The White Tiger

I haven't read a novel that brought modern India to life in quite some time. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga accomplishes that quite well through the life of an Indian male from the 'Darkness' of rural India. Our protagonist, not meant to be perceived as a 'hero' for his moral shortcomings, Balram, rises from the bottom to becoming an 'entrepreneur' in the 'new India' where outsourcing and capitalism 'thrive' in urban areas. The novel is very much influenced by Ellison's The Invisible Man, but one can also clearly detect a Hegelian 'master-slave dialectic' that informs the novel. Through murder and abandoning the 'traditional' mode of class and caste relations, a lower-class man whose father dies from tuberculosis in a horribly corrupt and impoverished India, proves to the Chinese premier that in India, becoming wealthy or a successful 'entrepreneur' relies more on nepotism, graft, and crime than anything else. And through a Hegelian master-slave dialectic, we see how liberty requires becoming a 'man,' overturning the master to become free, even if one does it to become another master over other slaves, a point that is relevant to all post-colonial states.

In addition, Adiga's prose is addictive in this relatively short novel, full of humor, disdain, pride, and longing to escape the chicken pen, described as India's greatest invention by Adiga. Clearly, this dark, yet humorous novel, lacks a positive or uplifting ending, but speaks to the rather dismal state of affairs for India's vast majority, and for the vast inequalities of the world we live in. Yet, it is also optimistic in the rise of the 'brown' and 'yellow' races of Asia, who are seen as presenting a challenge to the white man's hegemony in the global economy and politics. Placed in that context, one can see why this novel was so popular in 2008, a time when nearly everyone was predicting a post-US hegemonic world order where India, China, and other non-Western states would become global players. Moreover, the novel does not pretend to glorify or 'hide' the ugliness lurking behind the common, romanticized visions of India present in the West. Sure, this earned Adiga much criticism, for only highlighting the negative in India (caste, religion, and class divisions that fuel poverty, corruption), but it's a part of India (or any nation, for that matter) that must made visible to improve conditions and speak to the universality of the coop in which we are placed. In that light, this novel is a disturbing reminder of how rampant capitalism has wrought destruction in all corners of the world, from Lagos to Bangalore, Delhi to Rio de Janeiro.