Arvind Adiga's The White Tiger is follows the life of Balram Halwai, a driver, who is treated like a servant or ghulam -- a ubiquitous and normalized culture in India -- and his justification to take revenge.
A good book is like a nice wine — the taste lingers for quite some time after it is consumed. Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger is one such book. The book follows the journey of Balram Halwai — a poor yet ambitious person — from his village in Bihar to becoming a car driver to a wealthy household.
The book consists of a series of letters from Balram to the then Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, narrating his life journey to becoming a driver. He is an ambitious man who aspires for upward social and economic mobility. Despite his best efforts, he realizes his caste and economic status remains the biggest obstacle to becoming successful. The more he attempts to break, the more he realized how much he is truly shackled due to his caste and economic status.
Unlike others, Balram thinks he is different from his community. He calls himself the White Tiger (hence the title) — a rare breed and misfit in the jungle just like him. Despite being good in school, he is forced to drop out of school to help his family with additional expenses. Later, he works as a waiter in a small tea shop. But Balram was ambitious. As a kid, he would aspire to become a bus conductor since they were the most charismatic occupation he had seen. But he hustled to get a better job — a driver to a wealthy household. However, it is not the job but how you are treated in the job that matters.
The book highlights the relationship between the two Indias: those that are served a.k.a sahibs or masters and those who serve them a.k.a ghulams or servants. Balram is treated like a ghulam in the household he is hired as a driver. This is because wealthy people don’t hire full-time drivers. They hire servants who also drive. Other times, he is expected to buy groceries, wash clothes and do dirty laundry for his sahib (pun intended), massage the legs of older members of the households and get hit on the head every time he makes a mistake.
The book traces how Balram’s perception of his master, Ashok, changes over time. It can be broken into six stages although it might not always be linear. The six stages are as follows:
Stage 1: Worship — my master is god. I worship my master.
Stage 2: Gratitude — my master gives me food, money, and shelter. I am grateful to my master.
Stage 3: Respect — my master speaks to me nicely. I respect my master.
Stage 4: Betrayal — my master made me commit a sin. Master betrayed me.
Stage 5: Anger — my master commits sin. I don’t like my master
Stage 6: Hatred — my master is bad. I am poor because my master is rich. I hate him.
The book is written in a simple language (similar to Chetan Bhagat) since it is a series of letters by Balram. However, simple language doesn’t stop it from becoming hard-hitting and visceral. On the contrary, it enhanced the empathy for the servants. We feel a sense of outrage when Balram or other ghulams are treated poorly by the sahibs.
The pain requires an outlet. It talks about the subtle ways the servants take their revenge. For example, when one master got a toupee to hide his baldness, the driver would deliberately speed up during the speed breaker to make the toupee fall out of his master’s head. Other times, they would piss on the flower pots, kick the pet dog when taking them for a walk, slap their master if drunk.
It is a quick read but hard-hitting. After reading the book, you might start looking at the world from the driver's perspective when you enter the bus, cab, or a rickshaw.
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