The White Tiger

Learn about the dark side of India’s raise. That is the essence of most articles about this book. They insinuate that the mainstream media only tells you the bright side of India’s recent remarkable success in the global economy. Bangalore is just a synonym for it. I visited India in 1991 and you couldn’t see yet what it would become in the next 20 years. Back the I was shocked about the sheer amount of people and the imaginable poverty of a great portion of the population.. Maybe shocking because it was not hidden away. It was right there on the street – visible to anyone who wanted to see; if you dared to go out onto the streets.
Therefore I thing Adiga does not the dark side of India’s raise, he just describes what was always there. The additional insight comes from how the Indian system works, how these poor people are not just poor but actively degraded, treated as slaves by richer people, or by those who are just a bit better off. The novel draws its explosivity from the cracked surface between the haves and not-haves.There are two different worlds, but they touch each other, and the rich are maybe not even aware how they are watched.
The White Tiger is now a successful entrepreneur, but started as de-facto slave. The Chinese Premier Minister is about to visit India and the White Tiger writes him some letters about things he should know before he arrives there. His story from slave to entrepreneur. Adiga receives the Man’s Booker Prize for this book. Definitely deserved!