CHAPTER - 2

THEMATIC STUDY
 45

CHAPTER-2
THEMATIC STUDY

The themes Narayan chooses in his novels will seem to be of perennial

interest especially to a sensitive mind interested in human beings. The basic themes
that Narayan mainly focuses in his novels are: the study of feminist sensibility, myth
and reality, family and various family relationships, the renunciation, and the conflict
between tradition and modernity etc. Narayan’s method is to treat his themes, not in
abstract or didactic terms but in terms of individuals in flesh and blood and their
experience. The themes of Narayan are all inter-related and interdependent. But for
purposes of study and analysis one may have to isolate them.

The present chapter will deal with the thematic study in R.K. Narayan’s works
and to show how the essence of Narayan’s fiction is to present the traditional Indian
value & the social consciousness in its totality. The dominant discourse on women in
early Indian society has confined women within the household as daughter, wife, and
mother and in other roles. Women constitute practically undifferentiated group, with
a fixed set of norms and duties they are supposed to adhere to. In a caste-ridden,
tradition bound society like the Indian society with women as adjunct, it is they alone
which seem to have been casualties of the upheavals in society. As adjunct, women
neither are active agents in societal process nor do they represent various profiles.

The matrix out of which Narayan constructs Indian female identity largely
stems from the glorious ancient cultural past. However, he is definitely conscious of
the presence of the colonial past that helps him to reformulate women’s identity.
Narayan is well aware of the agony of the marginalized group, which is manifested in
his work, My Days, “I was somehow obsessed with a philosophy of woman as
oppressed to man, her constant oppressor. This must have been an early treatment of
 46

the ‘Women’s Lib.’ movement. Man assigned her a secondary place and kept her
there with such subtlety and cunning that she herself began to lose all notions of her
independence, her individuality, stature and strength. A wife is an orthodox milieu of
Indian society was an ideal victim of such circumstances” (p. 119).

Not only in his thought but also in his personal life he has great respect for
women. His wife died only after three years of their marriage leaving a girl child
behind to be looked after. He never remarried and spent his entire life in the memory
of his wife and bringing up a girl child. But in his literary work his moral outlook is
so subtly stated that it needs a searching for meaning to bring out the status of
women. This chapter is an attempt to examine whether his sympathies for the
marginalized would enable one to call him a feminist or whether there is too much of
the traditional patriarchal mindset in him.

Narayan gives expression to Indian life with its entire vicissitudes. Sometimes
humorous, sometimes ironic, but he always writes within the four walls of his culture.
His novels are considered to have brought forth the changing images of women in the
Indian scene in all their fascinating varieties. He seems to be a champion of women's
cause. A close preview of female characters reveal the real intentions and motives of
R.K. Narayan in portraying his female characters.

His early novels are centered on male protagonists and their female
counterparts work as adjuncts that embody the traditional Indian psyche with all its
accompanying hopes and anxieties, born out of a deep-rooted belief in fatalism. This
is certainly true in the context of his early novels like Swami and Friends, The
Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher, Mr. Sampath and The
Financial Expert.

In these novels R.K. Narayan’s orthodox intellectual and social background

confines him to characterize women to certain established discourse roles —
grandmothers, mothers and wives, and discourse positions - marginal, passive and
dependent. His woman remains more a symbol of relationships than a creature of
 47

flesh and blood. Very often many of his female characters have no names. They are
addressed like, Swami’s mother, Swami’s Granny, Chandran’s mother, Krishna’s
mother, Srinivasa’s wife, Sampath’s wife and Margayya’s wife. They are also called
by their pet names given to them by their husbands that objectify them. Ramani calls
his wife Savitri a pet and Shanta Bai fresh rose. Krishna calls his wife jasmine.

These female characters of Narayan in his early novels are all examples of
denial of individual identity to women. They all exist in traditional Indian domestic
settings. They are simple, suffering, selfless and sincere women. In Gilbert and
Gubar’s words they are more like ‘Angel in the House’. Gilbert and Gubar argue that:

To be selfless is not only to be noble, it is to be

dead. A life that has not story, like the life of
Goethe’s Makarie, is really a life of death, a death
in life.1

Therefore, these female characters are, if not dead, not alive either. They are
typical devoted housewives, who are very particular about performing domestic
duties that are repetitive, boring, tiring and above all unpaid, and bring no
recognition, neither social nor personal. They do household work such as: serving,
sweeping, cleaning, nurturing the children, preparing food and housekeeping. They
are expected to know the needs of their husbands and get the things done beforehand.
They do it with great pleasure without any complaint. For them housekeeping is the
ultimate objective in life. May it be Savitri, Swami's mother, Krishna’s mother and
his wife Susila, Chandran’s mother, Sampath’s wife, Srinivasa’s wife, Margayyaya’s
wife or Balu’s wife?

Liberal feminists believe as, “The family is the foundation of a country. And
within the family, woman as mother was the foundation.”2 For a mother bringing up
the children and cooking the food is the foundation of her existence. In Swami and
Friends Swami’s mother performs all the household duties with honesty and remains
all the time in the kitchen so much so that Swami misses her in the kitchen and feels
 48

uncomfortable without her attention when she is in bed for two days to have another
child. Swami says, “My mother was all the time in the kitchen. I couldn’t get it (‘it’
referred to lime pickles.)” (p. 14).

When Chandran in The Bachelor of Arts returns home after eight months and
does not find a single speck of dirt on his table asks his mother surprisingly the
reason behind it. His mother replies innocently, “What better business did I have?”
(p. 117) Ramani scolds Savitri in The Dark Room, “no lack of expenses, money for
this and money for that. If the cook can’t cook properly, do the work yourself. What
have you to do better than that?” (p. 2)

Krishna talks about his mother in The English Teacher, “House-keeping was
a grand affair for her. The essence of her existence consisted in the thrills and pangs
and the satisfaction that she derived in running a well-ordered household. She was
unsparing and violent where she met slovenliness” (p. 29). He also tells about Susila,
“My wife had picked up many sensible points in cooking and household economy,
and her own parents were tremendously impressed with her attainments when she
next visited them” (p. 29). Susila is dexterous housewife and knows every skills of
keeping house. Krishna lightly mocks at her, “She went in and brought out a little
more and pushed it on to my plate and I ate with relish just because she was so
desperately eager to get me to appreciate her handiwork” (p. 37).

In The Financial Expert, Margayya’s wife and daughter-in-law also do their

household duties with great responsibility. The fabulous thing about these women is
that they themselves know that they do not have better work to do than doing this
drudgery. They accept it with a sort of contentment and never try to inquire about
their lot. Wollstonecraft rightly remarks:

I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire

strength, both of mind and body, and to convince
them that the soft phrase, susceptibility of heart,
delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are
 49

almost synonymous with the epithets of weakness,

and that those beings who are always objects of
pity and that kind of love, which has been termed
its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.3

Narayan’s women are all alike having exactly the same job to do. They serve
food to their husbands’ in the same manner. A faint aroma comes from everyone’s
saris and disheveled look is the common look of all of them. Their husbands eat first
and they are the last to eat in the family. Even when they are hungry, they wait. No
matter if their husbands come at midnight or the next day. They cannot even think of
having meal before their husbands do.

Ramani says to Savitri in The Dark Room, “What a dutiful wife! Would rather
starve than precede her husband? You are really like some of the women in our
ancient books” (p. 14). Krishna’s father writes a letter to his son complaining in the
novel The English Teacher, “still keeping late hours for food-the last to eat in the
house” (p. 19). Krishna’s wife Susila serves him food and eats after him.

In The Financial Expert Margayya’s wife waits for Margayya till midnight
and when Margayya tells her to eat before him she replies, “How could I without
knowing what have happened? In future, if you are going to be late” (p. 37). These
women put their husbands on high esteem. It could be because, they are emotionally
attached to their husbands; it could be because they love their husbands too much; it
could be because of social fear; it could be because of some religious implications -
whatever be the reasons the women of Malgudi show the essential feminine nature of
traditional Indian women.

Narayan has fears that Westernization of Indian culture would bring curse on
the society and suggests that women should refrain from aping the Western culture.
Ramani decides that he will not be worried about Savitri because she dares to cross
the four walls of the house and so must be punished, “She had walked out of her own
will; she would have to face the consequences, of course; old enough to know what
 50

she was doing. Firmness was everything in life; that was the secret of success with
women. If they found a man squeamish they would drive him about with a whip. He
was certain she would return and apologized when her madness passed. This was
only a different version of sulking in the dark room” (p. 142).

