A Tiger in the “Rooster Coop”: Techno-capitalism, Narrative Ambiguity, and Gandhian Traditionalism in The White Tiger

Abstract

This article analyzes Aravind Adiga's 2008 novel The White Tiger through the rubric of “techno-capitalism,” the confluence of capitalist values (individualism, perpetual economic growth) and an increasingly technologized civilization. The central argument—that Adiga's narrator, Balram, is a morally ambiguous protagonist who is at once dubious and sympathetic—unfolds through three interlocking theses: 1) techno-capitalism provides the only clear route to self- empowerment for Balram, 2) the path to wealth and status, via techno- capitalism, requires a rejection of Gandhian traditionalism and involves an all-but-inevitable engagement with criminal and immoral activity, and 3) that Adiga does not unequivocally condemn Balram's choice of personal advancement at the expense of others.