effect of globalization on cultural identity

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1 Effect of Globalization on Cultural Identity of Third World as reflected in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke ABSTRACT This paper intends to explore the effects of globalization on cultural identities of Third World people. For the exploration of such effects the medium of literature particularly novels are chosen as literature is reflection of the society and it can be the best account of the reactions of common masses towards the process of globalization. The novels chosen are from the regions of India and Pakistan. The research is a qualitative research in which content analysis is used to analyze The Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke. The points to focus in this paper are how the globalization is affecting the cultural identities of Indians and Pakistanis and the comparison of the treatment of the theme of the effect of globalization by both the writers. The effect of global culture can be best traced in both the novels and both of the writers’ stances are different as in Desai’s novel there is depiction of inclinations towards global culture but, also, there is resistance towards dominant culture. But Hamid’s novel only presents the acceptance of global culture without any resistance to it.

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Page 1: Effect of Globalization on Cultural Identity

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Effect of Globalization on Cultural Identity of Third World as reflected in

Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke

ABSTRACT

This paper intends to explore the effects of globalization on cultural identities of Third World

people. For the exploration of such effects the medium of literature particularly novels are

chosen as literature is reflection of the society and it can be the best account of the reactions

of common masses towards the process of globalization. The novels chosen are from the

regions of India and Pakistan. The research is a qualitative research in which content analysis

is used to analyze The Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke. The points to focus in this paper

are how the globalization is affecting the cultural identities of Indians and Pakistanis and the

comparison of the treatment of the theme of the effect of globalization by both the writers.

The effect of global culture can be best traced in both the novels and both of the writers’

stances are different as in Desai’s novel there is depiction of inclinations towards global

culture but, also, there is resistance towards dominant culture. But Hamid’s novel only

presents the acceptance of global culture without any resistance to it.

KEYWORDS: globalization and identity, cultural globalization, The Inheritance of Loss,

Moth Smoke, cultural homogenization, cultural heterogenization.

1. Introduction

This paper intends to explore the effects of globalization on the cultural identities of the

people of Third World through the medium of literature especially novels. The paper intends

to compare the novels of two Third World countries: India and Pakistan and try to seek the

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degree of impact on Indian and Pakistani culture and identities of people due to the influene

of globalization.

1.1 Globalization

The term “globalization” first appeared in 1960 and is described as “a process, a

condition, a system, a force and an age” (Steger, 2007). Such description shows the varying

levels, multiple meanings and a number of features in globalization process. There have been

a number of definitions of globalization.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in 2002 reports

that,

“Globalization is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When

used in economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national

borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour. Globalization is

not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during

the peroid from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth

century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inward-looking policies pursued by a number

of countries in order to protect their respective industries […] however, the pace of

globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century…”

This definition provides the beginning of the globalization and its development over peroid of

time.

Sheila L. Croucher (2004) argues that “Globalization can be described as a process by

which the people of the world are unified into single society and function together. The

process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces.” This

definition presents the homogeneous model of globalization in which there is no diversity or

differences in nations due to the spreading wave of global village.

Ashcroft et al (2004) defined globalization as “it is process whereby individual lives and

local communities are affected by economic and cultural forces that operate world-wide.” It

describes globalization as an agent of change playing crucial role in affecting the local

communities.

Jan Aart Scholte (2005) presented five definitions of globalization. The first one is

“internationalization” which refers to the international exchange and interdependence

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between countries. The second definition associates globalization to “liberalization” in which

the impositions of government institutions are rejected and an open, borderless world

economy is created. The third definition identifies the concept of globalization with

“universalization”. According to this concept in the process of globalization the objects,

values and experiences are spread to all corners of earth. A fourth definition equates

globalization to “westernization or modernization”, where the global culture that is the

dominant culture prevails, destroying the pre-existing cultures. The fifth one identifies it with

“deterritorialization” which entails the remapping of the world map in terms of

transformation of the social spaces.

