Ecology, Empire, and Inequality: A
Postcolonial Ecocritical Perspective
Dr Uzma Quddusi,
Lecturer,
Department of English,
Islamia College
of Science and Commerce,
Srinagar, Jammu
and Kashmir, India.
Abstract: Postcolonial
ecocriticism has emerged as a crucial interdisciplinary framework that locates
contemporary environmental crises within the historical processes of
colonialism, imperial expansion, and global capitalism. By synthesizing the
political insights of postcolonial studies with the environmental concerns of
ecocriticism, this approach challenges Eurocentric environmental thought and foregrounds
the ecological experiences of the Global South. This article examines the
theoretical foundations, central concerns, and literary applications of
postcolonial ecocriticism with reference to South Asian and African contexts.
It argues that colonialism must be understood not only as a political and
economic project but also as a profoundly ecological enterprise that reshaped
landscapes, displaced indigenous communities, and transformed human–nature
relations. The article further explores environmental justice, indigenous
ecological knowledge, green colonialism, gendered ecological labour, and the
critique of neo-colonial development through selected literary texts. By
situating ecological crises within structures of historical power and global
inequality, the article demonstrates the continuing relevance of postcolonial
ecocriticism in the age of climate change.
Keywords: Postcolonial ecocriticism, environmental
justice, colonialism, indigenous knowledge, green colonialism.
Introduction
Postcolonial ecocriticism has developed as a critical
framework for understanding the deep historical relationship between
environmental degradation and colonial power. It brings into dialogue the
political insights of postcolonial theory and the environmental concerns of
ecocriticism to examine how land, ecosystems, and non-human life have been
shaped by imperial expansion and capitalist exploitation. Unlike early Western
ecocriticism, which focused largely on wilderness, conservation, and nature
writing in Europe and North America, postcolonial ecocriticism turns attention
toward the ecological realities of formerly colonized societies and indigenous
communities (Huggan and Tiffin 1; Jurša 179). It rejects the idea that
environmental crises can be studied in isolation from histories of empire,
racial hierarchy, and economic inequality.
Colonial expansion was fundamentally rooted in the
extraction and control of natural resources. Forests, rivers, agricultural
lands, and mineral wealth were appropriated to serve imperial economies, while
indigenous relationships with land were systematically disrupted. These
practices were justified through an anthropocentric worldview that treated
nature as property and colonial landscapes as empty or underutilized spaces
awaiting “development” (Narendiran and Bhuvaneswari 1; Darsono et al. 2455).
The environmental consequences of these practices like deforestation, soil
depletion, biodiversity loss, and pollution continue to shape contemporary
ecological crises, including climate change and resource scarcity (Nare, Moopi,
and Nyambi 349).
Rather than treating climate change and ecological
collapse as purely scientific problems, postcolonial ecocriticism approaches
them as outcomes of historical and political processes. It highlights how colonial
and neo-colonial systems have harmed both human populations and the non-human
world (Jurša 181). Rivers, forests, animals, and marginalized communities are
shown to be vulnerable to the same structures of domination.
Theoretical
Foundations of Postcolonial Ecocriticism
Postcolonial ecocriticism arises at the intersection of
two major critical traditions: postcolonial studies and ecocriticism.
Postcolonial theory investigates the cultural, ideological, and political
consequences of colonial domination, with attention to resistance, identity,
displacement, and representation. Ecocriticism, by contrast, studies how
literature engages with the physical environment and how nature is culturally
imagined and narrated (Banerjee 194).
The convergence of these approaches became possible when
scholars acknowledged that colonialism was not only a political or economic
project but also an ecological one. Imperial powers transformed forests into
timber reserves, restructured agriculture for plantation economies, and
redirected rivers to support industry and trade (Huggan and Tiffin 3).
Environmental transformation was therefore integral to the functioning of
empire. Jurša emphasizes that postcolonial ecocriticism expands ethical inquiry
by recognizing both human and non-human victims of imperialism (181). The
framework also draws upon ecofeminism, environmental justice studies, and
indigenous epistemologies to foreground the material realities of ecological
exploitation.
Colonialism,
Environment, and Justice
A central premise of postcolonial ecocriticism is that
colonialism functioned as an ecological enterprise as much as a political one.
European empires did not merely occupy territories; they radically altered
landscapes to serve global markets. Forests were cleared for commercial timber,
fertile lands were reorganized into plantations, and mineral-rich regions were
converted into extraction zones. These environmental transformations displaced
indigenous populations and undermined long-standing systems of ecological
balance (Vital 87). The plantation economies of the Caribbean and Africa
further illustrate colonial ecological violence. Monoculture farming depleted
soil fertility and destroyed biodiversity, while enslaved and indentured labour
extracted maximum profit from the land. These extractive logics continue today
in neo-colonial forms through multinational corporations and global financial
institutions.
Within this broader pattern, environmental justice
becomes a key concern. The Global South, despite contributing the least to
historical greenhouse-gas emissions, experiences the most severe impacts of
climate change, industrial pollution, and ecological destruction (Slovic et al.
1; Nare, Moopi, and Nyambi 349). Mining operations, toxic waste dumping,
deforestation, and large dam projects frequently displace indigenous and rural
communities who have limited political and legal protection (Darsono et al.
2457). Environmental degradation thus becomes a form of structural violence
rooted in intersecting histories of colonialism and global capitalism (Jurša
182).
