Category: The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga uses animal imagery in The White Tiger to illustrate flaws in the social and political conditions of India. The title itself, and later Balram’s taxi company, is the first example we see of animal imagery. He further compares the social system of India to a jungle, zoo, and rooster coop, as well as various other references to animals throughout the novel. Through the use of animal imagery, Adiga is able to show the flaws of the social and political systems in India.

In The White Tiger, Adiga first uses animal imagery in his descriptions of the four landlords who oppressed his village, named The Stork, The Buffalo, The Raven, and The Wild Boar. He also references other characters with animal names, such as The Mongoose and country mouse. By comparing various characters to animals, Adiga begins to draw the connection between how animals live, and the way people in India live. He again makes this connection when describing the day that the British left India, saying “And then, thanks to all those politicians in Delhi, on the fifteenth of August, 1947 the day the British left- the cages had been let open; and the animals had attacked and ripped each other apart and jungle law replaced zoo law. Those that were the most ferocious, the hungriest, had eaten everyone else up, and grown big bellies”.

By saying that the cages had been opened, it seems like the people of India were animals, that had been imprisoned by the British. He describes the ensuing chaos as if the people were animals, ripping each other apart, in order to gain power. The animal imagery further portrays this chaos as ‘jungle law’ compared to the ‘zoo law’ which had previously been in place. While the British controlled India, the people were like animals in a zoo, but were like animals in a jungle now that the British left. This idea is developed further to describe the lower classes in India, or those in the Darkness, showing that they are like animals in a zoo, dependent on those of the upper class for their survival and acting as if they are stuck in cages.

Animal imagery is again used by Aravind Adiga to describe Balram, his fainting in the zoo, and India as a jungle. When a government official visits Balram’s school in his youth, he proclaimed that Balram was a ‘White Tiger’, saying “You, young man, are an intelligent, honest, vivacious fellow in this crowd of thugs and idiots. In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals- the creature that comes along only once in a generation? ‘The White Tiger’ That’s what you are, in this jungle”. The man describes Balram as a white tiger in a jungle, again referring to Indian society as a jungle, and to its people as animals. It is also ironic that this government official appears to support the advancement and individuality of Balram, yet the government would prefer that his class remain in the Darkness and not actually advance in society or leave his caste. Balram later visits the National Zoo in New Delhi with Dharam, where they see many animals including a tiger. He describes the tiger, saying “The creature that gets born only once every generation in the jungle…He was hypnotizing himself by walking like this- that was the only way he could tolerate this cage. Then the thing behind the bamboo bars stopped moving. It turned its face to my face. The tiger’s eyes met my eyes, like my master’s eyes have met mine so often in the mirror of the car”. Adiga first reiterates that a white tiger only comes along once every generation in the jungle that is India. He implies that Indian people of the lower castes must hypnotize themselves into believing that their conditions are acceptable, as the tiger must do in his cage to deal with his situation. Adiga also compares the look that Balram shares with the tiger to the look Balram has shared with Mr. Ashok, as if Balram is the caged tiger in his master’s eyes.

Adiga uses animal imagery to further represent the living conditions of people in India, how Balram starts his own business, and what he calls society, the ‘Rooster Coop’. Balram moves to Bangalore with Dharam, and describes the living conditions of the people there, saying “Let me explain, Your Excellency. See, men and women in Bangalore live like the animals in a forest do. Sleep in the day and then work all night, until two, three, four, five o’clock, depending, because their masters are on the other side of the world, in America” (Adiga 255). Once again, Adiga uses animal imagery to portray the working people of Bangalore. They work all night and sleep all day like animals in a forest, simply because their masters are on different schedules than them, as they are in the United States. As is a common idea in the novel, the lives of the lower class workers are determined by when it is convenient for their masters. Due to this, they are condemned to live as animals, working at all hours of the night. Balram also questions why his father, and other fathers in India continue to raise their children into the horrible caste system, asking “Why had my father never taught me to brush my teeth in milky foam? Why had he raised me to live like an animal? Why do all the poor live amid such filth, such ugliness?”.