1.2 Cultural Globalization

There are different types of globalization: economic globalization, political globalization

and cultural globalization. Cultural globalization deals with the concept of transformation of

cultures under the influence of globalization. In the pre-modern peroid cultural globalization

was associated with globalizing religions- Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. In the modern

peroid, cultural globalization is predominantly associated with secular ideologies such as

socialism, nationalism and liberalism and with “the diffusion of values and practices

associated with modern science.” Held et al. (1999) argues that “Cultural globalization seems

most urgently centred around the impact of the growing volume of exchanges of cultural

products, the rising power and visibility of the ‘cultural industries’ the apparent ubiquity of

Western popular culture and the consequences for identity that flow from these other forces.”

In the modern era cultural questions are central in the process of globalization as Tomlinson

(1999) argues that “Globalization lies at the heart of modern culture; cultural practices lie at

the heart of globalization” (1). The globalization is the main force of transforming culture

and so affects the identities. Globalization is termed as neo-colonialism by many scholars but

some other scholars termed it as beneficial force for the enrichment of the culture. The wave

of globalization has influenced the whole world to make it into a global village and so the

Third World does not escape from the clutches of global wave.

1.3 Cultural Identity

According to Edward Said culture has two meanings: the first is that it “means all those

practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation that have relative

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autonomy from the economic, social, and political realms and that often exist in aesthetic

forms, one of whose principal aims is pleasure. (x. ii)” The second meaning of culture is that

it “includes a refining and elevating element, each society’s reservoir of the best that has been

known and thought in the world. In this sense culture becomes a source of identity. (x.iii)”

Thus there is strong connection of cultural products and identity as people usually identify

themselves with their culture. The culture consists of everyday practices, foods, festivals,

dressing, education and cultural values etc. Therefore, this paper aims to seek the impacts of

globalization on the identities of Third World particularly India and Pakistan through cultural

form of novel.

The literature is the reflection of the society and a writer is, usually, product of his age.

Thus the impacts of globalization on cultural transformations and the ever-changing state of

identities can be best traced in the literature of that region. In this paper the effects of

globalization on cultural identities of the Third World especially India and Pakistan is traced

through the novels of Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Mohsin Hamid’s Moth

Smoke respectively.

Kiran Desai is an Indian writer who permanently resides in USA. Her second novel The

Inheritance of Loss was first published in 2006 and had won awards like Man Booker Prize

2006, National Books Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007 and Vodafone Crossword Book

Award in 2006. Her novel deals with the issues of effects of colonization and contemporary

effects of globalization on the Indian culture, states the transformation of cultural conditions

and how those conditions are being treated by the Indians.

Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani writer who divides his time between Pakistan and abroad.

His critically acclaimed novel Moth Smoke was first published in 2000 and won the Betty

Trask Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Anita Desai, in the New

York Review of Books, noted that

"One could not really continue to write, or read about, the slow seasonal changes, the rural

backwaters, gossipy courtyards, and traditional families in a world taken over by gun-

running, drug-trafficking, large-scale industrialism, commercial entrepreneurship, tourism,

new money, nightclubs, boutiques... Where was the Huxley, the Orwell, the Scott Fitzgerald,

or even the Tom Wolfe, Jay McInerney, or Brett Easton Ellis to record this new world?

Mohsin Hamid's novel Moth Smoke, set in Lahore, is one of the first pictures we have of that

world."

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The above quotation shows that Moth Smoke deals with the effect of globalizations on the

traditional families of Pakistan, the changing patterns of social life of Pakistanis.

1.4 Research Questions:

Following questions are to be addressed in this paper.

i. How the globalization is affecting the cultural identities of Indians and Pakistanis?

ii. Is there any difference in the treatment of the globalization’s effect by both of the

writers?

2. Literature Review

Globalization is the most debated topic in the contemporary world. Its effects on the

politics, culture and economy is much evident but less work is done in the exploration of

effects of globalization on cultural identity of Third World nations through novels. As

literature is the main source of depiction of the ideas of common masses because a writer is

sensitive to all the realities that a normal eye cannot see.

