Articles on Postcolonial Studies

This blog is a part of the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, encouraging us to revisit postcolonial studies through diverse lenses such as Bollywood, Hollywood, and literary texts.

Based on the article, analyze how globalization reshapes postcolonial identities. How does global capitalism influence the cultural and economic dimensions of postcolonial societies? Can you relate this discussion to films or literature that depict the challenges of postcolonial identities in a globalized world?

 Rethinking Postcolonialism in the Age of Globalization

The article Globalization and the Future of Postcolonial Studies explores how globalization transforms and complicates postcolonial identities by reshaping the world’s cultural, political, and economic structures. Let’s break this down and relate it to literature and cinema.

1. Shifting Postcolonial Identities

Globalization challenges the old binaries of colonizer and colonized that were central to postcolonial thought. The world is now interconnected through transnational networks, digital spaces, and cultural exchanges. For societies once under colonial rule, this shift brings both opportunities and struggles:

• Hybrid Identities: Individuals often live between two worlds—rooted in local culture yet influenced by global trends. This creates both creative fusion and identity conflicts.

• New Modes of Domination: While formal colonialism has ended, global powers still exert control through soft power (media, technology, education) and economic or political influence.

2. Global Capitalism as Neo-Colonialism

The forces of global capitalism mirror older colonial hierarchies, but in more subtle, economic forms:

• Widening Inequality: Economists like Joseph Stiglitz and P. Sainath note that neoliberal “free-market” policies benefit global elites while deepening poverty in the Global South.

• Cultural Standardization: The dominance of Hollywood, global brands, and social media promotes Western consumer culture, often suppressing regional identities and indigenous practices.

• Economic Dependence: Institutions like the IMF and World Bank impose economic models that reduce national sovereignty—echoing the control once held by colonial powers.

Globalization, therefore, doesn’t dissolve colonial legacies—it rebrands them under the name of modern capitalism.

3. The Cultural and Economic Landscape

Culturally, globalization creates what Homi Bhabha describes as a “third space”—a realm of hybridity where new identities emerge, though often at the cost of cultural authenticity.

Economically, participation in global markets (as described in Friedman’s Dell Theory) may offer growth, yet it also ties developing nations into exploitative global systems that can collapse under crises.

4. Reflections in Literature and Film

In Literature:

• The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga) critiques how global capitalism widens class divides in postcolonial India.

• An Artist of the Floating World (Kazuo Ishiguro) reveals Japan’s cultural transformation under Western modernity.

• Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) portrays the roots of cultural dislocation that globalization continues to echo today.

In Film:

• Slumdog Millionaire exposes how global media capitalizes on poverty and spectacle in a postcolonial city.

• Lagaan revisits colonial economic control, paralleling modern forms of financial dependence.

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist depicts the conflict between global identity and nationalism in a post-9/11 world.

5. Conclusion

Globalization has transformed the postcolonial condition into a complex negotiation between heritage and modernity. It produces hybrid identities, redefines power through economics, and blurs cultural boundaries. While it risks perpetuating inequality and cultural homogenization, it also opens creative spaces for resistance, adaptation, and global solidarity.

Drawing from it, explore how contemporary fiction offers a critique of globalization from a postcolonial lens. How do authors from postcolonial backgrounds navigate themes of resistance, hybridity, or identity crisis in their works? Consider analyzing a film that addresses similar issues.

Contemporary Fiction and Film as Postcolonial Responses to Globalization

Postcolonial writers frequently portray globalization as both a promise and a paradox—a system that expands opportunities while also reproducing the hierarchies of power once sustained by colonialism. Through their narratives, authors and filmmakers critique how global capitalism reshapes cultural, political, and social realities. Works such as Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger reveal the deep contradictions of our global age.

1. Resistance and Dissent

In Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo captures anti-globalization protests erupting in Manhattan, exposing the anger against financial excess and capitalist control. Similarly, Robert Newman’s The Fountain at the Center of the World dramatizes the WTO protests in Seattle, where collective voices rise against neoliberal domination. These works show that literature can be a tool of protest, amplifying global resistance against the structures of economic exploitation and social inequality.

2. Hybridity and Marginal Voices

Postcolonial fiction often explores how globalization produces hybrid identities—people negotiating between global systems and local roots. Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness foregrounds marginalized figures such as Kashmiri separatists, transgender individuals, and displaced villagers. These characters carve out hybrid spaces that challenge global homogenization and foster alternative solidarities. Their hybridity becomes an act of defiance against the flattening effects of global capitalism.

