Assignments: Indian Writing in English

Name : Dodiya Mehul Maheshbhai

Roll Number : 29

Sem : 1

Enrollment number : 2069108420180011

Submitted to : Milan Parmar

University : Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji

Bhavnagar University

Question: Write a critical note on R.K. Narayan as a Novelist.

Indian Literature in English begin the work of Michael Dutt and his followers like R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. R. K. Narayana’s Full Name is Rasipuram Krishanswami Iyer Narayanswami. Who was give his unvaluable contribution to Indian English Literature. He was born in 1906 in a village Rashipuram, in Mandras. His father’s name was krishna Swami. He settled down in mysore. His mother tongue is tamil, but in mysore the regional language is kannada he writes in english ‘R’ in his name represents the name of his village and ‘k’ the name of his father. While other brothers and sisters went to mysore with their parents, he was left behind with his grandmother. After completing his early education, he went to england for higher education. He failed in high school examination in 1924 and in intermediate examination in 1927. He got graduation in 1930 effect on his personality. He was fond of reading different type of book and listening stories. He worked as a clerk to support his family. But he was not satisfied. So,he accepted the work of a teacher in a village school.

He found it boring because he wanted to be a writer. Though he wrote in english, but he had the emotional link with his mother land. He made jounalism his career. He wrote for newspapers and magazine. In 1935, he met a beautiful girl rajam and fell in love with her. He kept a proposal before her father to marry her.They got married. Hema was his only daughther, who was loved by her parents. After the marrige, his career ran on a high speed, but after four years of marrige, she died. He was shocked at her death. He died in 2001.

ü His Achievements

1. He won sahitya academy awards for the guide in 1960.

2. He was awarded padma bhusan.

3. He was awarded honorary d literature by the university of leeds.

4. He was awarded benson medal.

5. He is calleds a regional novelist. Malgudi, an imaginary town is located in mysore state. His immortal characters are swami margayya and raju, rosie(the hero and heroine of guide).

Swami and Friends 1935
2. The Bachelor of Arts 1937
3. The Dark room 1938
4. The English Teacher 1945
5. Mr. Sampath 1948
6. The Financial Expert 1952
7. Waiting for Mahatma 1955
8. The guide 1958
9. Man eater of Malgudi 1961
10. The Vender of sweets 1967
11. Painter of Sign 1977
12. Talkative Man 1986
13. The World Of Nagraj 1990
14. Gradmother’s Tale 1992
15. A tiger for Malgudi 1983

Let me discuss some kind of Characteristics of Narayan’s Novels.

· Arts and Technique

The Art and technique is primary basis for novelist. We can find in Narayan’s skill of sound management of the narrative. He is painstaking artist, though he wrote the social- economic anxiety and it is major theme of his novel. His novel chiefly interesting till to end. And we also find his novels Present to past and Past to Present techniques, which reveals his good craftsmanship.

· Realistic

We can say that R. K. Narayan is a Realist and presents the contempory society realistically. His strength lies to realism and not a romance. He describes the life of Raju as Tourist in his Novel ‘The Guide’. And after narayan describe this characters as a Astrologer, The manager. Everywhere he changes but his main theme is the Guide a Railway Raju. Mr. Sampath, He gives the Detail of Film producer/ If he describe the Life of Proffesor of English. He doesnot depended on outside life a class room.

· Objectivity

As a Novelist Narayan Believes in objectivity which is too difficult to maintain. He has good command on objectivity. Narayan Always talk about the Indian Culure and society. His attraction for a typically Indian tradition of story telling. He doesnot take side and his novels have no message to deliver. He does not preach, and try to convict and try to point out the right from the wrong, he leaves the reader to see that for himself.
. Social Preference

Narayan most of write his dream village the malgudi. Its his imagination’s Village. He majority write on Indian Tradition and Village culture. We find in the Guide’s Hero and Heroin, Raju and Rosie. Raju always simultaneously along with economic conflict. In the Raju-Rosie-Marco triangle, there is an artistic beauty of order. He is also one of the very few professional Indian writers as K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar tells us, “It is not easy to make a living in India as a man of letters.” His novels offers presentation of the life of south Indian manners, mental activities, social matters, custom and traditions and the geographical features.

· Common People and Common Situation

Narayan Mainly describing his novel a simple hero and heroine. Such as raju and Savitri, Ramani, Rosie and other his novels character we find it’s nature is too simple. And also his/her situation also simple and comman. Like Railway Raju became a Guide after Saint. We find in this character Raju run out behind the money.