The priest of the temple says to Mari, a locksmith, in the novel The Dark
Room, “If she won’t let you rest, thrash her; that is the way to keep woman sane” (p.
167). In this context, Dorothy Allison justly opines:

Some people begin to believe that the security of

their families and communities depends on the
oppression of others that for some to have good
lives there must be some whose lives are truncated
and brutal. It is the belief that dominates the
culture.4

When Susila instructs her maid to serve food to her husband and goes away off
instead of serving food herself, Krishna thinks, “She doesn’t even care to wait and see
me served. She doesn't care. If she cared, would she sell my clock? I must teach her a
lesson” (p. 49).

In The Bachelor of Arts we encounter Chandran’s mother screaming and

yelling, “They can’t be all right, and if they have kept the girl unmarried till sixteen.
She must have attained puberty ages ago. They can’t be all right. We have a face to
keep in this town” (pp. 69-70). She calls Malathi a ‘hefty, middle aged girl’ and does
not see any defect in her twenty-three year old son. Krishna’s sister in-law does not
like doing domestic work for this she is hated by her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-
law comments, “I really don’t mind doing it for everyone, but there are those who
neither know nor learnt when taught I feel like kicking them when I came across that
type” (p. 29). The sociologist, Veena Das, describes such women as female
patriarchs, old women who often speak on behalf of men. She writes:
 51

In fact, if women didn’t internalize the voices of

men and speak like patriarchs themselves, the
social order could not be maintained. Coercion
and force can never ensure the authority of the
rule as an internal voice.5

When Savitri sulks in the dark corner of the room at her husband’s rude
behavior, Janamma, her friend, makes her understand the situation, “You should
either let your words out or feel that everything your husband does is right. As for
me, I have never opposed my husband or argued with him at any time in my life. I
might have occasionally suggested an alternative, but nothing more. What he does is
right. It is wife’s duty to feel so... men are impetuous. One moment they will be all
temper and the next all kindness. Men have to bear many worries and burdens, and
you must overlook it if they are sometimes unreasonable” (pp. 59-60).

She tells her many traditional and mythological stories about devoted wives in
order to remind her that her behavior is not for an ideal woman. She recounts
instances of the patience of wives, “…her own grandmother who slaved cheerfully
for her husband who had three concubines at home; her aunt who was beaten
everyday by her husband and had never uttered a word of protest for fifty years;
another friend of her mother’s who was prepared to jump into the well if her husband
so directed her; and so on, till Savitri gradually began to feel very foolish at the
thought of her own resentment, which now seemed very insignificant” (p. 60).
Nobody dare tell anything to Ramani because he is all powerful economically,
physically and emotionally.

The subjugation of women is rooted in the socio-economic structure of the

society, which is further made sacrosanct by religious ordinances. Women carry these
ideologies smoothly to other generations. Ghulam Murshid remarks:

It is well said …of all the subjects that women

might learn, housework is the most
 52

important...whatever knowledge she may acquire,

she cannot claim any reputation unless she is
proficient in housework.6

Therefore, it is none other than women who mould and curb the behavior and
character structure of other women, and teach them to submit to the established
authority.

The women of Malgudi are not financially independent. Unpaid work by them
in the home brings no money. Therefore, they have to ask money from their
husbands. They wait for their husbands’ approval for anything that has financial
implication. Husbands give them money as if they give alms to beggars. Swami’s
mother does not have money to give to the tailor who has been asking money for four
days. Her husband gives her money but with a comment, “I don’t know how I am
going to manage things for the rest of the month, he said, peering into the purse. He
locked the bureau, and adjusted his turban before the mirror” (p. 23).

During crisis women of Malgudi either cry or sulk in the dark room. If they do
not cry and sulk they prate and shout to get over the crisis. Margayya says, “Women
can’t hold their tongue” (p. 53). They do not know any other way to enjoy life,
release their anger and anxieties. They hardly know how to please themselves.
Ramani observes that his wife, “never made an effort to conquer her moods; that was
why, he felt, women must be educated; it made all the difference... If Savitri had
little more education, she might have been even better” (pp. 88-89).

Meenakshi becomes sad when she discovers that her husband has brought a
book instead of a sari. The book is on the sexual relationship between a man and a
woman. She refuses to read it and when Margayya insists upon it, she listens to it
both horrified and fascinated. When Balu flees away from the house Meenakshi
becomes hysterical while Margayya thinks that he is now a rich man and it is the time
for celebration. He loathes Meenakshi for spoiling the atmosphere of the house by
crying and sulking in the dark room.
 53

Krishna’s mother-in-law is superstitious and believes that, “the Evil Eye had
befallen on her daughter and that at the new house a malignant spirit had attacked
her” (p. 83). Susila blindly follows what her husband says of the affairs outside home.
For this trait of Susila, Krishna muses, “she took sides with me in all my discussions
and partisanships, and hated everyone I hated and respected everyone I respected. She
told me a great deal about my neighbours, their hopes and fears, and promises and
qualities” (p. 37). She uses her intelligence in discovering the cheating done by the
shopkeeper. “She was very proud of her list. It was precise. Every quantity was
conceived with the correct idea as to how long it should last. There were over two
dozen different articles to be indented and she listed them with foresight and
calculation. She was immensely proud of this ability” (p. 40).

Srinivasa’s wife is shy and inarticulate in the presence of a stranger. She

follows every tradition blindly without giving a thought to it. When Srinivasa comes
to know that she has not eaten anything for two days during travel, he cries, “What
foolish nonsense is this? ... He stood looking at her for a moment as if she were an
embodiment of knotty problems. He knew what it was, “rigorous upbringings fear of
pollution of touch by another caste, orthodox idiocies- all the rigorous
compartmenting of human beings” (p. 35). She reads novels and journals but she
always tells her husband to write something to interest women in his publication.

Socially, after her marriage, woman has no independent social or economic

status of her own. Her social status is directly determined by and is dependent on her
husband’s status, though it is subject to and is strongly qualified by her husband’s
wish to give her that status. He can, if he wishes, deny her that status though she is
his lawfully wedded wife. Srinivasa leaves his wife in the village and neglects his son
and wife keeping himself busy with his job. After a long time when he sees his wife
and son in rags he realizes how he has neglected them.

Ramani scolds Savitri for wearing rags at home. He says, “Why can’t they put
on some decent clothes and look presentable at home instead of starting their make-
up just when you are in hurry to be off? Stacks of costly saris all folded and kept
inside, to be worn only when going out. Only silly-looking rags to gladden our sight
at home. Our business stops with paying the bill. It is only the outsider who has the
privilege of seeing a pretty dress” (p. 26).
 54

Krishna always tells his wife to wrap herself in beautiful saris. Margayya
looks at his wife and thinks, “How plebian she looked, with her faded jacket, her
patched, discoloured sari and her anemic eyes. How can anyone treat me respectfully
when my wife is so indifferent-looking?” (p. 20)

In those days women are under social fear from the cradle to the funeral pyre.
Narayans asserts, “Fear from the cradle to the funeral pyre, and even beyond that,
fear of torture in the other world. Afraid of a husband’s displeasures, and of the
discomforts that might be caused to him, morning to night and all night too. How
many have I slept on the bed on one side, growing numb by the unchanged position,
afraid lest any slight movement should disturb his sleep and cause him discomfort?”
(p. 116)

In Narayan’s early novels women are expected to behave and lead life in a
very restricted manner. A woman should be gentle, soft-spoken, shy, tolerant,
submissive, compassionate and pure even to those who may doubt her motives and be
harsh and unjust to her. A woman is expected to be perfect in all aspects rather than a
simple human being with virtues and vices or precisely, she should be an Angel or
Devi. Women fear to transgress the limit of the decency level. They suffer and
tolerate every heap of insult with patience and fortitude for the fear of getting socially
isolated; they do not expect help from - their partners in bringing up the children or
managing the household for the fear that if they do so, they will be branded as selfish
or bad mother.

