How Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse sailed into Kerala’s budget; ‘only in Keralam,’ says author

3 min readJun 22, 2026 08:08 PM IST

Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan mentioned Amitav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse as an influence on state policy. (Amitav Ghosh/ File Photo)

Author Amitav Ghosh was delighted to learn that a proposal for an International Maritime Museum, championed by Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan as part of Mission Samudra, the state’s plan to position itself as a global maritime power over the next five years, drew inspiration from his 2021 book The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.

Satheesan made the admission at a ‘Read with VD’ event, telling students that several of his policy ideas have roots in books he has read, the news portal Onmanorama. Responding to a post by geriatrician Dr SA Hafiz about the remark, Ghosh wrote: “Only in Keralam would a Chief Minister base policy proposals on a book like The Nutmeg’s Curse!”

The Rs 50-crore museum project, Satheesan said, also draws on his reading of maritime history, particularly accounts of how Portuguese, Dutch, and British seafarers were drawn to the Kerala coast, and how the state’s seafaring legacy might be revived today.

A reading list behind the budget

Kerala Chief Minister VD Satheesan recommends these books. (Source: via amazon.in/generated using AI)

Mission Samudra, as per news reports, proposes to integrate Kerala’s 600-km coastline, two international seaports, a container transshipment terminal, 17 non-major ports, and numerous other aquatic resources. Satheesan, who also handles the finance portfolio, has set aside Rs 400 crore for the mission. Under the project, Vizhinjam will be developed as India’s primary port offering green bunkering services, capitalising on the global shipping industry’s transition toward eco-friendly fuels.

Besides Ghosh’s work, he has cited Japan’s “Silver Economy” model and economist Yanis Varoufakis’s writing on public finance as influences on his policy thinking. At the same event, he recommended Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus and Homo Deus, along with Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near, Onmanorama reported.

What is The Nutmeg’s Curse about?

Ghosh’s book argues against the extractive logic of European colonialism, tracing its origins to the Dutch conquest of the nutmeg-rich Banda Islands. In a 2021 interview with The Indian Express, Ghosh said India and other parts of Asia are now witnessing “the wholesale adoption of settler-colonial practices.” The book also examines how colonialism severed indigenous communities from their relationship with the natural world, treating land, forests, and even non-human life as resources to be claimed rather than as living systems with their own agency.

The book has drawn praise from several prominent writers. Naomi Klein called it a departure from “the leaden language of climate expertise,” crediting Ghosh’s turn to “mythology, etymology, and cosmology” instead. Historian Sunil Amrith said the book shows that “in the history of the nutmeg lies the path to our planetary crisis.” Writer Roy Scranton praised it as “a groundbreaking, visionary call to new forms of human life in the Anthropocene.” Science historian Naomi Oreskes called it “a tour de force,” arguing that Ghosh’s real solution to the climate crisis lies in “re-engaging with the vital aspects of life,” not merely technical fixes like geoengineering.