By saying he was raised like an animal, he is using this imagery to describe the poverty which he and others grew up in, captivated in this endless system like caged animals. Their very captivity in their respective caste is given name by Balram, calling it the ‘Rooster Coop’. This is the idea that members of Indian society never seek to leave their caste, and accept that this is the social class they will belong to their entire life. In this Rooster Coop, Balram is trapped in his caste, kept in check by others in the Darkness if he ever tries to elevate in society. He explains the Rooster Coop by saying, “On the wooden desk above this coop sits a grinning you butcher, showing off the flesh and organs of a recently chopped-up chicken. The roosters in the coop smell the blood from above. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they’re next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop.

The very same thing is done with human beings in this country”. Adiga intentionally uses this animal imagery to portray the people of Indian society as caged animals who are not even looking for freedom. They know that they are controlled by the upper class, and know that they are treated like animals, yet do nothing about it. By capturing their conditions with animal imagery, Adiga is able to emphasize the impoverished conditions which they live in and accept as their permanent positions. He reiterates this idea, exclaiming to Mr. Jiabao, “A handful of men in this country have trained the remaining 99.9 percent to exist in perpetual servitude”. Those in power in India managed to make the rest of the population believe they were stuck in their social positions, and there was no use trying to escape it. Finally, Adiga uses animal imagery in naming Balram’s taxi business, naming it White Tiger Drivers. This represents Balram’s transformation from the Darkness, into the Light, setting himself apart from the rest of the animals, just like a White Tiger does. Balram describes the way he runs his business, saying “Once I was a driver to a master, but now I am a master of drivers. I don’t treat them like servants…I leave the choice up to them. When the work is done I kick them out of the office: no chitchat, no cups of coffee. A White Tiger keeps no friends. It’s too dangerous”. Adiga here uses animal imagery to portray Balram’s successful transformation from an animal in the Rooster Coop, to a successful White Tiger.

In The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga uses animal imagery to portray the social and political flaws of India through the voice of Balram. Through his comparisons to zoos, forests, jungles, and rooster coops, Adiga is able to illustrate the conditions that Indian people live in every day. Balram begins his journey as an animal in the Rooster Coop, but manages to become a successful entrepreneur free of influence from the rich and powerful.

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger explores the contrasting threads of corruption and morality in Indian society, exposing the depravity and exploitation that pervade the modern state. Juxtaposing the incommensurate worlds of “Light” and “Darkness”, Adiga demonstrates that in a society of only “two castes”, decency and prosperity are unable to coexist. The oppression of the land where the “black river” flows is shown to provide few opportunities for a life of morality, whilst the larger web of societal corruption is depicted as being integral to the achievements of the “men with big bellies”. Adiga ultimately demonstrates that once success has been found, morality becomes a choice, rather than a luxury.

Describing a rural populous in anything but “paradise”, Adiga suggests that the bleak lives of those in India’s Darkness demand a sacrifice of integrity in order to ensure survival. As narrator Balram Halwai describes the “defunct” resources and support systems of his home in Laxmangarh, Adiga illustrates the hopelessness of a people with “nothing left…to feed on”. Just as Balram struggles to extricate himself from the “millipede” of his sleeping cousins, liberation from the Darkness is deemed impossible. Adiga utilises the symbolism of the Ganga, a renowned river of “rich, dark, sticky mud” that stunts the growth of surrounding vegetation just as the lives of those in the Darkness are prevented from flourishing. When Balram offers the harsh reality that his parents “had no time to name [him]”, the reader is presented with a truly grim image of the lives of a people devoid of success or even comfort. Adiga asserts that in an environment of such oppression, survival is the only productive motivation. In describing the actions of his school teacher, who had “stolen [their] lunch money” as a “man in a dung heap” who shouldn’t be expected to “smell sweet”, Adiga’s desire to excuse a lack of principles in an exploited people is made clear. Contrastingly, the steadfast morals of Vikram Halwai, “a man of honour and courage”, may have ensured him a “sweet” reputation, but ultimately meant that he was left to live as a “donkey, without respect, dignity or prosperity. Adiga depicts the “Darkness” as being devoid of the “light” of hope or opportunity, with success rare and morality a luxury that few can afford.