Chandran blames Malathi for not responding to his love and curses her, “little
sign did her show of caring for a fellow; she couldn’t say that she had no chance. She
had plenty of opportunities to show that she noticed him. Where there was a will
there was a way. She had only been playing with him, the devil. Women are like that,
they enjoyed torturing people” (p. 112). He loves Malathi and tries to marry her but
never asks her directly. Her father rejects the proposal on the ground of mismatching
of horoscope. She is ignorant and completely at the receiving end. For all her
innocence, ignorance and powerlessness she is charged of being a devil. Therefore,
justly it is said by Rajendra Lal Mitra remarks:

…in Hindu marriage there is no selection, no self-

choice, and no consent on the part of the bride.
 55

She is an article of gift, she is given away even as a

cow or any other chattel.7

Savitri dare not ask her husband about his love affair and prefers to suffer in
silence. She even conceals her husband’s affair for she fears that this would bring
disgrace to her family. Ramani continues his shameful act without any fear because
he knows well that his wife will never confide it to anyone. Margayya’s daughter-in-
law, Brinda, does not dare to tell her husband’s vices to her father-in-law. She hides it
till Margayya comes to know about this from others. Srinivasa’s wife tells him,
“When you have a house, why should you go out for coffee? What will people say if
they find master of the house going out for coffee” (p. 37).

She also does not raise her voice for the fear of the neighbour who will think
of her as a bad-tempered woman. While her husband Srinivasa thinks just contrary to
what she thinks, “…he felt, with an extravagant seriousness, that the whole
civilization has come to an abrupt stalemate because its men had no better basis of
living than public opinion. He raced against their upbringing... A child’s life was
reduced to a mere approved behaviour in the midst of father, mother, grandmothers
and uncles; and later in life parents-in-law, husband, and so on and on endlessly till
one had no opportunity to think of one’s own view on any matter” (p. 37).

Every woman is scared of something or the other. This scary temperament

weakens them from taking any bold decision and forces them to sacrifice even their
own selves. Even when calamity falls on them they seek help from others rather than
doing anything positive to get the things solved. They only pray and make several
promises to God. When Swami disappears his mother cries and prays to God. When
Chandran’s mother comes to know that flower-thief is a Sanyasi she allows him to go
because she dare not punish a Sanyasi, “Ah, leave him alone, let him go. She was
seized with fear now. The curse of the holy man might fall on the family. ‘You can
go sir,’ she said respectfully” (p. 43).

Narayan in his novels seems to convey that a woman has to live within the
boundaries of patriarchal framework, that there is no escape for her. If she tries to
break the social norms she would herself disintegrate and that is the only stark reality
of life. In The Dark Room Shanta Bai, a divorcee at the age of eighteen is a master of
her own will. She is a graduate and can say no when she feels so. She is a woman
 56

who thinks that being a housewife and bearing all the atrocities inflicted by husband
is sheer foolishness. She dismisses films like The Ramayana as sheer mythological
nonsense.

She flirts with Ramani to promote her own personal interests. She combines
her feminine independence with a shrewd opportunism that characteristically belongs
to the new civilization. She believes in having a life of adventure and looks down
upon the traditional housewives. She herself admits, “Oh, I love unconventional
things ... otherwise I shouldn’t be here, but nursing children and cooking for
husband” (p. 79). But she forgets that she lives in a society which has stored epithets
for her - slut, slattern, concubine, hooker, harlot, keep, prostitute, whore etc.

In order to lead a free life she loses respect from the society, which every
single human being craves for. She pretends that she is least bothered about the social
norms but she could not make herself entirely free from the shackles of social
tradition. She sometimes becomes restless and seeks permanent peace that is lost in
the course of becoming an emancipated woman. She asks Ramani to move from one
place to another hysterically at midnight but she does not get peace. She admits to
Ramani that she is rather mad tonight as she says, “I can’t sleep tonight” (p. 91).
Juliet Mitchell posits:

Hysteria is the woman's simultaneous acceptance

and refusal of the organization of sexuality under
patriarchal capitalism. It is simultaneously what a
woman can do both to be feminine and to refuse
femininity, within patriarchal discourse.8

In The Bachelor of Arts Chandran’s idea about marriage, “people married

because their sexual appetite had to be satisfied and there must be somebody to
manage the house. There was nothing deeper than that in any man and woman
relationship” (p. 123). This statement is somewhat true in the early representation of
Narayan’s female and male characters. Most of the marriages are not based on mutual
trust and companionship. The wives cannot discuss their problems freely and
confidently. A wife throughout her life shows obedience and submission while
husband shows dominance and supremacy. There is no intimacy between Swami’s
mother and father. Chandran’s parents indulge in bickering and seem to be always
 57

apprehensive about their sons’ future. For Savitri marriage has become a source from
where she can fulfill hers as well as her children’s needs.

The only exception in this relation is Krishna and Susila. Though they are
placed in the patriarchal set-up of the society, the bond between the two is subtle and
strong. They love and share their happiness and grief. Krishna sets an example. When
his wife falls ill he serves his wife and child and manages household with great
pleasure, “…but I liked it immensely. It kept me so close to my wife that it produced
an immense satisfaction in my mind. Throughout I acted as a nurse. This sickness
seemed to bind us together more strongly than ever” (p. 81). Krishna contacts his
wife after her death spiritually and talks to his wife Susila for hours and feels happy
and contented. He feels happy more than any other couple whose wife is alive. He
says, “The boundaries of our personalities suddenly dissolved. It was a moment of
rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death” (p.
184).

Narayan’s women are too unrealistic in their assessment of the world and their
place in it. In almost all of his early novels, there is always a role for the grandmother
and the mother. But grandmothers and mothers, in spite of being senior members of
the family have no power in taking decisions in the family affairs. Grandmother’s
role is confined only to telling stories to their grandchildren. Swami’s Granny is old
and experienced but the most ignorant person in the house. She has devoted an entire
chapter on her ignorance titled Granny shows her ignorance. She is never obeyed by
either Swami or her son. Instead of giving orders to her son, she says to him, “you are
not in the habit of explaining things to me...you all are big men” (p. 130). Similarly,
Swami’s mother has no power to stop her son from going out to play in the sun. She
tells her husband to stop him.

Ramani tells Savitri, “go and do any work you like in the kitchen, but leave
the training of a grown up boy to me. It is none of woman’s business” (p. 1).
Meenakshi has also no authority over her child, Balu. Margayya blames her, “she has
completely spoilt him, beyond remedy; I must take him out of her hands and put him
to school. That is the only way; otherwise he will be a terrible scoundrel” (p. 53).
Women feel proud of their status as mothers but children are beyond their control.
Mothers are assigned to bring up children and train them but all the power is in the
hands of fathers.
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Through Savitri, we learn about the anguish of wifehood in 1930s, when

women began to ask for something better than what conservative Hindu marriage
could offer them. Savitri, an upper middle-class woman is different from other
housewives though she possesses characteristics of traditional Indian wife. Unlike
most of the female characters of Narayan, Savitri is a sensitive character who has
female friends in whom she can confide. One of them is Gangu and the other friend is
Janamma.

Narayan gives description of Gangu in this way, “She prepared for her film
career by attending two Tamil pictures a week and picking up several screen songs, in
addition to wearing flimsy crepe saris and wearing her hair and flowers in an
eccentric manner. She talked irresponsibly and enjoyed being unpopular in elderly
society in South Extension. She left home when she pleased and went where she
liked, moved about without an escort, stared back at people, and talked loudly. Her
husband never interfered with her but let her go her own way, and believed himself to
be a champion of women’s freedom; he believed he was serving the women’s cause
by constantly talking about votes and divorce. Gangu was tolerated in the extension,
she was interesting; with all her talk, she was very religious, visiting the temple
regularly, and she was not immoral” (p. 19).

Narayan emphasizes Gangu’s religious nature and morality and thus she
secures her position to be a friend of a good woman like Savitri. Janamma is a rich
woman who walks on the lines of an ideal Indian woman. Savitri has great regard for
her and consults her whenever crisis befalls on her. Savitri is on good terms with both
of them and enjoys their company. There is another woman Ponny, who helps Savitri
out in her bad days. Ponny, a lower class woman, leads a free life. She gives advice to
Savitri, “keep the men under the rod, and they will be all right” (p. 136).

