Sunday, 7 September 2025

Articles on Postcolonial Studies

This blog is written as a task assigned by the Dilip Barad Sir. Here is the link to the professor's research article for background reading: Click



Article - 1: GLOBALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES


Globalization and the Reshaping of Postcolonial Identities

Globalization, often celebrated as the hallmark of modern interconnectedness, has profoundly altered the landscape of postcolonial studies. The article Globalization and the Future of Postcolonial Studies (ResearchGate, 2023) argues that globalization both challenges and revitalizes the concerns of postcolonial thought. On the one hand, global capitalism promises mobility, connectivity, and economic growth; on the other, it reconfigures the hierarchies and dependencies that colonialism had earlier established. This duality forces us to rethink what it means to be “postcolonial” in a world where the legacies of empire are no longer geographically confined but are embedded in global markets, media, and cultural flows.

The central claim of the article is that globalization does not erase colonial histories; rather, it reshapes them. The economic and cultural dimensions of globalization reveal continuities with colonial structures of exploitation, even as they open up new hybrid spaces for identity. Thus, postcolonial identities in a globalized world are marked by ambivalence: they are at once liberated from the rigidities of colonial categories and yet bound by the inequalities of global capitalism.

Global Capitalism and the Economic Dimension of Postcolonialism

The economic side of globalization reproduces what Kwame Nkrumah called neocolonialism. Wealthy nations and multinational corporations, primarily based in the Global North, continue to extract resources, labor, and markets from the Global South. Formerly colonized nations often find themselves in a cycle of debt dependency, structural adjustment policies, and economic vulnerability. While globalization enables economic participation on a global scale, it often positions postcolonial societies as producers of cheap labor and raw materials rather than as equal partners.

This replicates colonial-era hierarchies: India’s role in the global IT sector, for instance, is framed less as empowerment and more as outsourced labor for Western corporations. Similarly, African nations are frequently reduced to resource economies feeding the demands of global capital, echoing the colonial scramble for resources. In this sense, globalization disguises economic exploitation under the rhetoric of free markets.

Cultural Dimensions: Hybridity, Commodification, and Identity

If economic globalization reflects continuities of colonial extraction, cultural globalization introduces new negotiations of identity. Homi Bhabha’s notion of hybridity is particularly relevant here: globalization generates spaces where identities are not fixed but continuously remade through cultural contact. Diasporic communities embody this hybridity, as they navigate between homeland traditions and host-country cultures.

Yet, this hybridity is complicated by commodification. Local traditions and cultural practices are often marketed for global consumption, stripped of their context and turned into “exotic” products. Yoga, Bollywood, reggae, and indigenous art forms circulate globally, but often in ways that benefit global industries rather than the communities of origin. Thus, globalization simultaneously enables cultural visibility and enacts a new kind of cultural appropriation.

Postcolonial identities, then, are constantly negotiating between authenticity and global marketability. For example, diasporic writers like Salman Rushdie or Jhumpa Lahiri articulate this tension in their narratives, portraying characters who oscillate between belonging and alienation in a globalized context.

Film as Illustration: The Namesake

Mira Nair’s The Namesake (2006), adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, offers a poignant cinematic exploration of these dynamics. The film follows the Ganguli family, immigrants from India to the United States, and the generational negotiations of identity that globalization intensifies.

Ashoke and Ashima, the parents, embody the displacement of first-generation migrants—rooted in Bengali traditions yet forced to adapt to a new cultural and economic environment. Their son, Gogol, embodies the hybrid identity of second-generation immigrants: caught between American individualism and Bengali communalism, his very name becomes a site of negotiation and conflict.

From a postcolonial perspective, The Namesake dramatizes the cultural consequences of globalization. Diasporic subjects become “in-between” figures, negotiating multiple cultural affiliations. The film underscores that globalization is not merely about economic opportunity but also about cultural dislocation and identity crisis. The commodification of ethnic difference is also visible—Gogol’s heritage becomes “exotic” in his relationships with non-Indian peers, reducing culture to surface markers rather than lived realities.

By situating Lahiri’s narrative within the framework of globalization, the film illustrates how postcolonial identities are never static; they are continuously reshaped by transnational flows, diasporic tensions, and the pressures of global capitalism.