3. Identity and Fragmentation

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger offers a biting critique of neoliberal India, where the illusion of upward mobility hides persistent inequality. Balram Halwai’s transformation from servant to entrepreneur embodies the fractured identity of the postcolonial subject—torn between servitude and self-interest in a globalized world.

Similarly, Ian McEwan’s Saturday depicts how international conflicts infiltrate personal spaces, reflecting the moral anxieties and responsibilities of individuals living in a globally connected yet ethically divided world.

Together, these novels expose what Hardt and Negri describe as the “Empire”—a borderless, decentralized power that governs global identities and hierarchies. Fiction thus becomes a space where the subaltern can speak, resist, and reinterpret the global order.

4. Film Parallel: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire serves as a cinematic parallel to these literary critiques.

• Resistance: The film critiques how global media commodifies poverty for entertainment, yet Jamal’s journey symbolizes resistance through knowledge, love, and survival.

• Hybridity: Its fusion of English narration with Bollywood-style music and spectacle creates a hybrid cinematic form—reflecting the cultural blend produced by globalization.

• Identity Crisis: Jamal’s navigation through Mumbai’s shifting landscape—from slums to call centers—illustrates the fractured identity of individuals living between local realities and global aspirations.

5. Conclusion

Contemporary postcolonial fiction and film engage with globalization as a site of tension—where power, identity, and culture constantly intersect. These narratives reveal the persistence of inequality beneath the surface of global progress while also celebrating acts of resistance and reimagined belonging. Through their hybrid forms and critical voices, writers and filmmakers reclaim agency over the global story, reminding us that globalization is not merely about economic integration but about contested identities, uneven power relations, and the unfinished project of decolonization.

Using postcolonial studies, discuss how they intersect with environmental concerns in the Anthropocene. How are colonized peoples disproportionately affected by climate change and ecological degradation? Reflect on this issue through a film that depicts ecological or environmental destruction, particularly in formerly colonized nations.

Title: Postcolonial Ecologies: Rethinking Environment and Empire in the Anthropocene

Postcolonial studies, once primarily concerned with the aftermath of imperialism and cultural identity, now extend their inquiry into the ecological crises of the Anthropocene—the epoch when human actions have transformed the Earth’s systems. As Dipesh Chakrabarty notes, humans have become “geological agents,” altering the planet on a massive scale. However, environmental degradation cannot be viewed merely as a universal human problem; it is deeply intertwined with the exploitative histories of colonialism and global capitalism.

1. Colonialism and Environmental Exploitation

Vandana Shiva reminds us that colonial expansion systematically destroyed ecological diversity and suppressed indigenous modes of sustainable living. Traditional, community-based environmental practices were replaced by monocultures that served imperial economies—laying the foundation for today’s extractive capitalism.

Rob Nixon introduces the concept of spatial amnesia, where Western environmental discourses portray colonized lands as “untouched wilderness,” erasing indigenous presence and the violent histories of displacement that shaped these landscapes.

Even post-independence, many Global South nations continue these extractive logics. The construction of India’s Narmada Dam, for instance, exemplifies internal colonialism, where development projects displace marginalized communities such as adivasis in the name of progress.

David Harvey’s idea of accumulation by dispossession captures this continuity—modern forms of exploitation like water privatization, large-scale mining, and agribusiness replicate colonial plunder, intensifying inequality and environmental harm.

2. How the Postcolonial World Faces Disproportionate Ecological Burdens

1. Ecological Vulnerability: Most postcolonial nations are in the Global South—regions most impacted by climate change through rising seas, droughts, and floods, despite contributing minimally to global emissions.

2. Economic Exploitation: Multinational corporations exploit resources in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, leaving pollution and poverty behind, as seen in the Niger Delta oil crisis that Ken Saro-Wiwa protested.

3. Cultural Erasure: Climate policies driven by Western institutions often silence indigenous ecological knowledge, reinforcing colonial hierarchies of expertise.

4. Social Displacement: Environmental catastrophes trigger mass displacements of indigenous and rural populations, echoing patterns of forced migration rooted in colonial expansion.

3. Film Reflection: Avatar (2009) and Okja (2017)

James Cameron’s Avatar serves as a striking ecological allegory. The destruction of Pandora’s sacred forest for “unobtanium” mirrors real-world colonial resource extraction. The Na’vi’s struggle to protect their land parallels movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan in India and the Ogoni resistance in Nigeria. The film critiques the collusion of corporate and military forces in exploiting nature—emphasizing that indigenous survival is inseparable from environmental justice.

