, except that without words it could not be apprehended or understood. It was an artifact of pure intuition, so real that the thing itself could not have dreamed of existing so intensely.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Wave Quotes

"Yes," said Nilima. "Making us build it was probably the most important thing he did in his whole life. You can see the proof of that today. But if you'd told him that, he'd have laughed. He'd have said, 'It's just social service—not revolution.'"

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nirmal Bose
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Hungry Tide PDF

Kanai Dutt Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Kanai Dutt or refer to Kanai Dutt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Part 1: S'Daniel Quotes

"It is common knowledge that almost every island in the tide country has been inhabited at some time or another. But to look at them you would never know: the specialty of mangroves is that they do not merely recolonize land; they erase time. Every generation creates its own population of ghosts."

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

"What he wanted was to build a new society, a new kind of country. It would be a country run by cooperatives, he said. Here people wouldn't exploit each other and everyone would have a share in the land.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Trust Quotes

But these elements of an ordinary rural existence did not entirely conceal the fact that life in Lusibari was lived at the sufferance of a single feature of its topography. This was its bãdh, the tall embankment that encircled its perimeter, holding back the twice-daily flood.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Letter Quotes

There is nothing I can do to stop what lies ahead. But I was once a writer; perhaps I can make sure at least that what happened here leaves some trace, some hold upon the memory of the world. The thought of this, along with the fear that preceded it, has made it possible for me to do what I have not been able to do for the last thirty years—to put my pen to paper again.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Moyna Quotes

"Why else?" she said. "Because there's a lot of money in prawns and the traders had paid off the politicians. What do they care—or the politicians, for that matter? It's people like us who're going to suffer and it's up to us to think ahead."

Related Characters: Moyna (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose, Fokir, Tutul
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Post Office on Sunday Quotes

"He loved the work of Rainer Maria Rilke […] Rilke said 'life is lived in transformation,' and I think Nirmal soaked this idea into himself in the way cloth absorbs ink. To him, what Kusum stood for was the embodiment of Rilke's idea of transformation."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Interrogations Quotes

"Because it was people like you," said Kanai, "who made a push to protect the wildlife here, without regard for the human costs. And I'm complicit because people like me […] have chosen to hide these costs, basically in order to curry favor with their Western patrons. It's not hard to ignore the people who're dying—after all, they are the poorest of the poor."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Fokir
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 248-49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Signs Quotes

[…] He had become a token for a vision of human beings in which a man like Fokir counted for nothing, a man whose value was less than an animal. In seeing himself in this way, it seemed perfectly comprehensible to Kanai why Fokir should want him dead—but he understood also that this was not how it would be. Fokir had brought him here not because he wanted him to die, but because he wanted him to be judged.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Fokir, Bon Bibi
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

Wasn't this why people who lived in close proximity with tigers so often regarded them as being something more than just animals? Because the tiger was the only animal that forgave you for being so ill at ease in your translated world?

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Fokir
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

The words he had been searching for, the euphemisms that were the source of his panic, had been replaced by the thing itself, except that without words it could not be apprehended or understood. It was an artifact of pure intuition, so real that the thing itself could not have dreamed of existing so intensely.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Wave Quotes

"Yes," said Nilima. "Making us build it was probably the most important thing he did in his whole life. You can see the proof of that today. But if you'd told him that, he'd have laughed. He'd have said, 'It's just social service—not revolution.'"

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nirmal Bose
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis: