Conclusion

The worst indication of caste is untouchability. All human beings are equal, yet,

man has divided people on the basis of caste. Caste is decided by birth hence, there is no

real rationale behind it. Generally, the low-caste people are ill-treated and humiliated by

the high-caste people. But all high-caste people are not the same. The Hindus have

orthodox ideas against lower caste people. Christians and Muslims are more liberal in

their treatment of caste people. The untouchables are considered to be polluting the

purity of objects, places and persons. Many writers have hinted that attitudes have

changed during the course of time.

Overthrowing caste system when it is a matter of hunger and need is also pointed

out by the author. Ram Prasad is a false name assumed by the Muslim driver of Ashok’s

family. He had to assume this name and pose to be a Hindu because there is a general

hatred for the Muslim community in India. Adiga shows that Balram and his brother kept

getting jobs easily at sweetshops because they were ‘Halwais’ by caste. Balram knows

that a worshipper of God is one to be trusted; hence, he always pretends to worship the

numerous pictures and idols of deities in an attempt to create a respectable and god-

fearing image of himself in the eyes of his master. However, men have become

opportunists in these hard times and Balram feels no sense of guilt when he cheats his

master under the guise of religion, even when he goes to the extent of killing his master.

The high caste Brahmins enjoy all the privileges that life had to offer. It is natural

for any individual to wish to continue enjoying those privileges. This would have been

impossible had the lower castes raised their heads and arms and confronted the Brahmins.

It was necessary to keep them in their low position. Religion was strategically used in
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those days. The Brahmins assigned the structure to religion, so that without being

blamed, they could continue to enjoy the highest position in society. The oppression of

the low caste people was the result of this general human tendency to retain a position of

power and suppress those who might pose a challenge. Kalo too knew that only a

religious stance could give him an opportunity to gain what he deserved in life. He

proved it, again, without a sense of guilt like Balram Halwai, using religion to advantage

and cheating the world in its name.

Another sociological reality which is reflected in this novel is that society is

always stratified. In fact, every sub-strata of society gets stratified eventually on one or

the other criteria, whether it is caste or class. Stratification on the basis of caste in India

was replaced by social stratification on the basis of economic status. Real social equality

in its true sense seems to be almost impossible. Inequality leads to restlessness followed

by struggle and conflicts. Hence, in every social unit at any given time, there is some

kind of conflict which originates in stratification.

Too much money and power can make a man pervert and sadistic. Powerful ones

seem to get sadistic pleasure in torturing the powerless. Cultural traditions in India

prevent most individuals from revolting against existing circumstances. They are more or

less passive in their attitude, although they have the power and capacity to overpower

their tormentors. If at all anyone dares to do it, like Balram in The White Tiger, he gets

tremendous joy and satisfaction, not sadistic but ‘tongue-in-cheek’ type.

Arvind Adiga, the author of The White Tiger belongs to a younger generation.

The burning issue is the acceptance of global economy by India and its adverse effects on
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poor people. According to the researcher, this is one of the best novels on the issue of

globalization. The novel refers to the modulating tensions between superpowers of India

and China. Globalization has not only affected the class system but also the caste system

indirectly. Adiga has portrayed the true picture of Indian society and the changes taking

place.

There is also included a discussion of the components of culture, consisting in the

social institutions: class, caste, family, occupational groups and interest groups; the social

identities: language, religion, race and gender; and social practices: economic system,

forms of government, values and norms, customs and traditions, rites and rituals, and

symbols, which collectively form the cultural identity.

Aravind Adiga’s fictional works deal with class conflict, seen in The White Tiger

as Balram is shown to come from the lowest stratum of the society and get embroiled into

the middle and the upper classes. Balram’s annoyance has been an outcome of caste as

well as class. Adiga has employed the symbol of the Rooster Coop to microcosmically

put forward the caste and class quandary of the Indians. The strain of humour in the novel

brings out another daffy comparison consisting in the big-bellied and flat-bellied, to show

the people in power and those out of power.

The changing values of the people living under the forces of globalization make

Balram to trigger his inherent wrath against the establishment by adopting the imported

cut-throat ways with a goody-goody epithet: entrepreneurship. Family as a social unit is

shown to undergo fissures. Having been away from India and the native, Mr. Ashok

craved for family life and was obviously envious with Balram, who had a united family.

Ironically, Balram was fed up with the domination of the matriarch- Kusum, the
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grandmother, whose exploitative tendencies under the excuse of family sustenance had

eaten away the life of Balram’s father and his brother.

The novel analyse the darkly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in

a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a

village boy. He represents the identity of all lower class people, who are struggling to

show their identity among the society. Halwai represents the caste Sweet-maker. The

White Tiger represents power, freedom, individuality in which Balram tries to rid of caste

system which is suppressed the marginalized people life. Ultimately, Balram transcends

his sweet-maker caste to become a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi

service. Moreover, he wants to escape from the ‘Rooster Hoop’ to show his identity to

the globalized world. The novel analyse issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and

poverty in India which are all represent the identity of India both rural and urban. Every

individual of the lower class people has been struggling to survive in the world as show

their identity which indicates that they are intrinsic of the society.

Balram has proved himself to the society that every individual can achieve their

goal if they are ready to sacrifice their life especially their aesthetics sense. Despite the

fact that, he glorifies his identity to show that people can achieve everything in the world

through hard work they belong to lower class or upper class.

Thus Aravind adiga has tried to show us modern image of India, how a poor man

can become a successful an entrepreneur through the character Balram Halwai. In

modern India, if anyone wants to become successful entrepreneur, who has done some

illegal activity like bribe, murder, and corruption. The novel is an intelligent and ruthless
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portrait of India in which downtrodden people like Balram suffers under the rich. Here

the author shows the true picture of Indian society. He also educates the masses about the

criminals who are born due to inequality, corruption and injustice in the society. But the

Indian people should not overlook the bloody acts, opportunism, and entrepreneurial

success of people like Balram and emergence of Socialists in India, and it is the duty of

each and every citizen that they should try their level best not to indulge in corruption

activities (taking and giving) which may give birth to so many Balrams who are very

dangerous to the Society.

The novel The White Tiger presents the true phenomenon of perpetual colonial

mindset owing to strong presence of social feudalism in sophisticated novel form. Adiga,

here, establishes the philosophical idea propounded by Mahatma Gandhi that slavery is

the state of mind. India, for Adiga, is a jungle of wild happenings. This jungle where

mighty is set to hunt, exploit and kill the weaker gives the impression of Indian Animal

Farm House. This farm can thrive only with hierarchical set up wherein the Buffalo,

Stork, Boar and Raven are served at their will by all other animals and birds. Millions of

Indians have been conditioned and trained to act like inferior species and serve the fistful

masters may they be foreigners or locals; and thus they are kept in perpetual colonial

mindset even after political freedom. The sudden freedom and gift of Swaraj or

democracy is very hard stuff to come down the throat of Indians who have long history of

colonial rule and they have, as the consequence, gradually become adept to be ruled as

enunciated by Adiga.

The democracy, as the narrative highlights, for Indians after the British are gone

is a cruel joke in the social and political history of the world. Following this system of
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caste based reality the practice of discrimination and social hierarchy aggravated further

and this gradually induced the deep sense of colonial servitude in the minds of the

working class people. Yet, this novel is an artistic attempt to attack or retaliate the

colonizing feudal social system which has been thriving as a part of Indian culture since

time immemorial. The protagonist, Balram Halwai is depicted in artistic ways to have

strong metaphorical analogy to the characteristics of a white tiger, the species which is

majestic and different from the rest of animals. Balram is, unlike millions who are caught

in Rooster Coop, different with high ambition with aesthetically sound heart to explore

the path of liberation. Yet, unlike him, rest of the people, as Adiga enunciates in detail,

are terribly caught in the shackles of slavery and are thus in colonial perpetuity.