Imperial Exploitation, Ecological Resistance and the Paradox of Environmental Persistence in Brinda Charry’s The East Indian

 

Imperial Exploitation, Ecological Resistance and the Paradox of Environmental Persistence in Brinda Charry’s The East Indian

 

Md Nehajul Sk

Assistant Professor

Department of English

Women’s College, Calcutta

Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

 

Abstract: Brinda Charry’s fictional work The East Indian (2023) goes beyond the historical narration to provide a nuanced ecocritical reading of the environmental legacy of colonialism. This paper uses ecocritical and postcolonial readings to explore how the novel reveals the ecological violence of imperialist capitalist expansion, particularly through tobacco monoculture, which transforms the imagined vision of Virginia’s green forest and winding River into a landscape scarred by deforestation and the exhaustion of the soil. As seen through the eyes of an Indian protagonist, the paper discusses the author’s take on the colonial thought process that commodifies nature, carrying extraction of natural resources and ecosystem disruption in and out of colonialism, making parallels to the ecological destruction wrought by European colonialism worldwide. Furthermore, the paper explores how the novel engages with experiences of displacement affecting both people and the natural world. The alienation of the protagonist from his homeland and his struggle to fit in a foreign environment echoes the ecological displacement of the population stemming from colonialism. The novel serves as a subtle contrast of the indigenous and colonial perspectives on nature, reflecting the unsustainable nature of the colonial capitalism and disregard for ecological balance.  Situating the novel at the crossroads of postcolonial ecology and environmental justice, this study asserts that Charry creates an ecological narrative that mourns the lost biodiversity and traditional knowledge to provide an insight into the interconnectedness between human and ecologies histories. In doing so, the paper positions the novel as an ecological text that invites a critical rethinking of the relationship between human societies and the natural world within contemporary scholarly discourse.

 

Keywords: Ecological imperialism, Human and nature, Displacement, Tobacco monoculture, Sustainability

 

Introduction

Brinda Charry’s The East Indian (2023) traces the journey of its protagonist Tony, the first East Indian to arrive in colonial Virginia, and moves beyond simple historical narration to offer a powerful ecocritical critique of the environmental legacy of colonialism. The novel exposes the ecological violence wrought by colonial capitalism that subjugates nature and reshapes Virginia’s imagined “green forest and winding river” (Charry 7) into a scarred landscape of tobacco fields, felled trees, and depleted soil. This paper employs ecocritical lens, as defined by Cheryll Glotfelty, “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment…ecocriticism takes an earth-centered approach to literary studies” (Glotfelty xviii), and a postcolonial ecological framework, as formulated by Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin, who state that “colonialism is not only a political and economic project but also an ecological one” (Huggan and Tiffin 3). Tony’s Indian perspective, shaped by memories of his native place, Armagon, where he recalls “salt flats… that glistened in the sun…jasmine clambering up the walls…the river flowing at the bottom of the hill” (Charry 14),  serves as a critique of the colonial commodification of nature and contrasts sharply with the settlers’ extractive approach. This study places The East Indian at the intersection of postcolonial ecology and environmental justice, showing how Charry presents an ecological narrative that laments the destruction of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge but brings nature’s resilience to the foreground. This dual focus is reinforced by scholarly understandings of ecological effects of colonial, most notably in the critique that European settlers altered landscapes through their introduction of an idealized and yet unfeasible vision of wilderness, which in turn eliminated indigenous relationships with the land and favored economic profit at the expense of ecological balance (Cronon 108).

 