In The White Tiger, the societal corruption that pervades India’s rapid economic growth is seen to be integral to the success that is shared by those in the “Light”. The malfeasance that perpetuates corruption in all facets of “new India” is demonstrated by Adiga to drive the economic growth of the modern state, bringing advantage to all those with big bellies and maintaining the entrenched disadvantage of the lower castes. As the true depravity at the root of India’s “parliamentary democracy” is exposed through the farcical voting system in Laxmangarh, Adiga highlights the lack of morality in the way that officials can manipulate society to manufacture individual success. The dark humour and irony with which Balram jokes that he is “India’s most faithful voter” makes clear to the reader that such corruption is commonplace in a nation where one must be “straight and crooked” to ascend the ranks of status and success. The calamitous effects of such an immoral approach to achievement are depicted in the reprehensible conditions of the rural hospital, where Vikram dies from entirely curable tuberculosis. Adiga’s jarring language in describing how Balram “mopped [his] fathers infected blood off the floor”, a luxury only available after he “bribed the ward boy 10 rupees” conveys the disgraceful nature of a society lacking in integrity. As Balram finds employment with the “Stork”, once a marauding landlord of Laxmangarh, the reader is given further insight into the ways which those of the “Light” obtain their wealth. As the Stork and Ashok bribe politicians in order to protect their dishonest coal business, they are depicted as completely lacking in principles. The destructive power of manipulating India’s political and legal spheres is reinforced by the ease with which the Stork can cast aside decency to shift blame onto Balram for Pinky Madam’s hit and run. Adiga therefore suggests that a life of power and luxury serves only to reduce the influence of an individual’s innate sense of morality, resulting in a class lusting after success, whatever the consequences.

Whilst Adiga expresses the depravity that lies behind India’s booming economy, he demonstrates that for some of those born into privilege, morality can be a choice. When the primal need for survival that dominates the lives of those in the Darkness is absent, some in the Light have the luxury of tempering their judgement with principle and morality. Adiga emphasises this in the character of Ashok, Balram’s master, whom he dubs “The Lamb”. Just as this pseudonym contrasts with the more predatory labels of the “raven” and “wild boar”, Ashok’s morals set him apart from other characters in the “Light”. He shows an interest in the wellbeing of his servants, expressing his sadness at the decrepit nature of Balram’s living conditions. These signs of integrity are mirrored in the behaviour of his wife, Pinky Madam, who resents the corruption and inequality that pervades Indian society. As Balram demonstrates his surprise that “the lady in the short skirt is the one with the conscience”, Adiga conveys to the reader the way that prosperity affords people the luxury of a conscience. The shift in Balram’s attitude towards integrity and its worth is also visible as he ascends from “Darkness” to “Light”, subverting the narrative of servant and master. As he struggles with poverty and life in the shadows of the “men with big bellies”, he readily casts aside his principles at any chance to improve his position, culminating in the violent murder of Ashok. However, Adiga endorses the notion that success provides opportunities for morality as his narrator states that in the Light, “if a man wants to be good, he can be good”, unlike in the abject poverty of Laxmangarh. The reader observes Balram’s naivety in attempting to convince himself that his newfound ability to act on his principles excuses the crookedness of his past, as Adiga juxtaposes the ease with he pays off the police after one of his employees accidentally kills a man with his apparently earnest attempt to help the family of the victim. The White Tiger therefore demonstrates that morality is able to take root in the psyche of some of those in the “Light” only due to the security created by the success they are party to.

The place of morals in a largely corrupt Indian society is explored in Adiga’s social commentary, as he suggests to the reader that without success, morality is not always a productive motivation. Just as Adiga emphasises the disparity in prosperity between the “Light” and “Darkness” of new India, he makes clear the difference inn opportunities to “smell sweet” that exist for those in abject poverty and those with plenty to “feed on”. Ultimately, Adiga illustrates that in an India of two castes, the coexistence of success and morality is a rarity.

