As a novel that traces the conflict between past and future in India, primarily through Balram’s ascent, The White Tiger offers a critique of the caste system, showing the limitations of this hierarchy. The caste system dictates the types of jobs and connections (business and marriage partners, etc.) available to members of specific castes. Members of each caste are expected to maintain connections with each other and only each other. The caste system is an old system, but still governs much of Indian citizens’ social and professional lives. The system ranges from Brahmins—the highest caste of priests—to the so-called Untouchables, those who handle waste, corpses, and dead animals. Multiple differences exist between the upper and lower castes, with categories often subdivided.

Balram notes how complicated the caste system is, as his father, Vikram, was born into a specific caste, but fell into a lower one; instead of making and selling sweets, Vikram pulls a rickshaw (as he is speculated to have owned a tea shop before it was seized by corrupt police officers). Balram says:

Halwai, my name, means ‘sweet-maker.’ That’s my caste—my destiny. Everyone in the Darkness who hears that name knows all about me at once. That’s why Kishan and I kept getting jobs at sweetshops wherever we went.