Arnett (2002) discusses different forms of identity constructed due to influence of

globalization: bicultural identity, identity confusion and self-selected cultures. The bicultural

identity “combines the local identity with an identity linked to the global culture” (Arnett,

774). Identity confusion is developed among people who do not feel comfortable either in

their home culture or in global culture and so developing confused identities for themselves.

The third type of identity is constructed by people who wanted to have a pure identity having

traditional values and discarding global culture altogether.

Edgell (2003) focuses on the modern culture in Third World countries. The modern

culture is amalgam of the multicultural values, thus maintaining the postmodernist notion of

culture which is not stable or fixed. He has taken material from multiple articles of Lawrence

E. Harrison’s and Samuel P. Huntington’s Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human

Progress. He concluded that acceptance of global culture in the modern world would result in

the compatibility of Third World with the First World.

Spielman (2009) explicates the essay about The Inheritance of Loss’s themes of

multiculturalism and changing culture under the influence of globalization. Spielman focuses

on the “solid knowledge” and “contradictions” in Desai’s novel. The contradictions refer to

cultural differences and solid knowledge means the facts which people tend to think to be

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true. He draws his findings that neither assimilation nor preservation of cultural distinction

would be helpful in this modern era in which world becomes a global village. But the

intermediate of flexibility and adaptability of modern culture should be adopted. The

characters in the novel who “cling to the ‘solid knowledge’ come to bad ends while those

more comfortable with cultural contradictions tend to fare better” (Spielman, 74).

Naz, Khan, Hussain and Daraz (2011) focussed on the traditional concept of identity as

static which is destabilized due to the effects of globalization. According to these researchers

globalization is solely responsible for weakening the local culture and values. The research

was conducted in Malakand Division and they deduced the result that simplicity and

solidarity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s culture is replaced by Western notions of complexity

and individualism as propagated by cultural homogenization.

Liu’s article “Exploring the Impacts of Cultural Globalization on Cultural

Awareness/Values and English Writing” (2012) explores the impacts of globalization on

Chinese cultural values. He traced the globalization’s impact from two aspects: first the

cultural transformation and secondly the production of strong cultural values among Chinese

youth. Liu, also, discussed the three models of cultural globalization. The first model is

cultural homogenization- which deals with the idea of dominance of one culture. The second

model is cultural heterogenization which presents the notion of preservation of local cultures

against the spreading wave of global culture. The third model is cultural glocalization which

is the most intermediate way in which cultural transmission is a two-way process, thus

emphasizing the equality of cultural participations rather than dominance of one culture. He

concluded that globalization is affecting Chinese culture negatively by transforming the

traditional values for example the social solidarity or collectivism is replaced by

individualism.

Gil explores the connection between the identity and globalization. Her perspective was

related to culture therefore she focuses on the role of art especially literature. She explored

the two aspects of globalization’s impact in her essay: first is loss of identity and the other is

returning to the home culture, therefore strengthening national consciousness. Gil focussed

on the analysis of Jose Saramago’s novels which is the best example of the depiction of the

Portugal’s identity under question. Gil’s finding is that people of Portugal should take more

interest in strengthening their local cultural values, thus promoting the traditional view of

identity.

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The above mentioned works explore the relationship of globalization and culture and how

the globalization is affecting the cultural values and norms of different regions of the world.

This research paper deals with the same kind of exploration of the impacts of globalization on

cultural identities. The gap which will be filled by this paper in analyzing the effect of

globalization on cultural identities is through the medium of literature of the Third World

especially novels, the literature is reflection of the society and through this medium the

opinions of common masses about the influences of globalization can better analyzed. As in

Culture and Imperialism Said defined culture as “those practices, like the arts of description,

communication, and representation that have relative autonomy from the economic, social,

and political realms and that often exist in aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aims is

pleasure” (xii). This paper is dealing with the analysis of role globalization in changing

cultural patterns of Third World (especially the regions of Pakistan and India). Pakistan and

India has, also, a history of colonization which has already affected the various spheres of

lives of people in this region. In the modern day world, globalization is influencing the

cultural patterns and traditional ways of people of this region. And literature is of these

regions is, also, influenced by the wave of global culture. Therefore to analyze the impacts of

globalization on cultural identities of Third World, the novels taken are Kiran Desai’s The

Inheritance of Loss and Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke.

