DECONSTRUCTING THE POST-COLONIAL GROWTH NARRATIVE: SUBALTERN AGENCY, CLASS ANTAGONISM, AND MORAL TRANSGRESSION IN ARAVIND ADIGA’S THE WHITE TIGER

International Journal of Computer Science (IJCS) Published by SK Research Group of Companies (SKRGC)

Abstract

Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning novel, The White Tiger (2008), presents a scathing critique of post-colonial India’s economic triumph in the era of neoliberal globalization. Framing the narrative as an epistolary monologue directed to the Chinese Premier, Adiga constructs a counter-discourse to the idealized vision of India Rising. Drawing upon post-colonial theory and Marxist social critique, this paper investigates how Adiga interrogates the subaltern experience, moving beyond passive subjugation toward violent self-assertion. By analyzing central motifs most notably the "Rooster Coop," the structural dichotomy of "Darkness" and "Light," and pervasive animal imagery this study argues that The White Tiger frames moral transgression not as mere criminality, but as an indispensable mechanism for subaltern liberation within a socio-economic system built on systemic corruption.

References

1. Adiga, Aravind. The White Tiger. Free Press, 2008.
2. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, University of Illinois Press, 1988, pp. 271–313.
3. Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, 2001.

 

Keywords

Subaltern Agency, Class Conflict, Neoliberalism, The Rooster Coop, Moral Transgression, Post-Colonial Literature.