The White Tiger: A Novel

The White Tiger makes a contribution to a subgenre in Indian writing which portrays ‘The Darkness’ that exists as an undercurrent beneath the economic boom and globalisation in urban India. The Mark of Vishnu by Manil Suri (fiction) and Temptations of the West by Pankaj Mishra (non fiction) are some others I can recall.

In a funny, irreverant but hard-hitting account of a man from rural Bihar, Aravind Adiga exposes the utter callousness that exists about basic human dignity and quality of life, outside the glamour and affluence of the big cities. This is the India where rampant corruption, and the evils of the caste system combine to create a wretched existence for most people who live inside it.

A review by Kevin Rushby in the Guardian said : “My hunch is that this is fundamentally an outsider's view and a superficial one. There are so many other alternative Indias out there, uncontacted and unheard.”

I can assure Mr. Rushby that the picture that Adiga paints is anything but superficial. It is just that the rich, and the rising middle class choose to ignore the ‘alternative India’ that exists right outside the comforts of their compounded enclaves.

The only reason I gave the book 4 stars was because of a small bit in between which was bit of a drag.