The White tiger.........But not in the jungle..........

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.

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.”

Inside the book…………

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 Laxamangarh. 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’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.

Balram learns how to drive and gets a job driving Ashok, the son of the Stork, the local landlord. During a trip back to his village Balram disrespects his grandmother and tells the reader and the Chinese Premier that in the next eight months he intends to kill his boss. Balram moves to New Delhi with Ashok and his wife Miss Pinky Madam. Throughout their time in New Delhi, Balram is exposed to the extensive corruption of India’s government. In New Delhi the separation between India’s poor and wealthy becomes even more evident by the juxtaposition of the wealthy with poor city dwellers.

One night Pinky decides to drive the car by herself and hits something. She is worried that it was a child and the family eventually decides to frame Balram for the hit and run. The police tell them that no one reported a child missing. Ashok becomes increasingly involved with the corrupt government. Balram then decides that the only way that he will be able to escape India’s "Rooster Coop" will be by killing and robbing Ashok. One raining day he murders Ashok by bludgeoning him with a broken liquor bottle. Balram then managed to flee to Bangalore with his younger brother. There he bribes the police in order to help start his own driving service. When one of his drivers kills a bike messenger Balram pays off the family and police. Balram explains that his family was almost certainly killed by the Stork as retribution for Ashok's murder. At the end of the novel Balram rationalizes his actions by saying that his freedom is worth the lives of Ashok and his family and the monetary success of his new taxi company.

The Caste System

A key component in The White Tiger is the discussion of the India caste system. The caste system in India is social systems that divides the Indian population into higher and lower social classes. Although said to be disappearing in urban India, the caste system still remains in rural India. A person is born into a caste, and the caste one belongs in determines his or her occupation. Balram gives his own breakdown of the caste system in India, describing it as a “...clean, well-kept orderly zoo.”Balram was the son of a rick-shaw puller and born into the Halwai caste, meaning “sweet-maker”. Hence, Balram’s duty is to fulfill his caste role and make tea. Although Balram was smart enough to excel in his educational endeavors, his family would not allow it because that was not what he was born to do.

Adiga brings awareness to the corrupt India caste system by having Balram work the country’s system to get what he wants and to become an entrepreneur by any means necessary, including murdering his boss. Balram educates the Chinese Premier throughout his letters about the corruption and immoral ways of India’s caste system and its economic gap. Although it may seem that Balram’s position in society will forever remain the same, he manages to go from a sweet shop worker, to a personal driver for a rich man and finally to an owner of a small business.

Balram’s quest to becoming an entrepreneur shows the oppression of the lower caste system and the superiority of the upper caste. He tells the story of how India still has a caste system and political and economic corruption is still present. Balram shows the country of India in which a person high on the caste system can bribe people such as police officers with money to cover up murders, sabotage political opponents by rigging votes and money, and have privileges such as shopping in a mall specifically for those of high social and economic importance. He also shows the side of India in which those who are born into poverty and low castes may forever remain there and so will their children. Balram is a rare exception, as he experiences both sides of the caste system and manages to move up the social ladder.

About Arvind Adiga……

Aravind Adiga born 23 October 1974 is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga was born in Madras (now Chennai) on 23 October 1974 to Dr. K. Madhava Adiga and Usha Adiga, Kannadigas both of whom hailed from Mangalore. He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the prize, after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. (V. S. Naipaul, another winner, is of Indian origin, but was not born in India). Adiga's second book, Between the Assassinations, was released in India in November 2008 and in the US and UK in mid-2009.^[16] 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.

Novels

§                    The White Tiger: A Novel: Atlantic Books, Ltd (UK), Free Press (US), 2008

§                    Between the Assassinations: Picador (IND), 2008

§                    Last Man in Tower: Fourth Estate (IND), 2011

Short stories

§                    "The Sultan's Battery" (The Guardian, 18 October 2008, online text)

§                    "Smack" (The Sunday Times, 16 November 2008, online text)

§                    "Last Christmas in Bandra" (The Times, 19 December 2008, online text)

§                    "The Elephant" (The New Yorker, 26 January 2009, online text)

With Love

Dipali

Ref-:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aravind_Adiga