Balram Halwai is a protagonist in Aravind Adiga’s epistolary novel The White Tiger, in the sense that he is the primary driver of events in the story, and due to the fact that he faces great challenge and adversity, and overcomes the difficulties in his path. However, it is that nature in which he conquers his challenges that Balram diverges from the typical role of a protagonist; in that he climbs society through immorality and selfishness, by using others as rungs; this is in stark contrast to a typical protagonist of courage and honesty. Therefore, it is due to Balram’s “conquering” of India’s societal restrictions that allows the reader to experience admiration, yet it is due to the nature of his ascent that readers can, and do, experience disgust.

Protagonists are generally honourable, selfless characters who are the main focuses in stories, and generally are the primary forces of progression in the narrative. Balram, from birth, has seemingly insurmountable social restrictions (confining him to be a sweet-maker for his life) placed upon him in the form of caste; a pre-determined and pre-defined role within society based upon one’s birth. Although, unlike the hundreds of millions of other Indians in his position, Balram finds himself determined to escape the “darkness” of India, and to “live like a man”. However, he is far from possessing the common character traits of regular protagonists. Balram’s role as a protagonist is atypical in the fact that he is an unprincipled, unethical character who finds completing jobs “with near total dishonesty, lack of dedication, and insincerity” to be “profoundly enriching experiences”. This is not to say that Balram, as a character, is necessarily evil. He was forced by necessity to either conform to social expectations, or to “break out of the coop”; to be “a freak, a pervert of nature… a White Tiger.”

Readers are able to admire Balram not due to his actions, but due to his extraordinary efforts to rid himself of the shackles of the “zoo” that is India’s oppressive, primitive social structure. Balram’s story is, iniquitously, a story of success, and it is this success, as well as the fantastic lengths to which Balram goes to achieve it that elicits within readers feelings of a somewhat morbid respect. The extent of Balram’s success is emphasised throughout the entirety of the story. His description of his village of Laxmangah as “Electricity poles – defunct. Water tap – broken. Children – too lean and short”- contrasts with his numerous descriptions of his current house, with Balram even bragging about having “the only toilet in Bangalore with a chandelier!” This contrast is a visible representation of how far Balram has ascended within India society; an exaggerated depiction of an inherent drive within all people; not to simply endure, but to advance –in this case, within society-, and it this depiction which readers can feel a primal sense of envy and desire, and subsequently, admiration. Furthermore, Balram’s willingness to “see his family destroyed – hunted, beaten, and burned alive by the masters”, in order to be “a free man”, whilst sickening, demonstrates a tremendous determination which cannot help but elicit admiration – and abhorrence- within the reader. Readers are likely to experience feelings of admiration towards Balram due to both his readiness to do whatever it takes succeed, as well as due to the nature of his success.

The character of Balram is also likely to conjure feelings of disgust and contempt within readers. His lack of morals are exhibited throughout the novel, and continuously escalate. His willingness to lie to The Nepali guard of the Stork’s mansion, stating that he had “four years’ experience” as a driver, whilst certainly not a heinous act, is a simple demonstration of his indifference to behaving unscrupulously in order to achieve his goals. This indifference is further consolidated in his confession that he “hadn’t sent any money home for the past two months”. His unethicalness reaches a precipice -after dozens of examples throughout the novel- when he “rammed the bottle down…. The crown of [Ashok’s] skull”, killing his master and stealing seven-thousand rupees. This gradual escalation of Balram’s dishonourableness occurs alongside his steady corruption that comes with his social climb, and is most evident in the depiction of Balram becoming Ashok, both literally, re-naming himself as “Ashok Sharma,” upon his flight from authorities, and in nature, giving a rupee to a “homeless man and woman” and their “baby boy”, but “check[ing] to make sure it wasn’t a two-rupee coin”, directly after having stolen seven-thousand. This scene is eerily reminiscent of Mukesh’s (The Mongoose) tirade about Balram supposedly stealing a “single rupee” after having “paid half a million rupees in a bribe”. This scene in particular represents, sickeningly, either how far Balram has had to fall to achieve his success, or, how immoral he had been all along.

The White Tiger tells the tale of protagonist Balram Halwai, a man who escapes the almost insurmountable social constraints of India and achieves what most would consider success. The remarkable drive which Balram has, as well as the exceptional feats he goes to, to attain success will likely elicit feelings of admiration within the reader, yet, at the same time, will also evoke conflicting sensations of disgust and contempt.

