Narrating Micro-Power in Contemporary Indian Fiction: Critical Literacy and Social Consciousness in the White Tiger and the Accidental Apprentice

Abstract

This article is a comparative analysis of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger and Vikas Swarup’s The Accidental Apprentice to expose the often-invisible ways in which power rules, disciplines, and affects people’s everyday lives. Drawing on the concept of micro-power developed by Michel Foucault, the study argues that in the novels, power is not only played out in relation to the political or economic domain, but in relation to the different micro-practices of the culture, institutions and in everyday life which regulate behaviour, normalise it and produce subjectivity. Complex disciplinary practices, including surveillance and evaluation mechanisms, moral judgement, competition, and self-regulation, contribute to the institutionalisation of individuals and their engagement in spaces of resistance. This study indicates the pedagogical potential of literature as a medium to cultivate critical literacy, reflective learning and democratic citizenship by highlighting the hidden workings of power in educational, corporate, familial and social institutions through literary narration. This study of contemporary Indian fiction helps the reader to identify the pervasive nature of institutional power, understand how inequalities and social exclusion can be analysed, and have an ethical awareness of the nature of authority, responsibility and engagement today.