Chapter - 4
Social Concern
Literature is the mirror of an era which reflects not only the
external features of that time but also its inner face. There is no
better yard-stick to measure the culture of a nation than its
literature which is an expression of society. The novelist in
modern India whether in English or in regional languages is so
much a part of his own cultural pattern and reflects her image.
The Indian social scene has always an inexhaustible plenitude of
themes to offer. Its inequalities, problems and privations have
produced some of the best writing in Indo-Anglian fiction.
In twentieth century, there were many problems in the
society of India. It was divided into castes and sub-castes. The
people who belonged to the first three castes came within the
fold of caste Hindus. Others outside this fold are regarded
untouchables. Brahmins are regarded as the topmost class. They
enjoyed the privileges of their class. Anyone who posed to be a
Sadhu and Sanyasi, immediately won the respect of the common
man. Among the sadhus there were some scoundrels of the first
water. The conditions of Hindu women in those days were
untoward. There were child marriages and other type of unequal
marriages. The husband had the liberty to exercise every kind of
cruelty on the wife and she had most helplessly to submit to her
husband’s eccentric behaviour. Educated unemployment and
dowry system were also the problem of that time. People got
high education but failed to get a suitable job. The parents
wished to receive more and more dowry in the marriage of their
children. The craze for money was brought in everyone in the
wake of the Second World War and for becoming quickly rich
they used the dubious ways also. It is true that society doesn’t
make man but man makes the society and it is the man who has
produced such evils in the society.
R.K. Narayan is a writer of social novels, he sees South Indian
as a fundamentally conservative Hindu society which he
realistically presents in most of his novels and stories with the
lower middle class common man as his base. The imaginary
town that he creates and calls Malgudi has all the qualities of a
society R.K. Narayan dwells in, as he depicts it with a family
observant eye.
R.K. Narayan is not a social critic as such nor is he interested
in propagating any ideas. But the stories of his Malgudi novels
reveal that R.K. Narayan makes his common man hero aware of
his talents and potentialities which help him rise above so-called
destined role in the society, and falls back to his former position
that has roots in Hindu culture which has so great an impact that
neither R.K. Narayan nor his characters have been able to shake
themselves off the irrational social customs. They cannot stand
the collective force of the society as a whole.
R.K. Narayan started his career as a writer with Swami and
Friends. It is a classical school-boy story “of a child written with
complete objectivity with a humour strange to our fiction, close
to Chekhov than to any other English writer with the same
underlying sense of beauty and sadness.”1 This novel attempts
to identify some of the cross-cultural stresses and problems that
students and young householders face living in colonial Malgudi,
and to examine the ways of education children were getting in
the Missionary Schools.
Swaminathan, the protagonist is a young boy from a South
Indian middle-class background. R.K. Narayan presents the
relationship between Swami and his grandmother. These two
belong to the same extended family, but their social-cultural
foundations are considerably dissimilar. One of the main causes
of this difference is obviously the kind of education to which
Swami has been exposed. Swami cannot be regarded as an
individual who has been heavily westernized, but the English
education that he is receiving at Malgudi’s prestigious Albert
Mission School. It has brought him into contact with certain
areas of non-traditional experience and knowledge particularly
with Cricket and luxury cars which fascinate the boys of his age.
When the cricket loving Swami got the title ‘Tate’ by his friends,
he proudly tells his grandmother about his highly
complimentary nickname but it is totally meaningless to his
grandmother because she has not heard of cricket. Swami is
aghast at this piece of illiteracy and proceeds to deliver to his
grandmother “a short speech setting forth the principles, ideas,
and the philosophy of the game of cricket.”2
Swami is able to assume the role of guru in relation to his
grandmother because his connection with the world of the
English Mission School has imparted to him a type of non-
traditional knowledge that, owing to historical and cultural
factors, has been denied to his grandmother. Nihal Fernando
points out: “English education was that this education tended to
fracture the cohesiveness of traditional domestic life and to set
up barriers between the generation and the sexes.”3
Swami’s varied experiences with his friends at Albert Mission
School have been rendered realistically. His world comprises
Somu, Samuel, Mani, and Sankar. He meets Rajam, the Police
Superintendent’s son who is to become his best friend at school.
Rajam, first thwarted but later accepted by Swami’s circle of
friends, and even becomes the leader of the group. Soon
afterwards Swami faces problems at school and fits from school
to school. One of the most important and perhaps the most
painful from Swami’s point of view is his clash with the scripture
teacher Ebenezar. Ebenezar is presented as a type of fire-eating
proselyte. He is unrealistic as a character and has the
aggressively anti-Hindu attitude. Ebenezar makes no bones
about expressing his strong aversion to Hinduism:
Tears rolled down Ebenezar’s cheeks when he pictured
Jesus before him. Next moment his face became purple
with rage as he thought of Sri Krishna and says: Did our
Jesus go gadding about with dancing girls like your
Krishna? Did our Jesus go about stealing butter like that
arch scoundrel Krishna? Did our Jesus practice dark
tricks on those around him? (SAF 4)
Mr. Ebenezar’s references to Hindu gods are provocative. He
interprets Krishna’s reciprocation of the feelings of devotees in
relation to hugely inappropriate missionary Christian notions of
chastity and monogamy. Swami’s reaction to Ebenezar’s outburst
suggests that he is impervious to the spirit of and meaning of
Christianity as Ebenezar is to those of Vaishnavism. Swami
attempts to neutralize his teacher’s indictment by telling him
that Christ wouldn’t have been crucified if he had not been
unrighteous, and that he should not in any case have consumed
meat and alcohol. Being a Hindu and a Brahmin, Swami finds it
literally imposible to conceptualize a god who “eats flesh and
fish and drinks wine’… it was inconceivable to him that a god
should be a non-vegetarian.” (SAF 4)
People are coming from the big westernized countries in
Malgudi and children are seeing and getting the western culture
from their schools and friends. Rajam’s background is basically
more anglicized than Swami’s. Unlike Swami and others, Rajam
is not a native of Malgudi. He is the son of a senior government
servant. He comes to Malgudi from the more westernized Madras
where he had attended the exclusive Bishop Waller’s English
School, and learnt to speak English “exactly like a European.”(SAF
12) In appearance too, Rajam is more anglicized than his
Malgudian companions. They wear the traditional dhoti even on
the cricket field but Rajam usually dresses like a European boy:
“He was the only boy in the class who wore socks and shoes, fur
cap and tie and… coat and knickers.” (SAF 12)
Although with the emergence of national consciousness and
the impact of western thought and life, the Indian mind begins
to work under the pull of the age-old, Indian culture and values
of life and the new fast-changing European mode of life yet the
woman plays a secondary role and is traditionally sub-servient
to man. Swami’s mother, who appears only for a few times in the
novel, is shown as a homely, unlettered housewife with the only
purpose in life to bring up her children and to sub serve piously
the interests of all the family members. Beyond this, she has no
other important role to play in family affairs. The second female
character in the novel is Swami’s grandmother. She is an aged,
illiterate, kindly, helpless and non-descript archetypal
grandmother. Nobody seems to bother about her when she is
sick of stomach-ache. There seems to exist no communication
bond between her daughter-in-law and her son. Like a traditional
grandmother in a family, she is of use only to her grandchild,
Swami, during his time of leisure. To Swami his Granny is more
forgiving, large hearted and indulgent than his mother. She
prefers to have no complaint against Swami even when she has a
good reason for it. Swami feels easier and is more
communicative in his granny’s company than in his mother’s. He
shares all sorts of confidence with her and she too enjoys
recounting to him the old, happy things of her past life. Both
granny and mother are tradition bound. They belong to the same
class and confine themselves to the four walls of the house. Both
of them are satisfied with their role of a homely, submissive,
servile household lady. They represent the age-old traditional
woman of the Indian middle-class family.
