A Negative View Of Modern Indian Society In The White Tiger
In the book “The White Tiger”, by Aravind Adiga, Balram grows up learning about India’s corrupted mess first hand. Because of this, he becomes more independent and puts wealth and power before his morals to escape the corrupt society of India. By doing so, he later embraces the corrupt mindset and kills his boss to develop an alternate moral.
The protagonist grew up in the darkness, where the poor and rural India is held at. The people who live in the darkness believe that the only way to escape poverty is by joining the light. However, we can see that in the book, the light is not just wealthy and sophisticated, but is also extremely corrupt to the extent where people bribe each other to move higher in terms of social mobility. Balram learned about the corrupt medical system when his father died. In a government hospital, you would need to bribe a doctor to come and help your family in need! This corruption goes all the way to the Prime minister and his rigged voting system. This rigged voting system already ensures the spot for a certain party. Balram later learns about the “chicken coop” after becoming a chauffeur for the Stork family. He believes that the only way to escape poverty and break out of the coop is by sacrificing everything, meaning that even traditional ideas and his own family put in danger.
Balram’s boss, Mr. Ashok, was already born into the light. Urban and wealthy, He becomes a landowner and has no worries into a wrong decision because of the amount of wealth his family owns. Mr. Ashok bribes people with money and threatens anyone who oppresses his thinking. In this case, he threatens Balram of his own family being watched. It says on page 56, where Mr. Ashok finds out where his family is and what they are up to. “He’s got a good family. They’ve never made any trouble. Father died some years ago of TB. He was a rickshaw-puller. Brother is in Dhanbad too, a worker in the tea shops. No history of supporting Naxals or other terrorists. And they don’t move about: we know exactly where they are.”
In conclusion, the future of new India is not sunshine and rainbows, but is just filled with selfishness, greed, and rich arrogant people cheating themselves through society. I believe that in “The White Tiger”, this novel is both a negative view of modern Indian society and a vision for change. It just depends on your perspective. For example, if you are Balram and you come from the darkness into the light, you will see that India can be viewed as a vision for change, but if you come from the light and lead yourself into the darkness, you will see that the modern society of India is simply just a negative view.