This novel is an attempt to capture Indianness in a most profound manner, covering substantial as well as the basic flaws that drive the Indian Social and cultural system. It, through the frivolous and trivial attitude of the protagonist, Balram Halwai who is later revealed as The White Tiger, tries to bring home the disparities and differences that drives the very so called equally opportunity provided Indian socio-political system, that in itself turns out to be a miserable contradiction when we go through the course of the novel.

The book appears appealing and significant to those who take interest in knowing and understanding the makeup of a helpless criminal who commits one mistake to recover the previous one. Adiga has used very colloquial and general English expressions to better transmit the Indian tempo that captures the imagination as well as the attention of the readers who are in pursuit of something Indian in English writings. Adiga was born in Madras in 1974 and was educated at Columbia University and later pursued his interest Magdalen College, Oxford. After completing his formal education Adiga started to try his hand in journalism and his articles begin to appear in The New Yorker, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and The Times of India. The White Tiger is his first attempt in the field of fiction writing which brought him into limelight as this novel was awarded with Man Booker Prize in 2008. The book is written in the form of letters, where Balram Halwai writes letter to the Chinese Premier Mr.Wen Jiabao discussing the mantras of becoming a successful entrepreneur in India by defying all obstacles.

In fiction we refer these as Epistolary Novel, where writer through different successive letters reveal the course of the novel. The book can be seen as a sociopolitical commentary on the problems that inhabits in almost every part of India. Balram is the protagonist of the novel who remains anonymous up to an age when his school teacher gives him the very name of Balram based on his qualities. Further during the school inspection he was given the title of “White Tiger” because of his extraordinary performance among the ordinary.

Thus, the title of the novel suggests the unique ability of Balram of being intelligent and sharp among other unintelligent and lethargic students, which makes him as rare as a White Tiger. It seems that Adiga has written this book to highlight the issues that Indian society is driven with. Issues such as of Caste system, dowry, corruption, anonymity, economic disparity, class conflict, irrational thinking, traditional dogmas, bribery and the eagerness to become rich by treacherous means. The novel has been narrated by Balram over eight nights, thus the book is divided into eight parts named after different night. His addressee Mr.Wen Jiabao is a Chinese premier who is expected to arrive in India in future. In the first chapter of the book i.e. the First Night, Balram is writing a letter to Wen Jiabao who is currently staying in Beijing. Here Balram appears as a character who is more inclined towards globaliztion and he is trying to bridge his lackings by expanding his business. He starts explaining his success entrepreneurial run, his journey from rag to rich and amid all these he also compares the system, function and form of government that exists in China and India respectively. Balram is a self taught entrepreneur without having a formal education. He time and again points toward the chandelier to exert a fact now he has become rich despite of such tidy and unprivileged darkness of seamier India he somehow manages to escalate his being into a more professional and advanced with time.

Adiga deliberately divides the Indian people into two types, one having ‘big bellies’ and the other with ‘small’. Balram is a village boy living in an obscure place somehere in Gaya, which he refers as a place filled with ‘darkness’, he then explains the meaning of darkness which stood as a place where all is available but nothing, people from these darker gloomy spaces have no knowledge of the time, technology, politics or anything that is related to modernity. Rather all of them are succumbed, suppressed and kept alien to the modern advancement of science and technology. Balram at the very outset confesses to the murder of his master Mr.Ashok and he explains how the money that he theft of him brought a significant change in his life consequently turned him into an entrepreneur of Banglore from a mere rag of darkness. In his early life when he had the opportunity to get school education, he proved himself an intelligent among the rags with ability of giving apt answers to questions that remained unanswered by in the class. After the demise of his father due to TB, he was forced to drop school education and was subjected to aid in his brother’s tea shop labor. Adiga outlines the very ‘eavesdropping’ quality of Indian people, although balram was made alien from the formal education but he kept on learning by hearing over conversation of others. While his stay in Laxmangarh, Balram disassociated himself from others, based on the choice of life. He was not someone who would continue to live the laborious life and tolerate the exploitation from the the leaders whom he calls ‘The Great Socialists’ and the landlords. In the second chapter of the book Adiga vividly portrays the problems of dowry where he, through series of sentences mocked the system ironically: “It was one of the good marriages. We had the boy, and screwed the girl’s family hard. I remember exactly what we got in dowry from the girl’s side, and thinking about it even now makes my mouth fill up with water: five thousand rupees cash, all crisp newly unsoiled notes fresh from the bank, plus a hero bicycle, plus a thick gold necklace for Kishan.”

