Transparency vs. White background in Inkscape [closed]
You can change the background color in Inkscape by changing the document properties (in the File menu).
In particular, you can check 'Checkerboard background' to show the checkerboard if the background is set to transparent.
A quite ugly solution is to design your own checker background and have it as locked bottom layer :) Im doing something similar when im fiddling around with iOS icons or items that will be on a background.
Also as Juve mention you could try out the grids property.