Anil's Ghost

“Every side was killing and hiding the evidence. Every side. This is an unofficial war, no one wants to alienate the foreign powers. So it’s secret gangs and squads.”

Sarath’s explanation of the civil war in Sri Lanka implicates all factions—including the government—in the violence. He also notes the importance of secrecy, a tactic that he utilizes to keep himself safe, and the dependence on foreign entities. Anil initially represents an emissary of such foreign powers.

“‘You have a hang-up about journalists, don’t you.’

“‘That’s how we get seen in the West. It’s different here, dangerous. Sometimes law is on the side of power not truth.’”

The ways in which the mostly Western journalists portray the country and its war have an outsized impact on who receives assistance or justice. The Western gaze, even in the postcolonial context, remains potent and central. Reporting an incident to the wrong people or misidentifying a body can lead to the persecution or assassination.

“In her years abroad, during her European and North American education, Anil had courted foreignness, was at ease whether on the Bakerloo line or the highways around Santa Fe. She felt completed abroad.”

Anil is divorced from her racial, cultural, and linguistic heritage. Living abroad allows her to invent and reinvent herself and hide from her past. This contrasts with how Anil feels in Sri Lanka, with “only one arm of language among uncertain laws and a fear that was everywhere” (54). The chances of miscommunication, as well as unspeakable consequences, abound.