The White Tiger

 Hello friends,

What do you know about India? Are You an Indian? India the land of enchantment is the abode of spirituality. Our fascinating country is a spiritual hub pulsating with life and energy. India is rich in culture, tradition and heritage. It is multicultural, multilingual and multifaceted. But the essence of India is “unity in diversity.” Despite our socio-cultural and religious differences, there’s a sense of interconnectedness and togetherness among the people. Indeed, India is a great country with great people. Right? 

These are words you might have heard about India whether you are from India or not! Let me say frankly this is not India in which I’m living. Of course, this is what India is known for but here is a darker side which overpowers time and again and I’m living there. Don’t you believe it? Let’s have a bird eye view on the Literary text won Man Booker Prize 2008, Arvind Adiga’s novel “The White Tiger.”

Let’s discuss it point by point to grasp it more and to stretch. I am sure you will like read it and curiosity to read the novel and watch the film.

"It's a book that makes you uncomfortable, it makes you think, it makes you question and that's not what a large part of Indian audiences are interested in. They are already burdened by so much that is happening around them. It's all there, starting from the farmers' protests in Delhi to so many personal and political conflicts that we see on a regular basis. It's not a book and film many people will watch because we all know this."

 

(1)How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel ‘The White Tiger’?

Novel provides darky humourous perspective towards India. Adiga has explored exploitation in Indian society.  It’s a reflection upon contemporary India. Democracy is a deformed as bribery,corruption, rudeness and dishonesty. 

In India we find many examples of faithful servants as Balram who serve generations to a particular family. But he is in the Rooster Coop. The trustworthiness of servants is the foundation of the entire Indian economy.  The economical growth of Indian society is not equal which leads to darkness of ignorance and helplessness. The faithful servants in India have many times carried valuable things of their master but never tried to misuse it except few. These faithful servants are like a Rooster Coop where hens waits for their turn to be slaughtered.

“The White Tiger is the story of a poor man in today’s India, one of the many hundreds of millions who belong to the vast Indian under class; people who live as labourers, as servants, as chauffeurs and who by and large do not get represented in Indian entertainment, in Indian films, in Indian books. My hero-or rather my Protagonist-Balram Halwai is one of these faceless millions of poor Indians” 

(Aravind Adiga in an interview with BBC). 

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 injustice of society(Indian). That’s what I’m trying to do-it is not an attack on the country, it’s the greater process of self-examination”

Novel throws light on the lives of rickshaw-pullers in India. Balram’s father, in the novel, dies of tuberculosis. Now, this is a make-believe death of a make-believe figure, but underlying it is a piece of appalling reality, the fact that nearly thousand Indians, most of them poor, die every day from tuberculosis in India. People in rural India are denied decent healthcare and education.

The White Tiger draws the line of great difference between the lifestyle of the poor and rich in India. Rich people always search for new ways to spend their surplus money and following the footsteps of such masters their servants start idolizing them and pick up bad habits eventually ending up losing their hard-earned money.

Balram becomes aware that he is not part of the rich---that he is one of those being “eaten up”. “In the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India,” Balram writes. “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.” And he wants to become part of that world, and there’s only one way to do that: eat up someone else. Here Balram comes up against one of the central metaphors of the novel: the chicken coop. 

Thus, the picture Aravind Adiga paints of India in The White Tiger is of a nearly feudal society disguised as a democracy. 

If even a tenth of what Balram describes as normal operating business is actual, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, then India’s economic miracle is as much a lie as China’s. The country might have gained its independence from the The White Tiger is a depiction of the social and economic inequalities of contemporary India. It is a penetrating piece of social commentary, attuned to the dissimilarities that persist despite India’s new prosperity.

At the outset Balram is too honest. He is of the opinion that his masters are everything and they should do each and every thing for the sake of them. He says, You are like a father and mother to me and how can I ask for money from my parents? He works as cook ,massager,swapperetc. He feels very happy in his uniform. But in Delhi he finds people more shroud, he feels inferiority complex. He witnessed different cultures altogether. They call him ‘uncivilized monkey’ and say you are so filthy look at you in your teeth and there are red spots on your cloth! your teeth. It’s disguishing! get out Balram bleam his family for all his dirtiness why had he raised me to live like an animal. He thought of himself as a dog so he has to follow his master and he has to accept his exploitation. Delhi is the capital of India. In India simple and common people have no importance. When Balram entered a shopping mall with chapels,he was prohibited. It is because of cultural differences. Balram decided to revolt against the system. He describes this life as a fugitive life.

In India we found many issues which have a background of corruption. During election and other times police are supposed to stop illegal practices but we find they also become a part of corruption. People also caste their valuable vote to unworthy candidates by taking money, liquor or other things. We made this election a nonsense thing .Someone else has voted for me twelve times.

In rural India we find ruthless landlords who exploit the poor in one or other cases like Balram they take revenge on their masters. Indian government do little for such poor people. They die unknowingly, their children do not have proper education. Their school do not have basic facilities. Manny schools in India has a single teacher to handle the school. At some school teacher are interested in government money. Balram was good in education but due to poverty he has to live his education and do child labor. We find such a child labor through out the India. Balram’s family has to take loan for his sister’s marriage which is common in India. Balram’s economical condition is too weak. His father died of Tuberculosis at government hospitals where we find lack of medical facilities’ .It is also a common picture in India.Doctors in such hospitals do not serve properly, they only maintain their own Hospital.  

The text shows problems in Indian Society; Proper education,medical facilities,sewage, drinking water,corruption, childlabour, poverty, exploitation etc.The situation creates hatred in the reader's mind.

Adiga wants to convey that a large number of people are suffering from injustice of one or other kind. Modern technology didn’t provide benefits to poor people. Modern technology didn’t provide benefits to poor people. 

(2) Review of the film

कहतें है की फिल्म भी समाज का आईना होती है। न जाने कितनी ऐसी फिल्म होगी जिसने समाज की चमड़ी को उधेड़ कर रख दिया हो? फिल्मे भी दो तरह की होती होगी। नहीं... नहीं….शायद इतने मुखौटे पहनकर समाज के सामने आती होगी जहां मुखौटा है या नहीं, झूठ को सच के आकार में तराशा गया है या नहीं या फिर सच खुद अपने झूठ के कपडे उतारकर, खुद नंगा होकर हमारे सामने कब खडा हो गया ये पता ही नहीं चलता। शायद बहुत ही कम एसी फिल्मे होगी जो इस बात को मुनासिब ठहराती होगी! Click here to read full review

(3)Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches''

Rags to riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame, fortune and celebrity—sometimes instantly.

This is one genre of stories that has enjoyed an ever-lasting appeal: rags to riches tales. Stories of heroic struggle against odds, survival and eventual triumph have always inspired people, given them hope, courage to fight, and egged them on to persevere.

The White Tiger: ‘Social message or worn-out stereotypes?

Click here to read full blog on 'rags to riches'

Thank You.