Postcolonial Theory and Globalization

The intersection of globalization and postcolonial studies draws heavily on theoretical frameworks:

  • Edward Said’s Orientalism persists in global media, which often stereotypes the Global South as either a space of poverty (e.g., Slumdog Millionaire) or spiritual authenticity (e.g., Eat, Pray, Love).
  • Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” resonates with the silencing of indigenous voices in global cultural industries, where their narratives are appropriated for profit.
  • Frantz Fanon’s critique of colonial psychology remains relevant as individuals internalize global capitalist ideals, leading to alienation from local traditions.

These frameworks suggest that globalization does not end colonialism; it rearticulates it in new forms.

Reflection: Postcolonialism in a Globalized World

The article and the film together illuminate a crucial point: globalization is not a neutral or universally beneficial process. For postcolonial societies, it is both empowering and constraining, offering new opportunities while reinscribing old hierarchies. Cultural hybridity, diasporic negotiation, and economic dependency are the hallmarks of postcolonial identities today.

Films like The Namesake remind us that these identities are deeply personal as well as structural. They reveal the human cost of globalization: the struggle to belong, the commodification of culture, and the persistence of inequality. At the same time, they also affirm the resilience of postcolonial subjects who continue to forge new, hybrid ways of being in the world.

Ultimately, globalization forces postcolonial studies to expand its scope. It is no longer sufficient to analyze colonial history in isolation; we must see how global capitalism, cultural flows, and ecological crises continue the unfinished business of empire. In this sense, postcolonial critique remains vital for understanding not only the past but also the inequities of the present global order.

Article - 2: GLOBALIZATION AND FICTION: EXPLORING POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE AND LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS



Introduction

The article Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations examines how literature becomes a powerful site for interrogating the uneven realities of globalization. While globalization is often celebrated for enabling economic growth, technological innovation, and cultural interconnectedness, postcolonial scholars and writers reveal its darker dimensions: widening inequalities, cultural erasure, and the persistence of colonial power structures in new economic forms. Fiction, the article argues, not only reflects these tensions but also actively critiques them by narrating the lived experiences of marginalized communities navigating global capitalist systems.

This blog builds on that insight to explore how contemporary postcolonial authors use literature to engage with themes of resistance, hybridity, and identity crisis under globalization. It further connects these literary critiques to film, which, like fiction, offers visual narratives of how global forces shape postcolonial realities. By analyzing works such as Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, alongside cinematic texts like Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, this discussion highlights how cultural production challenges globalization’s triumphalist narratives.

Globalization as a Site of Struggle

Globalization is frequently framed as a force that dissolves boundaries, creating a “global village.” Yet, as the article emphasizes, for postcolonial societies, globalization often reproduces the asymmetries of colonialism. Transnational corporations exploit local economies, while Western cultural forms dominate global media landscapes, marginalizing indigenous expressions. This tension makes globalization a site of struggle where identities are reshaped, resisted, or commodified.

Literature exposes these contradictions vividly. Postcolonial fiction often portrays characters whose lives are caught between the promises of global mobility and the exclusions that global capitalism enforces. Economic migration, cultural assimilation, and technological interconnectedness are narrated not as universally liberating, but as deeply stratified experiences.

Resistance in Fiction

One of the key postcolonial themes in fiction is resistance to the homogenizing tendencies of globalization. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981), though written before the full emergence of neoliberal globalization, anticipates its effects by foregrounding the tension between national identity and transnational pressures. Rushdie uses magical realism to resist colonial historiography and assert the plurality of postcolonial voices.

Similarly, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997) critiques the way global economic forces disrupt local lives in Kerala. Roy shows how caste, class, and gender inequalities are exacerbated, not erased, by capitalist “progress.” Fiction here becomes a mode of counter-hegemonic storytelling, offering resistance to globalization’s smooth narratives of development.

Hybridity and the Global Subject

The article highlights how postcolonial fiction often deals with hybridity, a concept central to Homi Bhabha’s theory of cultural negotiation. In a globalized context, identities are rarely fixed; they are constantly in flux, formed in the contact zones between cultures.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) illustrates this vividly. The protagonist, Ifemelu, migrates from Nigeria to the United States, where she navigates the complexities of race, belonging, and cultural assimilation. Through her blog posts on race and identity, Ifemelu critiques both American racial hierarchies and the commodification of African identity in a global market. Hybridity here is not a seamless blending of cultures but a constant negotiation marked by tension and contradiction.

Similarly, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017) uses the metaphor of magical doors that transport refugees across borders to dramatize global migration. Hamid’s narrative highlights both the possibilities of connection and the alienation that comes with displacement, showing hybridity as a deeply ambivalent experience.