In The Bachelor of Arts, R.K. Narayan has presented three
female characters, namely, Malathi, Chandran’s mother and
Susila. Malathi is not described as a person in detail. She has no
direct or active involvement in the development of the action of
the novel. She is mute throughout the course of the narrative.
Still, she is felt as an important presence almost till the close of
the novel through references and memories mentioned by the
protagonist Chandran. She is instrumental in the making or
unmaking of events that occur in the life of Chandran after
having obtained his graduation degree from Albert Mission
College. Malathi’s significance as a character lies in her all-
pervasive influence on Chandran’s course of life. Chandran’s
mother is an important character in the novel. She is a typical
example of a tradition-bound, orthodox, conservative,
conformist and homely woman. As a mother, she abounds in
love for her son. She always thinks in terms of his welfare and
well-being. In the case of Chandran’s marriage, she adheres
uncompromisingly to principles of social propriety. A departure
from accepted customs, rituals and norms is sacrilegious to her.
She insists upon observing the set code of marriage and
religious rituals. In the middle-class tradition-ridden ambience,
the role of women remains confined to the fulfilment of
interests of the family, and they act in a subservient position.
William Walsh rightly points out: “... the women rather than the
old represent ‘Custom and Reason’ and know what is and ‘what
is not proper.”4 In the basic family relationships women stand
for the maintenance of the Standards of Conventional propriety
and observance of time-tested customs. What William Walsh
writes about the role of women in R.K. Narayan’s novels is also
applicable to Chandran’s mother: “It was, as Narayan shows, the
duty of the women to translate and refine the principles of
orthodoxy and correctness into codes and etiquettes covering
the basic drives for food, shelter, sex and company.”(41)
In contrast to Malathi, R.K. Narayan presents Chandran’s
mother as a firm woman who champions the observance of
tradition-bound practices of the Hindu middle-class society. She
has direct bearing on the development of the action of the novel.
She speaks, argues and participates in the events of the novel.
Susila, a shadowy figure, appears in the closing chapter of the
novel. She lives at Talapur. Her father is a leading lawyer of the
town. She is beautiful and full of tender feelings. She can play
upon veena. A marriage proposal is received by Chandran’s
parents from Susila’s parents. Chandran agrees to consider this
proposal under the hard persuasion of his parents and his
friend, Mohan. He and his mother go to see the girl, and finally,
Chandran and Susila are married.
Chandran is a young adult and through an account of his
experiences as an undergraduate, lover, and house-holder, the
novel attempts to portray some aspects of the life of the South
Indian middle-class and to explore some of the social-cultural
problems that confronted young adults who belong to this class.
Chandran can be considered a typical westernized young Hindu
adult. He is the son of a retired District Judge who is himself
quite westernized, and Chandran like many other young men of
his class, has read subjects such as English literature at the local
university and has obtained what in British India came to be
called an English education. This education has significantly
westernized or denationalized his attitudes and sensibility and
has made him perceive certain radical limitations in Hindu
society. He evaluates the customs of his people in relation to
those associated with the west while discussing Hindu culture
with his friend Ramu and asserts that whereas “the white fellows
are born to enjoy life, our people really don’t know how to live.”5
The discussion also makes it clear that Chandran is particularly
critical of traditional attitudes towards relations between the
sexes. He complains to Ramu if a Hindu “is seen with a girl by
his side, a hundred eyes stare at him, and a hundred tongues
comment, whereas no European ever goes without taking a girl
with him.”(TBOA 15)
Malgudi is deeply traditional and caste ridden. Here arranged
marriage is a common phenomenon and horoscopes are often
compared. The traditional Hindu ethic did not legitimize pre-
marital love. On the other hand, the western lifestyle that the
British to some extent transplanted in India made allowances for
this type of love, and conceded to those who were ready for
marriage had more say in choosing their partners than did the
Hindu. Chandran’s fascination towards Malathi is at first sight
during one of his evening ramblings at the river bank. He feels
spell-bound by her green saree and by all that she does while
playing with her younger sister in the sand. He goes on making
mental conjectures about her name, age, caste and whether
married or maiden. The inability to have a vocal courtship with
the girl whom he loves so much unveils the traditional
conservative outlook of the Indian middle-class society on sex
relationships. It is a social system where there is a complete
segregation between a boy and a girl and a boy to address the
girl he has fallen in love and marriage is quite unorthodox and
entirely consistent with his westernized sensibility and he
dismisses the traditional Hindu etiquette pertaining to both
male-female relations and marriage. He resolves to marry the girl
of his choice “whatever her caste or sect might be.” (TBOA 56)
Chandran wanted to be free to arrange his life as he pleased
and his mother firmly believes that the settlement of the
marriage has to observe certain well-set procedures and
principles of social propriety. She resists tooth and nail the
intension of Chandran to send a marriage proposal to the girl’s
parents from their side. She thinks it humiliating because
according to “time-honoured practice it was the bride’s people
who proposed first.”(TBOA 70) When Chandran goes against her, she
threatens: “I shall drown myself in Sarayu before I allow any
proposal to go from here.” (TBOA 73) Her threat works, and
Ganapathi Sastrigal is brought in as a match-maker to make a
break through in the matter. Noticing Chandran’s impatience for
marriage, she exhorts him that the settlement of marriage cannot
be made so hurriedly. Before finalizing it, certain formalities
have to be gone through, as she points out: “All the same they
must invite us and we must go there formally. After that they
must come and ask us if you like the girl. And the terms of
marriage must be discussed and settled… .” (TBOA 84)
According to her, the girl’s family must be of the same status
as theirs. She has faith in the dowry system, for it is proper and
prestigious for a good marriage. About dowry she says: “It is the
duty of every father to set some money apart for securing a son-
in-law. We can’t disregard custom.” (TBOA 85) She tells Chandran that
she too brought handsome dowry while marrying his father.
