The Conscientious Author: A Cautionary Tale about Greedy Capitalism
Amitav Ghosh, in The Nutmeg’s Curse, writes how our wanton conquest of the planet and unchecked lust for profit can result in ecological disasters and human tragedies. Like his previous work, this book from the renowned Jnanpith Award-winning author serves as a dire warning.
The planet will never come alive for you unless your songs and stories give life to all the beings, seen and unseen, that inhabit a living Earth.
—Gaia, the Greek deity that personifies Earth
The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (University of Chicago Press) tells the tragic story of the horrific murders of the Banda natives in a remote volcanic archipelago in the northern Indian Ocean. The perpetrators were European traders with a mad lust for the much-sought-after nutmeg, a spice that may as well have been gold. This curious spice, colloquially called the nootmuskaat because of its jasmine-like fragrance, was so in demand that a handful of nutmegs was worth a fortune.
Ghosh writes about the European quest for the spices of the East, and the intense competition that followed to profit from them. With many examples, he emphasizes the violent exploitation of the natural environment and the atrocities committed by these invaders on natives, whom they referred to as “brutes” (the desire to cleanse the earth of barbarians was inspired by Evangelical notions). That’s quite a brazen act of the pot calling the kettle black. Like Native Americans who worshiped the land with animist spirituality for maintaining its natural balance, Ghosh points out, the Banda natives had honored and traded nutmeg for centuries. To them, it was the Tree of Life.
Despite modern artificial commodities, humans cannot survive without earthly materials such as grain, spices, produce such as fruits and vegetables, and fossil fuels. Ghosh laments the capitalistic, mechanistic view of planet Earth and wonders about the consequences of humankind’s contemporary quest for inhabiting planet Mars.
In 2016, when Ghosh went to the Banda Islands to research this book, he was overwhelmed by the ghastly aftermath of the massacre, wherein Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company hired Japanese mercenaries to behead the Banda natives. He could feel the presence of ghosts and ghouls there.
Intricately weaving a complex tale, Ghosh gives voice and agency to the nutmeg, which looks almost like our planet. He philosophizes that the vanquished nutmeg’s wrath is upon us now, given the global effects of climate change. The book is a warning bell against unbridled capitalism and its tendency to ignore nonhuman forces like the fragrant nutmeg, the Bodhi tree under which Buddha achieved Nirvana, and the potent poppy seed that shaped the world economy.
Ghosh’s work is backed by arduous research. The Nutmeg’s Curse reads like a treatise and details the global history of petrochemical reserves, movement of oil, carbon footprints, natural disasters, the Covid pandemic, the widening inequality among populations, floods, and human suffering due to climate-induced migration. But it is also rich with personal, relatable anecdotes and parables of ancient cultures.
With one foot in Huntsville, Alabama, the other in her birth home, India, and a heart steeped in humanity, writing is a contemplative practice for Monita Soni. She has published hundreds of poems, movie reviews, book critiques, essays, and contributed to literary anthologies. Her books are called My Light Reflections and Flow through My Heart. You can hear her commentaries on Sundial Writers Corner WLRH 89.3FM.
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