Written in Indian background, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is a severe attack on the existing social, political and financial divisions of society. The novelist’s exquisite efficiency of enquiring into the existing divisions of society through the protagonist ‘Balram-The White Tiger’ unravels the unseen and unexpected India. Balram, the central character, belongs to such a society, dominated by the landlords who have suppressed the freedom and right of the villagers and Balram is one of them. Like a white tiger, Balram is one of the rare of the rarest creatures which come only once in the whole generation. The novel is also a study of the mind of a person like Balram and the study extends the scope of psycho-analytic study of the characters. The way Balram bears the oppressive system creates a slow and staid defying attitude that starts right from as a villager, turning driver then finally a big businessman, and through his life-journey, he learns a lesson that to reach the pinnacle of success and happiness, if one has to commit crime, one should not hesitate and so does Balram by killing the landlord’s son, as do other leaders, and officials by doing scams, taking bribes, murdering and so on. The speciality lies in the fact that the issues which Adiga raises are highly sensitive. To deal with such sensitive issues, one requires not only the sensitivity of perceiving the incidents but also the carefulness lest one should fall into unwanted controversy, and Adiga proves his worth in both sensitivity and carefulness in dealing with such issues. Such qualities in his style reserve a very special position in Indian English Literature.
Research Scholar, Dept. of English Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh (Jharkhand)
