Letter From Balram to Mr.

¶ … letter from balram to Mr. ashok explaining why he killed him. From the White Tiger

Dear Mr. Ashok,

I know it may seem as a shock at this time but my actions that took your life were not those of a madman. Yes, I will confess that I have done it with premeditation. Yes, I must confess that although the guilt was immense and the sorrow great, I felt liberated from the chains of castes and of the world as we see it today.

You yourself have said that the potential in India is immense and that it would eventually surpass the one of the United States. You too saw the impressive developments that are taking place in the world. Why must I be the one not to benefit from them? You have been a good man. A proud man. But you stood for everything that I once was and will want to never be again.

The human life is not a toy that can be played with. The destiny is for every one of us to satisfy and determine. You always listened to others in your life and I always had the risk of loosing my position next to you and in your service. This position did not do me justice because I am a free man and an individual with the capacity, ability, and context to go above my family and become my own master. But how could I have done that if your respect for me was lacking? Through my abilities, I was chosen from among the many ones to climb and not crawl in life. Through this act, I am climbing. I am regaining my ancestral freedom and exceeding my ancestors.

We live in a world full of corruption and misery and the small ones in this world are the ones that most feel it. Important people, such as yourself, care little about the ones that have nothing, or the ones that cannot be free and cannot fight back. This action is for all those people that cannot survive in the capitalist economy, that cannot move ahead. Not everybody is made up to succeed on their own. Some of us are leaders, some of us are followers. But in this world, you cannot fight for a better life my using the assumption we are equal, because we are not. You proved this to me, Mr. Ashok and this, I could not tolerate.

When I was asked about by origins and where I come from, I knew that that answer alone would determine my future, the image people, employers would have over me, without even knowing ME or my abilities. Is that a fair treatment? Is that equality? How can a man succeed and desire to have a better life in a corrupt society other than by being a corrupt individual himself?

These practices have not been invented by India, or by the United States. But they are all too known in your country and they have become a religion. You all practice it and pretend it is the natural way of doing things. Where is then my blame? Why isn't it possible for me, a low level Indian play this game? Mr. Ashok, I chose to act in this manner because I believed it right in my soul, in the mind that wants to break free from oppression, from the preconceptions, from labeling, and from the rooster coop.

We are a people that tend to accept the servitude and the desire to serve our master. This is the entrenched mentality. But who brought it to India? The centuries of foreign presence, of domination, are to blame for what we are today. I broke out of it today. Action must be followed and people in India must wake up to the realities you and me, Mr. Ashok have seen and discussed together. Individuals must break free. I broke free today and will never return in this again.

I took an important step today. For myself and for India. Belonging to a caste must not determine my future or that of the followers. We must rise up to the challenge and improve ourselves, through every means possible. I am sorry these means included such a violent act on yourself. I climbed up from the Darkness to become an important man. And perhaps in time I will be my own master. But now, it was in my destiny to break the ties with the oppressive system and its symbols. I am a privileged man because I had the chance and opportunity to foresee such a possibility. It was therefore inevitable that I took it.