Published Paper Details:

This paper discusses Arvind Adiga's debut novel, The White Tiger, for which he received the Booker Prize in 2008. This groundbreaking work shows the harsh realities of 21st-century globalised Indian society, which is ridden with class conflicts. The Marxian class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat drives the whole plot of the novel. The narrative is characterised by the master/slave and have/have-not dichotomies. It is written in epistolary form. The narrator, Balram Halwai, exposes the dark underbelly of society where the means of production are in the hands of those who wield power in the system. However, Balram shows an exceptional vigour for revolution to bring about a new order in the world where the tables have turned, and the proletariat topples the bourgeoisie regime. Following the same Marxist strain, we will explore the concepts of 'Hegemony' and 'Organic Intellectuals' introduced by the prominent Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci, ways to overcome it through revolution, and the Foucauldian ideas of 'Power and Resistance', which are embodied in the character of Balram in the novel.