Identity Crisis and Alienation

Another recurring theme is the identity crisis provoked by globalization. Global capitalism not only creates economic precarity but also destabilizes cultural identities. Characters often struggle with feelings of alienation as they confront Western cultural dominance or the commodification of their heritage.

Mira Nair’s film The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), based on Hamid’s novel, dramatizes this identity crisis. The protagonist, Changez, initially embraces the opportunities offered by American capitalism but later becomes disillusioned after experiencing racial profiling and witnessing U.S. imperial interventions abroad. His personal transformation mirrors the broader postcolonial critique: globalization’s promises of mobility and prosperity are contingent and exclusionary, especially for those racialized as “other.”

This identity crisis is not limited to individuals; it reflects the existential condition of postcolonial societies struggling to assert sovereignty in a global system dominated by Western powers.

Fiction and Film as Parallel Critiques

While fiction uses narrative, metaphor, and interiority to critique globalization, film offers a visual and collective language for similar themes. Both mediums foreground the human cost of global capitalism and expose the persistence of colonial power relations.

Take Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008). While celebrated globally, the film has been criticized for commodifying poverty and selling a spectacle of “slum life” to Western audiences. This example highlights the ambivalent role of globalization: film can reproduce exploitative representations even as it brings visibility to marginalized lives. By contrast, Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist offers a more nuanced portrayal of postcolonial identity, showing how film can resist dominant global narratives rather than reinforce them.

The interplay of fiction and film demonstrates how postcolonial critique operates across media, revealing globalization as not merely an economic process but also a cultural battlefield.

Broader Implications

The critique of globalization through literature and film has profound implications for postcolonial thought today. First, it insists that globalization cannot be understood as a neutral or universally beneficial phenomenon it must be analyzed in terms of power, inequality, and resistance. Second, it shows how cultural production remains a vital arena for imagining alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. Fiction and film not only represent oppression but also open spaces for solidarity, hybridity, and new forms of belonging.

In a world where economic neoliberalism continues to dominate global politics, postcolonial critiques remind us of the unfinished business of decolonization. They challenge us to rethink globalization not as a final stage of progress but as a contested process that must be constantly resisted and reimagined.

Conclusion

The article Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations underscores how literature provides a unique lens to critique globalization’s uneven impacts. By engaging with works such as Adichie’s Americanah and Hamid’s Exit West, alongside films like The Reluctant Fundamentalist, we see how postcolonial authors and filmmakers narrate the lived realities of globalization resistance, hybridity, and identity crisis. These cultural productions reveal globalization not as a universal good but as a deeply stratified process that perpetuates inequalities and cultural domination.

Ultimately, postcolonial fiction and film remind us that globalization is not just about markets and technologies but about people, identities, and struggles. In amplifying marginalized voices and exposing the fractures beneath the glossy surface of global capitalism, they keep alive the critical spirit of postcolonial thought in today’s interconnected world.


Article - 3: POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: BRIDGING PERSPECTIVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE


Introduction

The article Postcolonial Studies in the Anthropocene: Bridging Perspectives for a Sustainable Future explores how postcolonial frameworks are essential in understanding the environmental crises of the Anthropocene. By invoking thinkers like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Dipesh Chakrabarty, the article argues that postcolonial studies must extend beyond culture and history into the domain of ecological justice, recognizing how global capitalism and colonial legacies have shaped planetary-scale destruction. In many formerly colonized regions, the environmental consequences 

such as deforestation, displacement, and resource extraction are enmeshed with histories of colonial exploitation. Environmental degradation is therefore not a neutral phenomenon, but one profoundly shaped by structural inequalities and internal colonialism (ResearchGate).

Postcolonialism Meets Environmental Crisis

Postcolonial theory traditionally focuses on cultural identity, representation, and power. In the Anthropocene, however, this focus must evolve to include how environmental degradation reflects ongoing colonial dynamics. The article highlights how, in formerly colonized nations, indigenous and marginalized communities often bear the brunt of climate change and ecological violence even when they have contributed least to its causes (ResearchGate).

This disparity is rooted in multiple factors:

  • Resource extraction and environmental degradation: Former colonies were often restructured economically as extractive zones mining, monoculture plantations, dam projects all of which continue to impoverish landscapes and local communities. In India, the Narmada River dam projects displaced indigenous communities and wreaked irreversible ecological damage, illustrating how internal colonialism persists in independent nations (ResearchGate).

  • Environmental racism and climate inequality: Marginalized and indigenous groups are disproportionately impacted by climate disasters floods, droughts, and sea-level rise due to historical socio-economic vulnerabilities and disenfranchisement.

