Corruption and Society in 'The White Tiger' and 'Revolution 2020'

 

Corruption and Society in 'The White Tiger' and 'Revolution 2020' 

Abstract:- 

The Word corruption is very fascinating as an overview of politics, society, and especially nowadays education. Corruption, politics, education, poverty, society, career, and power all might be connected. So here are some important points which depict the reality of society, education, and corruption in Arvind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’ and Chetan Bhagat’s “Revolution 2020’.  While talking about the text someone found it very interesting and never seen facts. ‘Revolution 2020’ is widely known as a love story or love triangle. ‘The White Tiger’ is widely known for Indian corruption in education and the caste system. 

Keywords:- corruption, education, society, caste, and depiction 

Introduction:-

 

‘The White Tiger’ and ‘Revolution 202’ are the most known novels written by contemporary Indian English Writer. Both the work depicted the reality of India in various context and here are some point and arguments which discusses that particular situation of India where people living in poverty, casteism, corru[ption in education and so many things. People like Shukla-ji, Gopal, and dean are the best examples of ‘Revolution 2020’ while on another side in ‘The White Tiger’ Balram is the character who suffered from this casteism and corruption. 

Characters play a very important role in corruption. 

So many questions arise while talking about corruption in ‘Revolution 2020’ i.s. Which character and which incident mention it? In the Indian education system, politics play a very hypothetical role. From the first day to establishing the Gang Tech institution Gopla and Shukla-Ji give money to everyone who is connected whether it is open or officer. Gopal was initially wasn’t aware of it that’s why Shukla first deny working with him. 

“Bedi continued speaking till I interrupted him, 'Wait a minute, aren't these illegal methods?' Everyone fell silent, Shukla-Ji spoke after a while. 1 don't think this boy can do it. You have wasted my time.'’ REVOLUTION 2020 (126)

 The novel talks about how the basic inception of corruption in modern times can be traced to opportunistic leaders, who are consumed by ambition and use corruption as a means to fuel their ambitions. (M. RakeshBabu).

Another character is the dean, in private institution faculties and dean’s attitude towards students and the mentality of students and teachers are visible through this conversation between the dean and Bedi. 

 will come to campus three days a week'

'I am the dean, that is why three days. Else, once a week is enough'

"Which faculty goes to teach every day in private colleges? Don t worry, I will tell the AICTE inspectors I am there every day  REVOLUTION 2020 (157).

Indian education corruption. Especially in the race of IIT, IIM this kind of institution and the students who won’t be able to join these institutions they went for private institutions and The Ganga Tech, represented as one of the biggest institutions and predictably to be a well-reputed university, is founded on corruption and disputed land. Besides this, it talks about politician Babus. Who is not much educated but yet they are joining politics and they established an education institute and also it’s talking about revolution in true sense. (Dr. Arvind Kumar Sharma)

‘The White Tiger’ somewhere depicted the reality of India and society where everywhere is corruption. Here the question arises is it so like who are these men and is that happening? “In ‘The White Tiger’ Arvind Adiga describes the root of corruption. It is about one poor man named Balram who comes from the Halwai Caste, a Caste that indicates Sweet-Makers. Balram’s mind has been corrupted since childhood and his struggle for survival. This novel talks about corruption from poor Balram to his school teacher, Doctors, politicians, and at the end we can see there is no place where there is no corruption. Balram’s life changed when he met an accident done by Pinky. It’s one kind of corruption when Balram’s “Malik” ordered him to sign a paper that describes that accident done by Balram.  

The character of Pinky is very important, she is the only person who enlightens Balram. 

"Sometimes I wonder, Balram. I wonder what's the point of living. I really wonder…" “The point of living ? My heart pounded. The point of your living is that if you die, who's going to pay me three and a half thousand rupees a month ?." (TWT 186)

Balram’s character speaks the truth about reality how some castes are treated and their situation of people. 

“If the Indian village is a paradise, then the school is a paradise within a paradise. There was supposed to be free food at my school - a government program gave every boy three Rotis yellow Daal, and pickles at lunchtime. But we never ever saw Rotis, or yellow Daal, or pickles, and everyone knew why: the schoolteacher had stolen our lunch money. The teacher had a legitimate excuse to steal the money - he said he hadn’t been paid his salary in six months”  (TWT, 33)

So, both the novels are trying to depict corruption and how it creates an impact on society. In ‘The White Tiger’ Balram himself says that this is the story that how one common man was corrupted and how he started this all. 

" The sorrowful tale of how I was corrupted from a sweet , innocent village fool into a citified fellow full of debauchery , depravity , and wickedness." (TWT 197)

In ‘Revolution 2020’ Gopal is that person who at last understands that this corruption is a very horrible thing for society. Raghav is a journalist and he also tries to depict the naked reality of Shukla-Ji but as always happens who is the power that Gundas destroyed everything about Raghav. He works on ‘Revolution 2020’ and he strongly believes that only Indian youth can bring revolution in India. Besides this, there are some people in politics who are not corrupted but they are not stopping anyone from doing all the things. In ‘Revolution 2020’ Pradhan is this kind of character. 

' The DM has to bless it too. But Padhan is honest. However* If it is for a college, and VNN recommends it, he will approve it,' Bedi said.

 'How honest?'Shukla-ji said "Honest enough to not take money, But not so honest that he will stop others from taking it! 

'That's good, If you are honest, keep it to yourself? Sunil said, speaking for the first time that evening, Revolution 2020 (134-35) 

Compare and contrast ‘Revolution 2020’ and ‘The White Tiger’:- 

Chetan Bhagat had started writing in 2004 and Arvind Adiga in 2008. ‘The White Tiger’ was published in 2008 while ‘Revolution 2020’ was published in 2011. So, how are both novels different from each other ? are they both depicted in the same situation? So here are some of the reasons which answered the reality.

Here is information about writing style and general topics upon which both the writers talk a lot. There are some aspects related to them. Somewhere they talk about the youth, the idea of corruption. As research paper mention 

-“Revolution 2020” is about Corruption, Education, and Privatization.

-'' The White Tiger '' details Dark Indian and White India where the villages and lesser towns that don’t fall under Focus and the growing and developed cities come under White India. (Dr N. Ganga Vidya Mr. S. Stanley Gerald)

Conclusion:- 

To sum up ‘The White Tiger’ and ‘Revolution 2020’ both are novels that try to depict the real situation of India. Chetan Bhagat is widely known for his writing about love, education, and politics but this ‘Revolution 2020’ is one kind of different work of him. People might be talking less about this work, while ‘The White Tiger’ is widely known for depicting the reality of Indian politics and corruption. 

References: 

1. Adiga, Arvind. The White Tiger. 2008.

2. Bhagat, Chetan. Revolution 2020. Rupa Publication, 2011.

3. RakeshBabu, M. "Societal Evils in Contemporary India from Chetan Bhagat's Perspective in Revolution 2020." International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE) (2019): 2.

4. Sharma, Dr. Arvind Kumar. "Corruption in Education System in Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020, Love, Ambition, Corruption." International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) (2015): 5.

5. Vidya, Dr. N. Ganga. "Convergence in Styles of Chetan Bhagat and Aravind." International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) (2020): 2.