Educated unemployment is an evil of the society. It is the big
problem of the day. Children are getting high education but they
fail to obtain suitable employment. This problem is also found in
Malgudi. Even after graduation, Chandran is unable to get a
suitable job. He wants to do something in life and on the advice
of his friend, Mohan; he makes up his mind to accept the job of a
reporter of The Daily Messenger. After sometime, with the help
of his uncle at Madras, he gets the agency of the paper to
support his family. Soon Chandran prospers, and the circulation
of the newspaper increases. He works very honestly:
Every morning he left his bed at five o’clock and went to
the station to meet the train from Madras at five-thirty.
He took the bundles of papers and sent them in various
directions with the cycle boys. After that he returned
home and went to his office only at eleven o’clock, and
stayed there till five in the evening. (TBOA 142)
He plunges himself whole-heartedly in building up and
raising the circulation of The Daily Messenger, and settles in life
comfortably with his family and friends.
Woman has always been at the centre of Indian culture and
literature. The whole of ancient Indian literature celebrates the
glory of woman. Woman occupies a pivotal position in the Hindu
family. She has been extolled as a Goddess and a source of
power representing Prakriti. Yet, her place in the society has
been low. Narayan has shown great interest in the portrayal of
woman’s condition through his novels in the male-dominated
society.
Savitri in The Dark Room is an authentic picture of a
traditional Hindu housewife. She is subjected to all sorts of
autocratic, tyrannical and whimsical behaviour of her husband.
She bears all this humiliation mutely by sulking and retiring into
the privacy of the dark room of the house. Narayan himself says
in his interview with S. Krishnan: “In The Dark Room I was
concerned with showing the utter dependence of woman on man
in our society. I supposed I have moved along with the lines.”6
Savitri is one of the few women in R.K. Narayan’s novels who
is the main character providing the main point of view. He has
presented the complete picture of woman in an orthodox milieu
of Indian society of Malgudi in the later 1930 by contrasting
Savitri with a number of minor portraits of women in various
ways. Janamma and Gangu are true friends of Savitri and belong
to the traditional female society in Lawley South Extension. They
are called by the children of Savitri when she retires herself in
the dark room after the showdown with her husband, Ramani
over the beating to Babu. They help her to come out of the dark
room and to use her rights. Janamma says: “As for me, I have
never opposed my husband or argued with him at any time… .
What he does is right. It is a wife’s duty to feel so.”7 Gangu, on
the other hand, is the wife of a school teacher. Her trendy
husband claims to be a champion of women’s rights: “She left
home when she pleased and went where she liked, moved about
without an escort… . Her husband never interfered with her but
let her go her own way.” (TDR 19) Savitri is placed somewhere
between the two. She is fascinated by Gangu but like Janamma
she obeys. These three are traditional wives and are contrasted
with the ambiguous Shantabai, newcomer to Malgudi. She was
married young to her cousin who was a gambler and drunkard.
After a lapse of time she left her husband at the age of eighteen.
Her parents would not accept this and so she had to leave her
parental home, and prepared herself to achieve a self-dependent
existence. She passes graduation degree examination and moves
from pillar to post in search of a job. At last, she settles down as
a woman insurance agent in Englandia Insurance Company in
Malgudi. Her boss, Ramani, is fascinated by her physical beauty
and voice at the time of interview. She is sharp, cunning and
shrewd enough to mark her boss’s weakness towards her. Hence
she plays upon it, and exploits his good office for her selfish
motive of procuring business worth ten thousand rupees in the
first two months of her probation-period. With her idiosyncratic
moods, changing frequently from gaiety to moroseness, she
succeeds in getting a tight grip over Ramani despite him being a
father of three children. At first Savitri tries to persuade Ramani
to leave Shantabai but when she finds it impossible, she warns
her husband:
I’m a human being,” she said, through her heavy
breathing, “You men will never grant that. For you we are
playthings when you feel like hugging, and slaves at
other times. Don’t think that you can fondle us when you
like and kick us when you choose.(TDR 110)
R.K. Narayan also gives a contrast between Savitri as a high-
caste woman and Ponni as a low-caste woman. She is the only
woman character who stands out prominently with status and
individuality of her own. She, in fact, is the only one in this
novel who genuinely attempts to help Savitri to find the life of
independence what she wants. She is outspoken and
straightforward and bargains ferociously with the priest: “You
can see her, and take her in good faith and on our word, and if
you find anything wrong with her later, you can dismiss her.
There are some questions which hurt one; you mustn’t ask
them.”(TDR 175) Thus Narayan gives Ponni extra dimension of
sympathy. Ponni does not seem to suffer at the hands of her
husband, nor does she have any pessimistic outlook in her life.
She is full of life with an independent mind of her own to face
the challenges of life. The futility, the frustration is an
inescapable moral weakness that has made Savitri cry and sob,
does not touch Ponni who deals her husband with a firm hand.
Savitri has nothing but defeat in her life. She feels: “I am like a
bamboo pole which cannot stand without a wall to support it… .”
(TDR 189) This is the pathetic cry of a majority of orthodox Hindu
women even in today’s society.
The three novels Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts
and The English Teacher taken together, an odyssey of growth
in the Malgudi world of education—Swami, the school boy,
Chandran, the college student and Krishna, the English teacher
at Albert Mission College—fit in at the proper places. It is R.K.
Narayan’s art that if he describes the life of a Professor of
English, he not only describes the students, the college room,
but also gives a period in which the Professor discusses the most
dramatic passage from King Lear’s Storm Scene. Krishna has
joined the Albert Mission College as a Lecturer with a lot of
idealism. No doubt, soon this interest thins out as he feels that
he does not do any creative work except cajoling his students to
get hundred rupees a month. He is hardly thirty years old but his
life has grown very inactive and idle. He gets up at eight every
day, reads for the fifteenth time Milton, Carlyle, and
Shakespeare, looks through compositions, swallows a meal,
dresses himself and just when the second bell sounds at the
college, rushes out of the hostel where he lives. During the dull
four hours of the college time, he admonishes, cajoles and
browbeats a few hundred boys of his college so that they may
mug up Shakespeare and Milton and secure high marks.
