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RC Passage
Direction for the questions 13 to 16: The passage below is accompanied by a set of four questions. Choose the best answer to 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.
RC Line-wise Explanation
Paragraph 1
Original: The biggest challenge [The Nutmeg's Curse by Ghosh] throws down is to the prevailing understanding of when the climate crisis started.
Explanation: Ghosh’s book questions the commonly accepted timeline for the origin of the climate crisis.
Original: 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.
Explanation: People usually believe the climate crisis began in the 1700s with industrial coal usage and became worse in the 1900s with oil and gas use.
Paragraph 2
Original: Ghosh takes this history at least three centuries back, to the start of European colonialism in the 15th century.
Explanation: Ghosh argues that the roots of the climate crisis go back to the 1400s, when European colonialism began.
Original: 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.
Explanation: The book opens with a historical account of Dutch colonizers massacring locals in the Banda islands in 1621 to control nutmeg trade.
Original: Not only do the Dutch systematically depopulate the islands through genocide, they also try their best to bring nutmeg cultivation into plantation mode.
Explanation: The Dutch committed genocide and attempted to convert nutmeg farming into large-scale plantation agriculture.
Original: These are the two points to which Ghosh returns through examples from around the world.
Explanation: Ghosh repeats two major themes using global examples throughout the book.
Original: One, how European colonialists decimated not only indigenous populations but also indigenous understanding of the relationship between humans and Earth.
Explanation: First, colonizers destroyed both native peoples and their ecological wisdom.
Original: 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....
Explanation: Second, colonialism also attacked the planet itself, a mindset that persists today by treating nature as something to use and consume.
Paragraph 3
Original: We know we are facing more frequent and more severe heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts and wildfires due to climate change.
Explanation: It’s now widely acknowledged that climate change is causing more extreme weather events and disasters.
Original: We know our expansion through deforestation, dam building, canal cutting - in short, terraforming, the word Ghosh uses - has brought us repeated disasters ...
Explanation: Our actions to reshape Earth—like cutting forests and building dams—what Ghosh calls “terraforming,” have led to repeated ecological crises.
Original: 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.
Explanation: The author suggests Earth (personified as Gaia) is retaliating against human abuse, as implied by the word “curse” in the book’s title.
Original: 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.
Explanation: The reviewer deliberately personifies Earth, reflecting Ghosh’s approach of using non-Western views that see Earth as a living being rather than an object.
Paragraph 4
Original: As Ghosh's text, notes and bibliography show once more, none of this is new.
Explanation: Ghosh demonstrates through research that these criticisms of colonial views are not recent or original.
Original: There have always been challenges to the way European colonialists looked at other civilisations and at Earth.
Explanation: Critiques of colonial worldviews and environmental exploitation have existed all along.
Original: 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....
Explanation: However, those colonialist perspectives have long dominated academic and intellectual fields across disciplines.
Paragraph 5
Original: There are other points of view that we can hear today if we listen hard enough.
Explanation: Alternative worldviews still exist today, but they are often overlooked.
Original: Those observing global climate negotiations know about the Latin American way of looking at Earth as Pachamama (Earth Mother).
Explanation: For instance, Latin American cultures view Earth as a nurturing mother figure, called Pachamama.
Original: They also know how such a framing is just provided lip service and is ignored in the substantive portions of the negotiations.
Explanation: Although this view is mentioned at climate talks, it is largely dismissed in the actual policy decisions.
Original: In The Nutmeg’s Curse, Ghosh explains why.
Explanation: Ghosh addresses why these views are marginalized.
Original: 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.
Explanation: He reveals that powerful stakeholders—especially countries like the U.S.—have too much to gain from oil to take alternative views seriously.
Original: Many of us know power utilities are sabotaging decentralised solar power generation today because it hits their revenues and control.
Explanation: Even now, utility companies oppose solar power because it threatens their profits and authority.
Original: And how the other points of view are so often drowned out.
Explanation: As a result, alternative voices and solutions are frequently silenced or ignored.
RC Paragraph Explanation
Paragraph 1 Summary
Ghosh challenges the popular belief that the climate crisis began with industrialization, arguing instead that its roots lie in 15th-century European colonialism.
Paragraph 2 Summary
Using the Dutch massacre in the Banda Islands as a starting point, Ghosh highlights how colonialism not only destroyed people but also indigenous environmental philosophies, promoting exploitative attitudes toward Earth that continue today.
Paragraph 3 Summary
Ghosh connects current climate disasters to humanity’s long history of reshaping Earth, suggesting that nature may be retaliating, and he draws on global traditions that view Earth as a living being, not an inert object.
Paragraph 4 Summary
The book emphasizes that critiques of colonial attitudes toward Earth have long existed but have been overshadowed by dominant Western intellectual frameworks.
Paragraph 5 Summary
Alternative worldviews, like those recognizing Earth as Pachamama, are often sidelined due to powerful interests in the oil economy and resistance from existing energy systems, as Ghosh compellingly illustrates.
RC Quick Table Summary
| Paragraph Number | Main Idea |
|---|---|
| Paragraph 1 | Ghosh traces the climate crisis back to European colonialism, not industrialization. |
| Paragraph 2 | Colonialism destroyed both native people and their ecological wisdom. |
| Paragraph 3 | Ghosh views today’s climate chaos as Earth’s revenge against human exploitation. |
| Paragraph 4 | Historical critiques of colonialism exist but have been drowned out by dominant ideologies. |
| Paragraph 5 | Powerful interests suppress alternative, Earth-friendly perspectives in global policy. |
RC Questions
Ques 13. 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”?
Ques 14. Which one of the following, if true, would make the reviewer’s choice of the pronoun “who” for Gaia inappropriate?
Ques 15. All of the following can be inferred from the reviewer's discussion of “The Nutmeg’s Curse”, EXCEPT:
Ques 16. On the basis of information in the passage, which one of the following is NOT a reason for the failure of policies seeking to address climate change?
