Critical Study Of Social Inequality In Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger

Abstract

This article offers a critical study of social inequality in Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. It examines how caste, class, neoliberal reform, and spatial segregation intersect to structure the life trajectory of the protagonist, Balram Halwai. The study adopts a Critical Interpretive Synthesis approach with an interdisciplinary review of scholarship in subaltern studies, political economy, and postcolonial urban theory. This method enables a multi-layered analysis of inequality as a social, economic, and spatial formation rather than an individual misfortune or purely moral problem. The article identifies four interrelated thematic formations in the novel: caste and class intersectionality, neoliberal precarity, spatial inequality, and subaltern agency. It argues that Balram’s narrative voice exposes the limits of neoliberal meritocracy, since his rise depends on corruption, violence, and the reproduction of exploitative structures. The rural “Darkness” and urban “Light” are interpreted as spatial regimes that organize access to opportunity and participation in India’s post-liberalisation economy. Balram’s transformation from servant to entrepreneur is read as a form of compromised subaltern agency that both appropriates and critiques neoliberal values. By synthesising theoretical and contextual work with textual analysis, the article shows how The White Tiger stages a systemic critique of contemporary Indian modernity. It positions the novel as a key text for understanding how literary form engages with the lived experience of inequality in the Global South. The study also proposes a structural framework that can be adapted to the analysis of other postcolonial fictions concerned with capitalism, caste, and urban transformation.