The Role of Casteism and Poverty in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: As a Social Investigation

Abstract

This study explores Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is a debut novel, which was published in 2008. The White Tiger is the story of Balram’s confession to his murdering the master. This novel highlights the people who have enslaved their community for the ages through all the restrictions of society. Aravind Adiga has carved his name in the galaxy of modern Indian novelists, who won the Man Booker prize for The White Tiger. He is the second youngest writer to win the prize. He is the fourth Indian to receive the honor, after Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, and Rushdie. His writing style is essentially satirical and sarcastic. This novel reveals the difference between India’s rise as a contemporary global economy and the character Balram, who comes from a crushing rural background. Balram is the strongest voice of poor people, especially the subalterns, unemployed youths, poor auto drivers, servants, prostitutes, beggars, and unprivileged figures. Within The White Tiger, Adiga explores the unhappy social realities, like poverty and hypocrisy, in India, largely through dark humour. The darkness of India signifies that Laxmangarh, a small village in Bihar, was presided over by feudal lords. It was hidden under the dark cover of corruption, inequality, greed, and the barbaric attitude of these lords. The novel provides a dark picture of India’s class struggle in a globalised world. The White Tiger takes the readers to the heart of India and into the world of suspense. The novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption, and poverty in India.