Name: Hina P. Chauhan
Sem: 3
Roll No. : 09
Batch: 2018-20
Enrollment No. : 2069108420190006
Paper No. : 13 The New Literature
Topic: Cultural Encounters in Adiga's 'The White Tiger'
Email ID: hinachauhan36511@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department Of English,M.K.Bhavnagar University.
Aravind Adiga, is the second youngest writer and fourth debut writer to win the
Booker prize in 2008 for The White Tiger. The White Tiger is an epistolary novel
that begins with the protagonist Balram writing a letter to the Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao; Balram, the protagonist of the novel, hears that Jiabao is coming to
Bangalore. Balram Halwai narrates his life in a letter, written in seven nights, and
explains how he, the son of a rickshaw puller, escaped a life of servitude to
become a successful businessman, describing himself as an entrepreneur. This
journey of Balram from a weak and oppressed village boy to that of a wealthy
entrepreneur has numerous cultural encounters that change his outlook and his
understanding of this complex Indian society. It is the same cultural encounter
that not only broadens his perspective but also equips him to change his fortune.
Through a series of cultural encounters Balram, the village boy was altered into a
self confident and economically strong entrepreneur. He confidently writes in his
letter to the Chinese Premier:
“The story of my upbringing was the story of how a half-baked fellow iwas
shaped. But pay interest, Mr. Premier! Fully formed fellows, after twelve years of
school and three years of university, wear nice suits, join companies, and take
orders from other men for the rest of their lives. Entrepreneurs are made from
half-baked clay.”
This half-baked fellow encounters his first ray of hope when the school inspector
picks him from the class; he singles out Balram because he was the only one
who can read and write. To describe him in these words:
“You, young man, are an intelligent, honest, vivacious fellow in this crowd of
thugs and idiots. In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals—the creature that
comes along only once in a generation?”
“The white tiger”
“That’s what you are, in this jungle.” (30)
Adiga says his novel attempt “to catch the voice of the men you meet as you
travel through India — the voice of the colossal underclass." According to Adiga,
the exigency for The White Tiger was to capture the unspoken voice of people
from "the Darkness" – the impoverished areas of rural India, and he "required to
do so without sentimentality or portraying them as mirthless serious weaklings as
they are typically."
Cultural Encounters within India
The story of the novel can be analyzed as the series of cultural encounters that
Blaram faces, and the consequent personal, psychological, social and
economical changes that he undergo as a result of these encounters. Along with
the central character, the readers too have a brush with the cultural diversity and
more significantly the social dissimilarity in India as a nation.
“The novel gives the detailed accounts of the Indian society—rural as well as
urban and its various facets. Laxamangarh, Gaya, Dhanbad, Delhi and Bangalore
are basic; in fact they correspond to the portrait of India. Poverty, illiteracy,
unemployment, caste and culture conflict, superstition, dowry practice, economic
disparity, Zamindari system, and misuse of marginal farmers and landless
labourers, rise of Naxalism, corrupt education system, poor health services, tax
evading racket, embittered master-servant relationship, prostitution, weakening
family structure, and its fallout etc. constitute the basic structure of Indian society
which largely forms the Dark image of India.
Adiga left Manglore in 1991 when his father moved to Australia. After 15 years,
returning to the city as a journalist with Time, he found it was changed vastly.”
(Singh 102)
The change in India is not identical throughout the society. The western culture
had a deep bang on the culture of urban cities like Bangalore and Delhi. The
manners of Pinky madam with Ashok is quite a surprise for Balram, their driver
and the protagonist of the novel, who has emerged from rural India, where
traditions and conservative life style has not prepared him for this type of cultural
shock. However, Balram was the white tiger, a unique species, who was not only
very sharp-eyed and intelligent, but also has longing to out gleam the rich class of
the cities. He does not unavoidably approve the new way of life he encounters,
but he is also not vital of it. He observes the new culture with captivated
detachment, making up his mind to outsmart the so-called smart people of the big
cities.
Cultural Encounter: Rural and Urban
Throughout the novel Adiga had try to differenciate the rural and the urban India
into two parts. He writes:
“…India is two countries in one: an India of light and an India of Darkness...” (14)
One part of the India of Darkness was Laxmangarh, the village where the
protagonist Blaram was born and spent his childhood. However, right from
childhood he seems to hate the life of poverty and strives to improve his lot by
rising and falling ahead in search of a better future.
