Richard H Grove, "Green Imperialism" (Book Note)

 

In "Green Imperialism," Grove traces the evolution of environmental attitudes in European colonies, spanning from the initial encounters with the tropics in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the emergence of a universalistic (scientific) environmentalism in the mid-nineteenth century. The book covers a broad geographical scope, encompassing early colonies established by the Portuguese and Dutch in the East Indies, British possessions in the Eastern Caribbean and South Atlantic, French Mauritius, and ultimately, British India. Grove, a scholar with extensive language proficiency, adeptly utilizes previously overlooked sources, presenting his vast scholarship with clarity and elegance that captivates the reader's attention.

 

The exploration begins with an examination of the island as a metaphor in European literature, exploring the evolving meanings attached to it after the fifteenth and sixteenth-century voyages of discovery. The book then shifts focus to the tropics and the early colonial endeavors of the Portuguese and Dutch. This chapter delves into the exchange of ideas and plants between Europe and the tropics, emphasizing the critical evaluation of European knowledge prompted by encounters with diverse environments and systems of thought. European classifications in botany and medicine often gave way to indigenous ones during this period.

 

The seventeenth century marks a turning point when Europeans became acutely aware of their potential impact on the environment. Experiences on St Helena and Mauritius revealed that environmental degradation, such as deforestation and the extinction of animal species, could have adverse consequences for food and water supplies, as well as disease incidence. These instances served as cautionary tales for subsequent colonial endeavors. In the eighteenth century, both the British in the Eastern Caribbean and the French in Mauritius engaged in systematic efforts to conserve plants and animals, developing a sophisticated and scientifically informed environmental discourse.

 

The latter part of the century witnessed a synthesis of French physiocracy, neo-Hippocratism, Newtonian physics, and Eastern conceptions of balance and harmony in nature. With increased European involvement overseas, an international environmentalism began to emerge in the nineteenth century, exemplified by the writings of Alexander von Humboldt, whose holistic understanding of natural processes profoundly influenced environmental attitudes and policies.

 

Notably, it was in British India during the 1840s that forest conservation became a significant and lasting aspect of colonial policy. After years of advocacy, colonial scientists, primarily East India Company surgeons, successfully persuaded officials of the economic and social desirability of forest conservation. They presented compelling evidence linking deforestation, drought, and soil erosion. By the late 1840s, many officials acknowledged the role of plantation agriculture and unrestricted timber felling in causing droughts and severe famines in India.

Grove's work reflects a growing disillusionment with conventional views of colonial science as subservient to and derivative of metropolitan ideas and institutions. In "Green Imperialism," he portrays a dynamic colonial 'periphery' where European knowledge underwent conceptual and empirical transformations through indigenous learning. Implicitly and sometimes explicitly critical of scholars following Edward Said, Grove challenges the portrayal of colonial science as a hegemonic knowledge form that appropriated indigenous learning for command purposes. He suggests that intellectual relations between rulers and the ruled were more dynamic and reciprocal than Said's Orientalism allows.

 

Contrary to Said's perspective, Grove argues that intellectual exchange was not distorted by colonial power relations to the extent claimed. Even in the late eighteenth century, cultural differences were both undermined and underpinned by Orientalist scholarship. Grove convincingly demonstrates that indigenous learning significantly altered Europeans' perceptions of themselves and their acquisitions, influencing mainstream European scientific thought. For instance, Hindu philosophy's holistic conception of man's place in nature and indigenous traditions in forestry and conservation informed many scientific critiques of colonial rule.

 

Throughout "Green Imperialism," Grove emphasizes the close intertwining of environmentalist agendas with ideas of social reform. Tropical islands provided an opportunity for Europeans dissatisfied with corrupt regimes in Europe to construct a moral economy where man lived in harmony with nature. Often rooted in religious motivations, environmental catastrophes like desiccation and soil erosion were viewed as retribution for earthly folly. The book thoroughly explores the religious dimension of environmental thought, highlighting the strong link between nascent environmentalism and dissenting Protestantism, which emphasized the individual's direct responsibility to God for the stewardship of nature.