INTRODUCTION:

In thewords of BabasahebBhim Rao Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution,

“On 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we have equality and in social and economic life we have inequalities. In politics we will be recognizing the principles of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man, one vote. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradiction?”(Mehta, 2013, p.1)

Incidentally for India, independence was only partial when the British left. The internal struggle of the Indian society was more complex than driving foreigners off the motherland. The White Tiger, in a sincere attempt, tries to represent the class and caste struggle within the complex Indian society. It exposes the subhuman condition of life led by the people with possibly little or no chance to escape (Sinha, 2015).

“For this land, India, has never been free. First the Muslims, then the British bossed around us. In 1947, the British left, but only a moron would think that we became free then.” (Adiga, 2008, p.22)

THE GREAT INDIAN CASTE DIVIDE:

The Hindu theology establishes that all individuals are born in a specific “jati” also known as the Caste. The word caste has a Portuguese origin from the wordcasta meaning race, which is a slightly different system from the jatisystem in India (Kumar 2015). The caste system has a definitive hierarchy. It is also hereditary in nature as a person born in a certain jati cannot effectively change his or her caste. The system promotes endogamy i.e. marrying within the same caste. With the exception of occupations like agriculture and farming, castes are associated with a particular job or occupation (Singh and Thorat, 2014).

Rawat (2015) talks about the social organisation of the Indo-Aryans in the Rig Vedic period. The society was divided into four classes based on their profession and the jobs that their ancestors were involved in, namely – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudra. This system was not Rigid initially. In the later Vedic period it Became more strong and the various classes were separated from each other. Ambedkaroften criticised the system for being unscientific and demeaning to the lower classes (Krishan 2013). Ambedkar also ridiculed the division on the basis of class or caste for its antisocial spirit. He said that the division fosters feeling of hatred among the different classes (Rawat, 2015, Salam 2014).

The higher caste avoid contact, dining, or any other social interaction with lower caste. The reason being, the occupations associated with the people of the latter castes such as manual scavenging, butchering, leatherwork, cleaning sewage, and other such menial jobs as they were considered impure. Untouchability of certain castes is a consequence of this division of labour among the Indian classes. The higher classes consider it beneath them to “touch” people involved in these odd jobs. Sarkar (2006), states that it is the feeling of being alienated from the society is what makes these people miserable. Problem is that this has been going on for too long and is still prevalent today in the 21^st century. (Sarkar, 2006)

Kumar (2012) uses strong words of condemnation against occupation based discrimination and the practice of untouchability in the Indian society. He states that this practice of untouchability is a constant source of suffering and gross human rights violation. The treatment met to the people belonging to The depressed classes is inhuman and degrading.

EMERGING AS A CLASS STRUGGLE:

The rigidity of caste system and the great social divide precipitates in what can be called the class divide. ‘Caste Social’ refers to solidification of some of the demeaning practices of the upper caste against the lower caste such as social ostracism, humiliation and economic dependence to the extent of semi bonded labour. The caste system has emerged as a social hierarchy that doesn’t restrict to just social outcast of Dalits and prohibition from entering pubic spheres; it has also acted as a means of economic coercion. It promotes the sentiment of labour and servitude among the Dalits for the upper caste landlords mostly because of the fact that the former depend on the latter for their livelihood. (Jha, 2012) Ambedkar’s categorical use of the term “broken men” for the community identified as untouchables deserves mention in this regard through the theory of emergence of this depressed group of humanity has not received all sided support (Javaid, Majid andZahid, 2014).

There are of episodes of violence and social ostracismof lower or backward classes in India by the members of the upper class. Ambedkar wrote in his paperAnnihilation of Caste, about the atrocities inflicted upon the people in the name of caste. Balais community of Indore district in Madhya Pradesh were demanded to live in restriction of the upper class of the village and accept whatever remuneration they get upon the service provided to the upper class. When the Balais refused to accept these terms and conditions, they were asked to vacate the village. The matter was reported in the The Times of India on January 4^th, 1928 (Moon, 2014).

