Countenance of Indian Individualism in Aravindadiga's The White Tiger

Abstract

The present paper discusses Indian individualism as being supported by a democratic and secular society, but also systemized by traditions and socioeconomic realities which keep most of the Indians living in poverty. In his thought provoking novel The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga challenges Indian culture to create a society in which individuals are truly free. The paper argues that the relevance of Adiga’s novel is that, it is social structure and practices of hierarchy keep many people in the lower classes of Indian society and that this state of affairs is counterproductive. Instead, Adiga's novel suggests that the situation of India's social structure and its entrenched hierarchy would have to be looked at and that through the erasure of constraint by society's class hierarchy Indian society could transform itself.