The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide

by

Amitav Ghosh

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

Sir Daniel Hamilton Character Analysis

Sir Daniel Hamilton, or "S'Daniel," was a Scotsman who made his fortune selling tickets for ship passages in British India at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1903, he bought land in the Sundarbans and developed an "ideal society" there based on cooperatives. He called for Indians to settle there, regardless of religion or social caste. He even issued his own currency. The settlement was successful, though it dissolved after his death in 1939. People still celebrate him and his work by treating him like a venerated ancestor during festivals.

Sir Daniel Hamilton Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Daniel Hamilton or refer to Sir Daniel Hamilton. 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: Nirmal and Nilima Quotes

It shamed them to think that this man—a foreigner, a burra sahib, a rich capitalist—had taken it upon himself to address the issue of rural poverty when they themselves, despite all their radical talk, had scarcely any knowledge of life outside the city.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sir Daniel Hamilton Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Daniel Hamilton or refer to Sir Daniel Hamilton. 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: Nirmal and Nilima Quotes

It shamed them to think that this man—a foreigner, a burra sahib, a rich capitalist—had taken it upon himself to address the issue of rural poverty when they themselves, despite all their radical talk, had scarcely any knowledge of life outside the city.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis: