ThAct: Article 1: Concluding chapter in 2nd edition of Colonialism/postcolonialism: Future of Postcolonial Studies - Critique of Globalization

The New Face of Empire: Global Capitalism, Postcolonial Identity, and Resistance in The White Tiger

Introduction: From Colonial Rule to Global Power

The end of formal colonialism did not necessarily mean the end of domination. Although countries such as India became politically independent, many of the economic, cultural, linguistic, and ideological structures associated with colonial power continued to influence their societies. In the twenty-first century, these structures have become increasingly complicated because of globalization. 

 

Image Source: Infographic made with ChatGpt

Capital, technology, media, migration, multinational corporations, and digital communication have created a world in which geographical borders appear less significant than before. Yet this interconnectedness has not produced equality. Instead, globalization has created new forms of power in which economic and cultural inequalities often reproduce older colonial hierarchies.

Dilip Barad’s research articles “Globalization and the Future of Postcolonial Studies” and “Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations” provide an important framework for understanding this transformation. Barad’s first article examines the relationship between globalization and postcolonial studies through subjects such as 9/11, the New American Empire, the Global War on Terror, economic globalization, and Klaus Schwab’s idea of “Globalization 4.0.” The article argues that globalization cannot be understood simply as an economic process because it is deeply connected with politics, culture, violence, technology, and questions of power.

His second article shifts the discussion toward fiction and demonstrates how literature becomes a significant space for examining the contradictions of globalization. Barad discusses works such as Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, Robert Newman’s The Fountain at the Center of the World, Ian McEwan’s Saturday, Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. These works explore economic dominance, resistance, social justice, and the personal consequences of global transformation.

A particularly productive way of applying Barad’s arguments is through Ramin Bahrani’s film adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2021). The film follows Balram Halwai, a young man from rural India who rises from poverty to become an entrepreneur and driver in the globalized economy.

Image Source: Infographic made with ChatGpt

Balram’s journey demonstrates that globalization can create opportunities for mobility while simultaneously reproducing structures of exploitation. His story therefore raises a central postcolonial question: Has colonialism really disappeared, or has its logic been transformed into new economic and cultural forms?

Globalization and the Transformation of Postcolonial Identity

One of the most important contributions of postcolonial studies is its examination of identity. Colonialism created rigid distinctions between colonizer and colonized, civilized and uncivilized, modern and traditional, centre and margin. Globalization complicates these binaries. The contemporary postcolonial subject may simultaneously participate in local traditions and global culture. English may be used alongside regional languages; traditional family structures may exist alongside global consumer culture; and local identities may be shaped by international media.

Dilip Barad emphasizes that globalization challenges older postcolonial frameworks based primarily on the distinction between “margins” and “centres.” He draws attention to Hardt and Negri’s concept of “Empire,” in which power is no longer necessarily concentrated within one territorial centre but operates through a decentralized and expanding global system.

This idea is extremely relevant to The White Tiger. Balram lives in a society that is formally independent, but his social position is determined by economic structures extending far beyond his village. His poverty is local, but the economic system that shapes his aspirations is global. He watches advertisements, observes wealthy lifestyles, encounters the language of business, and becomes fascinated by Bangalore as a symbol of India’s technological and entrepreneurial transformation.

Balram therefore represents a new kind of postcolonial subject. He is not simply resisting a foreign colonial ruler. Instead, he is attempting to escape a domestic class hierarchy that has become connected to global capitalism. His struggle demonstrates that postcolonial identity cannot be understood exclusively through the historical relationship between Britain and India. Contemporary identity is also shaped by class, capitalism, technology, migration, consumerism, and global cultural circulation.

The film’s contrast between Balram’s village and Bangalore is particularly significant. The village represents a deeply unequal social order in which caste, poverty, family obligations, and inherited occupations restrict individual mobility. Bangalore, in contrast, represents the globalized city: technologically advanced, entrepreneurial, consumer-oriented, and connected to international business.

