Projection of Orientalistic Ethos in Adiga’s The White Tiger

Abstract

Adiga’s The White Tiger shows how the Orientalistic biases are reflected in the contemporary depiction of India. Biases and organized distortion of Indian culture have taken place in the representation of contemporary India. On the one hand the shifting modernist sides of India are represented. On the other, the backward and superstitious sides of India are still in a powerful condition. In The White Tiger, India is shown struggling to come out of the cocoon of the poverty, backwardness and superstition. India is still bizarre and inscrutable to those whose mindsets are shaped and sustained by the flourishing grace of westernized modernity, globalization and technology transfer. By using the perspective of neo-orientalism, the researcher wants to show how the organized biases against India’s progressive march have sought deceptive forms. Though the author is an Indian, his way of handling the shifting horizons of Indian culture and history is largely affected by metropolitan mentality.