What have we learned about the Indian Culture from the novel "The White Tiger"?

In the White Tiger, a guy named Balram is writing a letter to the Chinese premier Jiabao. Balram tells the Chinese premier about his life in India. As far as we have read (the first thirty pages), we didn't learn very much about the Indian Culture. It’s not very clear yet what is really a characteristic and what is not. Balram tells a story to Jiabao with two different points of views. The view of the media and foreigners, and his own point of view. For example, Indian people like to jump in the (holy) river Ganges, which is -according to Balram- a very dirty river. And many people in India are under-educated people, they're 'half-baked'. You can also make up of the first 30 pages that some kids go to school without having a name. This, however, is not immediately a characteristic of the Indian culture. When we're reading through the novel, we'll find more characteristics of the Indian culture I think.