However, the film does not present Bangalore as a simple utopia. The city offers Balram opportunities, but those opportunities are built upon unequal relationships. His employers can participate in the global economy because workers such as Balram provide cheap labour. Thus, globalization creates both mobility and exploitation.

Global Capitalism and the New Economic Hierarchy

Barad’s discussion of globalization is strongly connected with economics. He presents globalization as a complex process involving international relations, economic structures, cultural exchange, and technological development. He also discusses thinkers such as Thomas Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, P. Sainath, Hardt and Negri, and Noam Chomsky, allowing the reader to see globalization from both optimistic and critical perspectives.

The optimistic understanding of globalization emphasizes connectivity, economic growth, technological development, international trade, and new opportunities. Friedman’s ideas, for example, emphasize the increasing interconnectedness of the contemporary world. Yet critical thinkers such as Stiglitz and Chomsky draw attention to the unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.

The White Tiger dramatizes this contradiction.

Balram is attracted to the possibilities offered by globalization. Bangalore appears to him as a city where old social limitations might be overcome. The growth of technology and business creates a new economic environment in which entrepreneurial success becomes possible. Balram eventually establishes his own business and becomes economically independent.

Yet his success cannot be separated from exploitation. He learns that the global economy rewards those who are willing to break moral and social rules. The film therefore questions the idea that globalization automatically produces development for everyone.

Image Resource: Wikipedia

Balram’s famous metaphor of the “rooster coop” is useful here. The coop represents a system in which the poor remain trapped because they have internalized their own limitations. Workers are exploited not simply through physical force but through psychological conditioning. They are taught loyalty, obedience, fear, and dependence.

From a postcolonial perspective, this is significant because colonial domination also depended upon forms of psychological control. Frantz Fanon famously examined the internalization of colonial hierarchies. In Balram’s case, however, the source of domination is no longer a European colonial administrator. It is a combination of caste, class, family, capitalism, and political corruption.

The “rooster coop” can therefore be interpreted as a metaphor for the persistence of colonial structures after independence. The master has changed, but the structure of dependence remains.

From Imperialism to Empire

Barad’s engagement with Hardt and Negri is particularly useful for understanding this transformation. The concept of “Empire” describes a form of power that is not dependent upon a single territorial centre. It is decentralized and operates through networks that extend across national borders.

This concept changes the way we understand postcolonial domination. Traditional imperialism involved a recognizable colonizing power occupying and governing another territory. Contemporary globalization works differently. A multinational corporation, financial institution, technological platform, or international market can influence local economic conditions without directly governing a country.

In The White Tiger, Balram’s employers are connected to a global economy that reaches beyond India. Their lives are influenced by international business and Western consumer culture. Their wealth allows them to move between local and global worlds.

Balram, however, occupies the lower level of this system. He drives cars, serves food, cleans houses, and performs other forms of invisible labour. His employers can participate in the global economy because people like Balram sustain their everyday lives.

The film therefore exposes an important contradiction: globalization creates global mobility, but mobility is unequally distributed.

The rich can travel, study abroad, invest internationally, and participate in global business. The poor often experience globalization through labour, consumer aspirations, precarious employment, and economic pressure.

Cultural Globalization and Hybrid Identity

Globalization does not transform only economies; it also transforms culture. Films, music, fashion, English-language education, social media, advertising, and consumer brands circulate across national boundaries. This process can produce cultural hybridity, a concept strongly associated with Homi K. Bhabha.

Hybridity challenges the idea that cultures exist as pure and separate entities. The postcolonial subject often occupies an in-between space, combining elements from different cultural traditions.

Balram embodies this cultural hybridity. He belongs to rural India, but he becomes fascinated by the modern urban world. He understands traditional structures but also learns the language and behaviour of entrepreneurship. His transformation is therefore not simply geographical. It is cultural and psychological.

The film also shows the influence of English. English represents education, social status, corporate power, and global mobility. Balram recognizes that language can function as economic capital. The ability to communicate in English becomes part of his attempt to enter the world of business.