Similarly, Bong Joon-ho’s Okja (2017) exposes the global food industry’s cruelty and capitalist greed. It highlights how corporations exploit not just animals but also economically marginalized communities under neoliberal globalization. Both films dramatize the entanglement of ecological destruction, exploitation, and resistance—central themes in postcolonial ecocriticism.

4. Conclusion

The intersection of postcolonial theory and environmentalism reveals that the ecological crisis is not just about the planet’s survival—it is about justice, memory, and power. The Anthropocene continues the legacy of empire through environmental inequality and capitalist domination. Yet, within this landscape of destruction, postcolonial voices—through literature, activism, and cinema—reclaim agency by reimagining ecological harmony rooted in indigenous wisdom and decolonial ethics.

Postcolonial critique in the Anthropocene reveals that climate change is not just environmental but also historical and political. Colonized peoples disproportionately bear its burden because the Anthropocene itself is rooted in imperial extraction. Films like Avatar visualize these struggles, bridging ecological catastrophe with the continuing legacies of colonial exploitation. Thus, postcolonial environmentalism insists that a sustainable future demands ecological justice that acknowledges — and repairs — colonial histories.

 Hollywood as Soft Power: Postcolonial Readings of American Hegemony in Global Cinema

Hollywood has long operated as a cultural arm of U.S. dominance, shaping global perceptions of power, freedom, and morality through mass entertainment. As Dr. Dilip Barad observes, films like Rambo and James Bond function as “celluloid empires,” spreading U.S. ideological influence under the guise of thrilling storytelling. These films serve not merely as entertainment but as powerful vehicles of soft power—embedding American political and cultural supremacy within global consciousness.

1. How Hollywood Projects American Dominance

a. Rewriting History:

Films like Rambo: First Blood Part II reimagine the Vietnam War as a moral victory rather than a military defeat, portraying the American soldier as betrayed yet righteous. Similarly, Rambo III aligns U.S. interests with Afghan Mujahideen, framing Cold War conflicts in simplistic binaries of freedom versus communism—thus erasing geopolitical complexities.

b. Constructing America as the Global Liberator:

Both Rambo and James Bond franchises position the West—especially the U.S.—as the savior of global order. Although Bond is British, his missions often serve Western capitalist interests, merging British intelligence with American ideology to sustain a shared sense of moral superiority.

c. Cultural Hegemony and Soft Power:

Through global distribution and cultural appeal, Hollywood exports American ideals of heroism, technological advancement, and military prowess as universal norms. The economic success of these films ensures their continued dominance in shaping global imagination, blending entertainment with imperial ideology.

2. Postcolonial Critiques of Hollywood Hegemony

a. Hegemonic Storytelling:

Postcolonial scholars argue that such films erase or distort the perspectives of the colonized “Other.” The Vietnamese, Afghans, and Soviets are often portrayed as faceless adversaries or caricatures, reinforcing a hierarchical world where American experience is central and authoritative.

b. Orientalism:

Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism is evident in how Hollywood constructs the East—as exotic, barbaric, or in need of Western salvation. Afghanistan and the Middle East are depicted as chaotic landscapes awaiting American intervention, reducing complex societies to visual stereotypes.

c. Erasure of Local Agency:

The narratives rarely acknowledge indigenous forms of resistance or autonomy. Local voices are marginalized, and their political realities are simplified into moral backdrops for American heroism.

d. Globalization as Neo-Imperialism:

In the era of global media, Hollywood’s reach acts as a new form of imperialism. Its narratives export American values as global standards, masking ideological control through entertainment. Thus, globalization extends colonial discourse under neoliberal and cultural veneers.

3. Other Films and Series Reinforcing Hegemonic Ideals

• Top Gun (1986, 2022): Glorifies U.S. air power and military masculinity, celebrating war as spectacle and patriotism as virtue.

• Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Justifies U.S. interventionism and the War on Terror while minimizing ethical debates about torture and sovereignty.

• 24 (TV Series, 2001–2010): Depicts surveillance and violence as necessary tools for national security, reinforcing post-9/11 American exceptionalism.

• Captain America Franchise: Cloaks political propaganda in superhero fantasy, portraying the U.S. as the moral guardian of global freedom.

4. Toward Counter-Narratives

Postcolonial cinema and global storytellers challenge these hegemonic myths by foregrounding subaltern perspectives and exposing imperial ideologies. Films such as The Battle of Algiers (1966), Hotel Rwanda (2004), and The Kite Runner (2007) reframe conflict, identity, and resistance from non-Western viewpoints. Such works remind us that cinema can both perpetuate and resist empire—depending on who tells the story and whose truth is centered.

