The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Book Review 

The White Tiger is the story of Balram Halwai, a man who has managed to climb the social ladder in India, going from being a chauffeur to a very successful businessman in Bangalore.

The novel is written in the first person and in the form of a letter addressed to a visiting Chinese official named Premier Wen Jiabao, who wants to visit the city of Bangalore and know the truth behind the city, which is a hotbed of startups.

Balram is someone who has experienced and seen all kinds of harsh realities in his lifetime. He belongs to a poor family in the village of Lakshmangar, where his life, along with many others, is dictated by four cruel landlords.

In school, he was labelled “the white tiger” because his intelligence and street-smart acumen made him stand out from the herd. Unfortunately, he had to drop out of school at a very young age in order to support his family.

He started off working in a tea shop, but eventually he found employment as a driver for Pinky and Ashok, who belonged to one of the richest families in Dhanbad. This family made most, if not all, of its money by running an illegal coal business, constantly bribing ministers and other important government officials to maintain their lifestyle.

Initially, Balram was a very loyal servant. He kept all their secrets safe and attended to their every need with unwavering devotion, believing his duty was to be a lifelong servant. But as the family’s façade began to fall apart and Balram saw them for who they really were, he was forced to take a drastic step that changed everything for everyone.

He decided to commit murder. Who he murdered, and why, forms the crux of the novel.

Book Review

Coming to my personal thoughts—I absolutely loved this novel. It had been a while since I’d read a true page-turner, one that kept me so excited to know what was going to happen next. It’s a rare feeling to be so invested in a novel that you forget the world around you for hours, but that’s exactly how I felt while reading this.

The novel is full of dark humour, dry humour, and sarcasm. Balram, as a person, sees the irony in the way India is projected to outsiders. The prime minister constantly shows off India as an economically prosperous country full of promise, but people like Balram, who belong to the underprivileged sections of society, know the real truth because they have been through the wringer. For them, every single day is a do-or-die situation.

It’s easy to paint people like Balram as the scum of the earth, but we, as privileged people, rarely question the very system designed to maintain a certain status quo. Caste, religion, gender—all of these have been, and still are, used to ensure that the poor remain poor and the rich remain rich.

For people like Balram, there are no rose-tinted glasses. There is no such thing as right or wrong, because morality will not fill his belly. He is forced to fight his way up the social ladder by any means necessary. In his mind, if he has to murder someone to escape the shackles of lifelong servitude, so be it.

If you are looking for a novel that exposes and delves deep into the class struggles in India and the societal hierarchy, then you must read The White Tiger. I cannot think of a better novel, nor of any author who has explained this phenomenon better than Aravind Adiga.

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