Savitri has a growing awareness of her own powerlessness. She longs for the
life of liberty; she likes to be respected and exercise some power within or outside the
four walls of the house; she is the woman who is quite realistic in her approach to
life, she does not live in imagination. No doubt she is humiliated more than any other
character, but she is the one who realizes things as they really are. She has become
immure to her husband’s running commentary but always longs for freedom and
power, “how impotent she was, she thought; she had not the slightest power to do
anything at home, and that after fifteen years of married life” (p. 7).
 59

She speaks philosophically before leaving her husband, “…things? I don’t

possess anything in this world. What possession can a woman call her own except her
body? Everything else that she has is her father’s, her husband’s, or her son’s” (p.
113). She wants to take the children with her but her husband refuses to give them to
her. Out of sheer anger she walks out of the house like Ibsen’s Nora in the play The
Doll’s House. In Ibsen’s drama we do not know what had happened later but here in
The Dark Room Savitri has to face the repercussions for deserting her house, husband
and children. She realizes under the open blue sky that there is one definite thing in
her life that is fear.

Sulking in the dark room gives Savitri a dark vision but when she is exposed
to the whole world she faces realities of life and becomes clear and more practical in
her approach. She earns rice for her work in the temple and feels proud of herself,
“This is my own rice, my very own; and I am not obliged to anyone for this. This is
nobody’s charity to me” (p. 184). But soon she realizes that she is going to live on
other’s charity wherever she goes. Therefore, she returns home and decides to live on
the mercy of one man rather than many. She accepts this stark truth although a part of
her body is dead. That is the reason why she does not call Mari to her house and
reflects, “Why should I call him here? What have I” (p. 210)? A. N. Kaul argues:

The point here, however, is not that, unlike

Ibsen’s female characters, Narayan doesn’t bang
the door but has it banged on her and that in the
end, her dream of feminine independence and
dignity over, she returns submissively to the house
never again to stray in thought and deed.9

However, in the open blue sky Savitri comes to know the purpose of her life
and her future course of action. Her love for Ramani is lost somewhere in her three
days of excursion where she meets life. Ramani tries hard not to be a loser but he
actually is one. Although, apparently Savitri looks foolish and humiliated coming
back to Ramani’s house, but Savitri is now transformed to a practical and clear-
headed woman who knows her position and her destination well.

Ramani leaves her to face the miseries of life but this becomes a blessing in
disguise for her. She stops worrying unnecessarily for her husband and starts working
 60

for her daughters Sumati and Kamala’s future because now she wants her daughters
to be independent and free. Savitri realizes, “If I had gone to a college and studied, I
might have become a teacher or something. It was very foolish of me not to have
gone on with my education. Sumati and Kamala must study up to the B.A. and not
depend for their salvation on marriage. What is the difference between a prostitute
and a married woman? The prostitute changes her men, but a married woman
doesn’t; that’s all, but both earn their food and shelter in the same manner. Yes,
Kamala and Sumati must take their University course and become independent” (p.
120).

She locates herself in the struggle for social transformation. Every act she
performs is embedded in an incredibly intricate network of pressures, constraints and
necessary compromises. Despite all these obstacles and impediments blocking her
way to happiness, she still manages to have her say about her inner desire not for
herself but for her daughters’ self-fulfillment, self-nourishment, self-enhancement
and self-empowerment.

In 1947 after fifty years of agitation and political pressure on the part of social
reformers, Madras Devdasi’s Act was passed and devdasis were forced to give up
their profession and an unusual way of life. They were stranded, having no source of
income. Narayan presents the predicament of devadasis in the novel The Guide by
making his female character Rosie, a devadasi. Rosie is a product of the reformers’
campaign to eradicate temple dancing in South India.

The Painter of Signs was published in 1976 at the time when women's
movement had stirred up the whole world and U. N. had decided to celebrate the year
1975 as an International Women’s Year. Women had started protesting for their
social, political and economic rights besides all other demands. In India family-
planning program was introduced. Men and women were recruited for this job. The
novel The Painter of Signs was inspired by this very movement.
 61

Much of our history conditions us to see human differences in simplistic

opposition to each other: male/female, dominate/subordinate, good/bad, up/down,
superior/inferior, moral/immoral, black/white. We are living in a bifurcated world
and the bifurcating nature of our species forces us to see everything in terms of binary
oppositions. In that way, woman is considered not a human being as a whole who
could have human weaknesses and strengths but, “woman has traditionally been seen
as either saint or devil....Virgin Mary or Eve.”10

In those times she is respected as mother and suspected as seducer. But with
the advent of women’s movement norms have changed. Narayan again asserts that
female characters of grey shades who are neither black nor out and out white are
portrayed. Nonetheless, there remains a considerable lag between changes in attitudes
and in behaviour and structural lag in developing and adopting such kind of literary
discourses. Narayan, even after being an advocate of female freedom and
individuality, could not successfully come out of this binary opposition.

The Guide and The Painter of Signs by Narayan, which set new waves by
introducing many trends are in fact, very traditional and orthodox as far as the role
division of the sexes is concerned. These novels are emphatic affirmation of the
patriarchal set up, which reduces women to either stereotypically angelic or
stereotypically demonic. Rosie from The Guide and Daisy from The Painter of Signs
are portrayed as immoral or dangerous seductresses who lead to the downfall of the
male protagonists because they refuse to be selfless; they act on their own initiatives
and reject the submissive role patriarchy has reserved for them. They are the source
of transgressive female power, which is clearly evident even at the time of their
introduction.

The moment Rosie descends from the train she demands to see cobra-dance.
She becomes ecstatic to see cobra-dance and begins dancing like cobra which
signifies danger, threat and bad omen for Malgudians, “She watched it swaying with
the rapist attention. She stretched out her arm slightly and swayed it in imitation of
 62

the movement; she swayed her whole body to the rhythm-for just a second” (p. 68).
Raju, her boy friend, also acknowledges her bad effect on him, “my troubles would
not have started but for Rosie” (p. 9).

In The Painter of Signs Raman, the protagonist also thinks of Daisy, the
heroine, “she looks terrible... She seemed to grin and looked like a demons!
Soorpanaka's approach should have had the same effect on Rama” (p. 43). Narayan
compares these female characters with demons and witches because according to
Gauthier, “If the figure of witch appears wicked, it is because she poses a real danger
to phallocratic society.”11

Narayan has made these female characters too emancipated to be ideal Indian
women. Their English names Rosie and Daisy suggest the lack of traditionalism. Raju
wonders why she calls herself Rosie. She does not come from a foreign land. She is
just an Indian. Rosie changes her name to ‘Nalini’ considering, “It’s not a sober and
sensible name” (p. 176). Daisy about whom Raman observes, “what a name for
someone who looked so very Indian, and traditional and gentle” (p. 31). These two
female characters also do not have surnames. Hence, these women cannot be
absorbed in their husbands’ or parents’ identity.

In those times not only name, but their professions are also very unorthodox.
Rosie is a dancer. People thought that only from lower strata of the society prefer this
occupation. Rosie, a fatherless girl, tries to transform temple dance into an art form
for public stages and considers her dance as a national treasure. Still this
transformation of dance does not bring proper respect for her because in Indian
society dancing is basically a profession of devdasis who are considered as public
women, temple prostitutes and dedicated women.

Daisy is a family planning officer. In executing her job she has to lecture men
and women on birth control. She explains to the villagers the process of birth and its
control, “Daisy explained physiology, anatomy and sexual intercourse, with charts or,
if a blackboard was available, with sketches in chalk. She never felt shy or hesitant
 63

but sounded casual” (p. 59). Narayan shows that if a woman steps out to be a career
woman she has to be bold enough to execute her job.

Rosie and Daisy have much in common. They are outsiders coming to
Malgudi. They do not have glorified past. Rosie has low birth. She is a daughter of a
devadasi. She is an M.A. She knows only her mother’s name. She does not know her
father’s name. She herself admits, “I belong to a family traditionally dedicated to the
temples as dancers; my mother, grandmother, and, before her, her mother. Even as a
young girl I danced in our village temple. You know how our caste is viewed? ‘...we
are viewed as public women,’ she said plainly, and I was thrilled to hear the words.
We are not considered respectable; we are not considered civilized” (p. 84).

Daisy runs away from home at the age of twelve because she wants to build
her career. She renounces her parents and family life for the sake of independence.
She is an orphan in spite of having parents. Narayan wants to convey that only
women of low birth can do what these heroines do and they cannot be fitted into the
framework of this ideal world.