Empire and Ecological Violence

Colonial Virginia, as it is represented in The East Indian, turns out to be a battleground where empire is binding nature in chains, its ecological violence represented by the ever-expanding tobacco monoculture. Tony’s initial vision of the land, “‘Wood and water…Water and wood. And I imagined green forest and winding river, balanced on the outer edge of the world…” (Charry 7) evokes a sense of pristine wilderness. This matches with Lawrence Buell’s concept of the environmental imagination, in which nature functions as an active participant and not a passive resource (Buell 2). However, this Edenic scene is quickly destroyed by colonial ambition when Tony comes to work on Menefie’s plantation in appalling conditions. His servitude under Master George Menefie (Charry, 267) suggests his indirect participation in Virginia’s deforestation. As Edmund S. Morgan observes in his discussion of the historical context of Virginia’s tobacco economy, tobacco cultivation required the clearing of forests, resulting in relentless deforestation and soil exhaustion (Morgan 108). Morgan further explains this process as one that transformed wooded landscapes into cultivated fields (Morgan 134). Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence, understood as the gradual, often invisible and cumulative destruction produced by ecological exploitation (Nixon 2), provides a critical framework for reading this slow environmental ruin, as forests are felled and rivers redirected to sustain plantation profits (Taylor 145). This argument finds a clear parallel in Kate Brown’s study of environmental degradation in colonial contexts. Brown argues that incremental ecological harm is a defining feature of imperial exploitation, in which landscapes are gradually reshaped and damaged through sustained human practices, leaving behind a legacy of insidious, often unseen, yet deeply consequential harm (Brown 45). Tony’s flight through “dense foliage…herds of deer” (Charry 250) suggests a landscape reshaped by colonial agriculture, one in which rivers had been appropriated from their function as Powhatan lifelines (Fischer 213). This ecological rupture finds its most forceful expression in the Powhatan uprising of 1644, recalled by Tony as the moment when “a federation of Powhatan Indians led by Chief Opechancanough attacked the English settlements in one last, desperate bid to reclaim their lands” (Charry 264). The Powhatan resistance illustrates how their sustainable practices of planting corn, beans, and squash together were displaced by colonial monoculture, a process described by Huggan and Tiffin as ecological imperialism (4). Tony’s finding that “the Indians have withdrawn from the peninsulas of the James and York and have gone further inland,” after Opechancanough’s successor signed with Governor Berkeley (Charry 265), indicates not only loss of territory, but also loss of an ecological vision of the world, replaced by a colonial vision of nature as a commodity (Shiva 55). This violence reaches around the world as it parallels the degradation of landscapes in a form of European colonialism from India to the Americas, as Elizabeth DeLoughrey and George B. Handley point out (DeLoughrey and Handley 8). Charry critiques this process by framing Tony’s journey as a marker of the environmental costs imposed by empire.

 

Lives in Displacement and Ecological Loss

The East Indian shows both human and ecological displacement. Tony’s removal from India parallels the disruption of Virginia’s natural environment. His forced journeys from India to London and then his kidnapping from London to Virginia, along with the disorienting experience during the voyage, described as “a blur of sickness brought about by the rocking motion of the ship” (Charry 30), reflect the violent extraction of resources and the destruction of Virginia’s ecosystems. This double displacement also reflects Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence, which causes harm to both people and the environment over time (Nixon 11). In Virginia, Tony’s struggle to adapt, captured in the image of him “standing in the dark, surrounded by the undergrowth” (Charry 249) evokes a profound sense of ecological alienation and portrays a land stripped of its biodiversity and its original harmony. The introduction of tobacco, a non-native species, replaces indigenous flora. Sylvia Bowerbank argues that colonial settlers imposed ‘foreign systems’ which disturbed human and ecological balance. Bowerbank also emphasizes that the agricultural, economic, and cultural systems introduced by colonial powers displaced both native peoples and the natural environment. These imposed systems replaced relationships based on mutual dependence with structures rooted in exploitation and control, leading to long lasting damage to both human communities and ecosystems (Bowerbank 89). In The East Indian, the experiences of the Powhatan people and Tony reveal two connected forms of displacement. The Powhatan lose their rivers and forests as these are turned into tobacco fields under colonial expansion, while Tony is forced to leave his homeland because of colonial actions. These losses are closely linked. As land is taken and reshaped for profit, people are also uprooted from their homes and ways of life. The novel shows how the removal of communities and the damage to the environment reinforce each other, creating a continuing cycle of loss.  The retreat of the Powhatan from the peninsulas along the James and York rivers marks the loss of traditional ecological knowledge, including practices that had sustained the land for centuries (Billings 45). This displacing is not simply a physical one but is epistemic. The colonial paradigm of treating nature as a commodity to be exploited for profit is opposed to the Powhatan’s integrated way of thinking, which is subtly, indicated when Flynn mistakes his companions for ‘bloody Indians’ in the woods (Charry 249). Tony’s Indian roots, shaped by memories of the balanced ecosystem of Armagon (Charry 14), help him understand nature in a respectful way and show how the settlers failed to care for ecological balance. Tony is forcibly removed from the land where he was born and raised, losing not only his home but also his sense of belonging and connection to place. In a similar way, Virginia’s rivers, forests, and fields are taken away from the indigenous communities who once lived in close balance with them. These two forms of loss run side by side in the novel. Together, they draw attention to how colonial power breaks long standing relationships between people and the land they depend on. By placing Tony’s personal displacement alongside the ecological damage in Virginia, the narrative encourages readers to see human suffering and environmental destruction as part of the same process. As DeLoughrey and Handley explain, under empire the histories of human displacement and environmental harm are deeply linked and need to be read together to understand their full impact (DeLoughrey and Handley 12).

