CAT 2023 Slot 3 · VARC · RC passage 4: The Nutmeg's Curse and Climate Change

The full passage and all 4 questions (Q13–Q16) from CAT 2023 Slot 3, with answers and solutions.

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.

Question 13 · RC Inference Questions

Which one of the following, if true, would make the reviewer's choice of the pronoun "who" for Gaia inappropriate?

  1. A

    Non-European societies have perceived the Earth as a non-living source of all resources.

  2. B

    There is a direct cause-effect relationship between human activities and global climate change.

  3. C

    Ghosh's book has a different title: "The Nutmeg's Revenge".

  4. D

    Modern western science discovers new evidence for the Earth being an inanimate object.

Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

The reviewer uses 'who' for Gaia 'knowingly, because Ghosh has quoted many non-European sources... so that he can question the prevalent way of looking at Earth as an inert object'. The pronoun rests on non-European views of the Earth as alive.

Option 1 – non-European societies saw the Earth as a non-living resource – would remove that basis, making 'who' inappropriate.

Option 2 supports the idea of Earth responding to human action, not the opposite.

Option 3 (a different title) does not affect the view of Earth as living.

Option 4 is modern Western science, which is the view the reviewer is already questioning, so it would not change the choice.

Shortcut: to make a choice 'inappropriate', remove the reason given for it. Here the reason is non-European views of a living Earth.

Hence, the answer is option 1.

Question 14 · RC Inference Questions

All of the following can be inferred from the reviewer's discussion of "The Nutmeg's Curse", EXCEPT:
  1. A
    academic discourses have always served the function of raising awareness about environmental preservation.
  2. B
    the contemporary dominant perception of nature and the environment was put in place by processes of colonialism.
  3. C
    environmental preservation policy makers can learn a lot from non-European and/or pre-colonial societies.
  4. D
    the history of climate change is deeply intertwined with the history of colonialism.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

Option 2 can be inferred: colonialists invaded 'the Earth itself' by treating nature as 'a resource to exploit', and this 'continues to the present day'.

Option 3 can be inferred: the reviewer values non-European views such as Pachamama, ignored in climate negotiations.

Option 4 can be inferred: Ghosh moves the start of the climate crisis back to colonialism.

Option 1 cannot be inferred. The reviewer says the colonialists' 'myriad backers in the fields of economics, politics, anthropology, philosophy...' have 'dominated global intellectual discourse' – academic discourse has served exploitation, not always raised environmental awareness.

Shortcut: 'always' in an option is a warning sign; check whether the passage says the opposite at least once.

Hence, the answer is option 1.

Question 15 · RC Detail and Fact Based Questions

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?
  1. A
    The greed of organisations benefiting from non-renewable energy resources.
  2. B
    The global dominance of oil economies and international politics built around it.
  3. C
    The decentralised characteristic of renewable energy resources like solar power.
  4. D
    The marginalised status of non-European ways of looking at nature and the environment.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

The reviewer blames the 'vested interest in the oil economy' (options 1 and 2), the drowning out of non-European views like Pachamama (option 4), and power utilities 'sabotaging decentralised solar power generation... because it hits their revenues and control'.

Option 3 – the decentralised nature of solar power – is not a cause of failure. The problem is the utilities' sabotage of it; decentralisation is what threatens their control, not what makes policy fail.

Shortcut: separate the victim from the culprit. Decentralised solar is the target of sabotage, not the reason policies fail.

Hence, the answer is option 3.

Question 16 · RC - Questions

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"?
  1. A
    To illustrate how systemic violence against the colonised constituted the cornerstone of colonialism.
  2. B
    To illustrate how colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that has led to climate change.
  3. C
    To illustrate the role played by the cultivation of certain crops in the plantation mode in contributing to climate change.
  4. D
    To illustrate the first instance in history when the processes responsible for climate change were initiated.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

Ghosh starts with the Banda massacre and returns to two points: colonialists destroyed indigenous people and 'indigenous understanding of the relationship between humans and Earth', and treated the Earth as 'a resource to exploit', which 'continues to the present day'. That mindset is the root of the climate crisis.

Option 2 – colonialism represented and perpetuated the mindset that led to climate change – fits.

Option 1 focuses on violence alone and leaves out the link to climate.

Option 3 credits a specific crop and plantation mode with causing climate change, which is too narrow.

Option 4 says this was the first instance in history; the passage says only that Ghosh takes the crisis back to the 15th-century start of colonialism.

Shortcut: identify why a book begins with a particular story – here, to illustrate the mindset Ghosh returns to throughout.

Hence, the answer is option 2.

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