Anecdotes, Colonial History and Planetarity: Revisiting Decolonial Grammar with Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis

Abstract

In our article, we consider the current ethics of planetarity and decolonial grammatology in the light of Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse. We begin by showing how Ghosh creates a form of anecdotal decoloniality that stands in sharp contrast with the kind of decolonial critique Ghosh had employed earlier his earlier works. We then argue that such a form can only be understood and appreciated in the light of planetary thinking’s indifference to history, in particular Dipesh Chakrabarty’s cautious reframing of it. We also argue that Ghosh tailors this form as a resistant alternative to the intimidating elitism of decolonial grammar. We conclude by showing how by such an exercise Ghosh provides the scope to release decolonial sensibility from its stultifying imprisonment within this grammar, for he views this sensibility as the ground for tailoring new eco-activisms that could effectively address multiple eco-crises embedded in the historical networks of colonial eco-exploitation.