Review: The White Tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

News outlets keep telling us how, despite the great leaps made by science and technology, despite globalization and relative global peace, in our current world, wealth disparity is at its worst. Where, on one end we see billionaires (and unreported oil trillionaires) whose total assets exceed the GDP of small and some medium sized nations. Ones who can afford to purchase ludicrously exorbitant eccentricities, have entire private nation states under their command, can control the economies of the world and remake it according to their (often naive) whims.

And when the end of civilization becomes apparent, the only ones will be fully stocked and furnished bunkers and lifeboats, all ready to create a new dystopian post-apocalyptic new world order. Think 2012, but with less CGI and a lot more suffering.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who work 3 or more jobs, jumping through hoops just to keep food on the table. This is despite putting in a 120% effort, sincerity and not for want of skills or talent. For better or for worse, their starting point in life has them trapped in the rat race, with little to no chance of escape.

Like the rest of the world, India is a land of two kinds of people. Those who never afford enough; and those who can never be satisfied with enough. But, in India, this disparity is further muddled and exacerbated by mixing in generations old rotten carcasses of racism, casteism and bigotry.

Unless you’re the random few who were born into it, stole it, or married into it, these are the invisible shackles which keep you at the bottom of the pile of manure. Unseen but whose unfathomable weight is constantly felt.


On completing the white tiger, one feels the uncanny parallels it has with the Korean movie parasite, by Bong Joon Ho. The talented and capable everyman, having to act as the servile willing slave to a privileged modern-day noble, whose wealth and accomplishments are largely superficial or non-existent. Whose fortune in life largely came from who they are born as, rather than actual effort.

Even down to this ever-pervading stench of poverty, which clings to the ‘servants’, making their presence intolerable to the delicate sensibilities of the masters.

How, despite the inhuman way they’re treated, both aspire to someday be the masters themselves, to in turn inhabit the skin and life of the rulers.

Sidenote/ Rant: While writing, I came across the 2022 Paria disaster, which claimed the lives of 4 divers (Search: 2022 Caribbean diving disaster). In short, 5 divers of the Paria Fuel company got sucked into an oil pipeline. One managed to escape and begged the rescuers to save his team. They didn’t, and the 4 people died.

You’d be forgiven to not have heard of this previously; seeing as how there is little to no coverage of what amounted to gross negligence and supposed greed, which caused the parent company to forego rescue 4 divers, writing them off as expendable. The heartbreaking part was how the 4 were still alive for almost 48 hours and could clearly be heard banging on the pipes desperate for rescue. The legal proceedings are still underway.

Contrast this with another diving disaster from last year; Oceangate. Just that one word is enough to fill you in on the whole affair. There is a whole detailed Wikipedia page, not to mention the hundreds of videos online, farming for views explaining in minute detail as to what happened. Ironically, the wiki page for the 2022 Paria tragedy is all but a stub. Seems like, even in death, the rich get priority billing to mere plebeians.

Anyway you look at it, we’ve become an ass backwards society; pardon my French. Now, back to the story.

Synopsis

The plot of this story is simply put, a highly colored account of the duality of life, from the ‘uneducated’ as well as unsophisticated eyes of our protagonist, Balram Halwai, who can, generously be described as an unreliable narrator.

Born into the world he refers to as ‘The darkness’ shackled by poverty, oppression and discrimination, Balram Halwai is smart enough to see how his miserable life will go. Decades of back breaking toil as a beast of burden for his large family, followed by a pitiable untimely death. Like his father, and his father before him.

Confronted with this reality, he had two choices; to surrender to his destiny; or to break its yolk through any means. To do so, he had to throw away all useless and cumbersome emotions of love, attachment, morality and living a proper life.

As Balram progresses through this dark, reflective journey of self-discovery, we get to be the backseat passengers of his story. Being introduced to the seedy underbelly of society; some facets quite familiar, while others novel and pitiable.

There are things which we understand, but Balram, from his ‘backwards’ life doesn't; and vice versa. Through him, we see this dance, one which has been played out over millennia, between those who have, and those who don’t. Between those who exploit, versus those who let themselves be.