Balram goes on to narrate his story in a dramatic manner, he creates situations to transmit his story into words and tries keep his addressee intact with him. Adiga used very common Indian expression in Balram’s speech. Like when comments on the good economy of Dhanbad, Adiga uses the expression “Money in the air” which very common to Indians. Adiga tends to not miss the minute of chances to scorn and criticize the Indian social setup, which he calls trough Balram’s voice: “In old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies and Men with Small Bellies And only two destinies: Eat or get Eaten up.” (p.64) Balram shares his experience of sleeping by the side of roads, which is a common in thing in the cities spaces. A journey started from Laxmangarh moves to Dhanbad and then to Delhi and finally in Bangalore. Balram from the very inside was not someone whose thirst of better livelihood would get filled by mere slave jobs, rather he strives forward to become more secure and safe in terms of quality and standard of life. Therefore, throughout the novel we see him eavesdropping others to get new ideas, to learn to unlearn the ill, to develop creative thinking and most importantly the tricks to bribe that he learned from his master Ashok while staying in Delhi. The novel is written into eight nights, after third night due to sudden disruption of delay in time caused a break, it was 2:44 am in the morning when asked his leave and next he continued on from where he left overnight.

Adiga brings in the element of political discussion where from Balram’s voice he gives different interpretation of democracy and often he compares Indian democracy and its pros and cons in respect to China. Balram tells his counterpart about that corruption that remains one of the sought after feature of Indian politics. He introduces the character of The Great social with some special traits that made him distinctive and eligible enough to get the mandate: “You see, a total of ninety three criminal cases – four murder, rape, grand larceny, gun smuggling, pimping, and many other such minor offences – are pending against the Great socialist and his ministers”.

Despite these flaws and criminal charges, The Great Socialist emerges as the single victorious candidate among the rags from past few decades. Adiga adds many such nourishing elements that aids in making of a criminal which we will later see in case of Balram. Adiga, therefore in process of making a real portrayal of Indian political and governing system, makes many comparisons between the mentioned comparisons. In one of the instance he makes fun of the priorities of Indian politicians: “I gather you yellow-skinned men, despite your triumphs in sewage, drinking water, and Olympic gold medals, still don’t have democracy. Some politician on the radio was saying that that’s we Indians are going to beat you : we may not have sewage, drinking water and Olympic gold medals, but we do have democracy”.

The very portrayal of society that seems to be very real, makes the novel to be classified as a social realism. During the elections voters are not allowed to vote, or even if allowed then not to vote out of will but by pressure, ‘I am India’s most faithful voter, and I have not seen the inside of a voting booth’(p.102). In the fourth part of the novel, continues the same pattern of starting the conversation discussing the chandelier and further making a talk of entrepreneurial success. When Balram was hired by one of the Stork of laxmangarh, he played many tricks before to get the job. Balram as an individual is sketched as an honest, dedicated and laborious person but with passage of time his ambition, goals and motives became contaminated as he a part of that “Rooster Coop” which hardly gives an opportunity to become rich. In the mid of the novel, the another driver of Mr.Ashok’s who was named as Ram Persad revealed to be a muslim by faith, and this revelation caused him his job. Adiga gives an insight on the communal hatred that one holds of another in respect of identity. When Balram was selected as the driver of Honda city and was subjected to along with Ashok and Pinky Madam to Delhi, he prepares himself for the job although he was nervous. Another co-driver who shared the drivers room in Delhi with calls him ‘country mouse’ and tries to malign his thought process and very often leads him to illegitimate sex and illegal things. We see, Adiga using this letter form in a unique way, whenever he breaks the ongoing conversation; he ends it with a note of curiousity and on a dramatic note just like the Indian TV serials. Although this technique may seem altogether a new one for the readers outside subcontinent but familiar within. Balram goes on to call back the past events and finally we are exposed to circumstances under which he was made out to be a criminal. He himself confesses to the Chinese Premier about his crime: “The rest of today’s narrative will deal mainly with the sorrowful tale of how I was corrupted from a sweet, innocent village fool into a citified fellow full of debauchery, depravity and wickedness”.

