Balram Halwai

The White Tiger

Character analysis of ‘Balram Halwai’ from the novel ‘The White Tiger’

When he was very young and just a school-boy, Balram Halwai was called ‘The White Tiger’ by a school inspector. This marks the beginning of an exceptional journey of this poor village boy who goes on to make it big in the Indian society. This central character of the novel ‘The White Tiger’ represents the modern Indian hero with all his flaws and strengths. He is a self-made and self-driven man who was always ahead of his peers. He makes his way to the top of the society through corruption, inequality, crime, and immorality. Yet, he has no regrets about his actions. He justifies everything that he has done in the name of freedom. Aravind Adiga has created a complex yet influential character in Balram Halwai.

Born to a rickshaw-puller in a small village called Laxmangarh, Balram had little opportunities to change his miserable fate. He was almost like any other village boy, called Munna by his family members because they didn’t care to name him. But, Balram was always a boy with a sharp mind and stood apart from his peers in school. It is this sharpness of mind and willingness to change his living standards that pushes him to pursue his aspirations. He not only plots against the other driver of Ashok, Ram Persad but also murders Ashok in order to achieve what he wants. Right from his childhood days, Balram is constantly looking for opportunities that can make him free from poverty and does not let them go when he sees them.

Through Balram’s view of India, Aravind makes a comment on the social structure of the country. Balram says, “India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness”. Balram believes that all the cities situated close to the oceans have prospered into rich cities and the places near the rivers remained poor. Since Balram has suffered by being born in the “Darkness”, he is determined to do anything that will change his life. Balram knows that he can only manage to become a part of the “Light” but might not be able to fully escape the “Darkness”. It is Balram’s journey from Darkness to Light that forms the story of ‘The White Tiger’.

As a character, Balram is an anti-hero. He goes on to commit crimes, bribe people, scheme against his competitors and such other immoral activities throughout the story. Even his language is foul. He does not shy away from writing gruesomely about horrific things that have happened in his life. He doesn’t show any sympathy for those who die: his mother, the bicycle boy, Ashok, and supposedly all his family members. When he was a child, he was frightened to explore the Black Fort in his village. But the atrocities and repressions that he faces as he grows old make him fearless, revengeful and insensitive to sufferings. Yet, his will to excel make him heroic in the novel.

In conveying about India to the Chinese Prime Minister, Balram does not hide the bad details about how society functions in the country. He writes that India has only two castes: “Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies”. The “Big Bellies” eat up the “Small Bellies” or get eaten up by other “Big Bellies”. He acknowledges that while he was Ashok’s servant, he was like a dog of his master and obeyed everything that the rich landlord asked for. But after years of repression, Balram did not care to obey his master and murdered him to himself become one.

One of the most important parts of the novel is when Balram spots a white tiger in a zoo. He sees his own self in the beast behind bars. He knows that he has every potential to become the ruler of this society but is being tied down by his social class. Balram sees the tiger walking inside the cage and feels like it has hypnotized itself so that the tiger can live in the cage. This incident has a lasting impact on Balram and he decides to free himself from the cage of being a servant to Ashok.

Authored by VedicaBloggers

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