A tiger's tale

Aravind Adiga's novel takes a hard look at the other India, but does it with humour and irreverence.

Recent months have seen the publication of many non-fiction studies of modern India "" books like Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods and Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi, which deal with the many contradictions in this complex country: the contrast between the smooth narratives about economic growth and prosperity that are being sold to the world, and the stark realities of the lives of most Indians.

Now we have Aravind Adiga's debut novel The White Tiger, which successfully employs fiction "" and fast-paced, drolly funny fiction at that "" to a similar purpose.

The book's engaging, worm's-eye perspective is that of Balram Halvai, who tells his story in the form of a long monologue directed at the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Balram has revelations to make that a visiting dignitary would be shielded from.

He calls himself a "social entrepreneur" and his great initiative, which we will find out about later, is fuelled by his determination to bridge the divide between himself, a lower-class man, and the rich "masters" at whose feet he has so far been scraping "" "to know, just for a day, just for an hour, just for a minute, what it means not to be a servant".

The White Tiger details Balram's journey from a small village to the metropolis of Delhi "" more particularly Delhi's glitzy suburb Gurgaon "" and his gradual understanding of the difference between India's haves and have-nots.

Working as a driver for a rich landlord's son, he marvels at the pace of life in the city; he watches as the rich make deals with corrupt ministers; and he reflects that millions of people in India are no different from birds in a rooster coop, aware of their fate and resigned to it: "A handful of men in this country have trained the remaining 99.9 per cent to exist in perpetual servitude, a servitude so strong that you can put the key of his emancipation in a man's hands and he will throw it back at you with a curse."

He decides to break out of the coop "" after all, he is no mere rooster but a white tiger, a name once given him by a school inspector to suggest the rarest of animals, a creature of initiative and daring.

Adiga shows an authentic, unforced talent for irreverence and his book "" almost as if in determined opposition to the "India shining" narratives "" chronicles harsher truths: the perpetually wary relationship between the deprived and the privileged, with the resentment and hunger of one set against the paranoia and insecurity of the other; the ways in which even relatively liberal people can be patronising in their attitudes towards the lower-class; and how easily morality is compromised if you want to make your way forward.

The White Tiger can cut uncomfortably close to the bone for anyone who's ever reflected that the bill they just paid for a restaurant meal amounted to half of their driver's monthly salary.

Or for anyone who's seen their domestic staff chatting with friends in the nearby park while casting occasional glances at the house, and wondered about the nature of the gossip being exchanged.

It makes us think about the many Indias and the many types of aspirations and frustrations they represent, but does this within the framework of an absorbing novel. It's an impressive debut.

THE WHITE TIGER

Author: Aravind Adiga
Publisher: HarperCollins
PAGES: 328
Price: Rs 395

Q&A: Aravind Adiga

Did you deliberately set out to write about an aspect of India that has been glossed over in the international press?

There was no conscious attempt to write a counter-narrative to "India shining" "" I can't imagine any good novel would come of such a polemical enterprise. I returned to India in 2003 after many years abroad and saw Delhi and the Gangetic north for the first time (I had grown up in the south), and what struck me most forcefully was this: despite there being such an appalling gulf between the rich and the poor, and the fact that the poor came into regular, close, and sometimes intimate contact with the rich, there was so little crime in India.

Think of South Africa, or South America, or even the poorer parts of an American city "" there is such a link between economic deprivation and social unrest. But why not in India? Middle-class Indians think there is a lot of crime, but I would argue that this is not really true. If a housemaid steals a thousand rupees, it makes the papers. What keeps millions of poor Indians working in servile positions, and routinely exposed to temptation, so honest? How stable is such a system? Are there signs that it is creaking? And what would be the nature of a man, a servant, who would defy the system? These are the questions with which the book began.

The exploration of these issues leads into the question of where the servants in Delhi come from "" from the villages, from Bihar and UP "" and how they live, how they are raised, and how they think. That's why the novel deals with these issues.

Why the unusual framework of having Balram address letters to the Chinese Premier?

First, there is a real, historical hook: Wen Jiabao did visit India in 2005 "" it was reported that he wanted to see and understand Bangalore's entrepreneurs. Secondly, Indians, more than other people I know, understand themselves in comparison to other nations. The "other" used to be the West until recently. Now it is China, which is depicted as a more efficient, evil, and successful version of India.

It's natural that Balram, who is very influenced by things around him "" he calls himself a "sponge" "" would come to form certain ideas about China as well. He has a somewhat exaggerated conception of his importance and it flatters his sense of importance to talk to the big man of China. I should point out that these are not letters he is writing "" he is just talking out loud, as he lies down and stares at the chandelier.

It's a dark book, especially in the compromises Balram has to make in order to cross over to the "privileged" side. Is this a statement about the direction in which the country is moving?

Actually, some reviewers feel that Balram's drive and energy suggest great things for India. New York magazine said something like, if Balram is India's future, then India is going to kick America's ass! In England, The White Tiger is seen by many as a pessimistic book, and in the US it's seen as very optimistic "" it depends on whether you believe that individuals succeed because of the existing political structures of the country or in spite of them, and the American view is probably the latter.

What kind of research did you do for this book? Are there any anecdotes you'd be willing to share?

A good part of the novel is based on observations made a couple of years ago, when I travelled about on my own "" to Madhya Pradesh, Allahabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Kolkata and Bangalore. Plenty of anecdotes, but if revealed they'd get me into trouble!