Outsourcing, imperialism, and power : master-slave dialectic in Rimini Protokoll's call cutta in a box

الملخص EN

This paper investigates how offshore outsourcing, as represented in Rimini Protokoll’s site-specific play Call Cutta in a Box, is a metaphor of the Hegelian Master-slave dialectic.

Offshore outsourcing corporations, like Descon Limited, employ Indian call center operators and force them to have intense training to neutralize their thick Indian accents and mask their GPS location to defraud European customers at the other end of the line.

Language and Information Technology have been used by these global corporations to enslave Indian workers and to provide a service of high quality to European customers.

The paper seeks to find answers to the questions: How is offshore outsourcing an important phase in the trajectory of the imperialistic hegemony of the West over the East? How did colonialism impose the English language on Indians to turn them into mere servants to their purposes? How does the hierarchical power structure cause immense stress on Indian call center operators? How do the Indians payback by mastering Information Technology, thus gaining ‘recognition’ and ‘independence’ from the masters? What is the function behind using a call center in Kolkata as a site-specific theatre?.