Amitav Ghosh
@GhoshAmitav
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Author most recently of 'Smoke and Ashes'.
Joined January 2012
Yesterday I lost my mother. Her death was not Covid related but it's because of the pandemic that I couldn't be with her, in Kolkata. A cruel blow at a cruel time. This is how I'd like to remember her. Anjali Ghosh, 1931 - 2020.
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"What’s happening in India is not that loose variety of internet fascism. It’s the real thing." Arundhati Roy at her best. Must read.
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At a time when everything seems to be getting worse everywhere, it is heartening to see young Indians rejecting majoritarianism and affirming their faith in diversity, democracy and pluralism.
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This could be the most important thing happening in the world right now: India's first mass protest in response to an ongoing climate-related agrarian crisis. Of vital significance in a region where more than a billion people will face catastrophe.
Farmers all over India have started to arrive in Delhi today - Adivasi farmers from Yavatmal, Maharashtra; farmers from Sundarbans, West Bengal. Their demand is for a special session of parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis. @PARInetwork @LongMarch2Delhi #DilliChalo
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The hounding of Arundhati Roy is absolutely unconscionable. She is a great writer and has a right to her opinion. There needs to be an international outcry about the case that has been brought against her for something she said a decade ago.
Sharing this piece I wrote in October. I really, really hope the international backlash to such a hounding of someone so cherished and celebrated like Arundhati Roy makes the Modi regime walk back.
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In 1936, Nehru wrote, in a letter to Lord Lothian: 'nothing astonishes me so much as the way the British people manage to combine their material interests with their moral fervour; how they proceed on the irrefutable presumption that they are always doing good to the world. .
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It's not just about climate change; it's also about a disastrous model of 'development' being implemented without any thought being given to the risks.
Terrible footages coming out of #Sikkim of the 1200 MW #ChungthangDam being breached. Precisely why many have warned about the #Himalayan zone not being suitable for big dams & heavy #infrastructure. But a certain model of 'development' burries such cautions, putting all at risk!
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Just learned that the Dutch Green Party is introducing legislation that will put an outright ban on fossil fuel lobbying and restrict fossil fuel advertising. This could be a big step forward.
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So this just happened. needless to say, I am delighted and hugely honored! It's an incredible privilege to follow in the footsteps of legends like @Trevornoah, A.S. Byatt and Barbara Ehrenreich. More here:
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Really shocking how much damage a single scaremongering article by the @nytimes has done to journalism in India. And they were warned that this would happen.
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Can't stop thinking about the injured and terrorized students at #JNU . What will this do to their view of the world and their trust in institutions? Shocking.
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". colonialism was a human tragedy with few parallels in recorded history."
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Over the last ten years the Indian govt made many grandiose claims about its environmental record. But it was all greenwashing. In reality India "ranked last in the world i.e. 180 out of 180 countries on the 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)." The actual record is well.
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A really exceptional piece by Arundhati Roy. She expresses as no one else can the pain, anger, grief and outrage that everyone I know is feeling right now. Must read.
Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’
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The Indian Meteorological Dept deserves commendation for its accurate forecasting of #CycloneAmphan - saved a lot of lives. The National Disaster Response Force also did a good job. Luckily the tide was low when the storm struck. Bad as it was it could have been much worse.
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Beyond astonished to learn that Salil Tripathi's @Twitter account (@saliltripathi) has been suspended. Salil is an outstanding journalist, writer and human rights activist. He is also the chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. @pen_int @ayadakhtar.
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I am truly honored and humbled. .
Amitav Ghosh to get Jnanpith Award.
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”Bengalis reject anyone who wants to control what we eat, whom we love and what we wear.".
My article in the NYTimes today.
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A shocking aspect of this Uttarakhand disaster (in which many of the missing are dam workers) is that a cabinet minister, no less, warned against building a dam at that location. But still the project went ahead. Why? .
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Excited to announce my new book, 'Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey Through Opium's Hidden Histories.' To be published in India this July by @HarperCollinsIN and in Feb 2024 in the UK and USA. More here:
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Meanwhile, in Slovakia hundreds of swans have become addicted to opium poppies.
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Many, many congratulations to @ravishndtv for his richly deserved Magsaysay award. Grest news!.
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This sea-level-rise projection for Mumbai is really scary. Shows most of greater Mumbai underwater, including the areas around two nuclear installations. Tens of millions displaced. All this by 2050. Never imagined it could happen in a few decades.
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“Money is being spent on militarization rather than on climate action. ". It needs to be acknowledged that geopolitics is one of the most important drivers of climate change.
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Hugely honored that the University of Siena - founded 1240 and the world's oldest publicly-funded university - has decided to give me an honorary doctorate. Also really excited that the ceremony will coincide with the city's famous Palio - the horse race that is almost as old as.
