It's probably safe to say you can't go a week these days without reading at least one article talking about the economies of China or India. It seems there is someone in some business section of some newspaper always willing to write another breathless installment in the rise of the East as economic powers. The majority of the writers seem torn between their amazement that countries like India and China can actually have an economy, citing them as examples of how great the Free Market is.
What most of these articles fail to mention is the cost being paid for these great economic miracles. In China the majority of the labour being supplied to fuel the motor of the economy is as close to slave labour as you can get and still be paid for your work. People work long hours for little pay in conditions that would close plants in North America in a second. These are merely technicalities; nothing for us to worry about. It's not like we live there.
India has become the call centre to the world it seems. Whenever you phone a company for technical support these days, no matter what country you're calling from, you're likely to end up talking to someone in Mumbai or Bangalore. Call centres and a burgeoning IT class doesn’t hide the inequities that still exist in Indian society or that huge numbers of people still live in poverty so abject that we wouldn't even begin to comprehend its depth.
The only place you're liable to read about the reality of life in India today is on the pages of one of the many books making their way out of India to the shelves of book stores in North America. Joining those ranks is The White Tiger, written by first time novelist Aravind Adiga, published by Simon & Schuster, and just recently released in North America. In his book, Adiga not only peels back the gloss of the economic miracle to expose the rot beneath, he instructs us in the means by which a small minority of the population are able to subjugate the majority.
A white tiger is the rarest creature in the jungle, only coming along once in every generation. When Balram Halwai was still able to attend the excuse for a school in his village, he was singled out by a school inspector as being the white tiger of his contemporaries for being able to read and write when nobody else could. The inspector promised that Balram would be given a scholarship to attend a proper school so he could fulfill his potential. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. His family were forced to pull him out of school to help pay off their debt to their landlord.
Article comments
1 - k led
well, you don't understand - these writers just expose the beautiful country called india to west, to let the west run their tounge and eyes over her belly. Look at kiran desai - who reads her -but she has a booker - now this guy. Teh only good writers india had are vikram seth and salman rushdie - uptill now - well tomorrow, an unknown, depleted genius might spring fro nowhere, without awards, and fame - and he will change literature
2 - Sunil Nandlall
I would like to say that nothing Aravind Adega has written is not known throughout the world. The world which he writes of exists not only in India but Africa, Europe and the Americas. The story could be the story of poor Sicilians, Zimbabweans or Ukrainians.The book seems to make out that this life that Balram lives is unique to India. The poor getting buggered, corrupt politicians and some soul making it out of the quagmire...the story is as old as time.
3 - sitesh kumar soni
this book is realy good
4 - Archita Kumar
The book was a bit of a dissapointment quite frankly
5 - smita
the book is basically an outsiders view. Take a tour of the country, talk to a few autowallahs and you think that you know India? that you kno its ppl?? I dont think so. I belong to the same part of this country that balram comes from and trust me those feudal atrocities are a thing of the past. I do not deny that the poor in India do get a very raw deal and the corruption is also there but India is much much more than just that. India should not be seen in comparison or by contrasts to the west. our problems, our society and our life is totally different. I cant help feeling that adiga's novel is a bit overdone more so to please the western readers who love to c the poorer side of india
6 - Prachi Kagzi
After hearing so much about the book, I read it and kept waiting throughout for the story to take a form or to see that write with a spark which everyone talked about, Adiga possessed.
None of that!
Plain story about the domestic help in India which is splashed everyday in the papers.Mundane and downright boring for this is not what I call entertainment nor enlightenment!
7 - pathikrit
You put the book down with a horribly uneasy feeling inside you. The book is a slap across the face of the reader in the most subtle yet prominent way. The book takes you over for the days you spend reading it, and creeps into your system like a disease, making you more bad-tempered and misanthropic than you will ever be...this book is an experience - a morbid tryst with the maggot-infested underbelly of civilization and sophistication.
8 - Toby
justice is not done with character balram halwai and ashok. right from the start of novel writer has paid a great amount of stress on enterpernourship, but nothing came out, uptill end.arvind, simply tried to show poor side of INDIA.
9 - leena
I cannot agree more with the review that India is a feudal society disguised under the garb of Democracy. One only looks at the number of Dynastical politicians we have in India.
It is time that more such writings emerged in India and made people feel uncomfortable and think.
White Tiger shows some hope ..... however dark the path. My initial reaction to the book was negative however that was quickly altered as it got me thinking on each aspect that it talks about and it all rings so true.
The fact that this maybe the truth in many emerging countries doesn't mean that a civilisation as old and mature as ours can't take a different path.
The fact that we keep our masses uneducated and uninformed is the reason we can get away with the masses of blatant corruption and abuse in our society. I take as much blame for not educating India ...... Its time you should too and do something about it. Great writing Mr. Adiga
10 - debmalya
This book really speaks of India.I can tell you for sure as my parents hail from villages.I understand it is difficult for urban rich & middle class,which all internet users in India are,to identify themselves with the bare truth about the vast majority of our own country,as we are carried away by the falsified claims of media propaganda about 'India Rising & India Shining' which is actually 'RICH India Shining & RICH India Rising',whereas 'DARKNESS' looms large among the majority.This has become so more because the polished media houses tend to cater the readers,mostly the educated urban rich..Get hold of a copy of TEHELKA(only media that speaks about people at large,bold and fearless)
Well done ADIGA...go on with your activism..
But the irony is,people whom Adiga wanted to break from their 'COOP', can't read english...
11 - D
i think what Adiga wrote was pretty much reality based.it was a good novel in terms of humour and potrayal of india....(though not sooo much as to get d booker,i accept)and remember....THERE WAS NO EXAGGERATION...THIS NOVEL IS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF SOMEONE WHO SUFFERED-BALRAM..were we ever in his place? then who r we to judge that the suffering and poverty n blah blah has been exaggerated??
12 - D
and as to ms smita....we indians may not find stories like slumdog millionaire,and this white tiger too gr8 to win a booker/oscar coz..(DONT U REALISE)IT HAPPENS ALL AROUND US!!we dont need a book to tell us...in india it is like that..my father has like 50 times the income and comfort his father gave him..!we r used to coming up and up away from being poor to rich...and that needs determination...so such stories r there everywhere around us...
and the west r already rich arent they...they just have to continue that...so they really dont see this rags to riches story everyday and so they just get wonderstruck on hearing/reading stories like that which to us indians is so common..
Adiga wrote a decent book..but the humour was excellent.and i m sure he dint write it with any motive of pleasing east or west or south or anything.
his book is sure to create a dent and make ppl think abt the society like how Dicken's works did in england back then..
13 - shikha katiyar
The story could be the story of poor Sicilians, Zimbabweans or Ukrainians.The book seems to make out that this life that Balram lives is unique to India. The poor getting buggered, corrupt politicians and some soul making it out of the quagmire...the story is as old as time.
14 - Dhruvin
Rubbish..is the only word for the book.
Simply negative,hopeless book
All indian youth must not read the book.
Just know india then write about it Mr.Adiga.
15 - Karan
I'm glad when books like these are published. They expose India for what it truly is. In all the idiotically nationalistic reviews that I've read from Indian reviewers, not a single person has been able to dispute the reality presented in this book.