Socio-Economic Struggles in Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger

Abstract

Balram Halwai the narrator of Arvind Adiga’s first novel, The White Tiger, is a modern Indian hero. In the country inebriated by its new found economic prowess, he is a successful entrepreneur, a self-made, man who has risen on the back of India’s much-vaunted technology industry. In a nation proudly and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, “tomorrow.” Balram’s triumphal narrative, framed somewhat inexplicably as a letter to the visiting Chinese premier, unfurls over seven days and nights in Bangalore. It’s rather more complicated story then Balram initially lets on. Before moving to Bangalore, he was a driver for the week-willed son of a feudal landlord. One rainy day in Delhi, he crushed the skull of his employer and stole a bag containing a large amount of money, capital that financed his Bangalore taxi business. That business-ferrying technology workers to and from their jobs- depends, in turn, on keeping the police happy with the occasional bribe.