  • Epistemic violence and suppression of indigenous knowledge: Indigenous ecological wisdom, which historically shaped sustainable worldviews, has been marginalized under neo colonial scientific paradigms. This suppression undermines climate adaptation strategies and perpetuates environmental injustice 

  • Climate coloniality: Scholars like Farhana Sultana describe how the Global North’s continued overconsumption and extraction burden the Global South with disproportionate environmental harm what is termed climate coloniality. This concept asserts that colonial logic extends into modern climate injustice, where once-colonized regions become sacrifices for ecological remediation and resource provision (Dr. Farhana Sultana).

Through these lenses, environmental crises cannot be separated from historical and postcolonial structures of power and dispossession.

Film as Reflection: Behemoth (2015)

To illustrate these dynamics through cinema, Dmitrii Kolesnikov’s film Behemoth (2015) offers a haunting visual allegory of environmental destruction in a formerly colonized region. Set in Inner Mongolia, the film portrays a desolate mining landscape scarred by industrial exploitation. Workers, coated in black dust, toiling endlessly, embody the human toll of extraction. The camera frames these scenes with references to traditional Tuvan throat singing, creating a jarring contrast between cultural heritage and environmental destruction (Wikipedia).

Behemoth captures multiple postcolonial environmental themes:

  • Ecological devastation as colonial continuity: Inner Mongolia's landscape is devastated by coal extraction an industry historically tethered to imperialist and modern exploitative economies.

  • Human suffering amid capital accumulation: The workers in the film are not faceless laborers, but bodies marked by contamination reflecting how economic gains often come at the expense of local communities’ health and environmental integrity.

  • Cultural erasure and resistance: The inclusion of throat singing points to the resilience of indigenous identity even amid destruction. Yet, this cultural expression becomes overshadowed by the machinery of capital, symbolizing marginalization of local epistemologies.

In alignment with postcolonial environmental theory, Behemoth imagines environment and human as disrupted in tandem echoing that ecological destruction is inseparable from social injustice.

Broader Implications: Toward Sustainable Futures

Linking the article’s argument with Behemoth reveals several critical takeaways for postcolonial environmental discourse:

  1. Environmental crises are inseparable from colonial histories: Ecological disasters in postcolonial regions are often expressions of long-standing extractive relations, intensified by neoliberal capitalism.

  2. Justice requires decolonization of knowledge and resources: Sustainable solutions must reintegrate indigenous ecological wisdom and ensure communities regain control over their lands. Decolonizing environmental policy involves returning agency, not merely enacting technical fixes (SAGE Journals).

  3. Film and cultural narratives are essential for environmental awareness: Cinema like Behemoth visualizes environmental violence and its social dimensions, giving voice to affected communities, and offering emotional insight in ways policy cannot.

  4. Postcolonial studies must expand to include climatological justice: As the article suggests, postcolonial critique must evolve to address planetary-scale threats, viewing environmental plight not as an isolated sphere but as intimately tied to ongoing colonial power relations (ResearchGate).

Conclusion

In the Anthropocene, leveraging a postcolonial lens is not optional it is essential. Environmental degradation in formerly colonized lands cannot be disentangled from imperial legacies, capitalism, and dispossession. Communities exploited for resources remain vulnerable to climate disasters, even as their ecological knowledge is deliberately sidelined.

Films like Behemoth render visible the human faces and cultural loss beneath environmental ruin, urging us to attend not just to data but to embodied experiences of injustice.

Moving forward, sustainable futures must be built on environmental justice that acknowledges colonial histories, restores indigenous agency, and refuses to perpetuate the logic of sacrifice zones. Postcolonial studies, by infiltrating the discourse of ecology, can help guide that transformative shift toward a truly equitable Anthropocene.

Article - 4 : Heroes or Hegemons? The Celluloid Empire of Rambo and Bond in America's Geopolitical Narrative 


Introduction

The article Heroes or Hegemons: The Celluloid Empire of Rambo and Bond in America’s Geopolitical Narrative critically examines how Hollywood franchises like Rambo and James Bond construct narratives that not only entertain but reinforce American and Western geopolitical supremacy. These films, the article suggests, operate as ideological apparatuses, positioning the U.S. (and its allies) as rightful global arbiters of order, civilization, and security even when set in formerly colonized or developing contexts.

This blog explores how Rambo and Bond films project American dominance and how postcolonial theory drawing on Said, Spivak, and Fanon can unpack these depictions. I will also bring in other films and a TV series, including American Sniper and Homeland, to demonstrate how Hollywood often perpetuates hegemonic ideals through militarism, Orientalism, and the white savior trope.

