White Tiger by Aravind Adiga follows the protagonist, Balram, throughout his life as he works his way out of poverty in a post-colonial India. The novel is written in the form of first person flashbacks in letters that Balram is writing to the Primer of China, who will most likely not read the letters. Balram describes life as a disenfranchised member of a society that only focuses on wealth and status as a result of the sudden withdrawal of the British colonialists. The hierarchy that British imperialism instilled is replaced by a structure of violence in order to get to the top of the social chain.
White Tiger draws the reader in with the almost comical personality of Balram, who goes by multiple names throughout the novel, and his attempts to reach the an important figure so he can tell the man his story of how he became a wealthy business man. Balram spares absolutely no details throughout his story because he knows he will not be arrested. Balram begins life as a poor boy in a place he calls “the Darkness” where the main focal point of the town is the Ganges River, what they call “the river of death” because that is where they place the bodies of family members after they have died.
When looking at novels like White Tiger, most echo theories of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, especially her work “Can The Subaltern Speak?” where she outlines the failure of British colonialism in India and the effects of it on India years after the British left the country. Spivak specifies one point in her theory that framed colonialism as a positive thing for Indians when the British thought of the fact that they were saving women from the brutish rituals that women faced in the Indian culture. Spivak summarized it as “white men saving brown women from brown men”. White Tiger narrates the many struggles involving wealth and appearance, one particular moment where Balram realizes that he does not look like a wealthy man but a servant because his skin is too dark and his clothes are not what a rich man would wear. This complex that is instilled in Balram is nothing new for once colonized countries. Balram’s journey parallels Spivak’s theory and puts a twist that reads the story as “brown men saving themselves from white men”. Adiga found a way to perfectly balance humor through Balram as well as serious commentary on life after British colonialism in the everyday life of people living in India.
You can read a version of Spivak's "Can The Subaltern Speak?" here.
White Tiger draws the reader in with the almost comical personality of Balram, who goes by multiple names throughout the novel, and his attempts to reach the an important figure so he can tell the man his story of how he became a wealthy business man. Balram spares absolutely no details throughout his story because he knows he will not be arrested. Balram begins life as a poor boy in a place he calls “the Darkness” where the main focal point of the town is the Ganges River, what they call “the river of death” because that is where they place the bodies of family members after they have died.
When looking at novels like White Tiger, most echo theories of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, especially her work “Can The Subaltern Speak?” where she outlines the failure of British colonialism in India and the effects of it on India years after the British left the country. Spivak specifies one point in her theory that framed colonialism as a positive thing for Indians when the British thought of the fact that they were saving women from the brutish rituals that women faced in the Indian culture. Spivak summarized it as “white men saving brown women from brown men”. White Tiger narrates the many struggles involving wealth and appearance, one particular moment where Balram realizes that he does not look like a wealthy man but a servant because his skin is too dark and his clothes are not what a rich man would wear. This complex that is instilled in Balram is nothing new for once colonized countries. Balram’s journey parallels Spivak’s theory and puts a twist that reads the story as “brown men saving themselves from white men”. Adiga found a way to perfectly balance humor through Balram as well as serious commentary on life after British colonialism in the everyday life of people living in India.
You can read a version of Spivak's "Can The Subaltern Speak?" here.