The White Tiger Summary
The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China,
who will soon be visiting India.
Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in the village of
Laxmangarh. Early on, he describes his basic story: he transcended his humble
beginnings to become a successful entrepreneur in Bangalore, largely through the
murder Mr. Ashok, who had been his employer. Balram also makes clear that because
of the murder, it is likely that his own family has been massacred in retribution.
In Laxmangarh, Balram was raised in a large, poor family from the Halwai caste, a caste
that indicates sweet-makers. The village is dominated and oppressed by the “Four
Animals,” four landlords known as the Wild Boar, the Stork, the Buffalo, and the Raven.
Balram's father is a struggling rickshaw driver, and his mother died when he is young.
The alpha figure of his family was his pushy grandmother, Kusum.
Balram was initially referred to simply as “Munna,” meaning “boy," since his family had
not bothered to name him. He did not have another name until his schoolteacher
dubbed him Balram. The boy proved himself intelligent and talented, and was praised
one day as a rare “White Tiger” by a visiting school inspector. Unfortunately, Balram
was removed from school after only a few years, to work in a tea shop with his brother,
Kishan. There, he furthered his education by eavesdropping on the conversations of
shop customers.
Balram feels that there are two Indias: the impoverished “Darkness” of the rural inner
continent, and the “Light” of urban coastal India. A mechanism that he dubs the
“Rooster Coop” traps the Indian underclass in a perpetual state of servitude. It involves
both deliberate methods used by the upper class and a mentality enforced by the
underclass on itself.
Balram’s father died from tuberculosis in a decrepit village hospital, where no doctors
were present due to abundant corruption within all the government institutions in the
Darkness. After the father’s death, Kishan got married and moved with Balram to the
city of Dhanbad to work. There, Balram decided to become a chauffeur, and raised
money to take driving lessons from a taxi driver.
Once trained, Balram was hired by the Stork - whom he crossed path with coincidentally
- as a chauffeur for his sons, Mushek Sir (known as the Mongoose) and Mr. Ashok.
,Officially, Balram was the “second driver,” driving the Maruti Suzuki, while another
servant, Ram Persad, drove the more desirable Honda City.
As a driver in the Stork’s household, Balram lived a stable and satisfactory life. He wore
a uniform and slept in a covered room which he shared with Ram Persad. When Ashok
and his wife, Pinky Madam, decided to visit Laxmangarh one day, Balram drove them
there, and thus had a chance to visit his family. They were proud of his
accomplishments, but Kusum pressured him to get married, which angered him since
that would cede what he saw as his upward mobility. He stormed out of the house and
climbed to the Black Fort above the village, spitting from there down upon the view of
Laxmangarh far below.
Balram describes at length the corrupt nature of politics in the Darkness. A politician
known as the Great Socialist controls the Darkness through election fraud. The Stork’s
family, involved in shady business dealings in the coal industry, must regularly bribe the
Great Socialist to ensure their success.
As part of these political maneuverings, Ashok and Pinky Madam made plans to go to
Delhi for three months. When Balram learned that only one driver would be brought with
them, he spied on Ram Persad to discover that the man was secretly a Muslim who had
lied about his identity to gain employment. Once his secret was out, Ram Persad left,
and Balram was brought to Delhi as the driver of the Honda City.
Balram considers Delhi to be a crazy city, rife with traffic jams and pollution, and with
illogically numbered houses and circuitous streets that are difficult to navigate. Ashok
and Pinky Madam rented an apartment in Gurgaon, the most American part of the city,
since Pinky Madam hated India and missed New York. Balram lived in the servant’s
quarters in the basement of the building. Teased and ostracized by the other servants,
he nevertheless found a mentor in a fellow driver he refers to as Vitiligo-Lips, since the
pigment of the man's lips is affected by the skin condition vitiligo. To escape the teasing,
Balram chose to live in a tiny, decrepit room swarming with cockroaches.
