Comprehension:
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the
best answer for 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.

SubQuestion No : 13
Q.13 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?
Ans 1. The greed of organisations benefiting from non-renewable energy resources.

2. The global dominance of oil economies and international politics built around it.
3. The decentralised characteristic of renewable energy resources like solar power.
4. The marginalised status of non-European ways of looking at nature and the
   environment.

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SubQuestion No : 14
Q.14 Which one of the following, if true, would make the reviewer’s choice of the pronoun
“who” for Gaia inappropriate?
Ans 1. Non-European societies have perceived the Earth as a non-living source of all
resources.

2. Modern western science discovers new evidence for the Earth being an inanimate
   object.
3. There is a direct cause–effect relationship between human activities and global
   climate change.
4. Ghosh’s book has a different title: “The Nutmeg’s Revenge”.

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SubQuestion No : 15
Q.15 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”?
Ans 1. To illustrate the first instance in history when the processes responsible for climate
change were initiated.

2. To illustrate the role played by the cultivation of certain crops in the plantation mode in
   contributing to climate change.
3. To illustrate how systemic violence against the colonised constituted the cornerstone
   of colonialism.
4. To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to
   climate change

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SubQuestion No : 16
Q.16 All of the following can be inferred from the reviewer’s discussion of “The Nutmeg’s
Curse”, EXCEPT:
Ans 1. the history of climate change is deeply intertwined with the history of colonialism.

2. the contemporary dominant perception of nature and the environment was put in
   place by processes of colonialism.
3. environmental preservation policy makers can learn a lot from non-European and/or
   pre-colonial societies.
4. academic discourses have always served the function of raising awareness about
   environmental preservation

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