White Tiger by Aravind Adiga [Winner:Man Booker Prize 2008] [Book Review]

 Title: White Tiger

Author: Aravind Adiga

White Tiger: Adiga's Doom Star Rickshaw Ride

I usually avoid writing largely negative reviews about books for primarily two reasons: First, I would rather write about that which I love or like immensely, and second, I tend to be a bit sharp with my criticism and I prefer to confine aforementioned sharpness to an exception rather than the rule.  But given how strongly I dislike this bit of work – a close second being the recent obnoxious and oft tautological swill that’s been pouring out of Rupi Kaur’s mouth in the guise of “poetry” – I’ve made an exception.    At best, this book was salaciously amusing to the point of fantastical hilarity. It reads as an aspiring-cinematic experience, into which it has – unsurprisingly - fructified .

Adiga’s view of India is pretty bleak.  Adults are bad, children are bad, villages are considered the ‘darkness’, cities are rife with corrupt ambition... the street mithaiwalla’s left pinky is quaking with ill intent... you get the drift.. and if one is not bad then one is stupid and will be served up to those who are, you guessed it, “bad”. White Tiger fixates and obsesses about exhibiting the issues of caste and community and how this suffocating societal evil has successfully survived after Independence. There are numerous points in the book that show-case this ad-nauseum : when the narrator is learning how to drive, the taxi driver who is teaching him tells him that he is not meant to learn how to drive because only warriors (Rajputs) are strong enough to drive (Adiga, 2008:56). When the narrator’s employers are informally interviewing him before hiring him they ask him which caste he is from (Adiga, 2008:62,64-65). When he is asked to cook it is assumed that he is familiar with cooking beverages and sweets because he comes from a caste of sweet-makers (Adiga,2008: 65,145). The actions of his employers are justified by virtue of being from the community of landlords i.e., when the narrator’s employer (Ashok) manhandles the narrator for driving his wife, Pinky to the airport when she wishes to leave her husband, the narrator reassures himself that the ‘landlord blood’ still existed in his master (Adiga, 2008:182).

Adiga’s India is permanently frozen in a caste and class dynamic where social elevation is discouraged and almost impossible (short of murder apparently). This is highlighted when the guard of a mall refuses to let a poor man enter (Adiga, 2008:148). In Adiga’s India, only the ruthless or the people with the ‘big bellies’ take whatever they want and the rest are left to rot (Adiga, 2008: 64,231).  If Africa is considered the Dark Star (as noted by Paul Theroux in his travelogue Dark Star Safari) then India is basically portrayed as a Doom Star Rickshaw Ride.

Adiga views democracy as a failure in the rural areas where the people’s right to vote is denied to them (Adiga, 2008:100-102). Economic planning is considered a mockery due to the rampant corruption between the government, the businessmen and other traders. 

The only really interesting aspect of this novel, is in the exhibition of the existence of what was termed by Gramsci as the ‘contradictory consciousness’. One observes this throughout the book, especially in the way that the narrator wishes to emulate his employer’s lifestyle when he is allowed to enter the mall (Adiga, 2008:151-152) or by trying to sleep with a blond prostitute (Adiga, 2008:232) as a marker of having a higher status in society. Adiga brings forth the internalization of norms as they trickle down the societal pyramid. At the same time Adiga depicts the narrator as resenting the upper castes. It is in the master- servant dynamic where one observes that the subservience to the higher castes seems to be built into the psyche of the lower classes (Adiga, 2008:298) and yet, it is not always a relationship of antagonism that one expects but one that might even be layered by some fondness i.e., a contradictory consciousness on the part of the protagonist. For example, when the protagonist feels protective of his employer when the employer’s wife deserts him (Adiga, 2008:186 -187). There are also glimpses of the  ‘organic intellectual’ hailing from the marginalized sections of society, who challenges the ideology of the upper classes and at times wishes to destroy the upper classes (Kunnath, 2006:106), the organic intellectual being an auto-didact or as Adiga describes him a ‘self taught entrepreneur’  (Kunnath, 2006:109; Adiga, 2008:6) .