Hollywood’s Ideological Machinery: Rambo and Bond as Hegemonic Icons

Rambo films, especially First Blood Part II (1985), depict a lone American warrior invading foreign lands Vietnam, Afghanistan to rescue fellow Americans and, by extension, reassert U.S. moral and military authority. This “one-man army” trope functions as a symbolic reparation of post-Vietnam trauma, transforming Vietnam from unresolved national guilt into a stage for American redemption and heroism 

Meanwhile, James Bond films regularly cast Western or explicitly American institutions as protectors of global order. These films often sideline local agency, landing Western protagonists as saviors in exoticized locales. The “white savior” trope is particularly evident in Quantum of Solace, where the Bolivian people are portrayed as incapable of managing their political or environmental crises, reinforcing neocolonial paternalism (Scribd).

These narratives operate under a broader ideological logic: they dramatize the U.S. (or its allies) as benevolent, civilized, and morally superior. Drawing on Edward Said’s Orientalism, one can recognize how such films position non-Western lands as backward, chaotic, or corrupt requiring rescue from Western protagonists who embody enlightened order.

Postcolonial Critiques: Ideology, Subaltern Silence, and Identity

Postcolonial critique alerts us to the structures underlying these cinematic fantasies:

  • Subaltern voices vanish: Drawing on Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak?, we see how local characters in such narratives whether Bolivian townspeople in Bond or Afghan locals in Rambo are often reduced to background figures. Their voices and agency are largely absent (Wikipedia )

  • Media as a tool of cultural imperialism: Herbert Schiller’s concept of media imperialism reminds us how Hollywood disseminates American norms globally through film normalizing capitalist, militarist, and individualist ideologies under the guise of entertainment (Wikipedia).

  • Ideological myth-making in narratives: Beyond scripts, the mythic construction like Bond’s glamorized glam or Rambo’s exaggerated masculinism embeds ideological priorities into popular imagination. As Kellner notes, critique must encompass sexism, racism, and militarism together to fully counter Hollywood hegemony.

Expanding the Horizon: American Sniper and Homeland



Beyond Rambo and Bond, other cinematic and TV texts perpetuate similar hegemonic ideals:

  • American Sniper (2014) depicts U.S. military as righteous protectors. The protagonist embodies patriotism, loyalty, and personal sacrifice appealing to nationalist values while positioning America as a moral authority in global conflict zones . This aligns with Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony this cultural product reinforces dominant ideology under the guise of individual narrative.

  • Homeland (TV series) is awash with Orientalist tropes, where Middle Eastern characters are often depicted as unpredictable threats, reinforcing American intelligence and surveillance as necessary guardians. This echoes the post-9/11 media landscape described in the Pentagon's alignment with Hollywood in shaping public sentiment (Scribd).

A More Nuanced View: Audience Reflection Through Reddit

Interestingly, public reflection on these tropes also surfaces on forums like Reddit. For instance, discussions about Rambo unpack the complexity of his character:

"Rambo is a bitter, lonely veteran… the U.S. government… turns its back on Rambo… he fights for him… not America." 

Such comments reveal audience awareness of ideological layers recognizing that even within hegemonic narratives, there may be moments of critique or unintended subversion.

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Narrative

Rambo and Bond films and their ideological cousins are not harmless action spectacles. They contribute to the construction of American hegemony through myth-making, erasure of subaltern voices, and entertainment of militarism.

Yet, as postcolonial studies urge, these narratives must be critically unpacked. Understanding their ideological mechanisms encourages us to seek alternative stories that center local agency, resist Orientalism, and challenge militarist fantasies.

In today’s interconnected media landscape, resisting these hegemonic myths isn’t just academic it’s central to reimagining global cultural narratives that value voices, contexts, and resistances beyond the “American hero.”


Article - 5: Reimagining Resistance: The Appropriation of Tribal Heroes in Rajamouli's RRR


Introduction

The article Reimagining Resistance: The Appropriation of Tribal Heroes in Rajamouli’s RRR critiques how S.S. Rajamouli’s blockbuster reinterprets the legacies of tribal leaders Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. It argues that the film reframes these figures whose real-world struggles were centered on land, forest, and water rights as nationalist icons within a generalized anti-British narrative, thereby erasing the deeply material and environmental dimensions of their resistance (blog.dilipbarad.com).