In the final chapter of the novel Balram shares his story of transformation from an another rag of a dark village to a well bred entrepreneur who runs Taxi services for the Call centre employee during late night. Adiga had tried to touch upon almost every possible situation that may come in the process of class movement; Balram’s life becomes an epitome of it. Adiga shows how Balram, negotiating all odd and despite of being from a humble background somehow manages to escalate his status, although the journey from a simple villager to a successful entrepreneur was not done overnight but rather by a continuous and consistence ambition of changing social status. Adiga touches upon the issue of forced marriage, Extra marital affairs, relationship with prostitutes for the sake of sex and the concept of material love that happened to be found between Mr.Ashok and Pinky Madam. Using various situations to deliberately put opinion into readers perception is been the highlight of the book that stands unique in itself. The novel is full of Indianness, from the choice of language to the way of expression, it appears Indian in colour. The plot of the novel is not static rather a dynamic, moving from laxmagarh to Dhanbad to Delhi and finally ends in Bangalore. It’s interesting to notice that the mentioned places represent different hierarchy of Economic development, Laxmangarh on one hand is place full of job scarcity and the final one Bangalore is in abundance in job creation.

Thus, by using various places within India, Adiga has tried to bring home the idea of Social and economical inequality that mainly dominates the narrative of darker India, where there is no possibility of moving out of caste oppression. This process of social laddering becomes so difficult that one is compelled to commit murder and in avenge lost his family too, only then becomes a successful entrepreneur. The language of the novel is very colloquial and often the Indian expressions are engulfed in them, readers outside Indian subcontinent may find it unusual piece of work where syntax is been experimented upon on regular basis. Adiga has used the Indian way of story telling the narrator creates situation to deliver his speech in an appropriate and effective way although this excitement building process may get noticed after few chapters of the book and may result in disconnection. The novel is more than a simple portrayal of Balram’s life, but goes on to serve many other aspects which remains relevant in contemporary times. Sometimes the political comments on bribery and corruption reflects its nature of being a political commentary. There are instances in the book where reader may get disassociated from the course of novel as Adiga doesn’t delineate the pat from present, apart from this flaw, the inner depth description of Indian Politics and Economy may sound biased to those who are from well bred governed area. The novel appears as a reflection of subjective understanding of social process which may vary from person to person, but in general it may catch reader’s attention. Despite few odds and various merits I you recommend this book worth a reading to get an insight of a village-man’s life and transformation, sometimes fighting and more often copping up with the system. Therefore, Balram is a not a person who committed murder abruptly rather he was made to do it as a justification to his social status.

In The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga initially presents a protagonist in Balram, who is engaging, despite confessing to horrific crimes. His language, thoughts, and deeds convey his initially good nature. However, by the end of the novel, immorality and corruption overtake Balram. This isn’t due to him being corrupt and evil at heart, but caused by India itself. The India Adiga presents is sharply divided into two, The Darkness, and The Light. The Light is where the upper castes reside, filled with malfeasance and nepotism; a hotbed for corruption, whereas The Darkness is where the lower castes dwell, filled with poverty and an archaic sense of duty to family. Balram, being bogged in The Darkness, was forced to alter his morality to escape the “rooster coop”, and enter The Light.

