Climate Change, Capitalism and Migration: An Ecocritical Study of Amitav Ghoshs Fiction

Climate change has become one of the defining crises of the contemporary world, closely intertwined with global economic systems and patterns of human migration. While scientific and policy-driven discussions often focus on technological solutions and economic growth, literature offers a critical space to examine the deeper causes and human consequences of ecological breakdown. This article explores the relationship between climate change, capitalism, and migration in the selected works of Amitav Ghosh through an ecocritical lens. Texts such as The Great Derangement, Gun Island, and The Nutmeg’s Curse reveal how capitalist modes of extraction, colonial histories, and global inequalities contribute to environmental destruction and forced displacement. Ghosh’s fiction challenges dominant narratives that present climate change as a natural or inevitable process. Instead, his works expose capitalism as a central force driving ecological degradation and social inequality. By foregrounding migration caused by environmental collapse, Ghosh highlights the unequal distribution of climate impacts, where marginalized communities bear the greatest burden despite contributing the least to the crisis. Migration in his narratives emerges as both a symptom of ecological breakdown and a response to economic systems that prioritize profit over sustainability. This article argues that Ghosh’s ecocritical vision connects environmental damage to historical and contemporary forms of capitalism, revealing climate migration as a product of long-standing global injustice. Through storytelling that blends history, myth, and lived experience, Ghosh humanizes climate change and critiques the moral foundations of capitalist development. His fiction invites readers to reconsider prevailing ideas of progress and growth, urging a more ethical and sustainable relationship between humans, nature, and economic systems.