The White Tiger, Adiga-2008, Literary Article

1. 36 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refferred Research Journal, August 2012, ISSN 0975-3486, RNI-RAJBAL 2009/30097:VoL III*ISSUE-35
Research Paper-English
August, 2012
Introduction:
The White Tiger is an unflattering portrait
of present day India as a society of servitude and ram-
pant corruption. Poverty of rural Bihar, and the evil
of the feudal landlords are shown mythically as an
attempt to temper the society with the vision of justice
against the brutal injustice at large in a vein of what
writers like Balzac, or Dickens did in the 19th
century
(Guardian).Thestory,awittyparableofIndia'schang-
ing society, was the author's writing back and striking
at the false notion of a modern transformed India.
Unglamorous portrait of India was taken as
an insult and indignity, but the author made it clear
that "what I am trying to do -is not an attack on the
country; it's about the greater process of self-
examination"(Guardian). India has canvassed much
of its socio-economic progress to the world, but the
dark side of the story is unfolded laying bare all the
trappings of gimmick and falsity at the dawn of the
21st century in its actual socio-political context in
which the story affects the prime character the way he
is a product of the soil and turns out to be a white tiger.
The Dichotomy:
The apparently didactic story exposes the
stern reality and takes the glamour off the 'India shin-
ning' even though the author never envisioned it as a
counter narrative. He divides India as 'India of Dark-
ness' and 'India of Light. It contains some of the very
astute observations about class divide and
disempowerment in India.
The protagonist narrates his stories to the
Chinese Premier, on the eve of his visit to India who
was to witness the magic of IT entrepreneurship in
Bangalore. Narre explains, "What keeps the millions
of poor Indians work in servitude? How stable is such
system? All these questions are answered through
Balaram Halwai" (57).
'India Re-located' in Arvind Adiga's
The White Tiger
* Prakash Bhadury
* 232, Panchwati Enclave, Meerut.
A B S T R A C T
The White Tiger (2008) exploresthe protagonist Munna's journey between an 'India of Light' and an 'India of Darkness' while
the country is rising as a modern global economy. Narrated through epistolary form, Munna highlights the "Great Socialist's
fall of values , social and political corruption, oppression of lower classes against 'Gandhian' values and his striving to come
out as an entrepreneur, though in an corrupt way. Here, the protagonist is the White Tiger, a rare creature that comes once in
a generationas asurprise and change.Adiga, here,isinpermanent argument withthe world he hasinherited andhas attempted
to relocate India in a political and economic context.
All the corruptions go before the big photograph of
Gandhi. The author makes a sharp contrast of
Gandhian value and present day corruption. Gandhi
advocated non-violence, honesty and austere life, but
Vivekananda made it clear that a race can not progress
in empty stomach. Hence, the contrast is to show di-
rectly that the race is in serious trouble .The Northern
belt along the Ganges is the "Dark India" which ex-
poses rampant corruption. The Ganges has turned as
'black river, and materially it is full of filth. Gandhi
is doubly assassinated as the poor people in dark India
work in a degradingly low work condition. They are
the "human spiders (WT 51). Balaram, having under-
stood this rival myth, breaks the shackle of child
labourers via a servant of humiliation, to a chauffeur
for his village's wealthiest man before making a giant
leap (Outlook).
India Relocated:
The story unfolds and unearths the corrup-
tion, the class divide, the vicious political system and
Balaram comes out in the light as the White Tiger-"a
rare creature that comes once in a generation" (Narre
56).For an Indian it's one of the most unpalatable
thing that a Halwai caste could rise so high in the
societal ladder. "This is a shameful and dislocating
thing for and Indian to do", says Adiga in the Guard-
ian interview. It's a dark book as Balaram compro-
mises with wrong to cross over to the bright side.
The issue of means and ends what Gandhi
preached and practised throughout his life jolts every-
one-is this the country heading to? An utterly bleak
landscape is kept hidden under the camouflaged lamp
of bright progress. Adiga himself gave a life line to
this question in the Outlook magazine: "The book is
an attempt to relocate India in a political and eco-
nomic context" (21).The life and economic progress
in big cities like Bangalore is not real India. The

2. 37RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refferred Research Journal, August 2012, ISSN 0975-3486, RNI-RAJBAL 2009/30097:VoL III*ISSUE-35
"India of Light" represents huge economic activity
through technology and entrepreneurship. Where as,
India lives in villages and all the city glamour are due
to the disintegration of village life. This may well
allude to Mulk Raj Anand's ground breaking novel,
Untouchable (1935) in Which Bakha, the protago-
nist, 'bore the brunt of societal prejudice of untouch-
ability' (Hindu).
Conclusion:
The story is seen by many as a pessimistic
book on India's future, and the United States has taken
it as a very optimistic book. The author has felt that
"We've got to get beyond that as Indians and take
1 Adiga,Arvind, The White Tige. New Delhi: Harper Collins p,2008. Print
2 Narre, Veena. "India as reflected inArvindAdiga's novel TheWhite
3 Tiger".Rock PebblesMagazine.13.1 (2009):55-58.print.
4 Rev.ofThewhiteTiger.Guardian.co.uk. n.p.Web.11nov'11.
5 Rev. ofTheWhiteTiger.The Hindu.02 Nov.2008.n.p.Web.9Jan'12.
6 Suri, Sanjay. "ArvindAdiga'stheWhiteTiger".Outlook.27th Nov
7 2008:23-25.print.
responsibility for what is holding us back"(Guardian).
The corruption in social and political level, lack of
basic amenities, degrading work-condition, servitude,
and irregular growth leading to the wide chasm be-
tween the rich and the poor are the seamy sides of the
story of the "India of Light". Adiga has deconstructed
the society in which people at the periphery push to
the centre and the center is pushed to the periphery.
Munna, a peripheral man, is re-incarnated as a white
tiger, though politically incorrect way, to claim for the
center what alarms us at the need of social overhaul-
ing. Here, lies the author's merit of relocating India.
R E F E R E N C E