THE SVS MODEL:

Mutua (2001) approaches the subject of human rights violation through a three dimensional prism model, with three sides, namely – savages, victims, and saviours. Savage here refers to barbaric practices prevalent in society either through the instrument of the state or without it. The victims are those who are at the receiving end of the inhuman practices-a human being whose dignity and worth have been infringed. Saviours maybe individuals who fought the cause; or state that ensures Best humanitarian practices and well-being of every individual. This model is referred to as the SVS model. (Mutua, 2001)

Chandra (2004) throws light on the use of the term “Dalit” for the depressed classes. The term derives from the Sanskrit root word “Dal” which means to open, split, break. It literally means “broken” people. Dalit are people who have been suppressed and ill-treated for ages in the name of untouchability. They have been subjected to violence and abuse in the society, often denied their basic rights leading to infringement of the dignity and worth of and individual (Bhat 2013). They are the “victim” of the barbaric practice that has been going on for ages. The menace of untouchability is rooted in the society. Another definition of Dalit comes from Gangadhar Pantwane. In his words (as cited by Chandra, 2004) Dalit is not a caste to begin with. Dalit is a human being subjected to exploitation both socially and economically in the country. He is a slave physically and mentally owing to the social conditions that have prevailed for a very long time in the country. Dalit, according to him, is a symbol of change and revolution.

The state does not partake in this practice against certain section of the society. In fact there are provisions in the Constitution of India that are aimed at safeguarding the interests of the depressed classes. Hardtmann (2009) however, remarks that the policy and provisions of the Indian state to prevent atrocities against certain class of marginalised sections of the society were not adequate. The Constitution of India had the provision for providing safeguards to the depressed classes for limited time. But, he also notes that the problem off discrimination and untouchability is rooted in the Indian society so deeply that a law or a provision may not be sufficient to eradicate the menace of discrimination completely in a limited span of time (Shubhang 2012; Singh 2012).

ANALYSIS OF TEXT-DISCUSSION:

The upfront portrayal of a part of India that is unglamorous and corrupt, landed the author of The White Tiger in trouble. AravindAdiga sure won the Man Booker Prize for his debut, The White Tiger, but in India he drew some flak because of the naked narration of the Darkness within a fast developing country. To this accusation, he responds, in an interview with The Guardian, the morning after he won he Man Booker Prize -\

“At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society. That's what writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens did in the 19th century and, as a result, England and France are better societies. That's what I'm trying to do - it's not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination"(Jeffries 2008).

THE DARKNESS

BalramHalwai, his second name giving away his caste, the protagonist of The White Tiger, talks about the Darkness in his letter to the erstwhile Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, which he positively never posted. In his words, “I am talking of a place in India……. fertile place….those who live in this place call it darkness….the ocean brings light to the country…..the river brings darkness to India….the black river…Mother Ganga.”(Adiga, 2008, p.15)

Adiga is rather upfront in exposing the reality that the Ganges, considered the most sacred river in India, as nothing short of the black river as explained by Balram. Although the subtext of the narrative revolves around the economic divide so distinctively present in India, especially in the rural areas of Northern India. The protagonist, BalramHalwai, paints a picture of the life of the people who inhabit this part of the country.

“Vijay’s family were pig-herds, which meant they were the lowest of the low………people said he had let a politician dip his beak in his backside. Whatever he had to do, he had done: he was the first entrepreneur I knew of.” (Adiga, 2008, p.31) Adiga’s narrative coveys a rather complex and subhuman life condition just as easily as anything else. Vijay, the pig-herd boy in question, belongs to caste that is considered low in the Hindu society; had managed to become a bus conductor even after the unnatural sexual favor he let people (an alleged politician) take of him. Yet somehow, it was alright as long as he ‘had’ a job that paid. In fact, the allegory here is of a greater section of society that suffers the fate of the pig-herd boy just in order to secure a two square meal for the family.