After a while, the Mongoose returned to Dhanbad, leaving Ashok as Balram’s sole
master in Delhi. One night, a drunk Pinky Madam insisted on driving the car, and she
accidentally killed a child in a hit-and-run. The next morning, the Mongoose arrived and
announced that Balram would confess to the crime, and serve jail time on Pinky
Madam’s behalf. Balram was terrified by the prospect of going to jail, but was relieved
when the Stork arrived and casually mentioned that they had gotten out of the incident
through their police connections.
During this time, Balram's political consciousness grows more intense, and his
resentment towards the upper class more violent. Much of the novel traces his growth
,from a meek peasant to an inflamed individual capable of murder in pursuit of his own
success.
A few days later, Pinky Madam found Balram and asked him to drive her to the airport.
With this abrupt departure, she ended her marriage to Ashok. When Ashok discovered
that Balram took her to the airport without informing him, he furiously attacked the
driver, who defended himself by kicking Ashok in the chest.
Dealing with the divorce, Ashok began to live a debauched lifestyle, frequently getting
drunk and going out to clubs, while Balram cared for him like a wife. Ashok rekindled a
relationship with his former lover, Ms. Uma. Their relationship grew more serious, but he
remained anxious about telling his family about her. Meanwhile, on his family's behalf,
Ashok frequently collected large sums of money in a red bag, using it to bribe
government ministers.
Balram’s family sent a young male relative, Dharam, for Balram to care for. Dharam is a
sweet and obedient companion. One day, Balram took Dharam to the zoo, where
Balram observed a white tiger in a cage.
Finally deciding to break free of the Rooster Coop, Balram fashioned a weapon from a
broken whiskey bottle, and lured Ashok from the car. He rammed the bottle into Ashok’s
skull, and then stabbed him in the neck, killing him. He stole the red bag, filled with
700,000 rupees, and escaped with Dharam to Bangalore. In revenge for his actions, the
Stork’s family likely murdered all of Balram’s family, though Balram remains unsure of
their exact fate. Nevertheless, he chose to commit the murder knowing this was a likely
outcome.
In Bangalore, Balram found great success. He launched a taxi service for call center
workers, which he calls White Tiger Technology Drivers. By bribing the police, Balram
was able to gain influence and make his business successful. Demonstrating how far he
has come, he is able to cover up a fatal accident through his connection to the
authorities. He considers himself to be a quintessential entrepreneurial success story
that represents the future of India, and presents himself as such to the Premier.
, The White Tiger Character List
Balram
Balram Halwai, the story's narrator, protagonist, and anti-hero, tells of his rise from village
peasant to successful entrepreneur. He has a significant faith in his exceptionalism,
thinking of himself as a "White Tiger" not tied to conventional morality or social
expectations. It is through this alternate system that he is able to rearrange his life and
identity. Balram's dark humor, cynicism, and perceptiveness form the lifeblood of The
White Tiger.
Balram was born in the village of Laxmangarh, into a life he considers miserable. Despite
his intelligence, he was forced to leave school early to work. Nevertheless, he continued
educating himself by eavesdropping on conversations. As he progressed through the
echelons of the underclass, eventually being hired as a driver for Mr. Ashok and the Stork,
he developed a severe resentment against the upper classes, which eventually prompted
him to murder Mr. Ashok.
His other aliases include Munna, the White Tiger, and Ashok Sharma.
Mr. Ashok
Ashok is Balram's principal master, the Stork's son, and the Mongoose's brother.
Exceedingly handsome, Ashok is also generally kind and gentle to those around him.
Unlike the other members of his family, he trusts Balram immensely, and the latter senses
a strange, profound connection between them. Ashok is childlike, with a short attention
span, and generally dislikes his family's business dealings. Ultimately, his strange
connection to Balram is not enough to save his life when Balram decides to murder him.
Pinky Madam
Pinky Madam is Ashok's wife, and just as good-looking as her husband. Because of her
background, she is never fully accepted by Ashok's family. She is demanding, capricious,
and deeply unsatisfied with life in India, constantly hoping to return to America, and is
generally cruel to Balram. She eventually leaves Ashok to return to New York, and shows
a deep grief over the hit-and-run that proved the last nail in the coffin of their relationship.