This blog delves into how RRR appropriates and reimagines tribal resistance, examining both its contributions and limitations from a postcolonial perspective. It employs theoretical insights from postcolonial studies on representation, identity, and subalternity, and draws parallels to films like Avatar (2009) and The Battle of Algiers (1966) to illustrate how narratives about indigenous or subaltern heroes can either reinforce or challenge colonial structures.

Appropriation in RRR: Myth Over Material Struggle

Historically, Alluri Sitarama Raju led the Rampa Rebellion (1922–24) to resist the British suppression of Adivasi access to forests, while Komaram Bheem championed Gond resistance under the Nizam, famously rallying behind the slogan Jal, Jangal, Zameen (Water, Forest, Land) (blog.dilipbarad.com, Wikipedia).

In RRR, however, Rajamouli merges these two leaders into a fictional alliance fighting against British colonialists thus repackaging their specific struggles as part of a broader nationalistic saga (blog.dilipbarad.com, Wikipedia). While this cinematic reimagining creates dramatic appeal, it simultaneously abstracts their motivations, omitting the urgent context of ecological displacement and tribal dispossession.

The narrative’s romanticization glosses over the material plight land seizure, cultural erasure, resource denial that actually drove these revolts. As the article notes, by subordinating these locales and struggles under a homogenizing nationalist narrative, the film misses a timely opportunity to highlight contemporary issues affecting indigenous communities, such as displacement and environmental degradation (blog.dilipbarad.com).

Postcolonial Critique: Subaltern Erasure and Symbolic Domination

From a postcolonial standpoint, RRR raises troubling questions about who gets represented and how. Drawing on Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, one can argue that the film, while giving screen time to indigenous heroes, simultaneously silences their actual agency by reshaping their voices to fit mainstream nationalist discourse.

Further, representations in RRR reflect problematic tropes:

  • Noble Savage Myth: Critics have noted that Komaram Bheem is depicted as a "noble savage," ignorant of his own culture until “civilized” by Alluri Raju who is upper-caste and retains superior agency in the narrative. Such depictions echo colonial stereotypes and perpetuate caste hierarchies.

  • Appropriation of Symbols: The scene where Alluri writes Jal, Jangal, Zameen on a flag is especially symbolic. The slogan, historically attributed to Bheem, is presented as co-opted by the upper-caste hero, while the use of Devanagari script a tool of cultural assimilation overwrites the tribal legacy.

Rajamouli’s retelling may intend inclusivity, but it often obscures the very epistemologies and struggles it claims to celebrate, substituting real histories with theatrical heroism.

When Appropriation Becomes Resistance: The Dual Potential of Cinema

That said, RRR does foster a narrative of unity and resistance. By foregrounding tribal heroes in mainstream cinema, it offers visibility where there was once marginal silence.

The emotional power of RRR its stirring visuals, unforgettable song sequences, and collective triumph can inspire a popular imagination of resistance. Yet this cinematic resonance hinges on myth rather than material justice, raising the question: Can such a reimagining spark awareness of the real issues at stake?

Comparative Film Perspectives: Avatar and The Battle of Algiers

Two contrasting examples illuminate how indigenous or anti-colonial resistance can be portrayed more substantively:

  • Avatar (2009): James Cameron’s sci-fi epic reimagines the plight of Pandora’s Na’vi people against colonial exploitation. While criticized for its “white savior” arc, the film does incorporate environmental and cultural destruction as central themes, echoing indigenous concerns more directly than RRR does.

  • The Battle of Algiers (1966): A neorealist masterpiece, this film portrays the Algerian struggle for independence not mythologized, but grounded in political, social, and insurgent strategies. It refuses personal hero tropes, instead centering collective resistance and local agency qualities largely abstracted in RRR’s epic form.

Both films underscore that narratives of resistance become more powerful when they prioritize context, indigenous voices, and collective struggle over spectacle.

Conclusion: Toward Ethical and Grounded Representations

RRR occupies a complex position in the postcolonial landscape: it brings tribal heroes into global visibility, yet does so through a mythic nationalist lens that erases the very contexts that made their resistance meaningful.

Postcolonial critique challenges us to acknowledge not only the narrative power of such films but also their pitfalls where appropriation may obscure subaltern freedoms, simplify complex histories, and sideline environmental justice.

For popular cinema to contribute authentically to postcolonial struggles, it must move beyond symbolic resistance to foreground the material conditions and epistemologies of indigenous communities. Balancing cinematic drama with historical nuance and cultural specificity can help reclaim these narratives not just as mythic symbols, but as living legacies that continue to inspire resistance today.


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