“A month before the rain, the men came back……with money……women were waiting for them…my father got peeled and skinned every time” (Adiga, 2008, p.26). Moving to the city in search of jobs, skilled or unskilled, is a routine in some developing states of India. Migration is a common characteristic of the chronically poor and the landless marginal households of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribe with at least one person in each family working outside in a city (Deshingkar, 2010).

Adiga has painted an accurate picture of the phenomenon from a humanitarian point of view rather than putting up the statistics to indicate the crisis. The landless, go off to big cities to work and then migrate back in the season of rain to work on the field of the Landlords. “My uncles did backbreaking work…. begging one landlord or the other for some work”. The text chronicles the horrid amount of manual work done by these people andpittance they get in return of it. Adiga draws the euphemism of the “Stick men”, the men who indulge in backbreaking work, leave their home on and off and almost never expect to escape the life they are born in. They are never liberated. (Adiga, 2008)

The Darkness is characterized by a vicious cycle of poverty that one is incapable of escaping. “My whole life I have lived like a donkey. All I want is that one son of mine at least one- should live like a man”. This is the father of BalramHalwai, the protagonist, who dreams of educating his son, at least so much that he is capable of having a decent life and a job with dignity. That is the dream at the very least. Ragnar Nurkse explained the concept of Vicious Cycle of Poverty based on developing countries. An individual born in poverty in undernourished because of which he has low productivity and is thereby unable to make ends meet. As a result of this he remains stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty characterized by low income and undernourishment. The protagonist, BalramHalwai, eventually ends up dropping out of school like his other brothers and father and uncles; and is pushed into working at a tea stall for making money for the family of over thirteen. Although his father wanted him to complete school and make a life for himself, but the family matriarch Kusum wouldn’t have it that way. The total detachment of family from one another and the supra-familial status of money is kind of a defining factor of the Darkness. It is this sentiment that draws the vicious cycle of Poverty without a break (Adiga, 2008, p.37).

THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH:

Balram lost his mother when he was five or six. Although he doesn’t exactly know how his mother died, he knew it was negligence on part of his family. “Her death was so grand that I knew, her life must have been miserable. My family was guilty about something”. Inamdar (2016) points out that the alienation of Human rights is even worse for women, and not just in a specific caste. Although it is much worse for the women who belong to backward societies (Xaxa 2013).

Balram lost his father to tuberculosis. In fact, he lost his father to a lack of medical aid and assistance at the only health care center close to his village. His father died, while still waiting for the doctor to show up at the hospital. P. Sainath (1996) comments on the sorry state of affairs of healthcare in the rural areas of India. According to an estimate, tuberculosis claims over Four Lakh and Fifty Thousand lives in India, yet it gets surprisingly little coverage in the media because the disease prevails among the poorest of poor and does not travel to the elite society of beautiful people within India or outside (Sainath, 1996, p.23).

THE DEVIL, THE SERVANT:

“God says: I am powerful. I am huge. Become my servant again. Devil says: Ha!” (Adiga, 2008, p.88). Balram here, talks about a couplet of famous Urdu poet Iqbal which literally means that Devil once served God till the former fought with the latter and got on his own. Balram draws an allusion here and subtly compares himself to The Devil, a servant who chose to withdraw from the master and work against Him. The protagonist looks back at his time in the darkness when he used to be a servant as part of God’s grand plan for the world; and he “spits” at it, again and again. The kind of life Balram had in the Darkness and the servitude which was forced upon him without a choice did not agree with him. For the short while he served his masters, the landlord and his sons, he was at unrest mentally. His body performed the duties rigorously be it cleaning the car or spittoon, massaging his masters foot every day and not being able to get rid of the smell it left on his hands; but his mind was struggling. He had a disgust for his own self because of the conditioning he had- to be at constant beck and call of the master. The epitome of the unrest was when he could think of nothing better than slaying his master in cold blood and run away with the money (Adiga, 2008).