The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China,
who will soon be visiting India.
Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in the village of
Laxmangarh. Early on, he describes his basic story: he transcended his humble
beginnings to become a successful entrepreneur in Bangalore, largely through the
murder Mr. Ashok, who had been his employer. Balram also makes clear that because
of the murder, it is likely that his own family has been massacred in retribution.
In Laxmangarh, Balram was raised in a large, poor family from the Halwai caste, a caste
that indicates sweet-makers. The village is dominated and oppressed by the “Four
Animals,” four landlords known as the Wild Boar, the Stork, the Buffalo, and the Raven.
Balram's father is a struggling rickshaw driver, and his mother died when he is young.
The alpha figure of his family was his pushy grandmother, Kusum.
Balram was initially referred to simply as “Munna,” meaning “boy," since his family had
not bothered to name him. He did not have another name until his schoolteacher
dubbed him Balram. The boy proved himself intelligent and talented, and was praised
one day as a rare “White Tiger” by a visiting school inspector. Unfortunately, Balram
was removed from school after only a few years, to work in a tea shop with his brother,
Kishan. There, he furthered his education by eavesdropping on the conversations of
shop customers.
Balram feels that there are two Indias: the impoverished “Darkness” of the rural inner
continent, and the “Light” of urban coastal India. A mechanism that he dubs the
“Rooster Coop” traps the Indian underclass in a perpetual state of servitude. It involves
both deliberate methods used by the upper class and a mentality enforced by the
underclass on itself.
Balram’s father died from tuberculosis in a decrepit village hospital, where no doctors
were present due to abundant corruption within all the government institutions in the
Darkness. After the father’s death, Kishan got married and moved with Balram to the
city of Dhanbad to work. There, Balram decided to become a chauffeur, and raised
money to take driving lessons from a taxi driver.
Once trained, Balram was hired by the Stork - whom he crossed path with coincidentally
- as a chauffeur for his sons, Mushek Sir (known as the Mongoose) and Mr. Ashok.
,Officially, Balram was the “second driver,” driving the Maruti Suzuki, while another
servant, Ram Persad, drove the more desirable Honda City.
As a driver in the Stork’s household, Balram lived a stable and satisfactory life. He wore
a uniform and slept in a covered room which he shared with Ram Persad. When Ashok
and his wife, Pinky Madam, decided to visit Laxmangarh one day, Balram drove them
there, and thus had a chance to visit his family. They were proud of his
accomplishments, but Kusum pressured him to get married, which angered him since
that would cede what he saw as his upward mobility. He stormed out of the house and
climbed to the Black Fort above the village, spitting from there down upon the view of
Laxmangarh far below.
Balram describes at length the corrupt nature of politics in the Darkness. A politician
known as the Great Socialist controls the Darkness through election fraud. The Stork’s
family, involved in shady business dealings in the coal industry, must regularly bribe the
Great Socialist to ensure their success.
As part of these political maneuverings, Ashok and Pinky Madam made plans to go to
Delhi for three months. When Balram learned that only one driver would be brought with
them, he spied on Ram Persad to discover that the man was secretly a Muslim who had
lied about his identity to gain employment. Once his secret was out, Ram Persad left,
and Balram was brought to Delhi as the driver of the Honda City.
Balram considers Delhi to be a crazy city, rife with traffic jams and pollution, and with
illogically numbered houses and circuitous streets that are difficult to navigate. Ashok
and Pinky Madam rented an apartment in Gurgaon, the most American part of the city,
since Pinky Madam hated India and missed New York. Balram lived in the servant’s
quarters in the basement of the building. Teased and ostracized by the other servants,
he nevertheless found a mentor in a fellow driver he refers to as Vitiligo-Lips, since the
pigment of the man's lips is affected by the skin condition vitiligo. To escape the teasing,
Balram chose to live in a tiny, decrepit room swarming with cockroaches.
