Imperial Landscapes and Ecological Violence in Amitav Ghosh's Smoke and Ashes

Abstract

This study explores the intersection between ecology and imperialism in Ghosh’s Smoke and Ashes (2023). In the novel, opium is a tool of imperialism and a source of ecological exploitation, violence, and addiction. The current study investigates the representations of ecological ruins in the form of soil erosion because of debilitating nutrients in soil reducing its fertility, utilization of local resources, and coercive economic control. This research is qualitative. This research will highlight oppressive structures, coercive economic control of the British, catastrophic environmental conditions, and moral turpitude. This study reveals environmental imperialism, coercive agricultural control, and environmental degradation. The study will highlight the duality of opium’s role in ecology and British imperialism fueling the Empire’s expansion while simultaneously destroying the ecological system. After drawing Alfred W Crosby’s “Ecological Imperialism,” imperial powers not only monopoly through military forces but also on ecology by introducing new crops, food, and disease. By applying postcolonial theory, it highlights Edward Said’s Orientalism and Gayatri Chakravorty. Spivak’s perspectives on subalterns focus on how the British dominated the East as inferior by imposing harmful practices and then exploiting natural resources, land, and individuals. Spivak’s perspectives on subalterns show how the voices of colonized people were often silenced. Through this novel, Ghosh critiques the imperial system and its long-lasting impact on both the environment and society. Findings of study presents the opium empire as a scene of environmental crime, highlighting the close connection between ecology and imperialism and the fact that colonial ecological damage is the root cause of today’s problems. Key Words: Exploitation, Imperialism, Catastrophe, Ecology, Violence, Monopoly, Addiction.