POVERTY AND INJUSTICE IN ARAVIND ADIGA'S "THE WHITE TIGER"

Poverty and Injustice in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger

            

           Aravind Adiga’s debut novel, The White Tiger opens “a Pandora’s box unleashing ugliness, beauty, misery and brilliance” says a reviewer. It “shines a light on India’s vast area of darkness” and has been called “an amazing and angry novel about injustice and power” by USA Today. Adiga’s narrative highlights the contrast between India’s rise as a modern global economy and crushing poverty in rural India. The novel conveys the lives of India’s poor in a realistic and sympathetic manner.

            To describe the conditions of poor people Adiga uses a strange general term “the darkness.” The term “darkness” represents the villages in India. Laxmangarh, Balram’s native village has no electricity, sewage, sanitation, communication or healthcare. The villagers suffer because of poverty and they cannot fulfill their dreams. Balram Halwai the protagonist of the novel leaves the school because he has to work in a tea shop to refund the loan from the Stork. Vikram Halwai, father of the protagonist is a rickshaw puller and died of Tuberculosis without treatment in the government hospital.

            India’s economic growth is continuously increasing and equivalent to America. But the condition of the poor remains the same. The wages for the poor people like servants, drivers and cooks has only been increased marginally. Adiga in the words of Balram compares the plight of poor to chickens living in a rooster coop in the poultry market. They blindly bind themselves in the trap of servitude. Adiga also describes the problem of poor people in the present scenario by giving example of usage of cell phones. Speaking of the basic necessity of water Balram says, “There is no water in our taps, and what do you people in Delhi give us? You give us cell phones.”

            India is the world’s greatest democratic country, yet the poor people are in their same condition. They don’t have freedom or power to do anything. They have very little political freedom. Adiga gives a true picture about election period and political power of poor Indians and the failure of India’s election system. Justice one of the important forces of a democratic country is offered only to the rich people. The drivers hired by the rich are treated like servants and forced to do works like cooking, cleaning, etc. The drivers are not allowed to enter the big Malls and it is reported in newspaper as “Is There No Space for the Poor in the Malls of New Delhi.”

            When some accidents take place because of the masters, the drivers are victimised. In the case of Balram, he was victimised for the accident caused by Pinky madam. It shows the servity of injustice labored on the destitute. Balram was humiliated by all his masters; he wants to take revenge that leads to murder. He wants to come out the rooster coop. so he kills his own master to become rich. Poverty creates the monster Balram. He is also a representation of the poor in India longing for ‘tomorrow.’ This story is an allegory of the new India with a distinctly chilling twist. He is not only an entrepreneur but also a criminal remarkably capable of self-justification.

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