Education Theme Analysis

The White Tiger is a story about how education, formal and otherwise, shapes individuals. Balram first receives his nickname –The White Tiger—in a classroom setting. Though over the course of the novel he attempts to embody his name by cultivating a ruthless, cunning streak and competing in Indian society, he originally earned the description for academic promise and integrity.

After being pulled out of school at an early age, Balram is left with only bits and pieces of a formal education. This leads him to refer to himself as a “half-baked” or “half-cooked” Indian. He sees his “half-cooked” education not as a weakness, but rather as one of the preconditions for an entrepreneurial spirit. He believes that having to take responsibility for one’s own education requires and builds an inventive, resourceful mind, and responds to the abrupt end of his schooling by learning what he can on the job. He claims he is not an original thinker, but rather an original listener, and pieces together an understanding of India by eavesdropping at work, transforming dead-end, menial jobs into learning opportunities.

As an adult, Balram respects traditional learning to a degree. He enjoys the proximity and physical presence of books, but also sneers at the musty, “foul taste” they leave in his mouth. Balram claims to learn more from “the road and the pavement”—from studying the constant changes of Indian society to cultivate the flexibility and adaptability he believes a self-made man should possess. In general, Balram emphasizes the importance of being attuned to one’s surroundings. As a child, he alone out of all the villagers becomes fascinated with the Black Fort: a beautiful old building in his town constructed by a foreign power years ago. He claims that the other villagers “remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful in this world,” and that by contrast, his innate ability to find interest and beauty in his environment marked him early on as deserving of a better life.