This recalls the larger postcolonial debate surrounding English. English was introduced into India through colonialism, but it has been appropriated and transformed by Indian speakers. Contemporary globalization further complicates the situation because English is now not merely the language of a former colonial ruler; it is also the language of international business, technology, higher education, and global communication.

Therefore, English can simultaneously represent colonial history and contemporary opportunity.

Fiction as a Critique of Globalization

Barad’s second article is particularly important because it argues that fiction can reveal the human consequences of globalization. Literature does not simply describe economic statistics or political theories. It gives globalization a human face.

This is precisely what The White Tiger accomplishes.

The novel and film move away from abstract discussions of economic development and ask what globalization means for an individual. Balram is not an economic statistic. He is a person with ambitions, frustrations, desires, and contradictions.

His story also challenges simplistic representations of India. The globalized image of India often emphasizes technological advancement, software industries, economic growth, and urban development. The White Tiger forces viewers to look beneath this image. Behind the successful technology sector are millions of workers who experience poverty and inequality.

The film therefore performs a postcolonial act of representation. It gives narrative visibility to a subject who would normally remain at the margins.

At the same time, Balram cannot be idealized as a revolutionary hero. His resistance is morally ambiguous. He escapes exploitation by becoming an exploiter himself. After murdering his employer, he enters the world of entrepreneurship and eventually employs drivers.

This ambiguity is crucial.

The film does not suggest that capitalism is defeated when Balram becomes successful. Instead, Balram becomes part of the same system that previously oppressed him. The oppressed subject becomes an economic participant in the structure of exploitation.

This creates an uncomfortable question: Is social mobility possible without reproducing inequality?

Resistance, Hybridity, and Identity Crisis

Postcolonial resistance is not always straightforward. Balram resists the social system, but his resistance is individual rather than collective. He does not organize the workers around him or attempt to transform the entire social structure. Instead, he seeks personal escape.

This reflects one of the contradictions of neoliberal globalization. Individuals are encouraged to think of themselves as entrepreneurs responsible for their own success. Structural problems become individual problems.

If a person remains poor, the system may suggest that the individual has failed to work hard enough. Balram accepts this logic to some extent. His ambition becomes the driving force of his transformation.

Yet the film also reveals the violence hidden behind this ideology of individual success.

Balram’s identity crisis emerges from his position between different worlds. He is neither fully part of the rural poor nor fully part of the wealthy elite. He is neither traditionally obedient nor completely free. He is a hybrid postcolonial subject whose identity is continuously reconstructed.

This resonates with Bhabha’s concept of the “third space,” in which new identities emerge through cultural interaction and negotiation. Balram creates a new identity for himself, but the process is deeply violent and unstable.

Globalization 4.0 and the Digital Future

Barad’s first article also discusses Klaus Schwab’s concept of “Globalization 4.0,” connected with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This stage of globalization is characterized by rapid technological change, artificial intelligence, automation, digital networks, and accelerated economic transformation. Barad notes that the speed of technological change challenges established ways of understanding the global economy.

Image Source: Klaus Schwab's the fourth Industrial Revolution Book 

This has important implications for postcolonial studies.

If colonialism once depended on territorial occupation, and contemporary globalization operates through economic networks, the future may involve forms of power operating through data, algorithms, platforms, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructures.

The postcolonial question therefore has to evolve.

Earlier postcolonial studies asked: Who controls land? Who controls political power? Whose history is being represented? Whose language is considered legitimate?

Today we must also ask: Who controls technology? Who owns data? Who benefits from artificial intelligence? Who performs low-paid digital labour? Whose culture becomes globally visible, and whose remains invisible?

These questions show why postcolonial studies remains relevant rather than obsolete. Globalization has not eliminated questions of domination; it has changed their form.

Violence, 9/11, and the Global Order

Barad’s first article also places 9/11 and the Global War on Terror within the discussion of globalization. The article argues that the violent events surrounding 9/11 and the subsequent geopolitical developments require postcolonial scholars to reconsider the relationship between globalization, power, violence, and empire.