Conclusion

Hollywood’s portrayal of global politics reveals the persistence of U.S. hegemony in cultural form. Through narratives of heroism, liberation, and technological superiority, these films naturalize America’s dominance while silencing alternative histories. Postcolonial critique urges us to read beyond the spectacle—to recognize how entertainment can reproduce power and ideology. Yet, it also calls for reclaiming cinematic space for decolonial storytelling, where the margins speak back to empire.

In light of this, reflect on how the film appropriates and reimagines tribal resistance against colonial powers. How can such narratives contribute to or undermine postcolonial struggles? You could relate this to other films that portray resistance or appropriation of indigenous or subaltern heroes.

Reimagining Resistance: Postcolonial Readings of RRR and the Politics of Representation

S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR (2022) has gained global acclaim for its grandeur and emotional intensity, but beyond its cinematic spectacle lies a deeper engagement with postcolonial themes. The film reimagines India’s colonial past through mythic heroism, transforming historical resistance into a larger narrative of national pride. However, this mythologizing also raises questions about authenticity, representation, and the erasure of subaltern identities.

Contribution to Postcolonial Struggles

Empowering Narrative of Unity:

By portraying Raju and Bheem as heroic symbols of anti-colonial resistance, RRR constructs an emotionally charged vision of unity and defiance. The film channels collective pride and cultural confidence, asserting an indigenous counter-narrative to Western cinematic dominance. It functions as a visual reclamation of agency, where colonized subjects are no longer victims but architects of resistance.

Global Visibility:

RRR has brought the story of Indian resistance to a global audience, reframing colonial history through spectacular storytelling and vibrant myth-making. Although stylized, this global reach allows non-Western perspectives to occupy cinematic space traditionally dominated by Western narratives. Thus, the film contributes to the postcolonial goal of reclaiming historical and cultural agency.

Undermining Postcolonial Struggles

Erasure of Indigenous Specificity:

While celebrating anti-colonial heroism, RRR folds tribal identity into a broader nationalist framework, diluting the lived realities of subaltern and indigenous communities. The film’s mythic tone risks erasing local struggles—such as those against internal oppressors or exploitative forest policies—by subsuming them under an idealized vision of national unity.

Neglect of Environmental and Social Issues:

Despite drawing inspiration from tribal histories, the film overlooks pressing contemporary issues like displacement, ecological degradation, and corporate exploitation of natural resources. By prioritizing visual grandeur and nationalist sentiment over environmental justice, RRR misses an opportunity to connect historical resistance with ongoing postcolonial struggles for sustainability and equality.

Comparative Frames

Other postcolonial films and cultural texts display similar patterns in reimagining resistance while negotiating between myth and realism:

• Lagaan (2001): Depicts a peasant uprising against British tax oppression as a metaphor for collective resistance. However, like RRR, it glosses over caste and tribal complexities, presenting a unified yet idealized vision of nationalism.

• Avatar (2009, 2022): Offers an explicit ecological allegory of indigenous resistance against colonial-capitalist exploitation, highlighting the deep connection between land, identity, and survival—an angle RRR largely sidesteps.

• Kantara (2022): Grounds its narrative in Bhoota Kola rituals and local folklore, retaining the cultural specificity of land-based struggles while addressing internal colonization and spiritual ecology within modern India.

Conclusion

RRR stands as both a triumph and a tension within postcolonial cinema. On one hand, it empowers national identity by transforming colonial subjugation into a mythic tale of heroism and solidarity. On the other, it risks flattening the diverse voices of indigenous and subaltern communities into a homogenized nationalist narrative. This duality—between symbolic unity and cultural erasure—reflects the broader challenge of postcolonial storytelling: how to celebrate resistance without silencing the plurality of struggles that define it.

Here are all the articles and links for access:

Heroes or Hegemons? The Celluloid Empire of Rambo and Bond in America’s Geopolitical Narrative — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383415195_Heroes_or_Hegemons_The_Celluloid_Empire_of_Rambo_and_Bond_in_America%27s_Geopolitical_Narrative

Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373717690_Globalization_and_Fiction_Exploring_Postcolonial_Critique_and_Literary_Representations

Reimagining Resistance: The Appropriation of Tribal Heroes in Rajamouli’s RRR — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383603395_Reimagining_Resistance_The_Appropriation_of_Tribal_Heroes_in_Rajamouli%27s_RRR 

Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376374708_POSTCOLONIAL_STUDIES_IN_THE_ANTHROPOCENE_BRIDGING_PERSPECTIVES_FOR_A_SUSTAINABLE_FUTURE. ResearchGate

Globalization and the Future of Postcolonial Studies — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373710627_Globalization_and_the_Future_of_Postcolonial_Studies