In the darkness, Balram says, people worship Lord Hanuman, the Hindu God who spent his entire life in servitude-a shining example of how to serve masters with devotion without any question asked. Being in service to a master is the indoctrinated principle for the people in the Darkness. Being free was close to morally incorrect and defiant. A servant couldn’t afford the idea of being free, on his own. The indoctrination and the sentiment of being a servant is deep rooted in the minds of the people in the darkness. The servitude, Balram says, has been poured into the blood of every man woman and child like industrial waste is poured into the Ganges (Adiga, 2008, p.193).

“The rickshaw pullers parked their vehicles……..they were not allowed to sit on the plastic chairs put out for the customers; they had to crouch near the back…..in the squatting posture common to servants in India”(Adiga, 2008, p.24). Born in the family that he was, BalramHalwai was destined to be a servant like his father, like his brother, like the rest of his family; at least for a short while before he killed his master and became an entrepreneur (Adiga, 2008).

“He (Balram’s employer, the Stork) must have phoned his man in Laxmangarh……and asked the neighbors about us……they don’t move about: we know exactly where they are. The last piece of information was very important. They had to know where my family was at all times” (Adiga, 2008, p.66). If the servant ever defaulted on his services, or left, or in any way offended the masters, the family shall bear the brunt of his actions. This was the law; undocumented, unconstitutional but enforced and certain (Adiga, 2008).

“But then the buffalo was sure that the man (servant of a lower caste) had deliberately let the child be kidnapped for money, he also went after the servant’s family……..brother was beaten to death…..brother’s wife…..sister, were finished off by three men working together………the house where the family lived……set on fire” (Adiga, 2008, p.67)

Adiga, here, refers to an incident of kidnap and thereby murder of a certain landlord’s (the Buffalo) son by Naxalites. The servant (of a lower caste) was immediately accused of negligence and conspiracy; not that he was given any chance to defend his case. Consequently, after the murder of the child, the servant was shot to death in cold blood. His wife and sister raped by three men and thereby killed too. The house where the servant’s family lived wasn’t spared either. It was set on fire to destroy any remains of his family and belongings.The protagonist of the novel (BalramHalwai) explains this episode matter of fact without a hint of disgust for the lawlessness. The narrative holds a certainty of consequence if such an episode was to be repeated in the future involving any other member of the lower caste servants (Adiga, 2008).

“The jails of Delhi are full of drivers who are there behind bars…..taking blame for their masters…masters own us, body, soul and arse” (Adiga, 2008, p.170). Referring to a particular incident here, Balram narrates the horrible picture of willful exploitation in the name of devotion and loyalty. Willful, because the servant and the family of the servant take up blame for the irresponsible road rash of their masters; and a certain amount of pride and sacrifice is somehow associated with it (Wani 2013). Kusum, for instance, who is Balram’s grandmother is ecstatic when the news comes to her that Balram would be confessing for the road accident committed by the landlord’s wife. She is exhilarated at the idea of her grandson being devoted to the likes of a dog to his master; partly because she would be receiving money instead of the confession which otherwiseBalram never sent her (Adiga 2008).

THE ROOSTER COOP:

The concentration of land and wealth in the hands of a microscopic few and the economic dependence of the rural landless on the former leads to the creation of what Adiga refers to as the Rooster Coop. Economic dependence isthe reason that forces people into bonded labor, semi-bonded labor and household works. This kind of servitude is practically impossible to escape as the wages earned by the worker is scarcely enough to provide a two square meal, let alone a quality of life. Most importantly, the entire family is involved in the service either directly or indirectly; so any default on service would consequentially mean violence, literally, for the entire family of laborers (Kunnath, 2013). The Rooster Coop literally means the savage way in which poultry animals are kept at a butcher house; characterized by extremely bad living conditions, inevitability of death right in the face yet an impossible escape from the cage. Adiga draws a rather dark comparison between the literal and the proverbial Rooster Coop which to the dismay of modern day civilization, is in fact true. Balram elaborates on the Rooster coop as an invention of India. “A handful men….trained the remaining….to exist in perpetual servitude….put the key to emancipation in a man’s hand and he will throw it back at you with a curse” (Adiga, 2008, p.176).