Aside from that there is not very much else in this book. A mild nod may be given to the regurgitation of the obsession with fair skin, which is portrayed by the caricatured ire of the protagonist’s desire for a certain kind of prostitute, and, the notion(s) that marrying off a daughter is considered a loss and marrying off a son is considered an advantage. Such thinking is still prevalent and has contributed to the phenomena of son preference and skewered sex ratios.

Interestingly there is no mention of some very important polito-socio-economic developments in India, such as, for starters, the rise of a robust middle class, the entry of the lower castes and regional parties in the political arena (which would actually be considered as evidence of the success of democracy), the steady increase of women in the workforce, the rise of institutions such as the IIT’s where merit is at the forefront. Even fiction requires some research. An example would be the brilliant and beautifully researched novels by Amitav Ghosh (the Glass Palace being my favourite). As per the captioned novel itself, if India was still so backward, then the protagonist would have not been hired as a driver given that, as per his own admission, his caste was that of benign sweet-sellers. 

The caricatured exaggeration of the antagonistic linkages in Indian society create a naïve impression of the book that merely widen the gap between the haves and have-nots by feeding the paranoia and xenophobia against social mobility i.e., that your servants want what you have and will ruthlessly kill for it.

An - in hindsight darkly ironic- example of exactly how fantastical the plot of the captioned novel really is, is that when a similar scenario did occur in real life i.e., the murder of  Aarushi Talwar -a 12 year old girl- in her room with the evidence pointing to the servant(s), it was  incomprehensible for society to accept. Instead, the blame was pinned on the parents. Aarushi’s parents were eventually acquitted after several excruciating years of viciousness and harassment despite clinching evidence such as brain mapping results and DNA profiling indicating the contrary [for more on this please refer to Aarushi by Avirook Sen].

Overall, in the face of the plethora of works regarding India, fictional and otherwise, White Tiger pales in comparison both stylistically and in imagination owing to it’s incredibly narrow outlook. Qua fiction, ‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie and 'God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy are unparalleled in their understanding of the beautiful trauma that accompanied Independence as  contemporary India rose from the ashes. 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry is a gripping read about the seemingly strict yet osmotic barriers in Indian society during the time of Indira Gandhi. 'Ice Candy' by Bapsi Sidwa and 'A Suitable Boy' provide their own reflections of Indian society. For those who prefer something a bit more fast paced there is 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts.

For an understanding of modern Indian society via non fiction 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' by Katherine Boo is eye-opening when it comes to portraying the challenges of social mobility for the deprived classes. A much lighter read about city life would be 'Delhi Mostly Harmless' by Elizabeth Chatterjee which captures the author’s experiences in the capital while she conducts her field work for her DPhil.  For the more academically inclined the writings of Andre Beteille, Ashish Nandy and Karin Kapadia are par excellence. Those fascinated by the revolt of the lower castes and the usurpation of power may peruse the works of George J. Kunnath regarding the Naxalites.

In the genre of cinematic fascination about modern India’s dark underbelly movies such as Company, Gangs of Wasseypur, Slumdog Millionaire, Gully boy and the very recently released Ludo are gritty and entertaining. They capture aspects of the complex polito-societal fabric that weaves though the tapestry of the sub-continent. They highlight the hopes, challenges and sacrifices (morally and otherwise) that are intertwined with socio-economic mobility.

In conclusion Adiga’s India makes for exciting fodder as a curt little read and a catchy cinematic experience. It is far from a definitive understanding of any aspect of India much less of India as a whole. What most of the above readings will signify is that what India is or what India is symbolic of is ideational rather than a single fixed notion or entity. It is the lens from which one decides to study or view certain subject matter regarding India that will shape one’s perception(s) of what India is, what it represents and where it is headed. So before deciding anything based on a wee bit of writing, perhaps read a bit more or better yet, why not visit India a few times .... At best Adiga's work attempts to be a combination of a poor-man’s-Leskov and Marlon James’ 'Brief History of 7 Killings'. Read it for the salacious thrill and remember that:

‘India is a state of mind’

                                                -‘Idea of India’, Sunil Khilnani (2003:198)

Bibliography:

Adiga, A, (2008) White Tiger Atlantic Books.

Kunnath G.J, (2006) 'Becoming a Naxalite in Rural Bihar: Class Struggle and the Contradictions',  Journal of Peasant Studies 33:1, 89-123

Khilnani S., (2003) Idea of India Farrar Straus and Giroux