R. K. Narayan’s plot do not follow any standardized formula, because he starts with an idea of character and situation and the plot progresses on the lines he he conceives to be the logical development of the idea. It may mean no marriage, no happy ending and no hero of standardized stature. Incidents, coincidences, and sudden reversal of fortune are used only to a very limited scale. His action mainly develops logically from the acts and actions of his characters. In this respect, Narrayan is as much a Materialist. He began it a tentative and episodic manner in Swami and Friends but developed an architectonic sense in his second novel, The Bachelor of Arts, and his third, The Dark Room, reveals definite signs of technical maturity. His predilection for the fantastic. Suggested in the Bachelor of Arts, became quite prominent with the English Teacher. Generally, his plots split into two parts the realistic and the fantastic. Its not always that Narayan succeeds in fusing the two into an organic plot. He is eminently successful in The Financial Experts, The Guide, The Man-Eater of Malgudi and The Painter sign but not so in Mr. Sampath, Waiting for Mahatma or The Vendor of Sweets. However, these technical inadequacies cannot detract him from his inventive ingenuity. Even the most loosely constructed of his plots such as waiting for the Mahatma and Mr. Sampath are highly enjoyable in parts in the fashion of Dickens’s novels. Let me introduce his some Famous Novels.

1. Swami and Friends

Swami and Friends were given an early sight of the humor which runs through Narayan’s novels. One of the features of British colonialism was the export of cricket, a game which strikes North Americans as being opaque and slow moving. But that time that Swami was written, cricket was more than justasport– it stood ,quite absurdly, for the whole ethos of an empire .Thus although we see Swami raised to heights of indignation by a political orator laments the passivity of his countrymen which has allowed them to be dominated by an alien power ,when it comes to cricket the boy is sufficiently enthusiastic to spend some time trying to explain what the game is all about to his aged grandmother. This comic scene, like so much of Narayan’s humor, has a strong poignancy. The grandmother represents the old India , a world in which cricket is not played.Her ignorance of the rules is a vivid metaphor for the extent to which the old and the new India are different worlds.The cricket episode also allows Narayan to portray the naive aspirations of the boys.This is a familiar the main many of his works, where some any of the characters are striving for something which is often just beyond their grasp.

2. The Guide

The Guide is one of the notable work of R. K. Narayan, which through Narayan gets a ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’. The guide also represent in Film Industry. The film Guide was released in 1965, based on Narayan’s Novel “The Guide”. It starred Dev Anand as Raju, Waheeda Rehman asa Rosie, Kishor sahu, and Leela Chitnis in the lead roles. The story begin with the Railway Raju, who occupite is Guide. But Raju do not know the touriest place and the history of the place. Oneday he meets Mr. Marco and his wife Rosie. There he finds that Rosie and Marco’s querral ful Relation, because Rosie wants to became a Dancer. But Marco does not want that. Raju successfully inspire her. And she leaves Marco and start her life as a Dancer and Raju become her Stage manager. However, develops an inflated sense of seld-importance and tries to control her life. He wants to build as much wealth as possible. Raju gets involve in a case of forgery and gets a two year sentence. After complete his sentence he went to village and sleep under the tree. There known person give a orenge blanket and there people believe that he is Sadhu. There were he started his life as a Sadhu, a spiritual Guide. Since he doesn't want to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to stay in an abandoned temple, close to the village. There is a famine in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast in order to make it rain. Raju confesses the entire truth about his past to Velan, who had developed a complete faith in Raju like the rest of the villagers. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he died, and whether the drought ended.

Thus, Iyengar rightly says about R. K. Narayan that “He is one of the few writers in India who take their craft seriously, constantly striving to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense of dedication what may often seem to be the mirage of technical perfection. There is a harm of excellence below which Narayan cannot possibly lower himself. Narayana’s is the art of resolved limitation and conscientious exploration; he is content, like Jane Austen, with his little bit of ivory just so many inches wide; he would like to be a beached observer, to concentrate on a narrow scene, to sense the atmosphere of the place, to snap a small group of characters in their oddities and angularities: he would, if he could, explore the inner countries of the mind heart and soul, catch the uniqueness in the ordinary, the tragic and the prosaic. Malgudi although they may have their recognizable local trappinfs are essentially human, and where hence, have their kinship with all humanity. In this sense, Nalgudi is everywhere.” We find the description of human world and Indian sensibility. He also manages to notice cultural point with his gentle irony in simple language. He has left a great impact on readers mind. He has made a tremendous contribution to literature and given a new dimension. It is for his outstanding debut to literature that today R. K. Narayan is regarded as one of the most celebrated writers in the field of Indian English writing.