Both Rosie and Daisy challenge the belief that women are inherently better
adapted to traditional female sex roles. Their adaptability to the public role is
astonishing. Daisy travels tirelessly. She sleeps on a little piece of carpet; she eats
whatever food is available - without taboos of any kind. She bathes in a public well,
washes and dries her clothes anywhere, stays in a lonely hut and is an extremely
understanding woman. She has a perfect timetable and routine. She gives proper
guidance to the villagers to follow birth control norms.

Raman acknowledges her passion for work, “What a lot of policing she was
doing! Raman thought. She must really be mad! She will fight and shun people who
bring up large families. Some madness must have got into her head quite early in life
and stayed on there” (p. 67). She is like a yogi whose eyes are fixed on the centre of
his nose, seeing nothing else in life.
 64

Similarly, Rosie dances tirelessly. She does household work happily with
Raju’s mother without complaining. She is least bothered about the past and looks
forward hopefully to the future. Even when she is taunted and embarrassed by others,
she never stops her dance practice. She is a woman who adapts herself in any
situation and in any place; whether it is her mother’s house, husband’s, boyfriends or
her own.

She manages everything in the absence of Raju and for that reason Raju feels
jealous of her self-reliance. With the help of characters like Rosie and Daisy Narayan
tries to explain that a woman has to be tough and committed to the chosen ideologies
to be an independent woman - not only committed but she has to be passionate and
obsessed. He depicts their passion towards work as a sort of madness. He gives an
impression that these two women are somewhat mad in pursuing their professions.

These two heroines practice self-interest and self-gratification that are

supposed to be prime virtues of men. Being educated, both of them know how to
please themselves. Rosie marries Marco because he for Rosie is an instrument of
getting all her needs fulfilled. She herself says, “The question was, whether it would
be good to marry so much above our wealth and class. But all the women in our
family were impressed, excited that a man like him was coming to marry one of our
class, and it was decided that if it was necessary to give up our traditional art, it was
worth the sacrifice. He had a big house, a motor car, he was man of high social
standing; he had a house outside Madras, he was living in it all alone, no family at all;
he lived with his books and papers” (p. 85).

Marco perhaps, “married out of a desire to have someone care for his practical
life, but unfortunately his choice was wrong - this girl herself was a dreamer if ever
there was one” (p. 113). In order to seek forgiveness from Marco for her adultery,
Rosie breaks the relationship with Raju abruptly without explaining things to him.
She follows Marco but Marco, adamant in his decision, deserts her.
 65

Rosie, who deserts Raju carelessly, returns to him. At Raju’s house, she is
insulted and abused by Raju’s mother and uncle but she does not retort and tolerates
everything patiently. With the help of Raju she becomes a professional dancer and
gradually rises to fame. One day she tells Raju, “even if I have seven rebirths, I won’t
be able to repay my debt to you” (p. 184). But she fails to tolerate even extravagance
and commercialization of her dance by Raju.

When Raju is apprehended for forgery, she firmly speaks to Raju, “If I have to
pawn my last possession, I’ll do it to save you from jail. But once it’s over, leave me
once and for all; that’s all I ask. Forget me. Leave me to live or die, as I choose; that’s
all” (pp. 221-222). She asks forgiveness from Marco and abandons Raju mercilessly.
She shows her intense desire to spend the rest of her life with her husband Marco.
Rosie fails both as a respectable wife and as a glamorous beloved because she is there
all for herself.

Daisy is modern in her outlook and temperament. She herself admits,

“although I was thirteen 1 had my own notions of what was good for me...I would
like to work rather than be a wife” (p. 131). Daisy, a family planning officer, knows
not only how to achieve her goal but also to keep people in place. She is authoritative,
determined, decisive, cold, callous and commanding; she is every inch an
embodiment of male qualities. Daisy is clear in her goal as well as mission. She
herself says, “I like to serve the people in what seems to me the best way, that’s all.
And in this area allotted to me now, if I can help arrest the population growth by even
five percent within this year, I’ll be satisfied” (p. 58). She asks Raman to accompany
her and to paint the walls on the tour of villages. “She had offered him the privilege
of accompanying her and he had accepted it that was all. She treated him as a sort of
a trailer” (p. 63). Her ambition is to arrest the population growth and she pursues this
aim with religious intensity.

She develops physical relationship with Raman and plans to marry him.
Raman madly falls in love with her and also wants to lead his life with Daisy. “I can’t
 66

live without her” (p. 77). For him, “life without Daisy’s company seemed
impossible” (p. 110). He often expresses his love to her, “I like you, I feel lost
without you” (p. 125). But for Daisy, I love you, I like you, are words which can
hardly be real. You have learnt them from novels and Hollywood films perhaps.
When a man says ‘I love you’ and the woman repeats ‘I love you’- it sounds
mechanical and unconvincing. Perhaps credible in Western society, but sound silly in
ours. People really in love would be struck dumb, I imagine” (pp. 125-126).

She puts two conditions before Raman: first, that they should have no children
and second, if by mischance one is born he will give the child away and keep herself
free to pursue her social work. She also tells him, “If you want to marry me, you must
leave me to my own plans even when I am a wife. On any day you question why and
how, I will leave you” (p. 159). Raman makes all the compromises. Despite that
Daisy deserts him ruthlessly.

Raman says, “That is the tragedy of womanhood — utility articles whether in

bed or out” (p. 46). Ironically, here the roles of the sexes are reversed and Raman and
Raju become the utility articles for Daisy and Rosie respectively. Although it is
Raman and Raju who are fascinated by these female characters and they themselves
initiate these relationships, yet it is they, who are trapped. Throughout the novel they
express their love and run after their but their letters’ attitude towards them is purely
mechanical. Their love is only for their profession and they are ambivalently and
ambiguously physically attracted towards their paramours. They develop physical
relationship with their boyfriends because for them sex is “all powerful instinct which
demands fulfillment against the claims of morals, belief and social restrictions”12
says, Jeffrey Weeks.

They never show any kind of guilt or repentance and forgive themselves at the
very first hand. Raman tries hard to save himself from her but succumbs to magnetic
power of Daisy. Although he knows well that Daisy, “is a sire, planning to eat me up,
I suppose. I must be careful” (p. 47). He takes a very good care of her like a
 67

traditional Indian housewife. He says, “What a fool I am not to have noticed her
mood! He said to himself. Smiling mood and non-smiling one, talking mood and
silent one, caressing and non-caressing. How on earth am I to judge when to do what,
when to say what, and how to do the right thing at all times” (p. 171)?

When Raman dare ask her where she is going, she snaps the relationship with
him. Raman pleads, “I’ll no way interfere with you, live as you live, in the open or in
a hut, walk barefoot in the forest paths, seek nothing, demand nothing, I will not mind
any hardship if I can be with you. Please” (p. 178). But Daisy adamant in her decision
speaks coldly to Raman, “I want to forget my moments of weakening, and you must
forget me. That’s all…” (p. 179). Then she speaks rather earnestly, “Oh, forgive me
for misleading you” (p. 180).

Finally she speaks like a typical Indian man, “don’t again talk of the past or
think of it. I am wiping it out from my mind” (p. 181). She breaks the relationship
and leaves Malgudi. Raman could only say like a traditional Indian woman, “I’ll love
no one except you. Understand, you are my wife. Come back to me. I’ll keep the
home always ready for you” (p. 182).

From Raju’s tongue superlatives drop glibly for Rosie and he reduces himself
to a man whose purpose of life is to amuse his girlfriend Rosie. He reflects, “The only
reality in my life and consciousness was Rosie” (p. 118). While Rosie, after
developing extramarital relationship with Raju, starts paying extra attention to
Marco’s need. Raju feels that, “she was trying a new technique on him, after the
inauguration of our own intimacy. She arranged his room. She spoke to Joseph about
his food” (p. 114). She starts saying, “After all he is my husband. I have to respect
him. I cannot leave him there.... After all he has been so good to me, given me
comfort and freedom” (pp. 119-120). C. D. Narsimhaiah remarks in this context:

Especially in the way he takes care to preserve

Rosie from inner taint Narayan seems to be
 68

affirming what has been hailed in the Indian

tradition as the feminine principle in life.13

However, it does not seem that Rosie’s inner self is not tainted. She deserts
Raju and wants to be with her husband Marco. But when Marco refuses to accept a
wife who has committed adultery, she returns to Raju. After that, she neither for once
remembers Marco, nor does she mention his positive aspects. She always shows the
dark side of Marco until she sees Marco’s photograph in a leading magazine
Illustrated Weekly. The photo of Marco in the book drives her crazy. She suddenly
forgets her husband’s apathy and cold behaviour towards her. She again starts saying,
“After all, after all he is my husband” (p. 201). “1 do, I deserved nothing less. Any
other husband would have throttled me then and there” (p. 201).

