REIMAGINING SOCIALIST REALISM IN NEOLIBERAL INDIA: DIALECTICAL SUBVERSION AND IDEOLOGICALRECONFIGURATION IN ADIGA’S THE WHITE TIGER

Abstract

This study examines the representation of neoliberal India in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, focusing on how literary narrative exposes structural contradictions, ideological domination, and shifting forms of class consciousness. In the context of rapid economic liberalization, India is often portrayed as a rising global power; however, this narrative obscures persistent inequality, labor exploitation, and uneven development. The first objective of this research is to analyze how the novel represents structural contradictions and socio-political realities of neoliberal India. The findings show that economic progress is consistently juxtaposed with poverty, infrastructural decay, and labor precarity, revealing a deeply divided social order. The second objective is to examine the use of imagery, symbolism, satire, and irony as tools for critiquing neoliberal ideology and capitalist hegemony. The analysis demonstrates that Adiga employs dehumanizing metaphors, stark imagery, and satirical contrasts to expose the commodification of labor and the illusion of meritocracy. The third objective is to investigate how the novel reconfigures socialist realism through its ambivalent protagonist while exposing mechanisms of ideological subjugation and class inequality. The findings reveal that the protagonist embodies fragmented subjectivity shaped by systemic corruption, complicity, and survival-based ethics rather than collective resistance. The study is grounded in Neo-Marxist theory, particularly Louis Althusser’s concepts of ideology and ideological state apparatuses, to explain how institutions and social practices reproduce class domination. The findings indicate that inequality in the novel is not only material but also ideologically sustained through normalization of exploitation and internalization of class roles.