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Blown away by this amazing story of a Canadian- American reporter's underground journey to Europe with Afghan refugees. As an account of marginalized & vulnerable lives it belongs up there with Orwell's 'Down and Out' - except that @mattaikins took even greater risks. Must read.
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It seems that no one in the Indian govt knew that hundreds of thousands of New Delhi's workers are migrants who would need to go home if there was a shutdown. Unbelievable short sightedness and incompetence.
At least 17 migrant labourers and their family members – including five children – have lost their lives so far in the course of their uphill effort to return home since the lockdown began.
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Bangladesh, once the poorest country in the world, now has a higher per capita GDP than India, Pakistan and Nepal, but is far behind Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
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In the climate space, Professor Saleemul Huq was one of the most important voices from the global south, tireless in his advocacy of climate justice. His death, at a time when voices like his are most needed, is a tragic loss.
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Akira Kurosawa's 'Dersu Uzala' is one of the greatest films ever made. And now you can watch it for free with subtitles and all.
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“The writing of the history of the Indian subcontinent should now begin from the Tamil land.”.
The discovery of artefacts and organic material at the Sivakalai site in Tamil Nadu “firmly” establishes the existence of a mature civilisation along the Porunai (Thamirabarani) river. | @kavithamurali writes.
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The architect who's redesigned New Delhi's Central Vista "has destroyed the city of Ahmedabad by cementing over the banks of the Sabarmati river that runs through it, he is in the process of ruining Varanasi. " Must read piece by the great Anish Kapoor.
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This has turned out to be an amazing Bijoya. Finished a book and sent off the ms to my editors. Forthcoming 2021.
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Astonishing that none of these new books and articles about plant sentience mention Jagadish Chandra Bose, who was doing this kind of work more than a hundred years ago.
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This is happening in one of the world's richest countries. .
Absolute devastation in the Swiss Alps following severe overnight flooding. Over 200mm of rain is thought to have fallen in the space of just a few hours. Mudslides & flooding have cut off towns and villages in the area.
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Truly unbelievable that Umar Khalid has been denied bail yet again. A massive failure of justice.
One of the worst things to happen in the recent past is the repeated denial of bail to Umar Khalid. Extremely unjust to keep a young Indian behind bars waiting for the trial to begin.
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As I noted in 'The Nutmeg's Curse', the collective West is psychologically unprepared for a world in which it is not dominant.
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In this ethnographic study of climate change and its impacts on Bangladesh, @CameliaDewan offers a vitally important corrective to simplistic narratives of global warming. 1/n. Thread 👇🏾
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What is happening in Lakshadweep is a horrifying story of ecologically destructive crony capitalism.
The parallels between Patel’s early actions at Lakshwadeep and his innings at the two union territories of Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli are illuminating, reports @mrajshekhar . via @thewire_in.
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Must watch video (in Hindi). If anyone can communicate the urgency of the current global crisis to young Indians it is @dhruv_rathee.
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RIP Ranajit Guha, a giant among historians. My debt to him is immeasurable, as a writer and a friend. In 1999 he spent Thanksgiving with us; here he's on the far right, and his wife Mechthild is on the left. Between them is another great scholar & thinker, Gananath Obeyesekere.
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Not only is India encroaching upon the rights of its forest dwelling people, its hunger for gold is also endangering the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin. This petition needs only a few thousand more signatures.
Look at the incredible destruction of just one illegal gold mine in Yanomami territory, Brazil. There are hundreds more. India is the main importer of this gold. Sign this petition to stop it: #ForaGarimpoForaCovid
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Hearing shocking stories from friends in Gurugram about the aftermath of the violence: charred streets, homes abandoned by Muslims. That this is happening in a tech hub that is seen as the symbol of tomorrow's India bodes very ill for the future.
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Indian police are now arresting climate activists who responded to @GretaThunberg 's tweet.
The @DelhiPolice chief should hang his head in shame for #DishaRavi's arrest, as should @DrSJaishankar & colleagues for contributing to hysteria over the toolkit. If these clever men see sedition in it, they aren't fit to hold public office in a democracy.
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In India "11,716 businesspersons died of suicide in 2020, a 29 per cent jump from 2019. ".
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Just received my first hard copy of 'The Nutmeg's Curse'! In bookstores soon.
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In The Great Derangement I wrote that in the event of a major storm 'the thousands of billboards that encrust' Mumbai would turn 'into deadly projectiles'. The recent storm was nowhere near as damaging as a major cyclone would be. Mumbai really needs to cut back drastically on.
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So proud of West Bengal's decisive repudiation of the BJP's politics of religious divisiveness and misogyny in these elections. The BJP chose to make a battleground of the Bengal elections in the midst of a deadly pandemic. 1/3.