The extent of the dependence is such that the landlord’s permission is to be sought in family affairs too. Mendelsohn and Vicziany (as cited by Kunnath, 2013) elaborate the story of JitanRam Manjhi, who belongs to the Musahar community which is considered extremely backward in Bihar. His parents wanted to educate him based on his interest in learning. His father went to his landlord (of a higher caste) to whom the family was bonded; to seek permission to educate his Jitan. The landlord allegedly turned down the request and thrashed the father for the totally insubordinate and presumptuous request he made. “Only a man who is prepared to see his family destroyed–hunted, beaten and burned alive by the masters- can break the coop” (Adiga, 2008, p.177).

Very much like the poultry caught up in the literal Rooster coop, a man’s life is of little value, and only as long as he is in service to the master; irrespective of how inglorious is the service demanded. Balram was supposed to make a confession in front of the court for a road accident he hadn’t committed. He was to take the blame for Mr. Ashok’s (his master) wife. Most importantly, he had no choice. Making the confession of a crime he never committed was his fate and he had to live the rest of his life in prison for it. His family was aware and proud of it; grandmother Kususmhad testified as a witness to the confession, most likely in return of monetary compensation. Balram had trouble adjusting to the whole idea of living in jail and the notoriety of the inmates; but he had no intention whatsoever of calling the truth in court or going against the will of the master. The lawlessness was the law, in practice, but there was no escape. He was a part of the coop and leaving the coop could mean disastrous ramifications for his family in the village. “To break out of the coop….would take…..a freak…...a pervert of nature….a White Tiger…. the story of a social entrepreneur” (Adiga, 2008, p.177).

CONCLUSION:

The Indian caste system referred to as the ‘Jati’ or ‘Varna’ is a system of social stratification, different from societal hierarchies elsewhere. It finds its validation in the ancient Hindu relics; although this is a debatable subject. It is held that the division was made for allocation of work to different sections of society. The system gained rigidity through time and even today practices like untouchability and violence (against the lower castes, men and women) is prevalent. The violence is most expressed in terms of economic exploitation of the lower caste landless by the upper caste landlords. What studies put up statistically using numbers that suggest the magnanimity of the problem, Adiga paints through the story of a servant who broke out of the vicious cycle and calls himself a “Social Entrepreneur”. The cost he paid to break the chains of eternal servitude was the cold blooded murder of his master for which he doesn’t hold much guilt in his narration. How dead must his conscience be to kill a man in cold blood, one may ask; but then how much of a conscience can a servant afford, having spent the most of his life like a slave to the whims and fancies of Masters. A boy who saw violence as the only repayment of services used by the masters, could grow up no better than BalramHalwai.

The white tiger plainly portrays some harsh realities of the country that existed way after the independence from the British rule was achieved. Socially meaning practices such as prohibition at temples or public places, restriction from using common resources such as water or the others to name a few. Over 200 million people of the Indian society are neglected and ostracized in the name of untouchability owing to the rigidity of the caste system. The oppression has been followed for ages. They are often called Avarnas, colorless and the non-descript. They are given many other names of recognition but only to show hate and scorn. But what is truly disturbing is how little control they have over their livelihood. How the economic bondage keeps them enslaved them for generation to their masters? It happens only once in a while that a White Tiger shows up with the audacity to think of a life beyond the masters, a life with freedom, dignity and respect.

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Received on 08.01.2019 Modified on 14.01.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(1):01-06.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00001.9