Published Online:June 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES020625
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2025.20.2.19-29
Author Name:Sheetal Devi and Vandana Sharma
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:19-29
Foregrounding biopolitical conflicts that altered and marginalized indigenous wisdom in the wake of colonial encounter, the present study investigates the intersection of testimonial injustice and hermeneutical marginalization in The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (2021). The paper makes the case that Ghosh brings to light the systematic erasure of indigenous narratives and practices that could challenge the dominant biopolitical order by colonial powers. Drawing on Miranda Fricker’s (2007) notions of epistemic injustice, the paper informs how indigenous groups are refused the reliability of their testimonies and are subjected to hermeneutical marginalization and systematic erasure from discourses and frameworks. Ghosh powerfully illustrates the continued implications of these inequalities in the context of global environmental catastrophes, showing that the exclusion of indigenous wisdom endures as a barrier to tackling an ongoing planetary catastrophe. Eventually, the study contends that Ghosh’s work promotes a rethink of the epistemic contributions of historically marginalized individuals in the fight for equitable environmental conditions and sustainability.
Epistemic injustice reinforces isolation, silencing, othering and exclusion of a particular group by enforcing a single perspective that disregards their methods of seeing and engaging with the outside world.