Nature, Nation, and Empire: Reading Environmentalism through Postcolonial Literature
This Blog is a part of Thinking Activity on Article 2: Postcolonial Studies and the Anthropocene (Climate Change and Environmentalism) assigned by Dr. and Prof. Dilip Barad sir where I will explore the aspects of globalization in the world in post colonial identities from Athroposcene perspective.
Postcolonial Studies and the Anthropocene: Ecology, Dispossession and Environmental Justice in The Jengaburu Curse
Introduction
The emergence of the Anthropocene has transformed the way human beings understand their relationship with the natural world. Climate change, deforestation, mining, loss of biodiversity and ecological degradation are no longer merely environmental concerns; they are deeply connected with histories of colonialism, capitalism, displacement and unequal power relations. Postcolonial studies, therefore, provides an important framework for understanding the Anthropocene because the environmental crisis cannot be separated from the historical processes through which land, forests, minerals and human labour were appropriated. Dipesh Chakrabarty observes that the planetary crisis of climate change requires postcolonial thought to reconsider its conventional categories of history, freedom and injustice. At the same time, the work of Vandana Shiva draws attention to the historical connection between colonialism and the destruction of ecological diversity.
The idea of the Anthropocene often presents humanity as a collective force responsible for transforming the planet. However, such a formulation can conceal the unequal distribution of both environmental responsibility and environmental suffering. The histories of colonial extraction and contemporary global capitalism demonstrate that all communities have not participated equally in ecological destruction, nor do all communities experience its consequences in the same manner. Formerly colonized regions, indigenous communities and economically marginalized populations frequently bear the greater burden of displacement, resource depletion and ecological destruction. The postcolonial approach therefore asks an important question: whose actions have produced environmental crisis, and whose lives are most affected by it? This question shifts the discussion from a universal understanding of “human” responsibility towards questions of power, history, class, indigeneity and environmental justice.
Colonialism, Capitalism and Ecological Destruction
The relationship between colonialism and environmental degradation can be understood through the history of resource extraction. Colonial expansion was closely associated with the appropriation of land and natural resources, while many local and indigenous communities were displaced from their traditional environments. Although political decolonization brought an end to formal colonial rule, similar structures of exploitation can continue through multinational corporations, state-led development and the expansion of global capital. The article Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future identifies this condition as a form of internal colonialism, in which indigenous populations in formally decolonized nations continue to experience dispossession as their ancestral lands are appropriated for resource extraction and economic development.
This relationship can further be understood through the Marxist concept of primitive accumulation and David Harvey's concept of accumulation by dispossession. The extraction of natural resources frequently converts common lands and ecological resources into commodities, while communities dependent upon those resources lose their livelihoods and relationship with their environment. Harvey's formulation is particularly relevant to the postcolonial world because processes such as the displacement of peasant populations, privatization of common resources and the suppression of indigenous forms of production continue under contemporary capitalism. Thus, environmental destruction is not simply the accidental consequence of development; it can become part of an economic system in which land and natural resources are transformed into sources of capital.
Environmental Injustice and the Global South
The disproportionate vulnerability of formerly colonized peoples becomes particularly visible when environmental degradation is examined alongside questions of livelihood and displacement. Indigenous and marginalized communities often have a close material and cultural relationship with forests, rivers, agricultural land and other commons. When these spaces are appropriated for mining, dams, industries or other development projects, the loss is therefore ecological as well as social and cultural. The environmental crisis becomes a crisis of habitation, identity and survival.
Rob Nixon's idea of “spatial amnesia” is useful in this context. Spatial amnesia refers to the tendency to overlook the histories and geographical experiences of colonized peoples while discussing landscapes and environmental issues. Such an approach can represent nature as an empty or untouched space while erasing the indigenous communities who have historically inhabited and cared for it. A postcolonial environmental perspective consequently insists that forests and mineral-rich landscapes cannot be understood merely as “natural resources.” They are also lived spaces containing histories, cultures, memories and communities.
Reading The Jengaburu Curse through a Postcolonial-Ecological Lens
The web series The Jengaburu Curse provides a significant cultural text through which these questions can be examined. Its representation of ecological destruction and resource extraction in a tribal landscape enables the environmental crisis to be read alongside questions of indigenous rights, corporate power and displacement. The landscape is not merely a scenic background to the narrative; it becomes a contested space in which different interests struggle over land and natural resources. The ecological crisis represented in the series can therefore be interpreted as a manifestation of the larger conflict between communities whose lives are rooted in the land and economic structures that view the same land primarily in terms of its extractive value.