3. METHODOLOGY

This research is a qualitative research in which content analysis is used to analyze The

Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke. There will be focus on the depiction of characters and

dialogues to analyze the influence of globalization on cultural transformations in India and

Pakistan. The data is collected through the close reading of the primary sources: The

Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke. The secondary data is, also, used for example articles,

books and thesis which provides the main theoretical framework for this research. The three

steps in the analysis of the data are classification of data, interpretation of data and finally

making conclusions.

4. ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION

The close reading of the novels The Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke reveals the

transformation of the cultural patterns, lifestyles, habits and perception of the world due to

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the effect of globalization. The analysis of the novels is done on the basis of Liu’s three

models of cultural globalization: cultural homogenization, cultural heterogenization and

cultural glocalization. The globalization affects the elements of culture such as education,

food, values, language and lifestyles. The affected cultural values and norms in turn affect the

identity of people a region. As Edward Said puts forward the idea of culture which cannot be

regarded as monolithic or deterministic thus turning identity as unstable and ever-changing

phenomena. The three models of cultural globalization that are cultural homogenization,

cultural heterogenization and cultural glocalization produce identity confusion, self-selected

cultures and bicultural identities respectively.

4.1 Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

Kiran Desai’s critically acclaimed novel The Inheritance of Loss deals with the effects

of globalization on the local communities thereby transforming the identities of the Indians.

There is a deep connection of culture and identity and so global wave affecting the culture

also affect the identity. Liu’s models of cultural homogenization and cultural

heterogenization are applicable to this novel.

4.1.1 Cultural Homogenization

The model of cultural homogenization presents the idea of dominance of the Western

culture thus producing confused identities where a person can identify himself neither with

the dominant culture nor with the local culture. There characters in the novel like Sai, Lola,

Noni, and Jemubhai Patel whose identities are being assimilated in the dominant Western

culture. They have been completely absorbed in the Western culture thus not only forgetting

but despising the local culture. There are several instances from the novel where the strands

of cultural homogenization can easily be traced. The characters from elite class follows

English ways and traditions, fond of reading English writers only, feel superior in speaking

English, take pride in acquiring English education, celebrating English festivals like

Christmas and so having confused identities with which they can neither call themselves

Indians nor English.

As one of the character Sai made tea on the demand of thieves who came to Cho Oyu

she had no idea of making tea in Indian way as quoted “although she had no idea how to

properly make tea this way, the Indian way, she only knew the English way.” Thus, showing

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that Sai only knew English way of making tea as she has accepted the ways of the dominant

culture.

The education plays an important role in Third World countries to teach people the

dominance and superiority of Western ways and culture. Thus, Sai being educated at St.

Augustine’s convent realized that “cake was better than laddos, fork spoon knife better than

hands, sipping the blood of Christ and consuming a wafer of his body was more civilized

than garlanding a phallic symbol with marigolds. English was better than Hindi.”(Chap: 6,

pg.33) English education shapes certain thinking patterns of the people and they feel

themselves as higher, superior beings while blindly following the English customs ways and

language as when there came a time to send Sai to school, her grandfather Jemubhai Patel

decided to send her to Noni who was well versed in English and gave the reason of his so

doing that “Can’t send you to a government school, I suppose… you’d come out speaking

with the wrong accent and picking your nose…”(chap:7,pg.38) Another instance of shaping

perception of local Indians by English education is that it not only places forward the

superiority of English customs but, also, suppresses the voices that can resist such

dominance. As in the text it is stated that the teacher of Sai, Noni, went to a convent school

and her views about English education in the following words, “you could only remain

snared by going underground, remaining quiet when asked questions, expressing no opinion,

hoping to be invisible-for they got you, ruined you.”(Chap: 12, pg.77)

Another example of the global culture is that Indian elites, in this novel, are more

inclined towards reading English writers like Austen, Fitzgerald etc. They liked to hear

Beatles-English Rock Band and do not account for the local Indian folk music, Indian

literature in regional languages etc.

