Post Colonial India; a Land of Rottenness and Corruption Benjamin Smith 12th Grade

Aravind Adiga’s Epistolary novel “The White Tiger” is, at its core, a tale of “rottenness and corruption,” told through the eyes of Balram Halwai, a man born to “the darkness” of India. The narrative comments upon the vast inequalities of corruption in modern-day India at a systematic & individual level. With that being said, there is a certain –small- amount of morality and “humanity” demonstrated in the novel, however, it only serves to highlight how truly corrupted and rotten Indian society is.

From the perspective of anti-hero balram Halwai, the reader is goven a first-hand account of the “debauchery” present throughout the entirety of India. Balram is depicted as being a victim of this systematic inequality from the moment of his birth. He was “born to the darkness” of India in Laxmangarh, a village with “defunct” and “broken” infrastructure, and with children who are “too lean for their age,” this poverty within the village is contrasted with the “four animals” – the landlords who “feed upon the village”-. These landlords live in “high walled mansions” and come to the village only to “steal” from the people. Furthermore, Balram explains how India’s “democracy” works from quite early on in the text, serving to further...