One day he gets a letter from his father that his wife will join
him soon and Krishna starts looking for a house to make his
wife, Susila and his daughter, Leela comfortable. They live
happily and are extremely fond of each other. Krishna is lost in
his devotion to his wife and his daughter and he finds the lost
rhythm of life. But unfortunately, his blissful life is cut short by
the death of his wife and thereafter utter gloom and desolation
overtake him. Krishna resigns his job at the college and plans to
teach children at a primary school near his house. Krishna is, by
the author’s own assertion, an imaginative rendering of his own
life and experience. R.K. Narayan’s world in this novel is tragi-
comic. Krishna’s world of bliss is shattered by a sudden and
cruel blow—the death of his wife. In an interview with Ved
Mehta, R.K. Narayan gives an account of the sad and pathetic
manner of his wife Rajam’s death. In the entire range of R.K.
Narayan’s fiction pathos is never as unendurable as here. The
reason is obvious—it emanates from an intense personal
experience.
The present education system has come under severe
criticism as it is completely dominated by materialistic
consideration. Krishna expresses the views of the author on the
education: “This education has reduced us to a nation of
morons; we were strangers to our own culture and camp
followers of another culture, feeding on leavings and garbage.”8
Disgusted with the present day educational pattern, R.K. Narayan
appears to be in favour of ‘Leave Alone’ system of the ancient
times. His protagonists too have more or less the same attitude
in their life. Leela’s headmaster is a man with original and
unconventional views on education. He treats children very
sympathetically and affectionately and believes in leaving them
alone to do whatever they like. R.K. Narayan reveals his deep
sense of irony of life when he brings close to the domestic life of
the headmaster who has failed miserably in regard to his own
children’s education, that although he has a school yet he cannot
teach his children and he thinks his wife is responsible for this:
“She wouldn’t even send the children” (TET 162) to school. She is an
illiterate woman and doesn’t know the value of education. She is
a quarrelsome lady and disturbs the peace of her husband’s
mind so much that he leaves his house for good and puts the
rest of his life in the welfare of the children.
In his later novels Malgudi has slow but definite changes from
the traditional village to a progressively changing town. He has
written about the middle class. It is the class of which he was a
member and which he knew intimately from the core of his
heart. The thinking of the people is changing under the impact
of modernization. The new generation is getting the high
education and they have to work away from their parental
homes. The joint-family system is crumbling and the singal
family with parents and children only is a reality now. The
women have a better place and they are working in every field
and earning money. People prefer love marriage rather than
arranged marriage. The only steady pattern is the concern for
money which goes on unchanged with both the generations and
it is, perhaps, for the reason that money is the only security for
the middle classes whether old and new.
With Mr. Sampath one comes into the world where media
plays an important role. Srinivas is the journalist and his plans
are purely social although he adopts the profession to earn his
living. He involves himself in the work of reforming Malgudi and
he has great hopes from the weekly publications of The Banner.
One day the sincere schemes of Srinivas are torpedoed by
Sampath and with him enter the money factors in the novel.
Sampath is aware that media is a powerful emerging force in the
area. He throws all his weight behind Srinivas as there is fortune
and more money in this field. It is his desire to earn more money
and to become a popular figure of the town. He becomes a
partner of the Sunrise Pictures Studio started by Somu with
expert guiding hands from abroad. Sampath has no lofty desire
to serve the people. He has only grabbed a chance to better his
lot because the situation has opened up an avenue for him.
Now the novel announces the advent of tertiary industry in
Malgudi which will engage the attention of middle classes. This
industry has profit motive as its guiding principle and there is
no place for moral values and missions here. Every thing can be
sacrified for material gains; people can be cheated into bargains
and stories can be distorted out of all proportions for titillating
effect. Srinivas does not join it for money but his wife has some
ambitions. She says: “We must have a lot of more money to
spend” 9 Wealth appears in more devilish role in this novel where
men are either a Saleable commodity or “an economic unit.” (MS 11)
Women are playing an important role in the society today.
She is not only performing her domestic duties well but also she
is active in the economic world. Shanti, in Mr. Sampath, appears
as an actress and a dancer. She joins the Sunrise Pictures Studio
and plays the role of Parvati in the film The Burning of Kama.
She is married but she is left by her husband. Sampath, who is
playing the role of Shiva in the film, is fascinated by her beauty.
Although he has a wife and four children yet he thinks of re-
marriage with Shanti. Sampath’s wife, Kamala and Srinivas’s wife
are ordinary, home-bound and conservative women. Sampath’s
wife never goes out of her house. She is too shy to show her face
to Srinivas when she is introduced to him at home. Her
gutlessness is apparent in her utter failure to prevail upon her
husband to give up the idea of second marriage with Shanti. She
seeks the help of Srinivas’s wife in order to avert this
eventuality. Narayan has also delineated the untouchability
which is a social stigma on the Indian society. Born in a Brahmin
orthodox family Srinivas’s wife refuses to touch the food
brought from a hotel for fear of being polluted. She thinks that
in hotel the food is touched by the low caste people.
Even the minor characters leave a permanent imprint on the
mind of the reader. The old landlord is presented here who has
owned several houses in the city but stayed in a small room
which his friend has given him free of rent. He has a water tap at
his house, but he always uses the public water tap for bathing
purpose, and takes the extra charge from his tenants for the
water-tap.
Most of the protagonists of R.K. Narayan are financially well
settled, and the pangs of poverty never touch them. In fact, the
so-called middle class common men R.K. Narayan presents in his
novels belong to higher strata of the Indian society. It is the
society of a financially middle class people of orthodox Hindu
families firmly rooted in the age-old customs and traditions.
Status of man in modern society is very much linked up with
his financial position. No one shows respect or even cares for a
poor man however righteous and virtuous he may be in his life.
He cuts a sorry figure in the company of the rich. In The
Financial Expert Margayya considers the acquisition of wealth as
a pre-requisite for due status and honour in the society. When he
is hard-pressed for money, he feels:
If I have money, I need not dodge that spectacle dealer. I
need not cringe before that stores-man. I could give those
medicines to my wife. The doctor would look at her with
more interest, and she might look like other women. That Son
of mine, that Balu I could give him everything. 10
He is a kind father and wants to lead his son fairly up the
social ladder by accumulating wealth for him by giving him good
education. Margayya has a fixed notion about money. He says:
“Money alone is important in this world. Everything else will
come to us naturally if we have money in our purse.” (TFE 21) One
day he is insulted and threatened by the secretary of the Bank
for illegally possessing the loan application forms. He feels
humiliated and curses himself for his low economic position.