The global effect in economic terms is much evident in the novel as due to the

dominance of Englishness and whosoever has English ways is a privileged person and has all

the rights to enjoy the facilities and privileges. As the cook in Cho Oyu sent his son Biju to

USA to earn money with the certainty that as long as he would be cooking English food he

would be getting more pay than if he will be cooking Indian food. As quoted the cook “was

sure that since his son was cooking English food, he had a higher position than if he were

cooking Indian.” (Chap 4, pg. 19) It was not the case only with poor strata of Indian society

but the elite class, also, runs after the economic strength gained at the hands of English

System. As Lola advised her daughter Pixie-BBC reporter- that “India is a sinking ship.

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Don’t want to be pushy, darling, sweetie, thinking of your happiness only, but the door won’t

stay open forever.”(Chap 9, pg. 53)

English language is the main source in the creation of barriers between elite and lower

classes as in the novel Sai represents elite class following English ways and language and the

cook is from lower class as quoted “the closeness between Sai and cook is exposed in the end

as fake, their friendship composed of shallow things conducted in a broken language, for she

was an English-speaker and he was a Hindi-speaker. The brokenness made it easier never to

go deep.”(Chap: 4, pg. 21)

Therefore several of the characters like Sai, Jemubhai Patel, Lola, Noni and Father

Booty are more inclined towards the dominant Western culture. These characters are

assimilated in the Western culture as they follow the Western ways: celebration of Christmas,

speaking English language, listening to Beatles band etc.

4.1.2 Cultural Heterogenization

The second model of cultural heterogenization can be traced in the novel by the

analysis of the characters of Gyan and members of GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation

Foundation). They resist against the spreading wave of global culture and try to establish the

supremacy of local culture and by resisting the global culture they established the self-

selected cultures. Gyan a Nepali who was living in Darjeeling was against the people who

follow the Western culture blindly. When Sai and Gyan argued about the celebration of

Christmas, he became extremely furious and his dialogues reflected the extreme hatred

towards the people who had assimilated themselves in global culture as he said infuriated,

“Why do you celebrate Christmas? You’re Hindus and you don’t celebrate Id or Guru

Nanak’s birthday or even Durga Puja or Dussehra or Tibetan New year.” He called them

“slaves” who were always “running after West’” and west does not give them any

importance. He condemned the process of globalization and criticised the celebration of

Christmas in strong words.

Gyan’s extreme hatred towards such people is evident in his thoughts about Sai. She

is the girl whom he loves most but her rejection of Indian culture made her despicable in the

eyes of Gyan. As quoted, “Gyan thought about Sai who could not speak any language but

English and pidgin Hindi. She who could not eat with her hands; could not squat down on the

ground on her haunches to wait for a bus; who had never been to a temple but for

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architectural interest; never chewed a paan and had not tried most sweets in the mithaishop,

for they made her retch; she who left a Bollywood film so exhausted from emotional wear

and tear that walked home like a sick person and lay in pieces on the sofa. She felt happier

with so-called English vegetables, snap peas, French beans, spring onions, and feared- feared

loki, tinda, kathal, kaddu, patrel and the local saag in the market.” Gyan’s thoughts about

clears his hatred and anger towards Sai because she has always preferred English things over

Indian ways.

The wave of ‘return to culture’ and hatred for foreign cultures resulted in the Father

Booty’s expulsion from India. He has been living in India for 55 years but all of a sudden he

was thrown out because foreigners are regarded as national threats.