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Just finished @sepoy's amazing 'Loss of Hindustan'. Through the work of the great 17th century historian, Firishta, Asif surveys the damage inflicted on the Indian subcontinent by British colonial historiography, with its ideas of immutable religious divisions. Must read!
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Naseeruddin Shah reads the preamble to the Indian Constitution, followed by the national anthem, sung by T.M. Krishna.
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A rare piece of good news in today's world: a resounding defeat for the politics of intolerance in Delhi.
#Watch | "What an extraordinary feat. AAP must be saluted for what they have done": Yogendra Yadav, National President of Swaraj India, on #DelhiResults. #ResultsWithNDTV
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To anyone who witnessed the Delhi riots of 1984, the images coming out of the city over the last few days are a horrifying throwback to that terrible time. This violence is causing irreparable damage, to the city, and to India.
BJP's Kapil Mishra had warned "We will keep the peace till Trump leaves and then. ". Turns out the mob didn't wait even that long. I write in @washingtonpost : Trump came, but India's politics of hate is what the world saw. Read, share
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Just received another letter from a school (or maybe college) student, asking for a picture of Tridib (from 'The Shadow Lines'). It's so moving when a character from a novel becomes so real to a reader that they want to see what he looked like. .
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Found 'Kohrra', the gritty Punjabi Netflix series, thoroughly absorbing: unsparingly shot and superbly acted. Amongst much else, the series is a powerful and disturbing depiction of Punjab's deepening opioid crisis.
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Delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of my new book, Wild Fictions: Essays (love the cover). It will be out in India from HarperCollins India, on January 14. It can now be pre-ordered from Amazon:
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India's Adivasi religions absolutely deserve to have their own census column.
It is our right to demand adivasi religion colum census 2021. And we are not Vanvasi, we are adivasi. we are indigenous people of india. implement tribal religion colum. #आदिवासी_धर्म_कॉलम_बनाओ
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Many congratulations to Vinay Shukla and @ravishndtv on winning this important award. It's a very powerful film.
Director Vinay Shukla and journalist Ravish Kumar accept the Peabody Award for While We Watched in Los Angeles.
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For Norway to sanction deep sea mining is beyond appalling. Fossil fuels have made it very rich with a sovereign wealth fund that will provide for its citizens for generations. What more do they need? Why should poor countries act responsibly when the richest do this?.
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Amazing courage.
Afghanistan: Women protest against the Taliban in Kabul: Today's slogan: "Freedom, liberty is our ultimate right”, “Women right is human rights."
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Radical uncertainty is a symptom of the planetary crisis. That's sinking in now as never before.
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Kishore Mahbubani devastatingly on the mark about the insularity and parochialism of American MSM.
Kishore Mahbubani talks about the west and how they lack understanding of whats happening in the world. A very good question and a very good answer.
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Westerners are proving to be very sore losers.
🇦🇺😤Australia coach: China’s record-breaking victory by a body length in 100m freestyle is “not humanly possible”. 🇨🇳🤷🏻♂️IOC spokesman: China is the most tested swimming team here, 600 times since Jan…They are fully tested. No decency, just hatred from a defeated supremacist.
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💯👇🏾.
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It's horrifying to think of the migrant workers who are returning to Odisha and West Bengal on foot and by cycle being hit by a cyclone, and that too in the middle of a pandemic. It's a convergence of catastrophes.
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Climate change + bad architecture + authoritarian narcissism = mounting disasters.
BIG. BREAKING ➖ Parliament House . Godi Media won't show you these visuals 🔥🔥. PM Narendra Modi has provided swimming facilities for all MP's in the new Parliament House that he built at a cost of 1400 crore of tax payers hard earned money.
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Beautiful piece on Arundhati Roy by the great Naomi Klein.
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"By any measure India is now a grotesque plutocracy.".
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Usually in situations of climate disaster people rally around and display solidarity. This was generally the case in India as well. The thuggery that is happening nowadays in northern India is a sign of a deep social unraveling and bodes very ill for the future.
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Please stay safe Mumbai. The city is very vulnerable, as I wrote in 'The Great Derangement'.
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For days I've been riveted by this book, which was recommended by @GKBhambra (thanks!). She is right; this is a milestone! It tells the story of a 17th century Angolan prince who brought a case before the Vatican, detailing the abuses of slavery and seeking to ban the system. 1/4
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Harsh Mander is a person of absolute integrity, motivated by compassion and a love of justice. It is shocking that he is being persecuted in this way. The use of financial laws to pursue political vendettas will only undermine trust in the Indian legal system.
Everyone knows that there is no case here. The process is the punishment, that too for someone who has advocated nothing but communal amity. And the secondary aim is to scare others, who are already looking for excuses to justify their cowardice.
