The Grammar of Greed : reflections on a Fatal Ecology – Aseem Shrivastava

Description‘The excess of light discloses facts and also conceals them.’ — Alfred North Whitehead, Adventure of IdeasLike gravity, greed is everywhere. But it is rarely called by its true names. Usually some euphemism like ‘incentivisation’, ‘development’, or ‘progress’ is deployed to mask its devastating power. Such Orwellian doublespeak calls for an elucidation of the reigning grammar of greed.How does this systematisation of greed work in everyday life today? What are the roots of structural avarice in modern history? How is such greed related to war, conquest, and speed? These are the questions that the short meditations in this book seek to address. In ignoring these questions, we risk ecological catastrophe and eventual extinction.The drawings and illustrations are designed to enable clearer comprehension of the reflections and provoke fresh thought on an ancient theme.Aseem Shrivastava is a writer, teacher and ecological thinker with a doctorate in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught at universities in India and the West and offered over several years courses on Global and Indian Ecosophy at Ashoka University. He is the author (with Ashish Kothari) of the books Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (Penguin Viking, New Delhi, 2012), and Prithvi Manthan (Rajkamal Prakashan, New Delhi, 2016).ReviewsSai Priya Chodavarapu in DhitiThe focus of the present review, Grammar of Greed: Reflections on a Fatal Ecology, is a powerful expansion of this ecosophical vision, exploring how language and cultural narratives have normalized and perpetuated greed, avarice, and excess, leading to the prevailing worldview that sees nature as a resource to be exploited. Structured as a collection of meditative and reflective passages organised around a few key themes (titled ‘The Warp of War’, ‘The Curse of Conquest, and ‘The Seduction of Speed’), the book interrogates the ideological underpinnings of contemporary capitalism and on a deeper level, the perils of modernity itself, and exposing the ubiquity of greed which has indeed been grammatically encoded into the very language of modern existence. The author asks us to listen closely to the moral lacunae and conceptual assumptions that dominate our economic and cultural discourse. To Shrivatsava, the prevailing economic and developmental paradigms that prioritize exploitation and consumption have led to ecological degradation and a loss of spiritual and cultural connection to the Earth and our own communities and families. … The book is not merely a critique, however. It is also an invitation: to recover older, marginalized traditions of thought – spiritual, ecological, philosophical – that offer radically different grammars for understanding life, community, and the Earth. It is organised not as a continuous narrative but as a series of reflections and highly quotable aphorisms followed by deliberate pauses – as he calls on the reader to ponder over every passage – making it a truly contemplative exercise. The text is punctuated by illustrations of Gond artist Sachin Vyam, whose work adds an intriguing cultural depth to Shrivastava’s prose.Related