The staunch sticking to ancestral traditions is highlighted when Odessa co-worker of

Biju at American restaurant once said that “Isn’t it ironic, nobody eats beef in India and just

look at it- the Indian businessmen order steaks heartily.” But another dishwasher rejected

this idea in the following words, “One should not give up one’s religion, the principles of

one’s parents and their parents before them.” (Chap 22, pg. 151)

Mr. Iype who has been living in America commented on the resistance movement of

Nepalis that, “They should kick the bastards back to Nepal, Bangladeshis to Bangladesh,

Afghans to Afghanistan, all Muslims to Pakistan, Tibetans, Bhutanese, why are they sitting in

our country.” Thus, completely rejecting the idea of global village but the irony is that he,

himself, is living in America and is negating the foreigners in his country India.

The cultural heterogenization model describes the notion of preservation of local

culture by completely rejecting the idea of global culture. There is resistance towards global

culture on the part of Gyan who despised the followers of Western traditions and saw them

with contemptible eyes.

4.1.3 Globalization affecting Cultural Values

The process of globalization affects the cultural values of caring and sharing with

others and also the ways of communication are changed to modern and fastest ways of

communication means. One of the characters Saeed, resident of Zanzibar, depicts the change

in the values of caring for others and the element of sacrificing for others in the following

words, “in Zanzibar what one person have he have to share with everyone, that is good, that

is the right way- But then everyone have nothing, man, that is why I leave Zanzibar.”(Chap

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17, pg 107) another example of change of values is the spreading wave of modern consumer

products. In the novel it is depicted through the discussion of businessmen at Gandhi Café in

USA about the chances of business in Asia, “it’s opening up, new frontier, millions of

potential consumers, big buying power in the middle classes, China, India, potential for

cigarettes, diapers, Kentucky Fried, life insurance, water management, cell phones-big family

people, always on the phone, all those men calling their mothers, all their mothers calling all

their many, many children.” So the use of cell phones, a modern means of fastest

communication has replaced the tradition of letter writing. The new technologies replacing

older ones are the demand of modern times where no one has the time to wait for the letters

to reach them and through which they could know about their loved ones.

Noni and Lola’s house contain “Tibetan choksee tables painted in jade and flame colors

piled with books, including volume of paintings by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian aristocrat

who painted Himalayas with such grave presence it made you shiver just to imagine all that

grainy distilled cold, the lone traveller atop a yak, going-where? The immense vistas

indicated an abstract destination. Also, Salim Ali’s guide to birds and all of Jane Austen.

There was Wedgwood in the dining room cabinet and a jam jar on the sideboard, saved for its

prettiness. By appointment to her Majesty the queen jam and marmalade manufacturers.”

(Chap 9, pg 50) The household things in Lola and Noni’s house are not from only one region

but from different parts of the world.

The analysis of Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss depicts that globalization is the main

factor in the transformation of the cultural aspects of India. There are several characters in the

novel like Sai, Lola, Noni who has accepted the Western dominant culture and are completely

assimilated in that culture. But there are, also, streaks of resistance of global culture and

establishment of local culture through the character of Gyan.

4.2 Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke

Hamid’s novel Moth Smoke exposes the globalization’s effects on the transformation of

social and traditional structures of Pakistani society. The novel set in Lahore tells the tale of

growing economic globalization and its effects on cultural patterns of society. In the analysis

of this novel the symbolic form of culture is taken which is a set of values, beliefs and way of

life. The spreading wave of economic globalization has severely affected the Eastern values

of care, concern, sincerity, respect and honesty. It has changed the lifestyles and the

traditional constructions of the houses. In the analysis of the novel, the model of cultural

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homogenization is best applicable as the characters have accepted the global influence and

there is no strand of resistance to the global culture. The economic globalization is main force

in the transformation of the culture depicted in the novel. The elite culture that is shown in

the novel is similar to the American culture thus the fourth definition of Scholte in which

globalization is equated with “westernization” can be best applied in this novel.