Westernization and Indianization
This Americanization in India had played its role in the plot, since it provides an
outlet for Balram to alter his caste. To meet Pinky’s dream of America’s free
culture, Ashok, Pinky, and Balram shift to Gurgaon, an Indian city than to America. Globalisation has assisted in the creation of an American atmosphere in
India. Ashok justifies this move by explaining
"Today it was the modernist community of Delhi. American Express, Microsoft, all
the big American companies have offices there. The main road is full of shopping
malls—each mall has a cinema inside! So if Pinky Madam missed America, this
was the best place to bring her". (Adiga 101)
This change India, with all its contradiction and shocking contrast when compare
to the Australian society, must have made a great intuition on Adiga. The result
was this novel that gives a series of cultural encounters to the protagonist
Balram, in the procedure he evolves from an ignorant and innocent lad from the
village to a shrewd and worldly wise entrepreneur.
“The novel is replete with scenes that point out to Balram‟s over riding wish to
emulate the class and style of his masters. He sees Ashok, his master wearing a
white T shirt with a small design in the centre. Balram then goes out to the local
market and does not cease searching till the right T shirt is found. He also buys
black shoes and ventures into a mall, half fearing that he will be stopped
midway...” (S Shenoy 115)
“The novel exposes the Modern India with shifting values and no morals. In the
era of globalisation, everything became commodity where the bond of
relationship reached in the position of commodity and everything is for sale. The
family relationship is based upon the materialistic prosperity because the western
culture injected the poison of decadence in Indian culture. The sex has polluted
the brain of almost all the modern people. The master Ashok and his wife Pinky
madam in their excited position behave like animals’, the master ―pushing his
hand up and down her thigh’. Even they don’t care that they are in car where
driver Balaram observes them in the mirror.” (Walmiki 103)
Success has no caste, no religion and no colour. Balram’s success too is based
on murder of his master and stealing his money. Success and morality no longer
have any connection in this fast paced rat race of the modern world. Traditions
and conventions are sacrificed at the altar of materialistic gains. Loyalty in
relationships is a thing of the past. Relationships are used as a ladder to advance
in life. Balram, the White Tiger, has transcended the boundaries of class, culture
and ethics to roar loudly and proclaim his success.
Conclusion
Cultural encounters, having various dimensions in the novel The White Tiger, are
present in every phase of the protagonist’s journey of life. Balram’s voyage from
the village of Laxmanghar to the metropolitan city of Bangalore is coloured by the
cultural encounters that astonish and mystify him in the beginning. Traversing
numerous phases of his life, his journey culminates in a new social identity for
himself that is colour by no caste, creed or colour. Materialistic success
transformed the village gullible simpleton into an opportunist who even does not hesitate to murder his master for making a bright future for himself. Ultimately
“the half baked fellow” becomes a fully mature entrepreneur who is the master of
his own destiny.
Sem: 3
Roll No. : 09
Batch: 2018-20
Enrollment No. : 2069108420190006
Paper No. : 13 The New Literature
Topic: Cultural Encounters in Adiga's 'The White Tiger'
Email ID: hinachauhan36511@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department Of English,M.K.Bhavnagar University.
Aravind Adiga, is the second youngest writer and fourth debut writer to win the
Booker prize in 2008 for The White Tiger. The White Tiger is an epistolary novel
that begins with the protagonist Balram writing a letter to the Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao; Balram, the protagonist of the novel, hears that Jiabao is coming to
Bangalore. Balram Halwai narrates his life in a letter, written in seven nights, and
explains how he, the son of a rickshaw puller, escaped a life of servitude to
become a successful businessman, describing himself as an entrepreneur. This
journey of Balram from a weak and oppressed village boy to that of a wealthy
entrepreneur has numerous cultural encounters that change his outlook and his
understanding of this complex Indian society. It is the same cultural encounter
that not only broadens his perspective but also equips him to change his fortune.
Through a series of cultural encounters Balram, the village boy was altered into a
self confident and economically strong entrepreneur. He confidently writes in his
letter to the Chinese Premier:
“The story of my upbringing was the story of how a half-baked fellow iwas
shaped. But pay interest, Mr. Premier! Fully formed fellows, after twelve years of
school and three years of university, wear nice suits, join companies, and take
orders from other men for the rest of their lives. Entrepreneurs are made from
half-baked clay.”
This half-baked fellow encounters his first ray of hope when the school inspector
picks him from the class; he singles out Balram because he was the only one
who can read and write. To describe him in these words:
“You, young man, are an intelligent, honest, vivacious fellow in this crowd of
thugs and idiots. In any jungle, what is the rarest of animals—the creature that
comes along only once in a generation?”
“The white tiger”
“That’s what you are, in this jungle.” (30)
Adiga says his novel attempt “to catch the voice of the men you meet as you
travel through India — the voice of the colossal underclass." According to Adiga,
the exigency for The White Tiger was to capture the unspoken voice of people
from "the Darkness" – the impoverished areas of rural India, and he "required to
do so without sentimentality or portraying them as mirthless serious weaklings as
they are typically."
Cultural Encounters within India
The story of the novel can be analyzed as the series of cultural encounters that
Blaram faces, and the consequent personal, psychological, social and
economical changes that he undergo as a result of these encounters. Along with
the central character, the readers too have a brush with the cultural diversity and
more significantly the social dissimilarity in India as a nation.