The environmental destruction, as shown in the novel, caused by colonialism is closely linked to its social effects and connects the harm to nature with the racial hierarchies created by Virginia’s tobacco economy. Tony notices how the hardest work is left to black slaves because white servants refuse it (Charry 263). This division of labor grew out of the demands of the tobacco economy (Jordan 89). Tobacco cultivation demanded constant hard work and time which drained both the soil and wore out the laborers. As Edmund S. Morgan states, it depleted the soil and the labor force while Lorena S. Walsh points out that by the middle of the seventeenth century planters relied on the labor of enslaved Africans to do the backbreaking work shunned by white servants (Morgan 112; Walsh 112). Lorena S. Walsh writes that “By mid-century, planters increasingly relied on enslaved Africans for the grueling work white indentures rejected” (Walsh 112). Tony is aware of the weakness of racial solidarity in this system, noting that the only unity of skin color white servants has with planters is their color (Charry 263). As Tony looks at the damaged Virginia landscape, with “mud everywhere… splattered on the tree trunks” (Charry 252), he sees more than just land. He sees the human suffering caused by colonial greed, where the worn-out soil and the oppression of people are closely connected.

 

 

 

Decolonizing Exploitation Narratives

Tony’s Indian heritage, as presented by the author, is rooted in the ecological sensibility influenced by the Coromandel’s rich and dynamic interaction between land, sea and flora provides an alternative narrative to colonial exploitation redefines nature as a living being that is interconnected and not an asset to be chained. His memory of “salt, acres of it in translucent flats that glistened in the sun and gleamed in the moonlight, silver mountains of it harvested … and jasmine clambering up the walls of our small house” (Charry 14) evokes a sense of harmonious coexistence, presenting the landscape as alive with an agency of its own. This vision reflects an indigenous ecological consciousness that emphasizes interdependence between humans and nature, an outlook that resonates with Vandana Shiva’s critique of Western paradigms of extraction and her call to recognize nature as a self regulating system. As Shiva asserts, “Nature is not dead matter; she is alive… a living process” (Shiva 58).The Tamil poem Purananuru, quoted in the novel’s epigraph, “rafts drifting in the rapids of a great river sounding in the dark,” (Charry 5) makes his perspective all the more cyclical and reverent of nature. Translated by A.K. Ramanujan, this ancient verse expresses “a Tamil ethos in which nature is a living being, at the same time nurturing and abiding” (Ramanujan 27). This sensibility, which stem from Indian ecological traditions, is very different from the deforestation and soil exhaustion by the settlers, as Tony moves through a Virginia landscape that has been altered beyond recognition: “standing in the dark, surrounded by the undergrowth” (Charry 249).

