Indian wins 2008 Booker prize, reprehends anti–Christian violence

Indian novelist Aravind Adiga won the 2008 booker prize on Tuesday for his debut novel "The White Tiger".

Born in Madras on 1974, Adiga became the fourth Indian to bag one of world's most prestigious literary awards.

The 33–year–old was also awarded with 50,000–pound prize at a ceremony in London for penning the story of a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success.

Adiga said his book was an "attempt to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India, the voice of the colossal underclass". He added, "This voice was not captured and I wanted to do so without sentimentality or portraying them as mirthless humourless weaklings as they are usually."

Although from a Hindu background, Adiga has strongly criticised the recent anti–Christian violence in Orissa and Karnataka at a media conference, after being the youngest winner in the award's 40–year history.

"I am a Hindu, but I grew up in a Christian neighbourhood, studied in a Catholic school, and had more Christian friends than Hindu friends. The recent attacks on Christians in Mangalore and its vicinity have shocked me deeply. These are heinous acts, and I condemn them entirely," he said

"The state government should do everything to protect Christians, who are the most patriotic of all Indians. Mangalore has a unique culture, a blend of Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Catholics, and Protestants living side by side; it is very important that this unique composite culture be preserved," he added.

Adiga has been invited by the St. Aloysius High School in Mangalore, where he was a top–ranking student, for a get– together of Aloysians in Bangalore on Oct 18.

"We are extremely happy. We congratulated him Wednesday morning as soon we learnt he has been chosen for the award. We hope he will make it to the Oct 18 meeting so that we can honour him," Fr. Denzil Lobo, himself a former Aloysian who now teaches there said.

Adiga is the fourth Indian to win the Booker. His predecessors—Salman Rushdie in Midnight’s Children (1981), Arundhati Roy in The God of Small Things (1997) and Kiran Desai in The Inheritance of Loss (2006)—too tackled various issues of independent India in their novels.