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Unit 19: Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger—Critical Appreciation

This is confirmed by no one but by the objective perception of Francis Gauteir in his article on Notes
"Religion, Marxism and Slum dog"
(The New Indian Express, March 16, 2009) We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority
complex over the so called Third World in general and India in particular. Sitting in front of our
television sets during prime time news with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the
misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego, and makes us proud of our so-called achievements.'
That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that
India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.
In the film, India's foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give
to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free
medical aid, schooling and loans. If you see the Tamil Nadu coast post tsunami, there is a church
every 500 meters. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple,
do puja, or even put tilak on one's head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche Francois
Gautier, too, like Murai ends his article with question?
When will West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in
this century as the main Asian Power? But this will require a new generation of Ideologists, more
sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own
culture and less subservient to the West.
Considering all the factors and taking into account the motive behind these writings we may
conclude that whether it be Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Adiga's White Tiger, the
basic quest of their creators is the same: India-baiting. Their India is an odd country that has lost
its natural master: Only that it sometimes comes as a subtext. Like, in Arundhati Roy's The God of
Small Things, which depicts Western value system as the saviour of all India evils. Finally we
agree with what B. Jayamohan opinion on the matter:

Indian English writing and crossover films are a particular genre of creative works popular in
India and abroad now.
But they can be never addressed as Indian works. The India they narrate is the India in the wishful
thinking of the average westerner. The real India is in the native Indian writings - we'll discover
it one day.
Self -Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Satyajit Ray's films starts from ............... .
(a) The City of Joy (b) Pather Panchali
(c) Slumdog Millionaires (d) None of these.
(ii) Midnight's Children is written by .............. .
(a) Salman Rushdie’s (b) Shakespeare

(c) Aravind Adiga (d) None of these.
(iii) V.S. Naipaul's An Area of Darkness was published in ............... .
(a) 1951 (b) 1960
(c) 1964 (d) None of these.

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