Rachel - Ghosh, 5/1

There are many instances of renaming in Sea of Poppies.  However, one particular incident - Baboo Nob Kissin's mistaking Zachary for a god - seemed the most engaging to me.  It's almost as though the person at the bottom of the racial hierarchy has been placed at the top of existence.  In this scene on page 152, Baboo Nob Kissin reads through the crew enlistment papers:

"...when at last he saw the notation beside Zachary's name - 'Black' - he uttered no wild cry of joy - it was rather with a sigh of quiet jubilation that he rested his eyes on the scribbled word that revealed the hand of the Dark Lord.  This was the confirmation he needed, he was certain of it - just as he was certain, also, that the messenger himself knew nothing of his mission.  Does an envelope know what is contained in the letter that is folded inside it?  Is a sheet of paper aware of what is written upon it?  No, the signs were contained in the transformation that had been wrought during the voyage: it was the very fact of the world's changeability that proved the presence of divine illusion, of Sri Krishna's leela."

Babbo Bon Kissin becomes ecstatic and asks Zachary a set of enthusiastic, religiously-driven questions.  To Zachary, however, the interrogation is bothersome, intrusive, and perhaps impolite.  Given Ghosh's obvious political leanings, I thought it was a commentary about how those who are on the bottom of the social ladder are closest to God.  But sometimes the best way to express a serious theme is a light-hearted case of mistaken identity.