She starts all these acts just to have Marco back in her life because the respect
she can get from Marco can never be given by Raju and one must not forget that she
marries Marco only for social prestige. Now she has name and fame, she wants
someone equal to her own status and Marco, no doubt, if not superior, is her peer. She
sees that there is a possibility of reunion and if she reunites with Marco she will get
the same status she has always craved for. She is again ready to sacrifice her dance
for him. Therefore, she leaves Raju easily and tells him to forget her. For Raju it is a
big blow, “I couldn’t understand her. I had an appalling thought that for months and
months I had eaten slept and lived with her, without in the least understanding her
mind. What were her moods? Was she sane or insane? Was she a liar, did she bring
all these charges against her husband at our first meeting just to seduce me? Would
she be leveling various charges against me now that she seemed to be tiring of me -
even to the extent of saying that I was a moron and imbecile? I felt bewildered and
unhappy. I didn’t understand her sudden affection for her husband” (p. 202).

A woman has to change and use the man as per her convenience if she wants
to be emancipated and only freak women are supposed to do this that are voracious,
all devouring and consuming. Rosie and Daisy follow this principle and become the
 69

perfect example of freak women. The patriarchal myth that female biology
automatically makes a woman feminine and that motherhood is her natural instinct,
desire and ambition, which gives her the qualities of nurturing, caring giving and
sacrificing is subverted by Rosie and Daisy. Motherhood is neither a compulsory duty
for them nor a cherished ambition. Before marriage Daisy puts condition before
Raman that they should not be having children or if, there is one by mistake; she will
give the child away. Daisy goes against the ancient values, denies the importance of
children and motherhood in women’s life and even goes against Shashtras. She views
children as symbols of defeat for her cause of family planning. Similarly, Rosie has
no kids and never desires for them. These heroines are far cry from conventional
feminine types.

Nevertheless, Narayan tries to make the character of Rosie and Daisy

acceptable and to win some kind of sympathy by making them appear as victims
depicting Raju, Marco and Raman in normal patriarchal set-up. Marco, a traditional
Indian husband, keeps himself busy in his cave-research and hardly cares for his wife
Rosie and accuses Rosie of having morbid interests and says, “If a man has to have
peace of mind it is best that he forget the fair sex” (p. 71). He himself commits
adultery but when he comes to know about his wife’s relationships he stops talking to
her, stops eating the food she touches and finally says, “…this is my last word to you.
Don’t talk to me. You can go where you please or do what you please” (p. 151).

But when he sees his wife Rosie becomes a famous dancer, he comes back to
her whom once he had despised. His indifference towards Rosie gives reason to Raju
to love and sympathize with her. But Raju himself begins to exploit Rosie and
commercializes her art. Raju believes, “I had a monopoly of her and nobody had
anything to do with her... I resented anyone’s wanting to make a direct approach to
her. She was my property” (p. 189). Further, “I liked to keep her in a citadel” (p.
193). Raju becomes a spendthrift and wastes all Rosie’s hard-earned money.
 70

Raman tries to seduce Daisy but fails and feels no guilt or shame like Ramani,
Marco and Mr. Sampath. He says, “He had done nothing to feel guilty about - the
normal drive of a force which kept the whole world spinning. Nothing to be ashamed
of, nothing to be apologetic about. If he had not tried to make use of an opportunity in
the normal manner, he would have been considered a worthless sort in some circles”
(p. 98). He tries to master over Daisy but fails.

Finally Rosie & Daisy stand all alone in life. It seems that they pursue their
own ends single-mindedly and end up being quite content with their lives but
unhappily married or single they are left all alone in this whole universe. They
challenge or disrupt many established socio-cultural norms like personal identity,
sexual mores, family arrangement, childbearing customs, educational patterns,
religious ideology, political and economic structures for full participation in public
life and for independence.

Raju’s mother and Raman’s aunt are the traditional models for Indian women.
Raju’s mother is a simple, suffering and sincere woman while his father possesses
traits of a typical Indian man, “he was a man of uncertain temper and one could not
guess how he would react to interruptions, and so my mother coached me to go up,
watch his mood, and gently remind him of food and home” (p.19). Raju’s mother
waits for her husband till late hours and bears all the atrocities of her husband in the
name of being a pativrata wife. She does not like Rosie and calls her a snake-woman.
She often tells anecdotes about husbands to Rosie like Janamma in The Dark Room,
“good husbands, mad husbands, reasonable husbands, unreasonable ones, savage
ones, slightly dangerous ones, moody ones, and so on and so forth; but it was always
the wife, by her doggedness, perseverance, and patience, that brought him round. She
quoted numerous mythological stories of Savitri, Seetha, and all the well-known
heroines” (p. 155).

Raman’s aunt is a widow and barren. Her character is also depicted within the
Indian traditional patriarchal set up. She brings Raman up. She works all day long
 71

and goes to the temple in the evening to tell stories from Hindu mythology. Raman
feels, “a stab of sympathy for her. Morning till night, planning something for his
delectation - for years, unwavering attention to his needs” (p. 27). Raman never
acknowledges his Aunt’s contribution, “Aunt had no better occupation but gathering
fodder for him night and day and keeping them in proper condition” (p. 164).

Narayan does not change at all. He never progresses significantly over the
years. Right from the beginning he, in his own way, is guarded about his claims for
the independence of women and men. For Narayan, it is a fact that women do appear
to be victims of an oppressive system and men are victims of man’s image of man:
hard cold, rational and analytical. His major concern is to warn men to mend their
ways towards women because women can be a threat to their mastery as it is evident
in the novels The Guide and The Painter of Signs and therefore, he at no point
encourages women to challenge all social or cultural norms and practices as the
solution to male hegemony. He is fearful about the change of subjectivity and always
craves to work towards a level of communication in male-female relationship that is
built upon mutual respect, trust and individual self-worth.

The best novels are the nearest to reality. Among the Indian English writers
R.K. Narayan falls into that category which appeals to all sections of society. A
schoolboy, a graduate, a professional, an educated housewife or a superannuated
person - all feel at home with Narayan’s fiction. The reason for this general appeal is
no doubt his ability to create characters which one can identify with spontaneously.
Swami, Krishna and Chandran and Ramani or Suseela and Savitri or the unassuming
Sastri and the innumerable minor characters are easily recognizable, because they are
based on real life models.

However, there are some characters of Narayan, which are of a peculiar

mould. For example, Margayya, the ambitious financier in The Financial Expert,
Raju the ostentatious guide in The Guide or Vasu, the rogue taxidermist in The Man–
Eater of Malgudi are extraordinary, yet convincing. One reason that may be attributed
 72

to this extraordinariness is the element of the esoteric which is prominently visible in

these novels.

The relevant use of tales from the Hindu mythology, the teachings of the
Bhagavad-Gita and the austere religious practices and beliefs ordained to attain one’s
aims, add strength to the fictional art of R.K. Narayan. Furthermore, this device helps
the reader with a better understanding of that particular character and a deeper insight
into human nature.

It is in this context that Narayan’s skilful use of myth makes reality more
easily comprehensible. As Ian Milligan rightly says:

Novelists like Narayan continually add to the

richness of our human experience: they bring
before us new topics, new characters, and new
attitudes.14

The Financial Expert15 narrates the story of Margayya, a financier. As his

name indicates he shows the way to the illiterate poor peasants to draw loans from the
bank and from each other. He conducts his business in front of the central cooperative
Bank, under the shade of a banyan tree with his tin box, a gray, discoloured, knobby
affair, in which he carried his entire equipment consisting of an ink bottle, a pen, a
blotter, a small red covered register and the most important of always loan application
forms.