The significance of this argument lies in the way global events affect local identities. After 9/11, Muslim identities, migration, borders, security, and representations of the “East” became central to global political discourse. Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism remains relevant here because representations of the East can become connected with political power.

Globalization has therefore not produced a world without cultural stereotypes. Instead, global media can sometimes reproduce and amplify them.

This is another reason why literature and cinema matter. They can challenge simplified representations by presenting complex individual experiences.

The Contradiction of Globalization: Opportunity and Exploitation

One of the strongest conclusions emerging from Barad’s two articles is that globalization cannot simply be classified as either good or bad. It is contradictory.

It creates connectivity, but also inequality.

It creates opportunities, but also exploitation.

It weakens some national boundaries, but can strengthen economic hierarchies.

It enables cultural exchange, but can also encourage cultural homogenization.

It produces new identities, but can also create identity crises.

The White Tiger captures this contradiction with remarkable effectiveness. Balram’s movement from darkness to entrepreneurship resembles a success story, but the violence behind his success prevents us from accepting it as a simple celebration of globalization.

His journey is simultaneously liberation and reproduction.

He escapes one cage and builds another.

This is perhaps the most powerful postcolonial insight offered by the film.

Conclusion: Is the Postcolonial World Really Postcolonial?

The central lesson of Dilip Barad’s discussions of globalization is that postcolonial studies cannot stop with the historical event of independence. The contemporary world continues to contain structures of domination, although they may no longer appear in the recognizable form of colonial rule.

Globalization has transformed the postcolonial condition. Economic power has become increasingly transnational. Cultural identities have become more hybrid. English has moved beyond its colonial origins into the global economy. Technology has accelerated communication and economic exchange. Yet inequality continues to divide societies.

The White Tiger makes these contradictions visible through the story of Balram Halwai. His journey from a poor village to a successful entrepreneur demonstrates the possibilities created by globalization, but his success also reveals the violence and inequality embedded within the global capitalist system.

The film consequently complicates the traditional distinction between colonizer and colonized. Balram is not directly controlled by a foreign colonial power. Instead, he is caught within networks of caste, class, capitalism, family, political corruption, and global economic aspiration. His struggle demonstrates that contemporary domination can operate without formal colonialism.

Barad’s second article reminds us that fiction provides a particularly powerful method for understanding these processes because literature and cinema transform abstract global structures into human experiences. His first article, meanwhile, demonstrates that postcolonial studies must continue to rethink its theoretical frameworks in response to globalization, technological transformation, global conflict, and new forms of empire.

Ultimately, globalization has not made postcolonialism irrelevant. It has made postcolonial thinking more necessary. The question is no longer simply whether colonialism has ended. The more important question is: What forms of power have replaced it, who benefits from them, and who continues to live at the margins of the global system?

Balram’s story suggests that the answer is complicated. The postcolonial subject may now have access to the global marketplace, technology, education, and entrepreneurship, but access does not automatically mean equality. The globalized world offers freedom, yet freedom itself is unequally distributed.

Therefore, the future of postcolonial studies lies in examining precisely these contradictions. It must investigate not only the colonial past but also the economic, technological, cultural, and political structures of the present. As globalization continues to transform identities and societies, postcolonial criticism provides a crucial vocabulary for asking who has power, who is represented, who is excluded, and whose voice is heard.

In this sense, The White Tiger is more than a story of one man's rise. It is a critique of a globalized society in which the old colonial hierarchy has not completely disappeared but has been reorganized into new forms. The “white tiger” that emerges from the darkness may escape the old cage, but the larger question remains whether the global system itself can ever be transformed.

Works Cited

Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. Free Press, 2008.

Barad, Dilip. “Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations.” Journal of Higher Education and Research Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 2022. ResearchGate.

Barad, Dilip. “Globalization and the Future of Postcolonial Studies.” Journal of Higher Education and Research Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 2022, pp. 186–194. ResearchGate.

Bahrani, Ramin, director. The White Tiger. Netflix, 2021.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. Empire. Harvard UP, 2000.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Pantheon Books, 1978.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. Globalization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton, 2002.