Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
The biggest challenge [The Nutmeg's Curse by Ghosh] throws down is to the prevailing understanding of when the climate crisis started. Most of us have accepted ... that it started with the widespread use of coal at the beginning of the Industrial Age in the 18th century and worsened with the mass adoption of oil and natural gas in the 20th.
Ghosh takes this history at least three centuries back, to the start of European colonialism in the 15th century. He [starts] the book with a 1621 massacre by Dutch invaders determined to impose a monopoly on nutmeg cultivation and trade in the Banda islands in today's Indonesia. Not only do the Dutch systematically depopulate the islands through genocide, they also try their best to bring nutmeg cultivation into plantation mode. These are the two points to which Ghosh returns through examples from around the world. One, how European colonialists decimated not only indigenous populations but also indigenous understanding of the relationship between humans and Earth. Two, how this was an invasion not only of humans but of the Earth itself, and how this continues to the present day by looking at nature as a 'resource' to exploit. ...
We know we are facing more frequent and more severe heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts and wildfires due to climate change. We know our expansion through deforestation, dam building, canal cutting - in short, terraforming, the word Ghosh uses - has brought us repeated disasters ... Are these the responses of an angry Gaia who has finally had enough? By using the word 'curse' in the title, the author makes it clear that he thinks so. I use the pronoun 'who' knowingly, because Ghosh has quoted many non-European sources to enquire into the relationship between humans and the world around them so that he can question the prevalent way of looking at Earth as an inert object to be exploited to the maximum.
As Ghosh's text, notes and bibliography show once more, none of this is new. There have always been challenges to the way European colonialists looked at other civilisations and at Earth. It is just that the invaders and their myriad backers in the fields of economics, politics, anthropology, philosophy, literature, technology, physics, chemistry, biology have dominated global intellectual discourse....
There are other points of view that we can hear today if we listen hard enough. Those observing global climate negotiations know about the Latin American way of looking at Earth as Pachamama (Earth Mother). They also know how such a framing is just provided lip service and is ignored in the substantive portions of the negotiations. In The Nutmeg's Curse, Ghosh explains why. He shows the extent of the vested interest in the oil economy - not only for oil-exporting countries, but also for a superpower like the US that controls oil drilling, oil prices and oil movement around the world. Many of us know power utilities are sabotaging decentralised solar power generation today because it hits their revenues and control. And how the other points of view are so often drowned out.
Which one of the following best explains the primary purpose of the discussion of the colonisation of the Banda islands in "The Nutmeg's Curse"?
Correct Answer :
To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to climate change.
Solution :
Based on the passage, the correct option is: To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to climate change.
Let's break down the reasoning step-by-step to understand why this is the primary purpose of discussing the colonisation of the Banda islands:
1. Connecting the Climate Crisis to Colonialism:
The passage states that the book The Nutmeg's Curse challenges the prevailing view that the climate crisis began in the 18th-century Industrial Age. Instead, the author, Amitav Ghosh, traces the origins at least three centuries further back to the onset of European colonialism in the 15th century.
2. The Banda Islands Massacre as a Foundation:
Ghosh starts the book with the 1621 massacre in the Banda islands by Dutch invaders. This example is used to introduce the two primary points that Ghosh returns to throughout the book:
- First, how colonialists destroyed indigenous populations and their understanding of the relationship between humans and the Earth.
- Second, how colonialism was an invasion of the Earth itself, treating nature as an "inert object" and a "resource" to be exploited to the maximum—a mindset that "continues to the present day."
3. The Root Cause of Climate Change:
The discussion of the Banda islands illustrates the beginning of this exploitative colonial mindset. It shows how the conquest of people and the subjugation of nature under the plantation mode established the very way of looking at the Earth (terraforming and exploitation) that has directly led to modern climate change.
Thus, the primary purpose is to illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the exploitative mindset that has ultimately caused our current climate crisis.
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