After a while, the Mongoose returned to Dhanbad, leaving Ashok as Balram’s sole
master in Delhi. One night, a drunk Pinky Madam insisted on driving the car, and she
accidentally killed a child in a hit-and-run. The next morning, the Mongoose arrived and
announced that Balram would confess to the crime, and serve jail time on Pinky
Madam’s behalf. Balram was terrified by the prospect of going to jail, but was relieved
when the Stork arrived and casually mentioned that they had gotten out of the incident
through their police connections.
During this time, Balram's political consciousness grows more intense, and his
resentment towards the upper class more violent. Much of the novel traces his growth
,from a meek peasant to an inflamed individual capable of murder in pursuit of his own
success.
A few days later, Pinky Madam found Balram and asked him to drive her to the airport.
With this abrupt departure, she ended her marriage to Ashok. When Ashok discovered
that Balram took her to the airport without informing him, he furiously attacked the
driver, who defended himself by kicking Ashok in the chest.
Dealing with the divorce, Ashok began to live a debauched lifestyle, frequently getting
drunk and going out to clubs, while Balram cared for him like a wife. Ashok rekindled a
relationship with his former lover, Ms. Uma. Their relationship grew more serious, but he
remained anxious about telling his family about her. Meanwhile, on his family's behalf,
Ashok frequently collected large sums of money in a red bag, using it to bribe
government ministers.
Balram’s family sent a young male relative, Dharam, for Balram to care for. Dharam is a
sweet and obedient companion. One day, Balram took Dharam to the zoo, where
Balram observed a white tiger in a cage.
Finally deciding to break free of the Rooster Coop, Balram fashioned a weapon from a
broken whiskey bottle, and lured Ashok from the car. He rammed the bottle into Ashok’s
skull, and then stabbed him in the neck, killing him. He stole the red bag, filled with
700,000 rupees, and escaped with Dharam to Bangalore. In revenge for his actions, the
Stork’s family likely murdered all of Balram’s family, though Balram remains unsure of
their exact fate. Nevertheless, he chose to commit the murder knowing this was a likely
outcome.
In Bangalore, Balram found great success. He launched a taxi service for call center
workers, which he calls White Tiger Technology Drivers. By bribing the police, Balram
was able to gain influence and make his business successful. Demonstrating how far he
has come, he is able to cover up a fatal accident through his connection to the
authorities. He considers himself to be a quintessential entrepreneurial success story
that represents the future of India, and presents himself as such to the Premier.
, The White Tiger Character List
Balram
Balram Halwai, the story's narrator, protagonist, and anti-hero, tells of his rise from village
peasant to successful entrepreneur. He has a significant faith in his exceptionalism,
thinking of himself as a "White Tiger" not tied to conventional morality or social
expectations. It is through this alternate system that he is able to rearrange his life and
identity. Balram's dark humor, cynicism, and perceptiveness form the lifeblood of The
White Tiger.
Balram was born in the village of Laxmangarh, into a life he considers miserable. Despite
his intelligence, he was forced to leave school early to work. Nevertheless, he continued
educating himself by eavesdropping on conversations. As he progressed through the
echelons of the underclass, eventually being hired as a driver for Mr. Ashok and the Stork,
he developed a severe resentment against the upper classes, which eventually prompted
him to murder Mr. Ashok.
His other aliases include Munna, the White Tiger, and Ashok Sharma.
Mr. Ashok
Ashok is Balram's principal master, the Stork's son, and the Mongoose's brother.
Exceedingly handsome, Ashok is also generally kind and gentle to those around him.
Unlike the other members of his family, he trusts Balram immensely, and the latter senses
a strange, profound connection between them. Ashok is childlike, with a short attention
span, and generally dislikes his family's business dealings. Ultimately, his strange
connection to Balram is not enough to save his life when Balram decides to murder him.
Pinky Madam
Pinky Madam is Ashok's wife, and just as good-looking as her husband. Because of her
background, she is never fully accepted by Ashok's family. She is demanding, capricious,
and deeply unsatisfied with life in India, constantly hoping to return to America, and is
generally cruel to Balram. She eventually leaves Ashok to return to New York, and shows
a deep grief over the hit-and-run that proved the last nail in the coffin of their relationship.
