The novel provides a dark comical view of modern day life in India through the narration of Balram Halwai, the main character. The overall main theme of the novel is the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the working class people who live in crushing rural poverty. Other themes touched on include corruption endemic to Indian society and politics, familial loyalty versus independence, religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims, the experience of returning to India after living in America, globalization, and the tensions between India and China as superpower countries in Asia.[1]
Plot Summary [1]
The novel takes the form of a series of letters written late at night by Balram Halwai, the protagonist, to Wen Jiabao, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, on the eve of his visit to India. In the letters, Balram describes his rise from lowly origins to his current position as an entrepreneur in Bangalore, as well as his views on India's caste system and its political corruption.
The protagonist Balram lived in the village of Laxmangarh, a fictional village in Bihar (not the village of Laxmangarh in Rajasthan), a community deep in the "Darkness" of rural India. The son of a rickshaw-puller; his family is too poor for him to be able to finish school, despite being brilliant and being promised a scholarship and instead he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables in Dhanbad. His parents originally named him “Munna”, but his schoolteacher Mr. Krishna wanted to give him a new name since Munna simply means “boy” in Hindi. He named him Balram. The name Balram refers to the brother of the Hindu god Krishna. His last name, Halwai, is derived from “sweet-maker” in the caste system.
In Dhanbad, he learns to drive after learning about the high salary paid to drivers. After learning how to drive, Balram gets his break when a rich man from his village, known simply as "The Stork" in his village because of his long nose, hires him as a chauffeur. Balram then drives for The Stork's son, who lives in the city of New Delhi, the 'Light' after recently migrating from America. The city is a revelation and eye-opening experience for Balram. As he drives his master and his wife to shopping malls and call centers, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. Through these experiences, Balram learns much about the world and later states that the streets of India provided him with all the education he needed.
Having recently returned from a stint in America, Ashok, one of the Stork's sons, is conflicted by the corruption and harshness of life in India. He also has to deal with his family’s unhappiness for marrying his current wife, Pinky Madam, as the two of them married in the US, not in India, which causes them to lose respect in the caste system. Ashok’s father also did not approve of the marriage because Pinky Madam is of another caste.
As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he could become part of this glamorous new India — to murder his employer, Ashok, and escape from servitude. However, Ashok's participation in funding political corruption leads to his liberal and free-thinking spirit's demise and gives Balram a chance to become an entrepreneur. One day as Ashok is carrying seven hundred thousand rupees in cash as money bribes for politicians in New Delhi, Balram decides to murder him. The murder is a success as Ashok’s throat is slashed, propelling Balram to flee to Bangalore with his cousin Dharam. With the seven hundred thousand rupees he stole, Balram creates his own taxi company and changes his name to Ashok Sharma. Thus he becomes a wealthy entrepreneur in India's new technological society and emerges as a part of the top caste in the Indian society of the Light, namely the world belonging to rich people who live in large urbanized cities.
Review [2]
"Compelling, angry, and darkly humorous, The White Tiger is an unexpected journey into a new India. Aravind Adiga is a talent to watch." -- Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist
"An exhilarating, side-splitting account of India today, as well as an eloquent howl at her many injustices. Adiga enters the literary scene resplendent in battle dress and ready to conquer. Let us bow to him." -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante's Handbook
"The perfect antidote to lyrical India." - Publishers Weekly
"This fast-moving novel, set in India, is being sold as a corrective to the glib, dreamy exoticism Western readers often get...If these are the hands that built India, their grandkids really are going to kick America's ass...BUY IT." - New York Magazine
"Darkly comic...Balram's appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling."- The New Yorker
"Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger is one of the most powerful books I've read in decades. No hyperbole. This debut novel from an Indian journalist living in Mumbai hit me like a kick to the head -- the same effect Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man had. - USA Today
"Extraordinary and brilliant... At first, this novel seems like a straightforward pulled-up-by-your-bootstraps tale, albeit given a dazzling twist by the narrator's sharp and satirical eye for the realities of life for India's poor... But as the narrative draws the reader further in, and darkens, it becomes clear that Adiga is playing a bigger game... Adiga is a real writer - that is to say, someone who forges an original voice and vision. There is the voice of Halwai - witty, pithy, ultimately psychopathic... Remarkable... I will not spoil the effect of this remarkable novel by giving away ... what form his act of blood-stained entrepreneurship takes. Suffice to say that I was reminded of a book that is totally different in tone and style, Richard Wright's Native Son, a tale of the murderous career of a black kid from the Chicago ghetto that awakened 1940s America to the reality of the racial divide. Whether The White Tiger will do the equivalent for today's India - we shall see." - Adam Lively, The Sunday Times (London)
"Fierce and funny...A satire as sharp as it gets." - Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times
"There is a new Muse stalking global narrative: brown, angry, hilarious, half-educated, rustic-urban, iconoclastic, paan-spitting, word-smithing--and in the case of Aravind Adiga she hails from a town called Laxmangarh. This is the authentic voice of the Third World, like you've never heard it before. Adiga is a global Gorky, a modern Kipling who grew up, and grew up mad. The future of the novel lies here." - John Burdett, author of Bangkok 8
"Adiga's training as a journalist lends the immediacy of breaking news to his writing, but it is his richly detailed storytelling that will captivate his audience...The White Tiger echoes masterpieces of resistance and oppression (both The Jungle and Native Son come to mind) [and] contains passages of startling beauty...A book that carefully balances fable and pure observation." - Lee Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle
[1] The White Tiger, en.wikipedia.org
[2] The White Tiger, Amazon.com
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