The Indian perspective presented in the novel becomes a narrative device to free nature from the shackles of colonialism. During his escape, Tony can literally move through a landscape that has had its ancestral lands altered by colonial intervention, as suggested in his account: “We rowed towards the James - the plan was to go across the river and then to abandon the vessels and make the long journey north” (Charry 250). The James River, once a life-line of the Powhatan sustenance (Fischer 213) is transformed into an artery of plantation commerce and colonial profits by clearing its banks for tobacco cultivation.  The James River in Virginia with its green countryside and “herds of deer” (Charry 250) is not only bearing the scars of ecological disruption, but also the remnants of ecological vitality. The James thus becomes a site of confrontation, a landscape reshaped by human greed in which the natural flow of the river is subordinated to the demands of tobacco agriculture. This represents a stark departure from the ethos of harmonious coexistence that Tony once knew.  Tony’s Indian perspective is sensitive to ecological balance and shaped by a way of seeing the world in which salt flats and jasmine represent coexistence rather than conquest. From this position, he quietly notices the gradual changes in the landscape around him. The land is not just something he moves through but something he understands as being disturbed and this understanding draws attention to how colonial capitalism damages the natural world and operates in ways that cannot be sustained. Vinay Lal’s exploration in Indian literature helps in bringing out this Indian gaze while highlighting how Tamil traditions do not see nature as a resource to be dominated but as a living companion, a true human partner in the human experience. Lal says that the natural world, including rivers, forests and even the salt laden air of Tamil lands contain a sacred vitality that is very often personified in poetry and folklore as a nurturing presence that sustains the life and is not subject to it (Lal 72). For Tony, this worldview, inherited from his Tamil roots in Armagon, shapes the way he responds to the land around him. It shows itself in his instinctive discomfort with the colonial reshaping of the James River. He does not look at the river as a mere location or an economic resource, but as a living presence that has been hurt by human interference. Even under the pressures of colonial control, Tony senses that the river’s spirit and vitality continue to exist, resisting complete domination. Lal further explains that Tamil ecological awareness is deeply tied to a sense of place, where land and water are understood not as passive backgrounds but as active participants in a reciprocal relationship with human life (Lal 74). This understanding stands in clear opposition to the utilitarian mindset of the English settlers, who viewed nature primarily as a resource to be used and controlled. Similarly, Tony’s journey across the James River becomes symbolic of a moment of reconnection, an attempt to acknowledge and respect the river’s own agency. This quiet reverence for nature, rooted in the Tamil experience, is subtly carried into the New World as Tony moves through a landscape already marked by injury and loss. Tony’s sense of being disconnected from his homeland, Armagon, reflects the environmental damage experienced by Virginia under colonial rule. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee explains that colonialism produces lasting harm to the natural world, and that the colonized respond to this destruction in ways that assert their perspective and agency (Mukherjee 22). Through Tony’s Indian background, the novel shows how Virginia’s rivers were redirected and its forests cut down, making clear that the settlers treated the land only as a resource to be exploited. Tony’s observations draw attention to the deep changes inflicted on the landscape and reveal how colonial practices disrupted long-standing relationships between humans and nature. In doing so, the narrative challenges the logic of a system that places profit above ecological balance and highlights the enduring consequences of colonial exploitation on both people and the environment (Taylor 147).

Charry presents The East Indian as a novel that mourns the ways in which nature has been controlled and damaged, while at the same time seeking to restore a sense of freedom to the natural world. This perspective aligns with Vandana Shiva’s call for ecological justice and her view that humans must respect nature as a living, self-regulating system (Shiva 62). This dual focus of lamenting ecological loss and simultaneously advocating for its liberation also finds a strong resonance with Sarah Phillips Casteel’s arguments that postcolonial narratives often work to “reclaim ecological agency” by bringing indigenous practices and knowledge systems to the forefront and thereby resisting colonial exploitation, as a counter-narrative to imperial domination of the natural world (Casteel 129). Tony represents this reclamation in his deployment of Indian methods of healing using “shavings of oriental bezoar and dittany” (Charry 253) which blend Tamil ecological knowledge with the resources of the New World. Casteel goes further and argues that those acts of reclamation are not simply practical but symbolic, in a manner that serves the purpose of “restoring some sense of ecological balance” that was disrupted by colonial interventions (Casteel 134). Thus, Tony creates a link between India and America while showing two very different ways of relating to nature. In his memories of Armagon he experiences the land and plants as alive and closely connected to human life. This worldview reflects care, respect, and a deep sense of interdependence with the environment. In contrast, the tobacco plantations in Virginia show a different approach where nature is treated as a resource to be controlled and exploited for profit. Casteel explains that postcolonial texts often present the relationship between humans and nature from the perspectives of marginalized groups and offer alternative ways of understanding the world (Casteel 141). Thus, Charry critiques the colonial approach to nature and emphasizes that the environment should be regarded as a partner rather than an object to dominate. By following Tony’s journey the novel explores the consequences of human actions on the natural world and highlights broader concerns about environmental justice. The novel argues how respect for nature and recognition of its agency are essential for maintaining a balanced and sustainable relationship between humans and the environment.

 

The Linked Survival of People and Nature

Set against this exploitation of the colonial rule, The East Indian also celebrates endurance by showing both the resilience of the natural world and Tony’s ability to reclaim his life as he moves from servitude toward freedom. This resilience is particularly evident in Tony’s reaction to Flynn’s snakebite, described as “I knelt down and took Flynn’s foot in my hands . . . the point of the creature’s fangs had left two needles on his ankle and the blood trickled thin and red out of one of them” (Charry 253). Tony draws on the knowledge of healing passed down from his mother, combining the traditional remedies of his Indian heritage with the natural resources. His actions show how indigenous wisdom and an understanding of the natural world can work together to respond to injury and restore life. This act is not just a practical solution to a problem. It transforms the way we see nature in the novel, showing it as a living, active force capable of recovery and renewal rather than simply a resource to be used and exhausted. Nature is presented as having its own energy and ability to heal, and human knowledge, like Tony’s, works in harmony with it. Lawrence Buell notes that this capacity for regeneration is central to environmental stories (Buell 7). Charry shows that even in the face of colonial exploitation, the natural world can endure and regain balance, and that humans can participate in this process through care, respect, and reciprocal relationships with the land.  Tony eventually settles in Maryland and reflects that “we have lived here in this Maryland settlement for many years now and are respected for our knowledge of the healing arts” (Charry 261). This settlement and natural remedies extends the idea of resilience and turns it into a lasting legacy. His ability to rebuild a life in a new land shows how endurance, knowledge, and a respectful relationship with nature can survive even after displacement and hardship. His healing practice opposes the colonial exploitation of Virginia’s land, where tobacco farming had exhausted the soil (Morgan 112). Instead of taking from the land, he works with its natural ability to recover. He demonstrates how both people and nature can survive and endure even after years of harm. His actions turn the land into a place of renewal and show that resilience can exist despite human oppression and ecological destruction.         

