A White Tiger in the Indian Law Jungle: A reading of Aravind Adiga’s debut novel

The paper investigates the relationship between human rights and the Laws in contemporary India. Aravind Adiga’s debut novel The White Tiger offers an unflattering portrait of a young Hindu from a small village on the banks of the Ganga, where no-one is permitted to improve his miserable living conditions within an ethical realm of dignity. The narrator believes that this is due to the passivity of Indians who uncritically accept their caste-duties, as their only possible way of life. On the contrary, the main character is clearly unafraid of stating his own will and self-determination by first performing a linguistic act and then by killing his master. The Vedas, the Dharmashastras and the Constitution are the three main sources of Right for Hindus, and it is in their misapplication that the conflict between Dharma and civil law, Right and culture emerge in the novel.