The economic globalization brought about modern technologies and products in

Pakistan. The introduction of heavy metal bands and their increasing popularity can be traced

in Pakistani culture as evident when Daru, the protagonist of the novel recalls his memorable

days with his best friend Ozi as quoted,

“I remember speeding around the city with Ozi in his ’82 Corolla, feet sweating sockless in

battered boat shoes, following cute girls up and down the Boulevard, memorizing their

number plates and avoiding cops because neither of us had a license. Hair chopped in senior

school crew cuts. Eyes pot-red behind his wayfarers and my aviators. Stickers of universities

I would never attend on the back windshield. Poondi, in the days of cheap petrol and skipping

class and heavy-metal cassettes recorded with too much bass and even more treble. We had

some good times, Ozi and I, before he left.” (25)

The descriptions of parties in the novel are attended mostly by the “elite class of

Lahore” in which there is usage of Sushi from Japan, wine and hash etc. Thus, giving the

scene of an American party where the members of elite class consume drugs, giving an

impression of belonging to an upper class.

Another instance of cultural transformation due to the introduction of modern

machinery is of the usage of the Air Conditioners. The growing use of ACs has changed the

tradition of people sleeping on their roofs in open air.

The consumption of wine is shown as a status symbol so Daru in order to look a part

of elite class, he started consuming “MacDowell’s wine” in comparison to Ozi’s drink of

“Black Labels” which is the very expensive. This instance shows the change in everyday

practice of young men of Lahore.

The speaking of English language is, also, thought to be prestigious. Therefore, all the

characters in the novel speak English, even a rickshaw driver, Murad, “speaks what he thinks

is well-bred English in an effort to deny the lower class origins that colour the accent of his

Urdu and Punjabi.”

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Thus, the novel “Moth Smoke” shows a kind of cultural globalization that is cultural

homogenisation in which Western culture is dominant. The characters in the novel follow the

Western ways and traditions in order to be seen as people of high stature. The practices of

young generation changed due to the effects of globalization process.

4.3 Comparison of The Inheritance of Loss and Moth Smoke

Both the writers deal with the theme of globalization affecting their cultures and

resulting in the transformation of cultural practices. In the Indian novel, The Inheritance of

Loss deals with the effects of cultural globalization on Indian culture and thereby changing

the identities. The model of cultural homogenisation is applied on the novel in which the

characters like Sai, Jemubhai Patel, Lola and Noni followed the Western norms and preferred

English language over local Indian languages. Another model which is applicable to the

novel is cultural heterogenization in which the people return to their own culture and show

strong resistance towards the dominant Western culture. Whereas the Pakistani novel Moth

Smoke deals with the theme of globalization through the economic globalization that changes

the cultural patterns of Pakistani people. But there is no resistance shown against Western

culture, all the characters are being dominated by Westernization and they have accepted the

Western domination without any resistance. Thus the similarity between the novels is that

both deals with the idea of cultural transformation but through different means. Desai deals

directly with cultural globalization whereas Hamid’s novel deals with the economic

globalization which is affecting culture and identity. The difference between the treatments of

both the writers is that Desai shows the assimilation of the characters in Western culture but

also there are characters that resist this dominant culture and preferred their local culture.

Whereas Hamid’s novel only deals with the acceptance of hegemonic Westernization and no

resistance is depicted in the novel.

5. Conclusion

Therefore it can be concluded that neither of the Gil’s and Naz’s results of discarding the

global culture is correct. As in The Inheritance of Loss the approaches of the characters

towards assimilation or towards rejection of global culture is not fruitful and can produce

serious and dangerous effects. The characters of Sai, Jemubhai Patel, Lola and Noni were

assimilated in the Western in turn despising local Indian culture and traditions. They tend to

celebrate Christmas, read English authors and prefer to speak English language. On the other

hand, the people who are resisting strongly against domination of Western culture their

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15

stance, also, produce dangerous results. For example, the expulsion of Father Booty, Swiss

national, from India in the name of foreign national, being a threat to national security and

solidarity. The Pakistani novel Moth Smoke depicts a picture of transformation of culture due

to the economic globalization and all the characters, in the novel, accepted the Western

culture as Darashikoh Shezad, Aurangzeb Ozi and Murad Badshah follow the Western global

culture. Thus producing the confused identities with which they can neither identify

themselves with Western or Pakistani culture.

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