Fired by insults and humiliation he undertakes prayers and fasts
to propitiate Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth, and acquires a huge
wealth.
One day he comes across Dr. Pal and bargains to buy Pal’s
manuscript The Bed Life. It makes him a rich man but his lust
for money does not satisfy. Dr. Pal helps him to establish his
financial edifice largely based on credit. He pays up to twenty
percent interest and the people withdraw cash from banks and
entrust it to Margayya. He carries it in big bags and stacks it in
his house. He tells Guru Raj: “Money is the greatest factor in
life… . People don’t know how to tend it, how to manure it, how
to water it, how to make it grow, and when to pluck its flowers
and when to pluck its fruits. What most people; now do is to try
and eat the plant itself.” (TFE 132)
Margayya is so much involved in earning money that he has
lost his food and sleep. He now forgets his own self and his wife
and son. His former days when he used to help the poor
peasants in acquiring loans from bank, are gone. Margayya is
now eccentric, overambitious and completely obsessed with
money. He forgets that the Goddess Lakshmi always remains on
the tip of her toe, ever ready to turn and run away. It is an irony
that Dr. Pal, who once made Margayya’s fortune, acts as an
instrument of his ruin when he quarrels with Dr. Pal. He
scandalizes Margayya by spreading the rumour that his
bankruptcy is imminent. The creditors, who deposited their
amount in Margayya’s bank, come rushing to him to take back
their money and he comes back to his former position.
In The Guide, Raju, is the most engaging and complex
character like Margayya. Both of them are obsessed with money,
and it is money that matters for them. Raju has a shop at the
railway station in Malgudi but he is not satisfied with his income
and he becomes a tourist guide. With this job he comes into
contact with various types of people. One day he meets a
married couple Marco and Rosie. Marco is a scholar and he is
working on the caves of Mempi Hill in Malgudi. He has no time
for his wife, Rosie. He spends all his time in the caves. On the
other hand, Rosie represents a new class of women who have the
opportunity to be freed from domestic confinement to join
colleges and universities. Her education enchants her against the
society and the awareness of her individuality. She aspires to
become a classical dancer. She is a victim of circumstances
caused by her introvert husband’s total disregard and
indifference to her innate taste for dance and his self imposed
utter self-isolation enable Raju associate with her. She leaves her
husband and comes to live with Raju in his house.
In R.K. Narayan’s novels, two different roles of women—
tradition and modern—are available. In this novel Raju’s mother
like many other female characters of R.K. Narayan is an ordinary,
homely and religious lady whose world resolves round her
husband and son. When Rosie comes to stay with Raju, her
orthodox thinking that a woman should not move out of the
house unescorted makes her feel amazed at the ways of modern
girls who move freely. She says: “Girls today! How courageous
you are! In our days we wouldn’t go to the street corner without
an escort. And I have been to the market only once in my life,
when Raju’s father was alive.” 11
She applies persuasive methods through the narration of
anecdotes and parables the departure of Rosie back to her
husband. Her logic is conventional that a married woman’s place
is by her husband’s side only; however, unjust or undesirable he
may be. When she fails in her attempts, she leaves home and
starts living with her brother rather than subjecting her to such
an unconventional spectacle. Raju is possessed with greed so he
helps her and soon she rises on the peaks of glory. Raju is no
doubt successful as an impressario but his motives are
questionable; his eyes are on the cheques that Rosie brings from
every dance performance. In his greed for money he scarcely
cares for her personal feelings. He makes her work like a
machine and allows her no time for a little sight-seeing.
In modern society, corruption has become widely rampant,
and Malgudi is no exception. Raju has become a man of high
status in the society, of course through Nalini’s dance concerts.
He buys a new house for the celebrity and tries to establish his
monopoly over her in all respects. He grumbles when other
artists stay with her for longer period of time. His influence
spreads to the public offices and no body could dare annoy him.
He says:
Through my intimacy with all sorts of people, I know what
was going on behind the scenes in the government, at the
market… . I could get, a train reservation at a moment’s
notice, relieve a man summoned to jury work, reinstate a
dismissed official, get a vote for a co-operative election,
nominate a committee man, get a man employed, get a boy
admitted to a school, and get an unpopular official shifted
elsewhere.(TG 196-197)
Money works miracles and corrupts the man. Raju becomes
caddish, possessive and jealous. While money comes to him in
cheques, he goes on leading a reckless life, drinking and
gambling and squandering money till Rosie laments: “I feel like
one of those parrots in a cage taken around village fairs, or a
performing monkey.”(TG 203) Raju’s desire for money has no limits
and he ruminates: “We need all the money in the world. If I were
less prosperous who would care for me?”(TG 195)
He dreams of becoming a big man by using her talent to heap
wealth. Ignorant of Raju’s dream and plans, Rosie worships art
like a priestess and practices it with a rare devotion. She is
satisfied when garlands come her way and Raju keeps his eyes
glued to cheques.
Although R.K. Narayan has depicted middle class society in
his novels but against such social background he has also
presented the neglected caste of South India in Waiting for the
Mahatma. With this novel, R.K. Narayan has delineated the
untouchables of Malgudi who create the real picture of
untouchables of that era. He has described the Untouchable’s
Colony which was situated on the bank of a river:
It was probably the worst area in the town and an
exaggeration even to call them huts; they were just hovels,
put together with rays, tin sheets, and shreds of coconut
metting all crowded in anyhow, with scratchy fowls cracking
about and children growing in the street dust.12
This is the untouched colony of untouchables, filthy and
disgusting. Untouchables were forced to live in this sort of
colonies without any facility. R.K. Narayan has depicted the
crude reality of untouchables’ lives. Because of the lack of
education and better understanding of the way of living life,
they were living in horrifying lifestyle. R.K. Narayan describes:
“These men spent less than a tenth of their income in food or
clothing, always depending upon mendicancy in their off hours
for survival.”(WFTM 37)
Mahatma Gandhi called them Harijans and he had started
Harijan Sevak Sangh to change upper-castes’ attitude towards
untouchables. R.K. Narayan has nicely plucked out this point in
this novel. It depicts the pre-independent era, when Gandhiji
visits Malgudi and speaks about untouchability and caste
system; Sriram becomes reflective for the first time and realizes
that there must be a great deal in what Gandhi says. Narayan has
discovered Sriram’s social and family background. He is from
the orthodox Hindu family and he is living with his Granny. His
Granny is very rigid and orthodox and she is not ready to accept
any change.
