Page 117 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Unit 14: Aravind Adiga: the White Tiger—An Introduction

the shortlist included one other Indian writer (Amitav Ghosh) and another first-time writer (Steve Notes
Toltz). The novel studies the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the
lead character, Balram, who comes from crushing rural poverty.
"At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the
world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of
society (Indian). That's what I'm trying to do—it is not an attack on the country, it's about the
greater process of self-examination."
He explained that "the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens of the 19th century
helped England and France become better societies".

Adiga's second book, Between the Assassinations, was released in India in November 2008 and in
the US and UK in mid-2009. The book features 12 interlinked short stories. His second novel and
third published book, Last Man in Tower, was published in the UK in 2011

14.1 Introduction to The White Tiger

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008
and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. The novel provides a darkly humorous
perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration
from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram’s journey first to Delhi, where he works as
a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his
master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption
and poverty in India. Ultimately, Balram transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful
entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty
and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, “tomorrow.”
The novel has been well-received, making the New York Times bestseller list in addition to winning
the Man Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga, 33 at the time, was the second youngest writer as well as
the fourth debut writer to win the prize in 2008. Adiga says his novel “attempt[s] to catch the voice
of the men you meet as you travel through India — the voice of the colossal underclass.” According
to Adiga, the exigence for The White Tiger was to capture the unspoken voice of people from “the
Darkness” – the impoverished areas of rural India, and he “wanted to do so without sentimentality
or portraying them as mirthless humorless weaklings as they are usually.” Introducing a major
literary talent, “The White Tiger” offers a story of coruscating wit, blistering suspense, and
questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator that
this millennium has yet seen. Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher.
Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous
chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life
— having nothing but his own wits to help him along.
Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village’s
wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man’s (very unlucky)
son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram’s new world is a revelation. While his
peers flip through the pages of “Murder Weekly” (“Love — Rape — Revenge!”), barter for girls,
drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram
watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-
malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal
with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He
also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

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