Ecological Imperialism and Environmental Degradation in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy—Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015)—reconstructs the nineteenth-century history of the opium trade, indentured labor, colonial expansion, and the First Opium War. While the trilogy has been extensively discussed in relation to colonialism, migration, diaspora, and transnational history, its ecological dimension offers an equally significant perspective on the workings of empire. In Sea of Poppies, forced poppy cultivation replaces food crops, impoverishes peasants, disrupts biodiversity, and contaminates the Ganga. River of Smoke expands this ecological critique through botanical imperialism, plant hunting, biodiversity commodification, animal exploitation, and water pollution. Flood of Fire connects these ecological processes to imperial warfare and maritime expansion. This paper examines the trilogy through postcolonial ecocriticism, ecological imperialism, and the concept of slow violence. It argues that Ghosh represents colonialism not merely as the domination of human communities but as a systematic transformation and commodification of the more-than-human world.