Untouchables though they clean the upper-castes’ dirt, they
were worst treated by them. Sriram’s granny bullies and ill-treats
the scavenger who comes to sweep the backyard of the house.
She does not allow the scavenger to come nearer than ten yards
thinking that he will pollute her.
Mr. Natesh, the Municipal Council Chairman, makes elaborate
preparations to receive Mahatma Gandhi in his house, but
Gandhiji refuses to stay in his luxurious house and prefers the
small hut of a city sweeper. He says if the people of Malgudi
want to hear him, they have to come to the bank of river Sarayu
where untouchables are living. He preaches brotherhood, that
the high caste people should not think them as their fellow
brethren and they should not practice untouchability towards
these low caste people. The grandmother of Sriram shockingly
reacts to Mahatma Gandhi’s preaching: “For her the Mahatma
was one who preached dangerously who tried to bring
untouchables into the temples.”(WFTM 62) In society they could
never live with respect. It was inculcated in their minds that
begging is their birthright, so they always live on others mercy
and maintains the slave mentality. It is not only Narayan’s
imagination but also the crude reality of Indian society.
Undoubtedly, human beings are the powerful and intelligent
creation of God in this universe. There are many violent animals
like tiger but clever man can take them under his command by
using some tricks, and can use them as a medium of earning. In
the novel A Tiger for Malgudi Narayan has discovered the
earning mind of Captain. He works in Dadhaji Grand Circus in
Poona. After some time, the owner of the circus, Dadhaji dies
and he sells all the property of his and comes to Malgudi. There
he establishes his circus under the title, Grand Malgudi Circus.
For the purpose to set up his name in Malgudi, he left his bed at
four o’clock in the morning and gave most of his time to the
animals. This attitude is never admired by his wife. Her envy for
animals is clear in this conversation with Captain:
All our animals from the performing mongoose to the
tusker are in excellent condition, “he boasted at
breakfast. “Yes,” said his wife, “they are tended better
than your family.” “You must say something unpleasant
otherwise you are never happy.”
Your beloved animals may also have something to say if
they could speak… .13
Once, Captain comes in the contact with some villagers who
are troubled by a tiger, Raja. The animal Raja strays into their
habitation and raids regularly on the cattle. Here man is himself
responsible for this trouble. Raja used to live happily with his
family making a cave his home but one day the tigress and the
cubs are shot dead by cruel men. The tiger passes the following
lines on human nature: “A tiger attacks only when he feels
hungry unlike human beings who slaughter one another without
purpose or hunger.”(ATFM 117)
There is no end to man’s desire. His appetite of earning more
and more money is never satisfied. If a man has one source of
earning, he tries to do better for earning more money. Now the
Captain’s mind becomes busy in making plans to captivate the
tiger, as soon as he hears about him because tiger is a source of
making more money for him. He gets success in his plans and
captures Raja. He starves the tiger for several days: “For days
they kept me without food and water. Only the Captain with his
companion would come to observe me, and then comment, and
leave. I lost all my strength and could hardly stand up, much
less pace around my cage.”(ATFM 84)
The intelligent Raja soon learns the tricks of circus and wins
the admiration of the Captain. Raja becomes the chief attraction
of the circus which is profitable to the Captain. But his hunger of
making more money is never satisfied. He can do anything for
money which becomes harmful to him. A film producer agrees
with him about the proposal of making money with the tiger.
The scene which the producer wanted to act by Raja was beyond
his understanding but the Captain compels him for the same.
Captain does not know the way on which he is going, it might
end his life. Once on a film set when the pain inflicted by the
electric metal gadget becomes unbearable to the tiger, it warns
the Captain to keep himself away from him, but as a greedy
person, he persists in subduing the tiger with the dreadful
weapon. The tiger kills him in an act of defence. Thus, the
hunger of wealth becomes the cause of death of the Captain.
R.K. Narayan’s novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi is also an
attempt on the theme of money and rank. Vasu, the terrible
example, is the enemy of the animals. He is the producer of all
that is worst in the bourgeois world. Before arriving Malgudi,
Nataraj’s life was going on calmly. Vasu enters into this calm and
placid world. His vagary and self-will activity cast the cloud of
gloom over the lives of people and animals of Malgudi. This
illustration discloses the selfish reason of his arrival to Malgudi:
“Know this, I’m here because of Mempi Forest and the jungles in
those hills. I’m a taxidermist. I have to be where wild animals
live.”14 After his arrival no creature was safe. It is by sheer luck
that they escape from his eyes. He has filled his house with the
skin of dead animals. One day, he saw a little pet of Nataraj’s
neighbour and killed it just then. He becomes mad after hearing
the presence of the tiger and leaves even the work of his hand:
“When he hears about a tiger, he forgets everything else. Now
he’ll be right in the jungle following the pugmarks… .”(TMEOM 37-38)
Money is everything for him and he can go anywhere for his
profit. He is in Malgudi because Malgudi serves as a conveninent
hide-out for his export business of stuffed carcasses. Whether
there is an elephant or a bird, he kills them for his selfish
reason. He considers the celebration of festivals, “a waste of
national energy,” (TMEOM 169) and counts numerically how a dead
elephant is more valuable than a living one: “I can make ten
thousand out of the parts of this elephant… . Every bit of it is
valuable. I’ve already several inquires from France and Germany
and from Hong Kong.”(TMEOM 171-172)
Vasu is one of the terrible examples of Narayan. In Vasu,
Narayan seems to predict the present day greedy spirits who
renounce all scruples to earn money and get a cherished rank for
them in the society.
The role of money in Malgudi fiction is quite central as it
provides the sheet-anchor to the middle class desire for security
and status. Although R.K. Narayan’s protagonists have no
financial worry and they are well-settled yet they want to go
ahead in the race of earning money. In The World of Nagaraj,
Nagaraj is born in a well-to-do family. Money has given a distinct
personality to Nagaraj. He enjoys the privilege of his birth in a
rich middle class family and he marries Sita simply because of
her family reputation. He plans to write a book on the sage,
Narada for being famous but he is not as greedy as his elder
brother, Gopu is. After the death of their father they share the
property. Nagaraj is happy with what Gopu gives him, but Gopu
is not refined like Nagaraj. He takes the corner rice fields with
the help of his family lawyer because he finds a better scope to
grow and flourish there. Nagaraj does not like his brother’s
attitude and says: “Thank God, I don’t have to think of money.