Despite warnings from the bank’s secretary not to indulge in illegal

possession of the – application forms, Margayya continues with his financing. To
him, “money alone is important in this world. Everything else will come to us
naturally if we have money in our purse” (p. 21). In his view, ‘if money was absent
men came near being beasts’ (p. 27). Margayya explains again, “People did anything
for money. Money was man’s greatest need like air or food. People went to horrifying
length for its sake, like collecting rent on a dead body… It left him admiring the
 73

power and dynamism of money, its capacity to make people do strange needs” (p.
28).

Obsessed with the thought of money, Margayya falls victim to its overbearing
influence. His immediate concern was to attain material benefits such as unlimited
affluence, foreign studies for Balu, his only son, his possible marriage with a judge’s
daughter, and the realization of the next generation of aristocrats in his family, filled
his mind night and day. His only salvation lay in acquiring the riches he coveted. The
best way to fulfill his desire, he presumed, would be to consult the temple priest.

Margayya sought the priest out and waited patiently for an opportunity to
confide in him. The atmosphere in the temple on that late evening swayed his mind
towards the mysterious and awesome superiority of gods and goddesses of his
culture. As Milligan says:

People are thoroughly influenced by the society in

which they have grown up. The complicated net
work made out of the consequences of individual
decisions becomes a map of the moral attitudes of
a society.16

The priest tells Margayya the significance of Puja (ritual worship conducted to
appease the Hindu Pantheon of Gods or Goddesses) to obtain one’s aim and
objectives. Margayya, as he sat in the sanctorum reflects on the image of “Hanuman,
the God of power, and the son of wind. According to tradition this God had pressed
one foot on the very spot where the shrine now stood, sprang across space and ocean
and landed in Lanka…, there to destroy Ravana, a king with ten heads and twenty
hands, who was oppressing mankind and had abducted Rama’s wife Seetha” (p. 33).
When the puja is over the priest gives him the tumbler of milk.

But when Margayya refuses to drink, the priest admonishes him thus, “Milk is
one of the forms of Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of Wealth. When you reject it or
 74

treat it indifferently, it means you reject her. She is a Goddess, who always stays on
the tip of her toes all the time, ever ready to turn and run away. There are ways of
wooing and keeping her. When she graces a house with her presence, the master
becomes – distinguished, famous and very wealthy.” Margayya’s reaction is typical.
He “reverently touched the tumbler and very respectfully drank milk, taking care not
to spill even a drop” (p. 35).The reason why Narayan makes use of mythology, in his
own words is:

Even the legends and myths, as contained in the

Purana’s… are mere illustrations of the moral
and spiritual truth enunciated in the Vedas… each
forms a part and parcel of a total life and is
indispensable for the attainment of a four-square
understanding of existence… The characters in
the epics are prototypes and moulds in which
humanity is cast, and remain valid for all time.17

The priest also relates the story of Kubera, from Mahabharata who had to go
through an arduous penance in order to atone the spilling of a drop of milk on the
floor of his palace. Unable to hold back any longer, Margayya requests the priest, “I
want to acquire wealth. Can you show me a way? I will do anything you suggest” (p.
36). Margayya’s attitude is a fine example of the human tendency of becoming
desperate for realizing ambitions, often overlooking the adverse effects of pursuing
them to the extreme. The priest comes up with a solution to Margayya’s problem. He
suggests, “…You should propitiate Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth. When
she throws a glance and if it falls on someone, he becomes rich, he becomes
prosperous, he is treated by the world as an eminent man, and his words are treated as
something of importance. All this you seem to want” (p. 50).

When the vainglorious Margayya forgets his surroundings and takes a deep
pinch of snuff, the priest eggs him on thus, “A devotee of Goddess Lakshmi need
 75

care for nothing, not even the fact that he is in a temple where certain decorum is to
be observed… It is only the protégé of Goddess Saraswathi (deity of knowledge and
enlightenment) who has to mind such things… Some persons have the good fortune
to be claimed by both… evidently you are one of those for whom both are fighting
for at the moment” (p. 50).

Margayya could hardly detect the sarcasm in the priest’s tone, for; he is
overwhelmed by the dreams of surrounding himself with wealth. Presently, he gets
his horoscope examined by the priest and is advised to propitiate Saturn (who, he was
told, is powerful enough to make or take one’s fortunes) with honey in the temple of
the planetary deities. Then he is given a short verse to recite and a set of instructions
to follow before he starts the rituals. When he voiced the last minute doubts about the
success of the ceremony, the priest replies ambiguously, “Results are not in our
hands… The Shastra’s lay down such and such rituals for such and such ends.
Between the man who performs them and one who doesn’t, the chances are greater
for the former” (p. 57).

Two days later, Margayya began his rites in a room he spring – cleaned.
Following the instructions of the priest, he inscribed a Sanskrit syllable on a piece of
deer – skin (Which he could get after suffering agony) which he tied around his neck
during the chanting of the mantra. He went all the way to the pond where the red
lotus was available, burnt it and mixed the charred contents in ghee obtained from the
milk of a gray coloured cow and dotted his forehead between the brows with it for a
higher degree of concentration. For the next forty days, he was lost to the world, “He
had to repeat it a thousand times a day, sitting before the image of the Goddess…
Each took eight hours of repetition to complete the thousand, and then he reverently
put the black paste on his forehead, lit camphor… his Jaws ached, his tongue has
become dry… he emerged … venerable… sapped in every way but with his face
glowing with triumph” (p. 70).
 76

Although there was a lull in Margayya’s fortune making, he, however, was
able to achieve his goal by becoming a partner in the publishing business run by the
enterprising Mr. Lal. But being dissatisfied with the shady deal of publishing
pornography, Margayya turns to finance once again. Look at the way he prospered as
a financier, “People borrowed from him only under stress… Margayya was the one
man who lent easily. He made the least fuss about the formalities but he charged
interest in so many subtle ways and compounded it so deftly that the moment a man
signed his bonds, he was more or less finished” (p. 183).

The irony of the narrative is that while Margayya amassed wealth, he lost his
mental and physical health. His son Balu turns out to be a loafer. His one time friend,
philosopher and guide Dr. Pal plays traitor in his later life by ruining his business as a
means to avenge his injured pride. Once again Margayya stands penniless. One
wonders at the way things turn out for Margayya despite the elaborate and
painstaking Lakshmi Puja.

One can only conclude that Narayan tries to reconstruct the oft observed
pattern in reality that material assets are of no use if the basic integrity and sympathy
are lost, if one’s attitude in gaining riches is selfish and singular. Rajaji’s concluding
remarks of his Ramayana aptly describe Margayya’s predicament. K.R. Srinivasa
Iyengar remarks:

Any work done in good spirit is good work. It is

not work that is tiring or degrading but the wrong
attitude one brings to life.18

This suggests eternal truth that the will and destiny of an individual are
inextricable. It is the individual who is ultimately responsible for his fate, as in the
case of Margayya.

The Man–Eater of Malgudi19 has Vasu as its central character. A taxidermist by

profession appears out of the blue at Nataraj’s press, ordering visiting cards intending
 77

to begin his career in Malgudi. He learnt the art of stuffing animals from a master
named Suleiman, but before that he learnt wrestling and killed the guru with a deadly
chop, in a moment of uncontrollable fury. While Nataraj debated his wisdom of doing
business with a man who looked and sounded like a giant, Vasu takes over his attic as
living cum, working quarters for himself. No mention of rent or permission to
conduct taxidermy in it is made, “It was like having a middle aged man eater in your
office and home and with the same uncertainties, possibilities and potentialities” (p.
27).

Right from the beginning Vasu struck Natraj as a man of abnormal features. He had a
“tanned face, large powerful eyes under thick eyebrows, a large forehead with a
shock of unkempt hair like a black halo” (p. 13). After failing to appease a forestry
official to a get a license to kill animals, Vasu began poaching in the Mempi forest,
besides shooting innocent creatures such as cats, dogs and eagles. On being
questioned about propriety in killing an eagle, held sacred by the Hindus because it is
Lord Vishnu’s vehicle, Vasu replies flippantly as, “I want to try and make Vishnu use
his feet now and then” (p. 64).

