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1-Page Summary of The White Tiger
Overall Summary
The White Tiger is a story about Balram Halwai, who starts out as the son of a rickshaw driver and becomes an entrepreneur. He writes to the Premier of China in order to educate him on how entrepreneurs are made in India.
The story begins in a village that is controlled by four cruel landlords. The author’s family lives at the mercy of these landlords, who are referred to as “The Animals.” Despite his difficult childhood, the author excels in school and gets noticed by an inspector from another town. This inspector gives him the nickname “the White Tiger,” after a rare creature in India.
Balram’s mother and father recognize his potential, but his grandmother takes him out of school to work in a teashop. Balram wants to continue his education, so he decides to go into the chauffeuring business. He overhears one customer talking about how much money chauffeurs make, and he begs for permission to go to driving school. His grandmother agrees on the condition that he sends home all of his wages from working as a chauffeur.
Balram’s training is complete, so he goes to the rich families of Dhanbad and offers his services. He arrives at the mansion of one of Laxmangahr’s animal landlords (the Stork) after Mr. Ashok returns from America with his wife Pinky Madam. The family hires Balram as a driver for Mr. Ashok, but he also serves other members in the household including Ram Persad, who drives them around sometimes.
Balram:
Balram learns that the Stork family’s fortune comes from selling coal illegally. The government doesn’t know about it, and they bribe officials to keep their business running. Unfortunately, they recently had a disagreement with the Great Socialist (a politician). They’re sending Ashok and Pinky to Delhi to fix things up by giving more bribes. Balram wants Ram Persad fired so he can go in his place because he thinks this is an opportunity for him as well.
Once in Delhi, Balram witnesses the marriage of Pinky and Ashok fall apart. Pinky returns to the US after killing a child in a hit-and-run accident and leaves her husband behind without any support. In her absence, Ashok goes out to bars and clubs where he hires prostitutes one night and reconnects with an old lover on another. While observing his master’s gradual corruption, Balram becomes disillusioned by what he sees as Ashok’s lack of generosity towards him. Although Ashok is relatively kind towards him, Balram realizes that whatever generosity he has shown is only a fraction of what he can afford. He doesn’t really care about helping Balram achieve a better life or changing society for the better; all he cares about are his own pleasures which include partying at nightclubs with prostitutes while ignoring his wife who desperately needs help from him back home in India.
Balram plans to murder Ashok and escape with the bag of money that he carries around the city to bribe politicians. He must also contend with a system in which poor people like him are trapped. If Balram kills Ashok, his family will kill all of Balram’s relatives back home in Laxmangahr as retaliation for the murder. Balram is also held back by his young cousin Dharam who Kusum sends from Dhanbad so that Balram can help raise him instead of murdering Ashok.
Balram decides to go through with the murder of Ashok. He has a weapon made out of a broken liquor bottle and plans to kill him while he is driving his car. Balram convinces Ashok that there’s something wrong with the wheel, so Ashok gets down on his knees to fix it, and then Balram hits him in the head with the broken bottle and kills him. After killing Ashok, he goes back home to get Dharam (his young cousin) and they escape together by train for Bangalore.