I’m not greedy, that’s why I am happy. Even after the division of
property, I get a thousand rupees from the bank deposits left by
my father.”15
Gopu settles on rice fields in the village and proves to be a
good educated farmer. Once he comes to Malgudi and tells
Nagaraj: “We were the first to utilize the facilities government
offered in the shape of pesticides and fertilizers, machinery and
above all the gas plant. I hope we shall soon acquire tractors
too.”(TWON 41) He is very much proud of his financial condition and
thinks nothing of his brother. He is not a good father. He has not
the spare time for his son, Tim. All the day he remains busy in
earning money so one day Tim leaves his house and comes to
Nagaraj. Nagaraj sends Tim to Albert Mission School but Gopu
speaks with the wisdom of a middle class farmer: “He must
share my labour and assist me, a grown up boy must make
himself useful.”(TWON 42) As a father he has no care of his son’s
future, he is only worried about his money, status and rank.
Jagan in The Vendor of Sweets is a curious mixture of
hypocrisy and sincerity. He professes Gandhism but is a rich
man and makes profits and hoards money. As a follower of
Gandhi he weaves cloth to cover his body and wears sandals
made of leather of an animal which has died of old age. He tries
to maintain maximum purity in business by using pure ghee and
keeping the price low. Narayan also discloses Jagan’s ambitions
and aim of unlimited profit motive. He has his own way of
evading income tax by keeping double accounts. He keeps free
cash in his house and “did not like his cash to be watched.”16 His
idea is of free cash, as “a sort of immaculate conception, self-
generated, arising out of itself and entitled to survive without
reference to any tax,”(TVOS 14) although this is against the ideals of
the Gita. He does not enter the sale in his ledger which comes
after six o’clock and he calls it free cash. He keeps the free cash
in his house and never counts it.
Jagan has earned much money till he reaches his mature age
and now he is not ready to take any risk with it. His son Mali
comes back from America with his new plans and thinking of
earning money. He does not want to be a sweet-vendor like his
father but he makes plan to start his business of manufacturing
story-writing machines with American collaboration. He expects
fifty one thousand dollars from his father and puts the name of
his father in his business partnership. On the other hand, Jagan
can never throw his future in this sort of crazy enterprise and
becomes less and less approachable to his son. He also changes
the venue of his free cash so that Mali cannot get success in his
old game of pocketing it silently. He starts to use the back door
for entering the house because he does not want to come before
Mali. When Mali hints him at his daily income in thousands, he
replies: “I am not growing over-fond of money, but I’m not
prepared to squander it.”(TVOS 82) Jagan refuses to finance the
project of Mali but he offers him the management of the shop
which Mali scorns. Jagan is hurt deeply and thinks that it is the
same business that provided money for his American trip.
According to R.K. Narayan, the fiscal attitude of grown up
sons or nephews differs from that of parents or gardians. They
want to be prosperous in a short time. Mali wants to be a writer
because he thinks that there is more money in this field and
goes to America for learning this art, where he gets the new ways
of earning and returns to Malgudi. He is sure to find a high rank
for himself in Malgudi with his education, and the property he
will inherit.
R.K. Narayan’s female characters in his later novels represent
the newly-emergent, modernized and liberated Indian women.
They share some common traits which distinguish them from
the ordinary, domestic, home-bound and unflichingly orthodox
women. Grace is unique among Narayan’s female characters. She
is born and educated in the foreign country, i.e, America and
meets Mali who has gone to America to learn the art of fiction
writing. Having promised an Indian style marriage, he returns to
Malgudi with Grace. Instead of fulfilling his word of honour, he
betrays her and throws her away unsheltered in the streets of
Malgudi. Her traits of modesty, sincerity, adaptability and
expertise in house-keeping enable her to develop close human
ties with Jagan, who starts reposing confidence in her which is
missing between him and his son. Grace’s forte lies in the
fortitude and courage with which she faces the piquant situation
of utter helplessness and desperation caused by Mali’s deceit
and treachery. She does not succumb to this sudden,
unexpected, unfortunate turn of events; rather she establishes
herself independently in the unfamiliar, tradition ridden
ambience of Malgudi. She does not go back to her native country
like a jilted woman. Contrary to it, she settles down in this exotic
place and secures an employment in a woman’s hostel.
Now the women are benefited by modern education. They are
aspirant, active, conscious, enlightened and replete with a spirit
to establish an independent economic identity. Home and
hearth, bearing and rearing up of children as an end in itself do
not suit the imaginary world of their taste, liking and
individuality. They are not like dumb-driven cattle under the
monopolistic and exploitative regime of men; they strive to
equal them or supersede them or exercise control over them.
The modern influences induced by education, industrialization
and commercialization result in opening new, unexplored vista
of vocational avenues, career, unorthodox norms of thinking and
behaviour and a continuously complex matrix of family
relationships constituting the smallest unit of the social fabric of
the Indian society. They refuse to take men’s social supremacy
for granted, and intend to compete with them in all walks of life.
In The Painter of Signs, Narayan has visualized through
Daisy, the model of woman who would be prospering after the
woman’s Lib-Movement. The novel highlights the change in
human outlook, their ideals and values. The ideals of family
obeisance and reverence to elders in the family are gradually
coming down for the sake of keeping one’s own individuality
intact. Daisy refuses to pay obeisance to her would-be-in-laws,
and Raman too considers it odd to fall at anybody’s feet.
Narayan himself explained in an interview with S. Krishnan:
In The Dark Room I was concerned with showing the utter
dependence of woman on man in our society. I suppose I
have moved along with the times. This girl in my new novel
is quite different. Not only is she not dependent on men, she
actually has no use for them as an integral part of her life. To
show her complete independence and ability to stand by
herself I took care not to give her a name with any kind of
emotional connotation, I am calling her simply Daisy. She is a
very strong character. 17
Daisy is educated and single. She likes to live all alone and
independent that is why she leaves her home and hearth and
engages herself fully in the national cause of Family Planning.
Narayan has raised, in this novel, the problem of birth control.
Daisy comes to Malgudi as a head of the Family Planning Centre.
There she meets Raman who is the painter of signboards for
business purpose. She starts a tour with Raman in the villages
around Malgudi. Raman is with him for painting the slogan of
family planning. She endures risks, embarrassments, physical
hardships and inconveniences while working in far-flying
villages of Malgudi. She is single–handedly and unswervingly
dedicated to the cause of population control. She is also
determined to preserve an independent individuality. She never
pats a child and considers marriage as subordination of woman
to man. She discusses with the ignorant villagers on the subject
of birth control but they think that children are the gift given by
God. Her encounter with the priest of the Goddess of Plenty is an
important and significant event. The priest stops Raman to paint
the slogan of birth control on the wall of the temple and says:
“Our Shastras say that the more children in a home, the blessed
it is. Do you want to dispute it?”18 All the villagers are with the
priest, they do not agree with Daisy and Raman. Daisy is shown
utterly helpless before the priest and the villagers.