Postcolonial ecocriticism shows that questions of
environmental responsibility are inseparable from questions of historical
power. It challenges narratives that frame climate change as a generalized
human problem and instead insists on differentiated responsibilities and
vulnerabilities across the globe.
Indigenous
Knowledge and Literary Resistance
One of the most significant interventions of postcolonial
ecocriticism is the recovery of indigenous ecological knowledge. Colonial
discourse routinely dismissed indigenous environmental practices as primitive
and unscientific, yet many of these systems were deeply sustainable.
Traditional water harvesting, forest stewardship, and mixed farming reveal long
histories of ecological adaptation rooted in intimate relationships with land
and ecosystems (Narendiran and Bhuvaneswari 4). By bringing such practices into
view, postcolonial ecocriticism not only critiques colonial epistemologies but
also gestures toward alternative ecological futures.
Literary texts provide a particularly rich archive for
exploring these dynamics. Vital’s reading of Life & Times of Michael K shows how ecological struggle becomes inseparable from
political oppression in a society shaped by apartheid and colonial legacies
(87). Imbolo Mbue’s How
Beautiful We Were
offers one of the most powerful contemporary representations of ecological
injustice in a postcolonial African setting. The novel exposes how corporate
oil extraction devastates land, health, and community life while reproducing
colonial patterns of exploitation under neo-liberal globalization (Nare, Moopi,
and Nyambi 352; Tournay-Theodotou 278).
South Asian literature similarly reveals the entanglement
of ecology, development, and postcolonial identity. Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide foregrounds fragile mangrove
ecosystems and vulnerable delta communities to expose tensions between
conservation, development, and survival in postcolonial spaces (Sen 369).
Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry transforms land into a symbol of memory, loss, and
resistance against colonial occupation, illustrating how landscape imagery
becomes a means of asserting identity and political agency (Yahya Ahmed and
Hashim 92). Through such works, literature serves both as a record of
environmental harm and as a mode of ecological and political resistance.
Development,
Gender, and Space
Postcolonial ecocriticism offers a sustained critique of
dominant development paradigms promoted by multinational corporations and
international financial institutions. Postcolonial states often pursue
aggressive industrialization under the promise of economic growth, frequently
at the cost of ecological sustainability and social justice (Roos and Hunt 2).
Large dams, mining zones, and industrial corridors displace local communities
while primarily benefiting corporate elites and urban consumers. Environmental
costs such as deforestation, water contamination, and biodiversity loss remain
localized, while profits circulate within global markets. Indriyanto and Barus
demonstrate such ecological devastation in Indonesian literary texts, where the
rhetoric of modernization conceals dispossession and environmental ruin (95).
Questions of development are also closely intertwined
with gender. Postcolonial ecocriticism engages with ecofeminist theory, which
links the domination of nature with the oppression of women. Colonial discourse
frequently feminized land as a passive entity awaiting conquest, reinforcing
both environmental exploitation and patriarchal control. In many postcolonial
societies, women’s daily labour remains deeply tied to ecological resources
through agriculture, water collection, and fuel gathering. Environmental
degradation therefore increases women’s physical burdens and social
vulnerability. Ecofeminist perspectives argue that sustainability cannot be achieved
without dismantling both patriarchal and colonial structures of domination
(Banerjee 201).
Spatial politics further complicate these dynamics.
Postcolonial ecocriticism intersects with cultural geography by examining how
space and landscape are produced through colonial power. Colonial mapping
transformed lived landscapes into abstract territories designed for extraction
and control, erasing indigenous spatial knowledge (Jazeel 16). In many
postcolonial texts, rivers, forests, and mountains are not neutral backdrops
but active presences that witness violence, displacement, and survival.
Postcolonial
Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene
In the Anthropocene, where human activity reshapes
planetary systems, postcolonial ecocriticism acquires renewed urgency.
Industrialized nations remain the primary contributors to carbon emissions, yet
postcolonial regions confront some of the most severe
climate impacts, including floods, droughts, sea-level rise, and food
insecurity (Slovic et al. 2). By foregrounding historical accountability,
postcolonial ecocriticism questions the rhetoric of “shared responsibility” and
insists on recognizing the unequal causes and consequences of ecological
breakdown.
At the same time, postcolonial ecocriticism warns against
new forms of exclusion embedded in certain conservation and climate policies.
When environmental protection measures displace local communities or silence
indigenous knowledge, they risk reproducing colonial patterns of enclosure and
dispossession under a green veneer. The Anthropocene debate, viewed through a
postcolonial lens, is therefore not only about humanity’s impact on the planet
but also about which humans, which histories, and which knowledges are centered
or marginalized in global environmental discourse.
Conclusion
Postcolonial ecocriticism provides a rigorous and
ethically grounded framework for understanding how environmental degradation is
inseparable from histories of colonial domination and global inequality. It
demonstrates that colonialism operated not only through political and cultural
control but also through the systematic transformation of land, forests, water
systems, and non-human life. These ecological legacies persist today in
neo-colonial development projects, corporate extraction, and uneven climate
vulnerability.
By foregrounding environmental justice, indigenous
knowledge, gendered ecological labour, spatial politics, and literary
resistance, postcolonial ecocriticism challenges dominant Western environmental
discourses and calls for historically informed and ethically responsible
understandings of sustainability. The literary and theoretical texts examined
here reveal how struggles over land, resources, and representation are deeply
intertwined. In an era of accelerating climate crisis and planetary
instability, postcolonial ecocriticism remains a vital intervention into global
debates on justice, responsibility, and survival.
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