To Seek and Destroy Universals: The Negative Implications of Globalization

Western culture is spreading like wildfires across the world, ultimately reducing ancient customs of the East into mere ashes of the past. Slumdog Millionaire depicts such notions on an extreme level, illustrating the negative impact the process of globalization has on Eastern culture. The movement of globalization is an attempt to unify the world, by breaking the shackles of intolerance (which remain in existence today), through the promotion of ethnic heterogeneity. Various cultural theorists argue that globalization is a catalyst for promoting human progress, and connects people from all walks of life through a process of unification surrounding political, economic, and social realms and ideals. The fundamental tenet surrounding globalization promotes the spreading of capitalism, bringing forth many opportunities for businesses to operate beyond national borders in different countries and various cultures. Though globalization is hard to encapsulate into a singular definition, the ultimate result would produce a simplified version of a complicated world: all nations living in harmony under one unified economy. Rather than having each nation have its own separate national identity, the process of globalization seeks to join the world together under one universal identity. Though the notions of globalization appear to come from a place of good intentions, uniting the world together under the globalization blanket does not necessarily generate a warm and cozy sense of concord, nor does it serve to the world’s best interests. Instead, extreme amounts of pressure are placed on the individual in the Eastern countries, where they fall victim and remain in utter servitude in the thralls of a capitalistic society. Gross exploitation is the ending result, where individuals plagued by poverty have to resort to any means necessary in order to make the all-mighty dollar. Slumdog Millionaire illustrates the negative impacts of globalization through its depiction of how Western culture has shaped Indian society. Each of the characters in Slumdog Millionaire are products of an unstable, caste based society, and are ultimately guided by the Western principles that value the money. Consequently, Slumdog Millionaire illustrates how the process of globalization leads to exploitation of people in developing countries who are not ready for such dramatic changes.

The impact of Western culture on India is established early in the movie, where even the most impoverished areas share the same on-going obsession with popular culture and movie stars that seems to shape the Western ethos of today. In a way, this is where art imitates life, in that it parallels India’s actual glorification of Western culture as best exemplified by it’s creation of a movie industry patterned after Hollywood and dubbing it, “Bollywood”. It appears as though India is overly concerned with how the image of their country is perceived, and ultimately strives to base their culture off a Western dream where everything revolves around a world of appearances and an obsession with wealth. Yet, unlike America, India has an abysmal underworld full of malfeasance where children are exploited on a daily basis and there remains neither government intervention nor active changes to remedy social issues surrounding these impoverished areas. Most Americans could not even begin to fathom some of the horrific occurrences that take place in the slums of India. Slumdog Millionaire barely scratches the surface of some of these issues; the main focus in the movie is based on money and dreaming big, being successful and rich, and ultimately winning the affections of a girl in the process, while the majority of the characters are merely expendable commodities.

Fernando Coronil, author of the essay, “Towards a Critique of Globalcentrism: Speculation on Capitalism’s Nature” aptly illustrates the problems surrounding Eastern cultures that become saturated with Western culture. He avers, “Nations have become increasingly open to the flow of capital, even as they remain closed to the movement of the poor. While the elites of these nations are increasingly integrated in transnational circuits of work, study, leisure and even residence, their impoverished majorities are increasingly excluded from the domestic economy abandoned by their states” (368). Coronil elucidates how the globalization process ultimately benefits corporations while simultaneously harming the general population. This particular notion is illustrated in Slumdog Millionaire where there are only two classes depicted; those who are extremely rich, and those who are utterly destitute.

Additionally, Coronil expounds further, noting how “…globalization may promote economic ‘growth’ and yet erode a sense of national belonging…the proliferation of schemes and scams intended to make money, as well as the commoditization of anything that can be sold, have become not just regular economic practices but agnostic survival strategies. For many who find themselves at the mercy of market forces and yet have little to sell, the ‘market’ takes the form of drug trade, black markets, sex work, and the trade of stolen goods or even body parts” (362). Coronil illustrates how local economies remain poor, and globalization is to blame for reducing human rights to conditions that are unimaginable. Slumdog Millionaire confronts these issues through its depiction of the adversity many Indian children face; and yet it quickly brushes this aside and the plot is based on the contrivances of love conquering all.

Common perception of globalization is based on the notions of tearing down walls that create barriers amongst nations where a world unites together as one in peace and harmony. Simon Gikandi illustrates such notions and states, “The image of globalization offers the promise of a unified humanity no longer divided by the East and West, North and South, Europe and its Others, the rich and the poor…these discourses set in motion the belief that the separate histories, geographies and cultures that have divided humanity are now being brought together by the warm embrace of globalization, understood as a progressive process of planetary integration” (Gikandi 351). Yet, the majority of Third World nations are not ready for such a process. In a way, globalization actually promotes inequality where the lower classes are doomed to a life of servitude to the elite classes who are far too often plagued by greed and corruption.

Works Cited

Coronil, Fernando. "Towards a Critique of Globalcentrism: Speculations on Capitalism's Nature." Duke University Press 12.2 (2000): 351-74. Project Muse. Web. May-June 2010.

Gikandi, Simon. "Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality." The South Atlantic Quarterly 100.3 (2001): 628-58. Project Muse. Web. Apr.-May 2010.

Slumdog Millionaire. Dir. Danny Boyle. Prod. Christian Colson. By Simon Beaufoy. Perf. Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, and Irrfan Khan. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2008.