R.K. Narayan contrasts Daisy’s modernity with the villagers
traditional life and religion. She is an embodiment of the
culmination point of Women’s Liberation. In the end, she rejects
Raman’s marriage proposal and leaves Malgudi forever on her
mission of birth-control in rural areas of Nagari. Thus Daisy
symbolizes a confident, fully developed feminine consciousness,
independent of man. She demonstrates the changed scenario of
the reversal roles wherein woman is dominant and domineering.
Now the woman is working in every field. She, no longer,
remains a decorative, depersonalized commodity owned by man.
She is his equal or competitor in all walks of life. Commandant
Sarsa in Talkative Man, more or less comes close to Narayan’s
self-respecting woman. The modern culture of working woman is
reflected in her sincere devotion to her official duties as
Commandant of the Home Guards Women’s Auxiliary stationed
at Delhi. As she serves her official duty with loyalty, the same
she has moral consistency in pursuing her lecherous and
deceitful husband, Dr. Rann. Her husband is a wanderer coming
in contact with different types of women. He is in the habit of
abandoning them right and left. Once he comes to Malgudi and
there impresses a young girl. The Talkative Man meets him in
the library and impressed by this powerful stranger, he takes
him to his house at Kabir Street. When he meets Sarsa and she
claims that she is the wife of Dr. Rann. She also discloses his
past life before the Talkative Man. In the last she succeeds in
catching hold on her husband with the help of the Talkative Man
but again he ditches her and disappears with a nurse. She is
shocked by his duplicity and elusive ways. She is a courageous
lady and again maintains herself and accepts the things as they
are.
In Grandmother’s Tale Narayan describes the story of a wife
who suffers long for getting her husband back. Bala, in her early
age of seven, is married to Viswa who was senior only three
years in age. One day, soon after their marriage, Viswa comes to
bid her a hasty goodbye, telling her clandestinely over the rear
wall of the backyard of her parent’s house: “I am going away,
keep it a secret… .”19 He joins a group of pilgrims going to
Pandaripura, chanting a bhajan. Many years roll by but there is
no sign of Viswa. Everyone thinks him dead while Bala believes
that her husband is alive. One day she leaves her house and
manages to reach Poona and succeeds to get a job in the house
of her husband.
Money plays an important role in this novel too. In his early
age Viswa runs away from his house to try his luck and reaches
Poona. There he is employed by a rich merchant and soon Viswa
becomes his most trusted servant. Viswa elopes with his
master’s daughter, Surma and marries her in the temple of
Triambaka. After some time, the old merchant dies and Viswa
lives comfortably in his spacious bungalow. His first wife, Bala,
who works in his house as a maid-servant, recognizes him and
compels him to return to his native village, Kumbakonam. Viswa
does not want to leave his comfortable life and money so he
says: “I can’t give up my trade.”(GT 55) But before the firm
determination of Bala, he has to go with her to their native
village. He starts there his business and grows rich. He buys a
real estate and has a good bank balance. After the death of Bala,
he comes with his son to his house but after a lapse of time he
comes back to his old house. He lives there with the caretaker
woman and her young daughter who “had their eyes on his stock
of precious stones… . He also had enough cash… .”(GT 91) Viswa
marries the seventeen year old daughter of his caretaker woman.
Now his wife and mother-in-law constantly nag him to transfer
all his money to them. After that one day he dies under
mysterious circumstances. Thus his own money becomes the
cause of his death.
R.K. Narayan has described the true vision of society in which
he was living. His novels have little reformative or didactic
purpose, though a moral profound vision is always there. His
novels are not vehicles of mass propaganda but they depict the
breakdown of feudal society and express the changed ideas
concerning the family. Being a product of Hindu culture he
simply could not avoid the impact of the culture surroundings
around him. Conservative South Indian society that Narayan has
presented with all its irrational customs induces a sense of
futility amongst the people of later generation.
Notes and References:
1Graham Greene, Introduction, The Bachelor of Arts. By R.K.
Narayan, (London: Pocket Book Edition, 1951.) 7.
2R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends (Chennai: Indian Thought
Publications, 2006) 129; hereafter cited in the chapter.
3Nihal Fernando, “Between Cultures: Narayan’s Malgudi in
Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts”, A Sense of Place in
the New Literatures in English, ed. Peggy Nightingale (Australia:
Queensland University Press, 1986) 77.
4William Walsh, R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation
(New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1984) 36; hereafter cited
in the chapter.
5R.K. Narayan, The Bachelor of Arts (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006)15; hereafter cited in the chapter.
6S.R. Ramtake, R.K. Narayan and His Social Perspective (New
Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 1998) 17.
7R.K. Narayan, The Dark Room (Chennai: Indian Thought
Publications, 2003) 59; hereafter cited in the chapter.
8R.K. Narayan, The English Teacher (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2004) 178; hereafter cited in the chapter.
9R.K. Narayan, Mr. Sampath:The Printer of Malgudi,
(Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 2005) 96; hereafter cited
in the chapter.
10R.K. Narayan, The Financial Expert (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2005) 29; hereafter cited in the chapter.
11R.K. Narayan, The Guide (Chennai: Indian Thought
Publications, 2005) 141; hereafter cited in the chapter.
12R.K. Narayan, Wating for the Mahatma (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 37; hereafter cited in the chapter.
13R.K. Narayan, A Tiger for Malgudi (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 37; hereafter cited in the chapter.
14R.K. Narayan, The Man-Eater of Malgudi (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 18; hereafter cited in the chapter.
15R.K. Narayan, The World of Nagaraj (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 4; hereafter cited in the chapter.
16R.K. Narayan, The Vendor of Sweets (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2003) 11; hereafter cited in the chapter.
17S.R. Ramtake, “R.K. Narayan: A Novelist Committed to the
Hindu Ideals and Beliefs”, Studies In Indian Writing In English,
ed. Rajeshwar Mittapalli (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2000)
19; hereafter cited in the chapter.
18R.K. Narayan, The Painter of Signs (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 70; hereafter cited in the chapter.
19R.K. Narayan, Grandmother’s Tale (Chennai: Indian
Thought Publications, 2006) 22; hereafter cited in the chapter.