Globalization and Slumdog Millionaire: A Taboo Misrepresented

Has the Western world really interfered with other countries? We seem to have poverty around parts of the world, yet there still is a McDonald’s around the corner of these many impoverished countries. How far has the so called “American Culture” reached its hand to other countries? Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy, is a story of a young boy, Jamal who endures great amounts of pain so that he can “win” a million dollars. In reality, he wants to “win” publicity and fame in order to be seen and found by Latika, the third musketeer and his true love who was left behind. Yet, is that the basis of the film? Is the “Hollywood romantic film” being displayed or is it much more than that? A film shot in Mumbay, a poor and indigent city in India, Slumdog Millionaire portrays the exploitation of children through labor and the misconduct found between individuals of the same nation. The film not only traces the life of a young boy who inexplicably suffers to find his mistress, but also explores the ways in which the Western culture has been so distant from other worlds that the idea of globalization has become a taboo and misrepresentation to a culture like that of the Indian one in Slumdog Millionaire.

As portrayed in the film, the Western world has been misrepresented in the Indian culture. At the beginning of the film, viewers are introduced to a Jamal, a very confident and strong character who will do almost anything to get to where he wants. However, he is brainwashed with the “Indian Hollywood” or as they would call it “Bollywood.” Jamal shows this by his passion for the famous Indian pop star Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh is displayed on the screen as a very important character because everyone who sees him reacts very positively. This is a direct connection with the Western pop world. In the United States, any one of Hollywood’s figures are seen as idols and almost worshipped. If anyone sees them, it is as if they saw a God and cannot believe their eyes. Jamal shares this same passion in the movie by a very important scene. When Jamal goes to the cubicle or “restroom,” his luck betrays him because at that moment, Amitabh shows up in town. All the children leave everything behind and run to see Amitabh in order to get his autograph. However, Jamal’s brother, Salim, being annoyed and jealous from his younger brother, locks him inside the cubicle. Jamal finds himself in the middle of the cubicle with sewage under his feet as the only place to escape from (the only space in the cubicle for him to get out from). Desperate to reach Amitabh and motivated to do ANYTHING to reach him, Jamal dives into the manure puddle with the picture of the pop star left intact. Covered with “muck,” Jamal runs toward Amitabh and asks for his autograph. Everyone turns and laughs at Jamal for extremely malodorous. Now, is it natural for a child at the age of eight to step in a puddle of muck ONLY to get an autograph from a Bollywood star? The same notions are seen in the United States. People stand in line for hours in the sunlight just to watch a rock band on stage. There was once in December when I was in Hollywood, and I saw people tented outside the amphitheater with blankets and umbrellas, sitting and sleeping on the sidewalk. I was confused at first because I seriously thought Jesus Christ was about to show up, and I did not get the newsletter! When I rechecked, there was a Coldplay concert that was going to show in the next 24 hours and people were tented outside in the cold for a whole day so that they could get the seats they wanted. The same case was evident in Slumdog Millionaire, but is this what people call globalization?




If many want to argue that globalization is the direct advancement of a western world and its culture, then I would like to disagree. The whole idea of westernization equating to globalization has been misrepresented as something that is not really factual. In his article, “Toward a Critique of Globalcentrism: Speculations of Capitalism’s Nature,” Fernando Coronil argues that globalization is the following:

…an intensified manifestation of an old process of transcontinental
trade, capitalist expansion, colonization, worldwide migrations, and
transcultural exchanges, and that its current neoliberal modality
polarizes, excludes, and differentiates even as it generates certain
configurations of translocal integration and cultural homogenization
(352).

Coronil also argues that the “mass media have been a major avenue for the celebratory discourses of globalization” (352). If the whole idea of globalization is basically because of the media, then is it worth it for a child to soak himself in a pile of poop because of the image Hollywood conveys to the world. However, the message is bigger than this- the Western world has the idea that they have to dominate the entire world and make them all “American.” This notion came about in the 1920s with the term "Manifest Destiny." What is the Western culture representing? If globalization is really a set of worldwide exchanges, homogenizations, and migrations, as Coronil argues in the latter citation, then why is there child abuse in other nation as in Mumbay, India?

Obviously, the Western idea of globalization has been a distortion in other impoverished countries like India. Child abuse and child labor are the first strings of this supposedly technologically advanced yet misdemeanant globalization. Simon Gikandi, author of “Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality,” says that “globalization lies precisely in its claim that culture, as a social and conceptual category, has escaped ‘‘the bounded nation-state society’’ and has thus become the common property of the world” (641). If globalization is a so called universal culture, then how can there be child labor in other parts of the world but there is close to none in the United States? I lived in Beirut, Lebanon for many years, and although, it is an improved and globalized country, there are still many parts of it that are very deprived. One time, I saw a Muslim mother sending off her theoretical “disabled” children into the streets to sell boxes of gum for triple the amount in any supermarket. Yet, these children were wise because they would walk on the freeway selling gum during traffic hour and talk about their unfortunate lives. While they sold gum, they would also beg for change. One could not help but give them money because at some point either they have nagged so much that any person wants them to be quiet, or their story was so moving that the victim really thought these children were ill. This same case is predominant in Slumdog Millionaire when the children (orphans) are literally picked up from the streets, manipulated by a certain clan, brainwashed that they are to be cared for, and finally enslaved by either having them sing blinded or holding babies to show that there are poor young mothers. The film might be an invention by the directors, but they are taken from real, true stories that occur in many of these countries all around the world.


Taking the latter examples into consideration, how can anyone conclude that globalization is the universal cultural experience? How can one decide that it is Westernization? Globalization has been defined as so many different elements, that it has become a taboo and misrepresentation to many countries and groups of people. There no longer is one set of rules for the term, rather a different outcome for each culture. That is what makes a country, its mother country—the set of its OWN traditions rather than a universal culture that is a “common property of the world.” Slumdog Millionaire tries to portray a country that is filled with actions and behaviors that we do not see nowadays in the United States. It is a film that opens us to a world of different worlds by exploring the events behind human behavior and showing how money can make one cheat, abuse, lie, steal, and even betray the ones closest to him.

Works Cited

Coronil, Fernando. "Toward a Critique of Globalcentrism: Speculations on Capitalism's Nature" Public Culture 12.2 (2000): 351- 374. Print.

Gikandi, Simon. "Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality" The South Atlantic Quarterly 100.3 (2001): 627- 658. Print.

Dir. Boyle, Danny. Slumdog Millionaire. Beaufoy, Simon. Prod. Christian Colson. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2008.

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