“The novel gives the detailed accounts of the Indian society—rural as well as
urban and its various facets. Laxamangarh, Gaya, Dhanbad, Delhi and Bangalore
are basic; in fact they correspond to the portrait of India. Poverty, illiteracy,
unemployment, caste and culture conflict, superstition, dowry practice, economic
disparity, Zamindari system, and misuse of marginal farmers and landless
labourers, rise of Naxalism, corrupt education system, poor health services, tax
evading racket, embittered master-servant relationship, prostitution, weakening
family structure, and its fallout etc. constitute the basic structure of Indian society
which largely forms the Dark image of India.
Adiga left Manglore in 1991 when his father moved to Australia. After 15 years,
returning to the city as a journalist with Time, he found it was changed vastly.”
(Singh 102)
The change in India is not identical throughout the society. The western culture
had a deep bang on the culture of urban cities like Bangalore and Delhi. The
manners of Pinky madam with Ashok is quite a surprise for Balram, their driver
and the protagonist of the novel, who has emerged from rural India, where
traditions and conservative life style has not prepared him for this type of cultural
shock. However, Balram was the white tiger, a unique species, who was not only
very sharp-eyed and intelligent, but also has longing to out gleam the rich class of
the cities. He does not unavoidably approve the new way of life he encounters,
but he is also not vital of it. He observes the new culture with captivated
detachment, making up his mind to outsmart the so-called smart people of the big
cities.
Cultural Encounter: Rural and Urban
Throughout the novel Adiga had try to differenciate the rural and the urban India
into two parts. He writes:
“…India is two countries in one: an India of light and an India of Darkness...” (14)
One part of the India of Darkness was Laxmangarh, the village where the
protagonist Blaram was born and spent his childhood. However, right from
childhood he seems to hate the life of poverty and strives to improve his lot by
rising and falling ahead in search of a better future.
Westernization and Indianization
This Americanization in India had played its role in the plot, since it provides an
outlet for Balram to alter his caste. To meet Pinky’s dream of America’s free
culture, Ashok, Pinky, and Balram shift to Gurgaon, an Indian city than to America. Globalisation has assisted in the creation of an American atmosphere in
India. Ashok justifies this move by explaining
"Today it was the modernist community of Delhi. American Express, Microsoft, all
the big American companies have offices there. The main road is full of shopping
malls—each mall has a cinema inside! So if Pinky Madam missed America, this
was the best place to bring her". (Adiga 101)
This change India, with all its contradiction and shocking contrast when compare
to the Australian society, must have made a great intuition on Adiga. The result
was this novel that gives a series of cultural encounters to the protagonist
Balram, in the procedure he evolves from an ignorant and innocent lad from the
village to a shrewd and worldly wise entrepreneur.
“The novel is replete with scenes that point out to Balram‟s over riding wish to
emulate the class and style of his masters. He sees Ashok, his master wearing a
white T shirt with a small design in the centre. Balram then goes out to the local
market and does not cease searching till the right T shirt is found. He also buys
black shoes and ventures into a mall, half fearing that he will be stopped
midway...” (S Shenoy 115)
“The novel exposes the Modern India with shifting values and no morals. In the
era of globalisation, everything became commodity where the bond of
relationship reached in the position of commodity and everything is for sale. The
family relationship is based upon the materialistic prosperity because the western
culture injected the poison of decadence in Indian culture. The sex has polluted
the brain of almost all the modern people. The master Ashok and his wife Pinky
madam in their excited position behave like animals’, the master ―pushing his
hand up and down her thigh’. Even they don’t care that they are in car where
driver Balaram observes them in the mirror.” (Walmiki 103)
Success has no caste, no religion and no colour. Balram’s success too is based
on murder of his master and stealing his money. Success and morality no longer
have any connection in this fast paced rat race of the modern world. Traditions
and conventions are sacrificed at the altar of materialistic gains. Loyalty in
relationships is a thing of the past. Relationships are used as a ladder to advance
in life. Balram, the White Tiger, has transcended the boundaries of class, culture
and ethics to roar loudly and proclaim his success.
Conclusion
Cultural encounters, having various dimensions in the novel The White Tiger, are
present in every phase of the protagonist’s journey of life. Balram’s voyage from
the village of Laxmanghar to the metropolitan city of Bangalore is coloured by the
cultural encounters that astonish and mystify him in the beginning. Traversing
numerous phases of his life, his journey culminates in a new social identity for
himself that is colour by no caste, creed or colour. Materialistic success
transformed the village gullible simpleton into an opportunist who even does not hesitate to murder his master for making a bright future for himself. Ultimately
“the half baked fellow” becomes a fully mature entrepreneur who is the master of
his own destiny.
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