Nature’s tenacity despite the damage of colonialism is clear in the novel’s descriptions of the wilderness. The woods, described as “standing in the dark, surrounded by the undergrowth and the smell of Flynn’s excrement” (Charry 249), continue to thrive despite colonial encroachment. Their tangled, living growth quietly resists the destruction caused by the plantation economy (Taylor 147). As Tony rows along the James, “the woods stirred, and the birds were soon creating a mighty cacophony” (Charry 250), and the landscape comes alive. He sees herds of deer along the banks scatter and a bear standing calmly, watching him without moving. These moments show that nature continues to endure and regenerate even after long periods of exploitation which resonates with Cheryll Glotfelty’s ecocritical vision: “the earth’s capacity to persist amid human disruption” and nature’s capacity to “speak back” (Glotfelty xx). Also, the “soaking woods, suddenly swathed in silence” (Charry 252) after a heavy rain shows a cycle of renewal. The mud and wet foliage suggest regrowth, echoing Tony’s memory of Armagon, where the “weeds that grew around the walls of the East India Company factory bust into bloom after the rains” (Charry 14). This connection across continents reveals nature’s stubborn ability to endure, standing against the slow and hidden destruction that Rob Nixon describes as environmental damage caused by colonialism (Nixon 11). Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee’s eco-postcolonial model of “resistance and recovery” (Mukherjee 25) helps explain this dual process in the novel. Tony resists the bonds of colonial control while also witnessing and participating in the recovery of the natural world around him. His journey shows how both people and landscapes can endure and regain strength despite exploitation. At the same time, this plotline criticizes the short-sightedness of empire, which destroys both human lives and the environment for immediate gain without understanding the long-term consequences. This endurance signifies not mere survival but a defiant assertion of agency, both human and ecological, in the face of imperial constraint. Charry presents Tony as a healer who embodies both the recovery of the human body and the renewal of the land. He becomes a living connection between human survival and ecological restoration, showing how caring for people and caring for the environment are closely linked. The narrative intertwines the resilience of nature with Tony’s personal journey of healing, creating a larger story of hope and endurance. As Tony learns to navigate the hardships of displacement and servitude, he also witnesses the natural world around him recover from human and colonial damage.

 

 

Conclusion

In The East Indian, Brinda Charry reimagines colonial history as an ecological story, exposing the environmental destruction caused by the empire and challenging the traditional colonial narrative. The novel goes beyond a story of survival to show how colonial greed harms both people and the land. It links human suffering with the wounds of the environment, in a place where the hunger for tobacco drained both the lives of workers and the soil itself. It draws a powerful parallel between the displacement of people and the destruction of nature, showing how closely human and ecological fates are tied under colonial rule. This paper shows how The East Indian reflects on the loss of Virginia’s once living forests and flowing landscapes under colonial rule while also affirming the enduring strength of nature. The novel moves from scenes of environmental damage toward moments of recovery and renewal, especially in the later settlement in Maryland, which becomes a space of healing and continuity. The novel offers a view of nature as active and alive. This vision stands in sharp contrast to the exhausted landscapes of colonial Virginia that were stripped for profit. Rather than only mourning environmental loss, the novel challenges the colonial urge to dominate and reduce both people and land to resources. Natural spaces such as rivers and forests emerge as sites of resistance as much as survival. By placing the environment at the center of the narrative and presenting a perspective outside colonial authority, Charry unsettles traditional colonial histories and invites a different way of reading the past. With its sustained engagement with both damage and recovery, The East Indian speaks powerfully to the present moment and gestures toward a more sustainable and respectful relationship with the natural world.

 

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