India on the Line: Globalized Labour in Postmillennial Indo- Anglian Literature
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India On the Line: Globalized labour in postmillennial Indo- Anglian literature by Stephanie Stonehewer Southmayd A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for a Doctoral degree Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Stephanie Stonehewer Southmayd, 2017 “Modi at the call centre” by Rory Lavelle © Stephanie Southmayd, 2017 ii India On the Line: Globalized labour in postmillennial Indo-Anglian literature Stephanie Stonehewer Southmayd Doctoral Degree in English Department of English University of Toronto 2017 Abstract In this dissertation I look at the eruption of new subjectivities in postmillennial Indo- Anglian literature in an era of globalization and neoliberalism, and, concurrently, the seeming disappearance of old myths and identities – at how, for example, the telephone of the call centre, in joining one person to another, is shown to create fissures in identity, family, and what is described as “traditional” Indian culture. I also examine the ways in which technology, particularly in the form of machines like the tape recorder, industrial factory equipment, and the Internet, is depicted as mapping the formation of cyborg subjectivities in an era of rapidly changing and ever-broadening and improving modes of communication. These technologies seem at once to bring us closer together and further apart, fostering a greater sense of global solidarity and “connectivity” in previously isolated communities, in John Tomlinson’s terms (1999, 30), but also setting out battle lines for revolutionary new Indian movements: between the international rich and poor, and more frequently the US and India. In the “pulp fiction” books addressed in this dissertation, written by such authors as Chetan Bhagat, Neelesh Misra, and Brinda S. Narayan, globalization is depicted as oppressing and poisoning Indians but also freeing them from the chains of Western capitalism and even providing routes for nationalist innovation, creativity, and solidarity. Meanwhile, the more “highbrow” cosmopolitan texts, written by iii Aravind Adiga, Bharati Mukherjee, Indra Sinha, and Altaf Tyrewala, tend to evince a greater suspicion of nationalism and the utopian promises of neoliberalism. Each dissertation chapter addresses a different type of depressed and alienated protagonist – from the call-centre worker to the entrepreneur, to the cyborg-sahiborg and the exorcist-hacker – whose various triumphs of upward mobility and community-building are often, ultimately, oddly unconvincing and unmoving. Indian neoliberalism leads to a sense of anomie among these characters; even when they find community or professional and economic success, it never seems to be entirely or effectively dispelled. The unhappiness of these globalized literary avatars serves as warning – in some cases, probably involuntary – of the dark side of the glamour and glitz of globalized labour in India. iv Acknowledgments This dissertation grew out of my experiences in Gurgaon, India, in 2009, and could not have existed without the support and friendship of my colleagues there: Nikhil, Melanie, Gaurav, Abhigyan, Pankaj, Catherine, Anshuman, and James. Thanks to all of you for the wit, wisdom, shared chaat, bummed cigarettes, and road trips. Thanks are also due to Jill Didur at Concordia University, whose kind and insightful advice, instruction, and encouragement helped turned my vague and half-formed ideas about call centres into a viable MA thesis and set me up to continue my studies as a doctoral student. I’m indebted to a number of people at the University of Toronto, where I completed my dissertation: my supervisor, Neil ten Kortenaar, for his kindness, guidance, and perceptiveness over the past few years; Victor Li, whose counsel always steered me in the right direction; and Carol Percy, whose instruction determined the course of my dissertation, and whose friendship gave me ballast as I wrote. I’m also grateful to Marguerite Perry for her advice. Chelvanayagam Kanaganayakam was my supervisor until 2014, and his warmth, expertise, and encyclopedic knowledge helped light my way. I’m deeply grateful to my parents David and Christine, and my step-parents Alan and Erin, for their humour and encouragement as I wrote this dissertation, and to my wonderful and funny siblings Sophie, Charlotte, and Tom. Judith and Tom also helped me see the comedy in the situation, and Anwesha Ghosh and Marissa Sinclair were the best comrades in postcolonial and South Asian studies one could hope for. Frankie was a delightful companion along the path to doctoral completion. Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my partner Robert Benvie and dedicate this dissertation to him and my two-month-old daughter Lila May Southmayd Benvie. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: The uneasy glamour of globalized labour ................................................................. 1 The call centre: Ground zero for globalized labour in India ................................................... 1 The lingua franca of globalized labour and technologies: English and hegemonic accents ... 5 Nationalism, English, and popular fiction in India ................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Globalization in India ............................................................................................................. 7 Nationalism and the nation-state in a globalized age ............................................................ 13 Chapter 1 Uprising in the call centre ............................................................................................ 26 Popular fiction and capitalism: an intimate relationship ....................................................... 26 One Night @ the Call Centre: The call centre as global economic battleground and Chetan Bhagat’s didactic English ......................................................................................................... 30 A call-centre worker by any other name ............................................................................... 33 Accent neutralization and the erosion of identity .................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Outsourcing and a betrayal of postcolonial India’s early socialist ideals ............................. 35 “Operation Yankee Fear” and the upside to call-centre workError! Bookmark not defined. One Night’s linguistic conflicts ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Once Upon a Timezone: The international division of labour as global love affair ................. 44 “The most precious acquisitions”: English in the call centre and accent neutralization Error! Bookmark not defined. Globalization and the happy ending ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Bangalore Calling: Tradition and modernity in the call centre ................................................ 51 Accents and national identity ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Linguistic value in the call centre ......................................................................................... 55 Success and ruin in the call centre ......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Conclusion: Whither the call-centre worker? ........................................................................... 58 Chapter 2 The entrepreneurial anti-hero: The nationalist entrepreneur and the violence of innovation in The White Tiger and Miss New India ..................................................................... 64 A new (anti-)hero for a new India ............................................................................................. 64 Entrepreneurship in India ...................................................................................................... 70 Mapping the place of the entrepreneur in India ..................... Error! Bookmark not defined. The White Tiger: Globalization, violence, and nationalism ...................................................... 80 Seeing double: Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India ............................................................... 93 Entrepreneurship and diaspora .............................................................................................. 95 vi Double consciousness and the globalized subject ................................................................ 99 The cosmopolitan Indian author as nationalist entrepreneur hero .......................................... 111 To be a modern hero – and anti-hero – in globalized India .................................................... 118 Chapter 3 Cyborg and sahiborg: Technology, community, and enmity in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and Altaf Tyrewala’s Engglishhh ................................................................................... 120 Making a home in technology ............................................................................................. 125 Animal’s People: Science and technology in India and the postcolonial activist-cyborg ...... 126 Technology and cultural hegemony ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. The cyborg politics of noise and sound .............................................................................