The White Tiger

Author : Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger is a quick-reading thriller, written in the unique voice of its central character. It is written as a first-person narration by one Balram Halwai, a self-described entrepreneur in Bangalore, about how he came to be successful. He grew up in a small coal mining village in Bihar, born to a poor rickshaw-puller, and named only "Munna," "boy," until his teacher named him "Balram" and gave him a birth date so that he could vote for the landlord.

Balram has a sarcastic, cynical, and crude voice, whose wit keeps the pages turning. He refers to the village only as The Darkness, because, you see:

"India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of
Darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well-off. But the river brings darkness to India - the black river."

We learn first-hand of the terrible conditions in which Balram's family and clan lived in the Darkness, always under the thumbs of powerful landlords. Balram's father died of tuberculosis in a government hospital that was dysfunctional because of endemic corruption. He has had very little schooling. This is a classic tale, retold to the point of cliche, but through Balram's clever voice comes his world view:

"Go to Old Delhi ...and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages...They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop. The very same thing is done with human beings in this country."

This "Rooster Coop" analogy is just one of the many devices that make The White Tiger a fun read, despite being about such a depressing subject: the terrible caste subjugation, regular rigging of elections, and poor people's votes being cast for them by their masters, are heavy topics, but when we read that the villagers excitedly talk about local elections "like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra," we get it right away.

Balram teaches himself to drive, and eventually lands a job as a driver for a local landlord and his two sons. Soon he moves with them to Delhi where the younger, U.S.-returned son Ashok needs to stay so that he can more easily bribe government ministers. After a few months of driving his master around and overhearing conversations, Balram is determined "to know, just for a day, just for an hour, just for a minute, what it means not to be a servant."