From a postcolonial perspective, the exploitation of mineral-rich regions recalls the historical logic of colonial extraction. The form of power may have changed, but the underlying relationship between the centre and the marginalized periphery can remain recognizable. Resources located in indigenous territories become objects of economic interest, while the communities inhabiting these territories are frequently pushed towards the margins of decision-making. This corresponds to the idea of internal colonialism discussed in postcolonial scholarship, where formally independent nations may continue to reproduce patterns of dispossession within their own territories. The Indian examples of struggles against dams and mining discussed in the source similarly demonstrate how indigenous communities can be caught between developmental ambitions, corporate interests and environmental concerns.
The series can consequently be read as a critique of the language of “development” when development is achieved through the destruction or appropriation of ecological commons. The question is not simply whether natural resources should be used for economic development, but who controls those resources, who benefits from their extraction, and who bears the ecological and social costs. Such questions are central to environmental justice and are equally central to postcolonial criticism. The struggles of environmental activists against multinational corporations, as discussed through the example of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people, demonstrate how environmental resistance in the Global South is simultaneously a struggle for land, community rights and justice.
The Anthropocene and the Question of Unequal Responsibility
The Anthropocene therefore needs to be understood through a more historically sensitive framework. To describe climate change simply as the result of “human activity” risks making all human beings appear equally responsible. A postcolonial reading complicates this universal category by drawing attention to colonial histories, industrial capitalism, resource extraction and unequal patterns of development. Chakrabarty himself recognizes that climate change, when refracted through global capital, can intensify existing inequalities, even though the planetary crisis cannot be reduced entirely to capitalism.
At the same time, the Anthropocene demands a perspective that moves beyond purely human-centred politics. Chakrabarty's idea of “species thinking” proposes a new universalism in which human beings understand themselves as part of a larger ecological system involving other forms of life. This perspective becomes particularly significant when reading The Jengaburu Curse, because the destruction of the environment affects not only human communities but also the wider ecological network on which those communities depend. Environmental justice thus requires both attention to marginalized human populations and recognition of the interconnectedness of human and non-human life.
Conclusion
The intersection of postcolonial studies and the Anthropocene ultimately reveals that environmental destruction is inseparable from histories of power. Colonialism established systems of extraction and dispossession whose effects continue to shape the environmental and social realities of formerly colonized nations. Contemporary capitalism can reproduce these patterns through mining, privatization, large-scale development and the appropriation of common resources. Indigenous and marginalized communities consequently experience ecological degradation not simply as environmental change but as displacement, loss of livelihood, cultural disruption and a struggle for survival.
The Jengaburu Curse becomes significant within this framework because it brings these tensions between land, capital, indigeneity and ecology into cultural representation. Its ecological landscape can be read as a contested postcolonial space rather than an empty resource frontier. A postcolonial reading of the Anthropocene therefore demands that environmentalism remain attentive to histories of colonialism and to the voices of those communities who have historically been dispossessed. As the discussion in the source suggests, postcolonial studies must increasingly engage with the environment, indigenous societies, histories of colonization and the continuing appropriation of territories and resources by global capitalism. In this sense, addressing the Anthropocene is not only a question of saving the planet; it is also a question of whose planet, whose resources, whose histories and whose futures are being protected.
Films / Web-Series for Postcolonial and Environmental Study
These texts can be approached through the postcolonial Anthropocene, particularly by examining how environmental destruction intersects with colonial legacies, internal colonialism, capitalist extraction, indigenous rights, displacement and environmental justice. The uploaded article specifically identifies internal colonialism, resource extraction, indigenous dispossession and the encroachment of global capital as important areas for extending postcolonial criticism into environmental studies.
References-
Barad, Dilip. “Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future.” Journal of Higher Education and Research Society, vol. 10, no. 2, Oct. 2022, pp. 201–13. ResearchGate
Bastar: The Naxal Story. Directed by Sudipto Sen, Sunshine Pictures, 2024. Film information
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 2, 2009, pp. 197–222. University of Chicago Press
Chakravyuh. Directed by Prakash Jha, Prakash Jha Productions and Eros International, 2012. Film information
Dandakaranyam. Directed by R. Narayana Murthy, Sneha Chitra Pictures, 2016. Film information
Harvey, David. The New Imperialism. Oxford UP, 2003. Oxford Academic
Kaala Paani. Directed by Sameer Saxena and Amit Golani, Posham Pa Pictures, 2023. Netflix. Netflix
Kantara: A Legend. Directed by Rishab Shetty, Hombale Films, 2022. Hombale Films
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015. Routledge
Nixon, Rob. “Environmentalism and Postcolonialism.” Postcolonial Studies and Beyond, edited by Ania Loomba et al., Duke UP, 2005, pp. 233–51. Chapter online
Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Kali for Women, 1988. Book information
The Jengaburu Curse. Directed by Nila Madhab Panda, Studio NEXT, 2023. SonyLIV. SonyLIV
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