Born with the name “Munna”, and by the end of the novel known as “Ashok Sharma”, Balram goes through a steady transformation from a kind-hearted boy to the animal that “comes only once in a generation”, The White Tiger. He begins as a mere child and a peasant in The Darkness, completely unimportant and unloved, and expected to be completely submissive to the will of his family. Forced to drop a lifetime opportunity without even getting a say in it, he gets a job in a teashop, working with no pride for little pay. After being hired as a driver, he recognizes that his family want to “scoop (him) out from the inside and leave (him) weak and helpless” by using him for monetary gain. Learning this, he rebels, refusing to get married and refusing to dedicate his life to their ends. This signifies a major transition for him, the beginning of his corruption. He blackmails the number one driver into leaving, causing Balram to become the new number one driver, also marking his first malicious act. While he feels some guilt upon doing this, he becomes happier, realising that his happiness is proportionate to his ruthlessness. The more ruthless he becomes, the stronger his sense of himself as a person becomes, a person that was raised like an animal, made to provide dumbly until he died unceremoniously. Balram needs ruthlessness. Balram values individuality and freedom more than he does morality. To him freedom is a cause worth dying for, and thus it must be a cause worth killing for. Balram is not an evil person, for what he does is necessary in becoming a true person in India at all.

Transforming into “The White Tiger”, Balram murders Ashok, finally freeing him from the shackles of the Darkness. Throughout the book, their relationship changes as Balram develops. In the beginning, Balram looks up to Ashok, seeing him as a good man, so he doesn’t cheat him. However, when Ashok forces Balram to take the blame for the traffic accident, it shatters that illusion. This devastates him, feeling betrayed and used. When Pinky Madam leaves Ashok, Ashok becomes corrupt. He starts sleeping around and partying, partaking in every sin from gluttony to lust. He sleeps with a Russian actress whilst Balram sits in the car “hoping he’d come running out… screaming “Balram, I was on the verge of making a mistake!””. Balram becomes disillusioned with Ashok because of this, losing all respect for him. Ironically, this makes him imitate him, following his corruption by stealing petrol, using the car for himself, using it as a taxi, and by going to corrupt mechanics. Finally, the idea of stealing the red bag emerges. The idea of taking 700,000 rupees and be free. The red of the bag symbolizes the blood-stained wealth he will obtain. He sees what he may gain by killing Ashok, freedom. Knowing he would lose his family didn’t affect his decision, as to them he was just a resource. The instant Balram murders Ashok with the whisky bottle, he starts referring to Ashok as an “it”. Using this symbol of wealth as a murder weapon is his final step into The Light. Before, he was a servant, treated like an animal and acting like a piece of furniture. The setting of India forced him to do everything he did to change. For the environment forced him into becoming “The White Tiger”.

The polarized realities of India are geographically represented. The Light is found in large cities close to the ocean, such as Bangalore which “is the future” with “one in three new office blocks… being built (there)”. The Light radiates from the fast-paced social energy and massive wealth of new industries, such as Balram’s own business which boasts “sixteen drivers… with twenty-six vehicles”. In this rich milieu, entrepreneurial activity, corruption, and social mobility thrive. By illustrating this, Adiga shows that while the nefarious few who sit in offices inside skyscrapers enjoy the Light of the sun, the Darkness cast by the shadows of these edifices engulf the poor. The Darkness is found in inland river villages, particularly along the traditionally sacred northern river system, the Ganga. The Darkness is symbolized as a “Rooster Coop” by Adiga, using zoomorphism to lend animalistic characteristics to people. Roosters in a coop watch one another slaughtered one by one, but are unable or unwilling to rebel and break out of the coop. Similarly, India’s poor people see one another crushed by the wealthy and powerful, defeated by the staggering inequality of Indian society, but are unable to escape the same fate. Liberation from this unforgiving environment forces Balram to adapt, inducing him to murder, cheat, steal, as well as abandon his family. He even had to take on a new identity, but in his own eyes had an “amazing success story”. As he writes “a few hundred thousand rupees of someone else’s money, and a lot of hard work, can make magic happen in this country.” Such is the relentless India that Adiga illustrates, conveying the irony in the Darkness and The Light, as to be in The Light, one must darken their heart. This setting shaped Balram into the man he became, turning the innocent “Munna” into the savage but noble, “White Tiger”.

In Aravind Adiga’s, The White Tiger, Balram becomes nefarious due to his habitat as Adiga demonstrates that the cloth of progress and innovation in the highly wealthy Modern India is tightly interwoven with corruption, which is absorbed by Balram. The polarised sides of Modern India, and the rampant corruption forces him to evolve from a mere rooster, stuck in “the Rooster Coop”, into the animal that “comes along only once in a generation”, “The White Tiger”.