Redefinitions of India and Individuality in Adiga's The White Tiger

In her article "Redefinitions of India and Individuality in Adiga's The White Tiger" Kathleen Waller discusses Indian individualism as being supported by a democratic and secular society, but also stymied by traditions and socioeconomic realities which keep most of its people living in poverty. In The White Tiger, Adiga challenges Indian culture to create a society in which individuals are truly free. Waller 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 counter productive. 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. Kathleen Waller, "Redefinitions of India and Individuality in Adiga's The White Tiger" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.2 (2012): Thematic Issue New Work in Comparative Indian Literatures and Cultures. Ed. M.G. Ramanan and T. Mukherjee