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Indian Writings in Literature

Notes us brown and yellow men at the top of the pyramid, and we’ll rule the world.” He’s talking about
the phenomenon at the heart of this dazzling narrative: the emergence of that much-heralded
economic powerhouse, the “new India”.
You have, no doubt, read about it. In fact, you may have done so courtesy of Aravind Adiga, who
is Time magazine’s Asia correspondent. But with The White Tiger, Adiga sets out to show us a
part of this emerging country that we hear about infrequently: its underbelly. We see through the
eyes of Balram, who was born into the “darkness” of rural India, but entered the light that is Delhi
via a job as driver to Mr Ashok, the son of a rich landlord. Now, though, Balram has escaped
servitude and is himself a rich businessman. What’s more, his unlikely journey involved a murder.
The result is an Indian novel that explodes the clichés – ornamental prose, the scent of saffron –
associated with that phrase. Welcome, instead, to an India where Microsoft call-centre workers
tread the same pavement as beggars who burn street rubbish for warmth.
Adiga’s whimsical conceit is to give us Balram’s story via seven letters to the Chinese prime
minister, who, Balram has decided, must be told the truth about India before a forthcoming state
visit. So Balram begins: he tells of Delhi’s servants, who live in rotting basements below the glass
apartment blocks that are home to their employers. He tells of how Ashok’s family bribe government
ministers, and how national elections are rigged. Ashok, trendy and liberal, is forever expressing
guilt over Balram’s treatment, but his fine words never come to anything.
It’s a thrilling ride through a rising global power; a place where, we learn, the brutality of the
modern city is compounded by that of age-old tradition. “In the old days there were one thousand
castes and destinies in India,” says Balram. “These days there are two castes: Men with Big Bellies,
and Men with Small Bellies.” Soon enough, of course, Balram must tell us just how, exactly, he
grew a Big Belly himself. Tired of a life of servitude, he takes the violent action that secures his
place among Delhi’s rich. Adiga’s plot is somewhat predictable – the murder that is committed is
the one that readers will expect throughout – but The White Tiger suffers little for this fault.
Caught up in Balram’s world – and his wonderful turn of phrase – the pages turn themselves.
Brimming with idiosyncrasy, sarcastic, cunning, and often hilarious, Balram is reminiscent of the
endless talkers that populate the novels of the great Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal. Inventing
such a character is no small feat for a first-time novelist.
Arch-defenders of India’s claim to be truly democratic, even-handedly prosperous and corruption-
free (and these must be few outside of the Indian cabinet) might balk at The White Tiger. Everyone
else, surely, will be seduced by it.

15.2 Plot—The White Tiger

The White Tiger takes place in modern day India. The novel’s protagonist, Balram Halwai is born
in Laxmangarh, Bihar, a rural village in “the Darkness”. Balram narrates the novel as a letter,
which he wrote in seven consecutive nights and addressed to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao. In
his letter, Balram explains how he, the son of rickshaw puller, escaped a life of servitude to
become a successful businessman, describing himself as a successful entrepreneur. Balram begins
the novel by describing his life in Laxmangarh. There he lived with his grandmother, parents and
brother and extended family. He is a smart child; however, he is forced to quit school in order to
help pay for his cousin sister’s dowry. He begins to work in a teashop with his brother in Dhanbad.
While working in the teashop he begins to learn about India’s government and economy from the
customers’ conversations. Balram describes himself as a bad servant and decides that he wants to
become a driver.

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