Exploring the Genesis of Climate Change in Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s nonfiction work, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (2021) offers a compelling account of the genesis of climate change by portraying an undeniable picture of horrific events that led to the mass massacre of tribes, causing irreversible destruction of pristine environments and habitats. The devastating effects of brutality and extractive capitalism of colonial powers lie at the core of today’s climate crisis. The war and compromise among various colonial powers to gain control and hegemony over indigenous people of Banda Island in Indonesia to monopolise the trade of nutmeg and mace spice, and bloodshed in the colonies in America during the Seventeenth century showcase that the practice of colonialism is inherently bestial and dehumanising. The chapter also focuses on how the European colonists’ rapaciousness disqualifies them from their self-proclaimed claims of being enlightened, civilised, and saviours. The theoretical frameworks of Ecocriticism and Postcolonialism are employed to analyse the book and surface the injustices inflicted on the environment and the natives.