PROTOTYPE OF SUBALTERN PARADIGM- ARAVIND ADIGA’S THE WHITE TIGER

Abstract

Arvind Adiga received universal acclamation by winning the prestigious Man Booker prize in 2008 for his debut novel The White Tiger. The novel is a stark portrayal of the brutal social reality .Societal balance oscillates between various inequalities pertain to economy, religion, caste and culture is authentically portrayed in the novel. The inhuman, gruesome, evil and corrupt means adopted by selfish men in the race for materialistic pursuits is the theme of the novel. The growing economic disproportion between the bourgeois and the proletariat is a grave matter of concern at this particular juncture while India is striving to achieve the status of a developed nation and to project itself as a super power which could be on par with China or any other country. Adiga identifies social evils such as caste system which has instilled servile mentality and victim syndrome in the subaltern community and rampant corruption present even at the grass root level in any government organization to be the cankers destroying the development of Indian society. As a socially responsible writer Adiga has awakened our conscious by highlighting the social evils that hamper a healthy society and has reminded us of our responsibility to vanquish such evils.