International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

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Trauma and Politics of Memory in Aravind Adiga’s the White Tiger

Author(s) Sanskriti
Country India
Abstract The paper offers a critical investigation of trauma and the politics of memory in The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. By exposing deep economic disparities, the novel presents a compelling portrait of post-liberalization India. It narrates corruption and class inequality through the voice of Balram Halwai, who rises from rural subjugation to become an entrepreneur. However, his success is deeply marked by psychological trauma rooted in colonial legacy and neo-capitalist exploitation. Drawing on trauma theory and postcolonial criticism, this paper examines individual memory as a narrative strategy through which Balram reconstructs his past and family history, negotiates shame, and legitimizes violence. The novel, therefore, is not merely a representation of personal suffering but also a reflection of trauma shaped by systemic conditions that entrench hierarchies of caste, class, and economic disparity. These conditions are historically linked to colonial power formations that persist within contemporary global capitalism. Balram’s epistolary narration to the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, functions as a performative act of remembering and self-fashioning. His selective, ironic, and morally ambivalent recollection of events reveals how memory becomes a tool for both testimony and justification. His consciousness of the “Darkness” operates simultaneously as an acknowledgment of oppression and a rationalization of resistance. Ultimately, The White Tiger portrays postcolonial India as a space where trauma is normalized within aspirational modernity. Through fragmented memory and calculated self-narration, Adiga reveals a rapidly transforming urban landscape in which success is often achieved through violence, erasure, and the reinvention of selfhood.
Keywords Trauma, Politics of Memory, Violence, Neo-liberal Capitalism, Urban Marginality, Narrative Self-Fashioning, Urban Entrapment.
Field Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In Volume 8, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On 2026-01-20
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E-ISSN 2582-2160
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