The Subaltern Can Roar: An Introspection on Adiga's "The White Tiger"

Kunal Mandal

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.51628

The Subaltern Can Roar: An Introspection on Adiga's "The White Tiger"

Author(s)	Mr. Kunal Mandal
Country	India
Abstract	The White Tiger is the debut novel of Indian journalist turned novelist Aravind Adiga, published in 2008 and also received the prestigious Booker prize in the same year. This is a captivating story of an underdog and his adventure of becoming a master from a servant. Adiga attacks societal stratification and caste system in Indian social order with an arrow sharpened with scathing criticism. In the novel, the protagonist cum narrator explains about entrepreneurship in India to Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, who is about to pay a visit to India in order to know about the entrepreneurship in modern India. The protagonist of this novel is Balram Halwai, son of a poor rikshaw puller, representative of the downtrodden people. But some characteristic traits make him unique that is why his school inspector named him the white tiger. He is driven by unyielding spirit and vaulting ambition that led him to surpass all the societal obstacles and to claim his status as a successful entrepreneur. Destiny puts him in a situation where there was no escape. He decides to kill his master and run away with his money to evade the life of eternal slavery. Eventually, he established himself as a rising entrepreneur based in Bangalore. Balram is the spokesperson, the voice of underclass, explores Adiga’s point of view about the power dynamics and social relationship between the elite class and marginalized people in our society. This article is a social critique that shows wealth and power are the determining factors of all social disparities and how the marginalized class has been affected since ages by all these factors. Balram Halwai, the voice of underdog, declares war against the age old oppression of upper class through his ruthless venture of becoming a successful entrepreneur by shattering the shackle of lifelong slavery.
Keywords	The White Tiger, Underclass, Society, Caste system, Class, Subaltern
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2025
Published On	2025-07-20
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.51628
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g9t2ff

View / Download PDF File

E-ISSN 2582-2160

doi

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

IJFMR DOI prefix is
10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads

Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 4 Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 3 Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 2

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

The Subaltern Can Roar: An Introspection on Adiga's "The White Tiger"

Share this