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Indians must stop buying gold mined in the Amazon basin, at the cost of indigenous lives.
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A shocking story of a disaster created by an intersection of authoritarianism, sycophancy, ill-considered ecological interventions and an unusual climate event. A clear sign that the world's derangement is deepening as the planetary crisis intensifies.
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To my great surprise, I have been invited to deliver the Presidential Forum Lecture at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union (the Olympus of climate research )! What's more I've already been invited to a banquet and a party. Can't wait!
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Of all the predicted impacts of climate change this one is the most dire in the sense that it will affect the most people. Hundreds of millions of Asians depend on water from the Third Pole.
One-third of the ice in the Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains will be lost due to rising temps by 2100, threatening the water supplies for nearly 2 billion people, according to a landmark new report.
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The acreage of opium poppies in Afghanistan now (224,000 hectares) is only a little more than that of the British Opium Dept in Bihar & UP in the 19th cent (202,342 ha=500K acres). Let's not forget that this is how British imperialism sustained itself.1/2
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It's always great to hit 'send' on an ms after finishing all the sandpapering. But its even more special when the book's been written, from first to last word, during a pandemic. Out in Sept 2021 from @UChicagoPress; @johnmurrays UK & @PenguinIndia. @MeruGokhale @alnthomas
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In 2016, when "The Great Derangement" came out I asked a group of young journalists in New Delhi how many of them had written about heat waves. None had, and we all agreed that it was very difficult to write about 'slow violence '. Now young journalists are showing the way.
I wrote this from a "heat ward" in a govt hospital in Delhi treating heatstroke patients in one of northern India's longest and worst heatwave. I focused on two workers -- a cook and a factory "helper" -- admitted there, hit by brutal heat in their work
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Delighted to finally, receive a hard copy of this wonderfully insightful book. Nice also to see my comment on the back cover: "The best account I have yet read of the enchanted and uncanny world of stories and beliefs that Bengalis like myself grew up in."
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Very much looking forward to delivering the Tanner lecture at Cambridge tomorrow. It's on: 'Intimations of Apocalypse: Catastrophist and Gradualist Imaginings of the Planetary Future.' The in person event is sold out, but zoom registration is open to all: .
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India has successfully alienated it's last remaining friend in South Asia. Another great victory for the ruling dispensation.
Clear victory for Oli and his nationalist mojo. India spent too many years wasting scarce resources on micro-managing Nepal politics. Useless, counter-productive. Delhi can't be petty. Ignore symbolic amendment. Olis will come and go. Move on, focus on de-escalation, delivery.
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I'm glad the loss of this glacier is being marked with a funeral. Such rituals are necessary also for mntns & rivers. They might help oil & mining companies (also scientists) understand why landscapes are sacred for many indigenous people (as in Mauna Kea)
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". a classic case of the most craven disaster capitalism. ". Must read 👇🏾
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Kudos to @CMO_Odisha for their preparedness.
CM @Naveen_Odisha chaired review of #CycloneFani situation with Chief Secy & senior officials. In last 24hrs, about 12 lakh people in vulnerable areas & kutcha houses moved to safety.
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These disasters are never just about climate change. There's always a history.
Lāhainā was once wetland. Boats circled around Waikoloa Church. It’s only became dry and fire-prone because of illegal water diversions and land theft by sugar barons in the 1800’s. Today, the same families reap insane profits off continued control of our irrigation, land.
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Great story on how Dharavi, a poor & crowded part of Mumbai, flattened the Covid curve and became a model of good practices. Yet another indication that the planetary crisis is not going to conform to simplistic narratives of poverty & wealth.
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Great piece about the colonial war against ponds, swamps and wetlands - and the disastrous long term consequences. Must read.
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Driving Maasai villagers out of their traditional lands in order to hand them over to a Middle Eastern tourism company is nothing short of ethnic cleansing.
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Works for India too now.
Or Bukharin's joke (before he was executed). Apparently told in England. "We also have a two-party system. One party is in power, the other in jail.".
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Horrifying account of state-sponsored sectarian violence in India.
ICYMI, here's today's @nytimes print with our story on the forced evictions in India's northeastern Assam state. “They want Muslims to live suppressed, under the mercy of the Hindus.” .
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"In a world where shopping has been reduced to an isolating, solitary click, bookstores offer something profoundly different: human interaction.".
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Great piece on my amazing 'Jungle Nama' collaborator Ali Sethi, and his wonderful song 'Pasoori' which is building bridges across the Indian subcontinent. (His audiobook for 'Jungle Nama' is amazing too).
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My family home in Kolkata seems to be in the eye of Cyclone Amphan right now. Landlines are still working. Strange to be speaking to loved ones who are literally in the eye of the storm, even as the winds start intensifying again. 1/2.
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