Whose Earth? Postcolonialism, Climate Crisis, and Environmental Justice

 

When the Earth Becomes a Colony

Postcolonialism, Environmental Injustice, and The Jengaburu Curse

Introduction

The environmental crisis of the twenty-first century is often described through terms such as climate change, global warming, deforestation, pollution, and ecological destruction. However, these problems cannot be understood simply as the result of humanity's impact on nature. The question of who has benefited from environmental exploitation and who suffers its consequences is equally important. This is where postcolonial studies becomes significant to the discussion of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene, broadly understood as an age in which human activity has become a powerful geological force, also exposes the unequal relationship between powerful societies, marginalized communities, and the natural world.

Dilip Barad's article, Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future, explores this important intersection between postcolonial thought and environmental concerns. The article demonstrates that colonialism was not limited to the political domination of people; it also involved the appropriation and exploitation of land, forests, minerals, and other natural resources. Even after the formal end of colonial rule, similar structures can continue through capitalism, industrialization, resource extraction, and unequal development. A postcolonial approach to the environmental crisis therefore asks us to look at climate change through the histories of colonialism, economic inequality, indigenous displacement, and global capitalism.

These concerns become particularly visible in Nila Madhab Panda's web series The Jengaburu Curse (2023). Set against the background of mining and tribal communities in Odisha, the series presents ecological destruction not simply as a natural or scientific problem but as a struggle involving land, identity, power, and economic interests. Through the series, the theoretical ideas discussed by Barad can be connected to the lived experiences of communities whose environment is threatened by extractive development.

Postcolonialism and the Environmental Crisis

Colonialism fundamentally changed the relationship between human beings and nature. Forests, minerals, agricultural land, rivers, and other resources were increasingly transformed into commodities that could be extracted for economic benefit. Colonial powers viewed many territories primarily in terms of their economic potential rather than the cultural and ecological relationships that local communities had developed with them. This history continues to influence the contemporary environmental crisis.

Barad's discussion is particularly important because it challenges the idea that environmental destruction is equally caused and equally experienced by all human beings. The language of the Anthropocene can sometimes make "humanity" appear to be a single, unified force responsible for ecological damage. A postcolonial perspective complicates this assumption. Industrialized nations and powerful economic systems have historically contributed greatly to resource exploitation, while indigenous and economically marginalized communities often experience the consequences of ecological destruction most directly.

This unequal relationship can be seen in the exploitation of mineral-rich regions. Mining may generate economic growth and corporate profit, but it can simultaneously result in deforestation, pollution, displacement, and the destruction of traditional livelihoods. For indigenous communities, land is rarely just a piece of property. It can represent ancestry, culture, spirituality, livelihood, and collective identity. When that land is taken or environmentally damaged, the loss is therefore both ecological and cultural.

This is why environmental justice is inseparable from postcolonial justice. Climate change and ecological degradation affect everyone, but they do not affect everyone in the same way. Communities living in vulnerable environments often have the fewest economic and political resources to protect themselves. In this sense, environmental inequality reproduces older structures of colonial inequality.

Reading The Jengaburu Curse Through a Postcolonial Lens

The Jengaburu Curse provides a powerful fictional representation of these tensions. The story centres on Priyamvada Das, who returns to Odisha following the disappearance of her father. Her investigation gradually reveals a disturbing relationship between mining, corporate interests, political power, and the exploitation of indigenous communities.

The importance of the series lies in the way it transforms the environment into a site of conflict. The mineral-rich landscape is valuable to corporations because it contains resources that can generate wealth. For the indigenous communities inhabiting that landscape, however, it is home. The conflict is therefore not merely between environmental preservation and economic development; it is between different understandings of what land means.

This distinction reflects a central concern of postcolonial criticism: Who has the power to define a place? A forest can be described by a corporation as a source of minerals, by the government as an area for development, and by an indigenous community as ancestral land. These different descriptions are not neutral. They reflect different forms of power.

Rob Nixon's concept of "spatial amnesia," discussed in relation to environmental injustice, is useful here. Spatial amnesia refers to the tendency to forget the historical and social relationships attached to particular places. When a landscape is presented merely as an "undeveloped" or "resource-rich" region, the histories and communities connected to that land can disappear from the narrative. The Jengaburu Curse challenges this erasure by making indigenous communities and their relationship with the land central to its environmental conflict.

The series can also be understood through the idea of internal colonialism. Political independence does not necessarily eliminate colonial patterns of exploitation. A formerly colonized nation can itself reproduce unequal relationships when economically powerful groups or institutions extract resources from marginalized regions without adequately considering the people who live there. In such a situation, the centre benefits from the resources of the periphery, while the local population bears the environmental and social costs.

Another relevant idea is "accumulation by dispossession," associated with David Harvey. Economic wealth can be generated through the appropriation of land and resources that previously belonged to communities or were held collectively. In The Jengaburu Curse, mining therefore becomes more than an economic activity. It becomes part of a larger process through which land, resources, and power are redistributed.

Importantly, the series does not reduce indigenous communities to passive victims. Their presence also represents resistance and agency. This is crucial from a postcolonial perspective because postcolonial criticism seeks to recover voices that have historically been marginalized or silenced. Protecting the environment consequently becomes connected with protecting cultural identity, community autonomy, and the right to determine the future of one's own land.

Conclusion

The connection between postcolonial studies and the Anthropocene allows us to understand environmental destruction in a deeper way. Climate change is not simply a scientific or technological problem; it is also a historical and political problem. The exploitation of nature has been shaped by colonialism, capitalism, unequal development, and systems of power that continue to affect formerly colonized societies.

Dilip Barad's article provides an important theoretical framework for understanding these relationships, while The Jengaburu Curse translates many of these theoretical concerns into a compelling narrative of mining, displacement, indigenous identity, and ecological destruction. The series reminds us that environmental damage cannot be separated from the people who inhabit affected landscapes.

Ultimately, the most important lesson is that environmental justice requires social and historical justice. A sustainable future cannot be created simply by protecting natural resources while ignoring the communities connected to them. The voices, knowledge, rights, and experiences of indigenous and marginalized communities must be part of environmental decision-making.

The Anthropocene therefore requires us to ask a question that is both environmental and postcolonial: If the Earth has become a shared home, why are its environmental costs still distributed so unequally? Understanding this inequality is essential not only for interpreting postcolonial literature and cinema but also for imagining a more just and sustainable global future.

Works Cited

Barad, Dilip. “Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future.” ResearchGate, 2023.

The Jengaburu Curse. Directed by Nila Madhab Panda, SonyLIV, 2023.