From the onset, it is made apparent, in this uncaring indifferent world, everyone is out to exploit you for their own benefit. Balram’s village is poor and underdeveloped, not because it lacks the resources. Rather, because everyone from the teachers at primary schools, to doctors in public hospitals, and everyone in between, are more interested in lining their pockets with public funds, rather than use it for the intended purpose; for improving the lives of people.

Then of course there are the landlords and the politicians. Two sides of a perverted coin, with their own vested interests, best served by keeping the masses downtrodden and suffering. Who fatten off the land, much like the pigs from Animal farm, while the rest, the servile livestock, are left to starve, squabbling for the few scraps that manage to find their way down the pile. Any nails that stand out, with lofty notions of progress or freedom, are ruthlessly hammered down, sometimes in the literal sense.

In order to escape this vicious cycle of poverty and exploitation, Balram must be willing to discard his humanity and empathy; for these will only weigh him down; and are not traits shared by his oppressors.

His master, the ‘Stork’, under whom Balram initially finds employment, is an enduring vestige of a bygone time, where conditions were even more deplorable. When, the very life and death of the servile class, were under the whims of the rulers. Who treats him no better than a slave. The only difference is that this slave is not shackled by chains of iron. Rather by those of family; under threat of complete annihilation.

The stork’s sons, the eldest ‘Mongoose’, is a carbon copy of his father, down to how he abuses those beneath him. The youngest ‘Mr. Ashok’, is the US educated golden child, is a white man in all but skin. Who carries lofty notions of enlightened sensibilities, who considers himself of a modern breed, and ‘better’ than the backward notions of his family members.

And to an extent, he is kinder to his servants, especially Balram, who is an all in all driver/cook/butler to Ashok. But this kindness and benevolence, nonetheless, comes from a position of privilege. As a master that treats their servant kindly, look how great they are. At the end of the day, this kindness is worth less than a bucket of sand in a desert.

We come to this realization much at the same time as Balram. At one point, he is almost exploited to take the rap for Mrs. Ashok, who ran over a street urchin, in a bout of drunken driving. Hardwork and loyalty, would, in the best-case scenario, earn him an early retirement, with a broken body and soul; to let his children continue the line of servitude. Balram chose to take the road less traveled. While his actions are not entirely justifiable, they’re understandable.

The writing

Mr. Adiga’s writing has a particular wit about it, the kind you’re used to seeing in the pages of R.K. Lakshman. His observations, through the eyes of Balram, in regard to the system of exploitation and oppression, where the poor stay poor, even as the rich soar new horizons, it’s a mixed bag. Some are what you’re used to seeing, in any satire piece; the corrupt power-hungry politicians, colluding with the rich, to make the lives of the common man a constant toil.

Others, such as the nurtured darkness in those who grew up in the darkness, are more nuanced. Balram grew up a bright child, with a fair prospect at better education, employment, and upliftment for his family from the quagmire of society.

Instead, his family are more concerned with immediate gains, sealing off any possibilities of a bright future, pushing him off to the life of a waste cleaner in some seedy eatery. As, to them, the tangible benefit of meager employment, outweighed any long-term gratification. His family, his large, extended, cumbersome family, which turned to him as one would to a fattened cow, were another shackle which Balram needed to throw off, to resurrect himself from the darkness, to be more human.

Make no mistake, our protagonist is one who doesn’t give a flying hoot about doing the right thing, or the sanctity of human life. Like a dispassionate merchant, he weighs the pros and cons of every decision, on how it would affect him, and him alone. If the outcome is advantageous to him, but horrific to others, even if those others are his family, he’s willing to take the gamble; with little to no feelings of guilt or remorse.

In learning to emulate the indifference, and inhumanity of his masters, Balram was able to become an existence closer to them. A step closer towards the one who is exploited, rather than the ones that suffer.

Despite all the clever entendres and satirical quips, nonetheless, I felt that the last act of this book was rushed, and largely predictable. From the events set up during the first act, you wait for the moment for the other shoe to drop, to reveal some new darker facet of this pungent ocean of social satire that we’re enduring. But the climax was largely anticlimactic; and left more unanswered questions than one would be comfortable with.


View all my reviews