Casteism in The White Tiger

Ashvin P. Dabhi

Roll no. - 06

SEM - IV

Paper no.E-C-401

Year – 2011-12

Topic: Casteism in The White Tiger

Submitted to Dr. Dilip Barad

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University.

Introduction:-

The White Tiger is the Arvind Adiga’s debut novel. This is a booker prize winning novel. This novel is not reading about tigers or wild life in India but it is a story about class conflict. The story line is exclusively developed by the central character’s lengthy letters written to chairman Mao of China which is again a reference to the class conflict. Here the researcher tries to find out class conflict in the present novel.

This novel describes the travails of a Dalit man from North India and how he finally triumphs over his slavery to the feudal upper caste and becomes an entrepreneur have described that this novel mentions the struggle of a Dalit man and his attainment of the “Indian Dream.’ Many Dalit scholars got this book to the notice of the editor of Dalit Nation. Here I try to put it in perspective within the overall Dalit literature and body of Knowledge.

The protagonist, Balram Halwai says,

“Sweet maker ….. that’s my caste, my destiny.”

With the help of this line here reader can get the idea about casteism. Balram Halwai does not hesitate to mention about his caste. He also says that sweet maker is also my destiny. Many a time it is seen that lower caste people hesitate to mention their caste but here it is not so. Balram mentions his caste with proudly and accepts that it is my destiny. Another character in the novel asks the question,

“Do you think sweet maker can manage fourth gear?”

With the help of this line reader can get the idea that here in this novel how the lower caste people are depicted. Here it is said that how can the lower caste people manage hard work so here it is mentioned that do you think sweet maker can manage fourth gear?

Ram Persad is Muslim. He is number one driver in Stork. When he comes to join in this company at that time he has been asked about caste and then he said wrong about his caste because he is Muslim but here he has mentioned that he is Hindu. He also changed his name for joining in this company otherwise he has not got entry in this company. Here the reader can get the point regarding casteism. At that time people gave importance to caste not the quality of the candidate. After some days Balram knows that Ram Persad is not Hindu and he is Muslim then Ram Persad decides to leave this job. For getting job people have to suffer lots of problems. Employer also considers caste is important than employee’s talent so that is why, I think in both cases Ram Persad and Balram there is caste is likable.

People think that Terrorists are Muslim but if we check then we can come across that there were some famous poets in Muslim like Rumi, Iqbal, and Mirza Ghalib etc. they can understand the nature, people, culture, feeling  so how can we say that Muslim are cruel. It is not so because they also have some human feeling in their hearts otherwise they have not written such kind of poems. So it is not good to say that terrorists are Muslim.

Here there are some good references about casteism. When Balram goes for job at that time he is asked about caste so here reader can get the idea about casteism. Here it means caste is more important than talent because instead of asking regarding education qualification, interests, etc. he is asked about caste. It is not necessary to ask about caste because caste is not valuable but a person is valuable. All are equal in reference of caste. Here I would like to share Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas about caste because he did not emphasize on any caste and he also said,

“All men are born equal”

With the help of this idea one can get the idea that all people are equal. There is no matter for discussing caste.

In this novel Pinky Madam who is the wife of Ashok Sharma, does not accepted by the family of Ashok Sharma because she is Christian. Here also we can get the some how the idea about casteism in the present novel.

 Conclusion:-

In a nut-shell it is just a piece of junk written by an upper caste Brahmin. This piece of junk is given some Booker or Hooker prize and the upper caste reader read these kinds of novels thinking that this is the condition of Dalit is social reform through state legislation and Cultural Revolution. They do not need India to be the ‘White Tiger’ but they will convert it into the ‘Black Panther.’