Head above the rut | Commentary on “The White Tiger” film
Spoiler alert: Before you go on and read this article, I suggest you watch first the movie if you care about seeing the movie first hand. Although this article focuses on the social relevance of the film, I have mentioned some scenes from the film.
The picture at the top is the culminating moment when Balram realizes that his master has forsaken him despite his selfless devotion by letting him sign a contract, absolving his master of any legal casualties, and owning the crime that he didn’t commit. It is the moment when he finally reached his breaking point in the societal cycle called “rooster coop” that is mentioned several times in the film. His facial expression in the picture is a gamut of servile gratefulness and harrowing bitter truth that doused him out of the reality embedded in his upbringing — the reality that you are stuck in a rut, a societal position that leaves you no choice but to willingly accept the terms served to you on a platter. If you watched the film, you know what servitude means to him — personally, socially, and economically. In the social stratification paradigm like the caste system, especially when you grew up in a household that practices it, your belief system at an early age is fostered and cultivated around that. For Balram, it was his life-long desire to be a servant to a master. This also gives pride to his family specifically his grandmother, whom he promised financial assistance and uplifted social status. If he signs the contract, he might face jail time. If he flees, his family might be massacred. If he resigns from the job, he might face the embarrassment and ridicule from the town that he purposely left for a better life. He is crying from the inside helplessly, but he has to exude willingness and gratefulness because that was expected from him. That is the job of a servant for him.
“There are only two ways to get to the top: climb or politics.” -Balram
The white tiger, which is said to be born once in a generation, is a symbol of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. People who are at the rock bottom of society do not have much choice. Oftentimes, they are left with a limited number of options to improve their wellness. Unfortunately, this vulnerability is what is being exploited by people in the upper hand position in society. Unscrupulous government officials, politicians with an ulterior motive, and abusive wealthy individuals take advantage of the poor with their resources at the grasp of their hands: money, power, authority, and social status. In the film, Balram faced the ultimate question: will he kill his master, take the millions of money in the bag, and flee somewhere to start a new life? For someone who saw the ugly truth of becoming a servant, he might be thinking that this is his only way out, his ticket to freedom. This reflects what is currently happening in our society. There is already a study about the correlation between poverty and the crime rate. People resort to committing crimes to aid their everyday lives, put food into their mouths, and just live. There are instances that people purposely commit crimes to receive jail time to receive proper shelter, food, and healthcare. Those people will exhaust all their options to survive even if it means breaking the law. It is the white tiger that forces us to do things we could not imagine we can do, things we did not dream of doing, and things, not even in the tiniest chance, we hope someone to experience it. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people, including minors, are voluntarily and involuntarily accepting pornographic activities and prostitution to make ends meet. Unemployment pushes people over to the dark side. Stoking the fire is the lack of social aid from the government. How can we expect people in the fringe of society to climb up to the metaphorical ladder if they have nothing to step on in the first place? This is what we call social inequity.
In the film, I realized there are three people in the society when it comes to social inequality and inequity:
- People at the upper hand who takes advantage of vulnerable people
- Vulnerable, poor people at a disadvantage
- People who see the problem but choose to stand on the sidelines
At the basic level, we already know who those people are described in 1 and 2. But who are those people in 3? In the image above, Ashok, Balram’s master, envied him of having a simple life. This was happening at the time when Pinky Madam left Ashok after she became fed up with the system as a whole. Growing up in the US, she has seen contrasting belief systems and differences in the culture. Ashok and Pinky Madam are the kinds of people who choose to stand on the sidelines, perambulating at the streets, throwing words of wisdom and dissenting opinions based on their self-righteous self-beliefs and moral compass yet failing to act on it, and even more so, when the worst comes to worst or when things turn sideways, caving into the system. Those people see the problems but never look through and beyond them. Before she left, Pinky Madam told Balram, “You’re looking for the key, but the door is always open.” Those sentiments are evidently seen in daily conversations especially with well-to-do people. They say “education is the key; you just have to persevere”, “you’re just too lazy that’s why you are in that position”, and “work hard, and your dreams will come true.” Futile and empty-handed statements — the poor do not need that. They do not need your words of wisdom or your self-proclaimed success stories: they need HELP — help to get out of the rut through financial means, help to get on their knees through impartial employment opportunities, help to keep up with the societal demands. In the metaphorical social ladder, they need a thrust, a boost to get out of the “rooster coop”, a non-ending cycle of abuse and exploitation.
We often hear the statement “Poor gets poorer, and the rich gets richer.” And that’s the heart of this film. The Earth will fly out of the Sun’s gravitational pull if there is a force greater than the Sun to pull it out of the loop. The poor needs that force — a force greater than the uttered futile words, a non-figurative force but a real one, a force to break out from the loop. Apart from pressuring the government to create more inclusive and sustainable policies through activism, I firmly believe that we can also do more by doing what is right even if it is uncomfortable for us. Ashok let his father force Balram to take the responsibility for the crime. Pinky Madam left the dying child caused by her reckless driving just to avoid jail time. These civil disobediences and tolerance to unjust norms condone social injustice. We do not have to be the white tigers that come once in a generation. If we want change to happen, let us start with ourselves, do the right thing to promote social equity, and influence others to do the same so that we become the white tigers that are throughout the generation.
