Wild Fictions: A Global Thinker’s Journey Through Climate Crisis, Colonialism, and Human Connection

Amitav Ghosh stands as one of India’s most distinguished contemporary writers and public intellectuals. Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1956, Ghosh pursued his education at Delhi University before earning a doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford University. His literary career, spanning more than three decades, has produced acclaimed novels including “The Glass Palace,” “Sea of Poppies,” and “The Hungry Tide.”

Ghosh’s work consistently explores themes of colonialism, migration, and cross-cultural connections with nuanced historical perspective. His 2016 non-fiction work “The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable” marked his focused entry into climate discourse. Among his numerous accolades are the Jnanpith Award (India’s highest literary honor), the Padma Shri from the Indian government, and a place as a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. Dividing his time between Brooklyn and India, Ghosh continues producing work that bridges literary innovation with urgent social and environmental concerns.

In “Wild Fictions,” a collection of 27 articles, lectures, and correspondence spanning 2004 to 2022, Amitav Ghosh extends his intellectual pursuit of understanding our world in “a period of extraordinary instability and fear.” The collection, divided into six sections, brings together Ghosh’s longstanding concerns about geopolitical inequities stemming from colonization, climate change, and human migration, presented through the lens of a writer who excels at making connections across disparate histories, cultures, and disciplines.

The collection opens powerfully with “The Great Uprooting: Migration and Displacement in an Age of Planetary Crisis,” which establishes the book’s thematic foundation. Here, Ghosh goes beyond the headlines of migration crises to examine underlying causes, speaking directly with migrants in European camps to answer a fundamental question: “Why do individuals risk so much to migrate?” His analysis reveals complexity beyond simple desperation, suggesting that in some communities “migration becomes a social norm or even a modern rite of passage in which station at home is associated with failure and lack of ambition.”

Ghosh’s examination of climate catastrophes showcases why he is “widely regarded as one of the most important global thinkers of today,” as Natasha Ramarathnam notes in Youth Ki Awaaz. She weaves together contemporary literature, folklore, historical anecdotes, personal encounters with climate disaster victims, and current research to illustrate how our climate crisis emerged inevitably from post-colonial dynamics—where developed nations resist reducing resource consumption while developing countries aspire to similar living standards. Ghosh argues that embracing “wild fictions”—stories rooted in traditional ecological wisdom that respect non-human species—offers a path toward restoring an equitable relationship with nature.

During a visit to Ternate in Indonesia (once known as the Spice Islands), Ghosh observes the devastating effects of climate change on the island’s famous clove trees. When asking locals about reducing carbon emissions, he receives a telling response: “Why should we cut back?”

Kevin Rafter, writing in the Irish Times, highlights Ghosh’s talent for meaningful travel writing that never loses sight of larger concerns. During a visit to Ternate in Indonesia (once known as the Spice Islands), Ghosh observes the devastating effects of climate change on the island’s famous clove trees. When asking locals about reducing carbon emissions, he receives a telling response: “Why should we cut back? That would be unjust to us. The West had their turn when we were weak and powerless and they were our rulers. It’s our turn now.” This encounter exemplifies Ghosh’s ability to “draw together disparate political and policy themes,” arguing that global climate action cannot be framed as “explicitly about maintaining a structure of dominance—or, in other words, inequality.”

The collection also ventures into overlooked historical territories. Ghosh recovers the stories of Asian and African soldiers who fought in the Great War (World War I) but have been “virtually written out of history.” He tracks down rare books written in Bangla describing experiences of those who served in the British Army in the Middle East, uncovering the racism they faced both from British commanding officers and enemy forces after capture. Similarly, he reconstructs the world of the lascars—indigenous sailors from countries bordering the Indian Ocean who created their own multicultural language (Laskari) and were among the first Asians and Africans to voluntarily join a global workforce.

One of the collection’s most captivating sections is “Conservations,” which includes what Rafter describes as “a fascinating scholarly email exchange with the Indian historian, Dipesh Chakrabarty.” Throughout the book, Ghosh returns to analyzing colonization and decolonization to explain today’s unequal power distribution. As he pointedly observes, “The global distribution of power that was created by the British Empire is still very much with us in its post-war avatar as a broader American-led system of alliances in which Britain and her former settler colonies are the most important partners and actors.”

This power imbalance manifests in surprising ways—from scholars from Asia and Africa being unable to access archives containing documents from their own countries now housed in European institutions, to the “mistaken belief that advances in science and technology will eventually lead to greater equality and erasure of historical prejudices.” Ghosh delivers one of his most powerful insights when he writes: “A world remade in the model of Anglo-America is simply not feasible; it would destroy the globe. We can only conclude that they propagate this idea in bad faith—as a mask for a reality that is too ugly to be named, and the reality is this: the world at large must pay the price for Anglo-America to be what it is.”

Despite addressing such weighty themes, Ghosh maintains an accessible style throughout. As Rafter notes, the collection is “never polemical, and it brims with ideas and insights.” Ghosh’s “fine eye for detail” shines particularly in his travel writings, such as his vivid description of China’s Yunnan province with its landscape “as crumpled and fractured as the bonnet of a car after a head-on collision” and a memorable meal in “a little two-table eatery” that concludes with home-made orchid wine—a feast that “the gods could be forgiven for envying.”

“Wild Fictions” stands as a testament to Ghosh’s remarkable intellectual range and his ability to synthesize complex historical, environmental, and cultural narratives into accessible and compelling prose. The collection challenges readers to reconsider their perspectives on pressing global issues and, as Ramarathnam suggests, “to look at things from a slightly different perspective.” In a world increasingly defined by climate emergency, geopolitical tensions, and mass migration, Ghosh’s thoughtful analysis and imaginative connections across time and space offer vital insights for understanding our precarious present and imagining more equitable futures.