He seems especially fond of killing tigers. Natraj is rather stunned when for
the first time he saw an eighteen – inch head of a tiger in the back seat of his jeep.
The mild mannered Natraj was brought up in a household where to kill a fly is
regarded as a sin. Vasu, the selfish godless giant appears his precise foil. He proved a
perfect enemy when he filed a false case against Natraj on the grounds that the latter
rented part of the house illegally and that he ill – maintained it.

But Natraj never could be a successful enemy and desired to settle the matter
out of court by peaceful means. He was ready to look at the stuffed hyena and the
python from educational point of view. But Sastri, the right hand man of Nataraj had
a different view. He says, “He shows all the definitions of a rakshasa with his
enormous – strength, genius and no regard for man or God” (p. 96). Sastri continues
that like a demon, Vasu is invincible and beyond law.
 78

Sastri provides a number of examples to support his observation. He quotes

from the Puranas such as the Ramayana in which the ten headed demon King
Ravana, with unusual Yogic powers and boon for never ending life, nevertheless met
with an end at the hands of Rama. Then there is Manisha an Asura with a boon of
immortality and invincibility and an ability to create a demon in his own image with
every drop of blood he shed was at last annihilated by the goddess Durga who sucked
the blood from his body. And finally Sastri recounts the fable of Bhasmasura who
made humanity suffer with his rare boon of scorching everything he touched was at
last tricked by Mohini (an incarnation of God Vishnu) to place his palms on his own
head and was reduced to ashes. In real life too “Every man can think that he is great
and live forever, but no one can guess from which quarter his doom will come” (p.
97).

R.K. Narayan used the tales from Puranas extensively because as K.R.
Srinivasa Iyengar observes, “…they have been the ground plank of Indian culture.”20
When the poet’s friend Natraj completes his poem on Radha Kalyan, they decide to
celebrate the event in a big way. The astrologer fixes a day that coincides with the
spring festival. Natraj gets busy with printing cards and banners and making
arrangements to bring the volume out on the evening of the sad day. All of a sudden
Nataraj gets a surprise visit by Rangi, the infamous temple dancer who of late has
become the mistress of Vasu. Much to his stunned disbelief and shock she informs
him in secret that Vasu has been planning to shoot Kumar, the temple elephant on the
night of the festival when a procession of gods and goddesses is to be taken out into
the streets of the town.

When Nataraj corners him about his nefarious plans Vasu replies nonchalantly
thus, “Has it occurred to you how much more an elephant is worth dead? …I can ten
thousand out of the parts of this elephant” (p. 172). Having lost hope of rescuing the
elephant Nataraj surrenders to Vishnu who rescued Gajendra the elephant king from
the clutches of a killer crocodile. He cries out involuntarily “O Vishnu! … Save our
 79

elephant and save all the innocent men and women…” (p. 183). Unable to with hold
Nataraj enters Vasu’s living quarters and takes the gun away.

But Vasu remains still. It is only on the day after the function that they learnt
of Vasu’s accidental death. On inquiry it came to fight that he hit himself on a vital
part of his head in order to kill a worrying mosquito and met, with his own end. Vasu
did say, “Night or day, I run a mile when a mosquito is mentioned” (p. 26). And
Sastri is ironically right when he observes, “He had to conserve all that might for his
own destruction. Every demon carries within, unknown to himself, a tiny seed of self
destruction and goes up in thin air at the most unexpected moment. Otherwise what is
to happen to humanity?” (p. 242)

Narayan’s application of mythological story of Bhasmasura to Vasu is to

underline the distinction between good and evil. He observes:

The strong man of evil continues to be reckless

until he is destroyed by the tempo of his own
misdeeds. Evil has in it, buried subtly, the
infallible seeds of its own destruction. And
however frightening a demon might seem, his
doom is implied in his own propensities…21

The Guide22 was not only his most mature book but also won world wide
renown by being filmed. It won the prestigious Sahitya Akademy award for the year
1960. It is the Karma theory that is enunciated in the life of Raju the protagonist. In
Hinduism it is a foregone conclusion that an individual lives and dies in accordance
with his Karma and Vasanas (impression the personality has gathered from its own
thoughts and actions of the past or previous lives). Desires and thoughts which spring
forth from one’s Vasanas make it appear inevitable as observer in The New Yorker:

As a Hindu Narayan believes in reincarnation – a

universe of infinite rebirths. …he surveys his
 80

teeming scene from the perspective of this most

ancient of practiced religions…23

The career graph of Raju is rather complicated. He begins his adult life as a
guide to tourists. A man who is a compulsive showman, Raju believes in
appearances. He meets Marco, an archeologist, to whom as, “Dead and decaying
things… fire …imagination rather then things that lived and moved and swung their
limbs” (p. 72).

Rosie, his wife is starved of dancing because her husband forbids it. A strained
relationship is further breached because Raju helps Rosie by being a sympathetic
audience when she performs in the privacy of the hotel room while Marco is away
researching the caves in the Mempi forest. One thing leads to another and Rosie
confides in Raju and it follows that they become lovers.

Marco finds out the liaison between the guide and his wife (in the name only),
deserts her in cold – heartedly without giving her a chance to explain. Castigated by
family and friends for what appears to be immoral behaviour, Raju the guide now
becomes a manager for Rosie’s commercial dance performances all over the country
and comes into incredible affluence. Along with money come the attendant evils such
as drink and gambling. Also Raju is madly possessive of Rosie. (“She was my
property… I like to keep her in a citadel” p. 84.) He is constantly in the grip of fear
that he may lose her.

It is this flaw in his character that finally causes his downfall. He hides the
Illustrated weekly in which Marco’s article on Mempi caves appears for fear that
Rosie may reestablish her links with her husband. It is this fear, which prompts him,
forges her signature on the document sent by Marco for the release of her Jewellry.
Raju is finally caught by the net of his own sins and arrested by his former friend of
prosperous times, the superintendent of police in the middle of a dance performance
by Rosie. When she learns of his arrest, she comments, “I felt all along you were not
doing right things. This is Karma” (p. 193).
 81

The fact that ironies of life never cease is realized in Raju’s case when after
serving time in prison, he inadvertently becomes a saint for the people of Mangala
when he took refuge in an ancient temple on the outskirts. Velan becomes his protege
and Raju out of necessity mixes motives and desires and once again the conman in
him takes over. He speaks to the villagers on various issues of topical importance.

He not only gives them discourses on the Ramayana and the characters
therein, but also advises them on matters of cleanliness and godliness. He even
prescribes medicines and settles disputes and quarrels involving property. He
encourages the village school master to reopen the school in the premises of the
temple. All the time Raju is aware of his put on air of grandeur. He plays the role of
the Swami to the best possible extent. But once again is shockingly overtaken by the
inexplicable eventualities. Things take a dramatic turn when Velan’s semi crack
brother mistakenly reports that the Swami will not eat till rains come instead of till
they stop fighting over a matter of selling and buying. Events that followed were
beyond Raju’s thinking or control.

He never once imagines that there arrives a time when the fake Sannyasi in
him has to transform into a genuine one, people expect him, as the holy one with
spiritual power, to bring rain to the draught stricken land of theirs by his penance as it
used to happen in ancient India. For some time, Raju tries to evade this role. But fate
is something inexorable and relentless. It is in times like this that one realizes it is
divinity that shapes our ends.

The first – four days of his enforced fast was sheer agony for Raju. The sight
of food torments him. He polishes off the vessel containing the previous day’s
leftover food. He curses his first meeting with Velan who is responsible for the whole
thing now. “He felts sick of the whole thing” (p. 210). He knews that the fact of his
being a Sannyasi is a myth just as the old crocodile in the pond is. But then the people
of this land survive on myths. It enhances their belief and religious faith. The
transformation in Raju is gradual, natural, if also wonderful. First it is Velan, asleep
at his feet tired and perseverant, who stirred his conscience thus, “Why not give the
poor devil a chance, Raju said to himself instead of hankering after food which one
could not get anyway” (p. 213).
 82

The resolution to chase away the thoughts of food gives him a peculiar
strength. It further forges his thoughts towards genuine fast, “If by avoiding food I
should help the trees bloom, and the grass grow, why not do it thoroughly? For the
first time in his life he was making an earnest effort, for the first time he was learning
the thrill of full application, outside money and love; for the first time he was doing
something in which he was not personally interested. He felt suddenly so enthusiastic
that it gave him a new strength to go through the ordeal” (p. 213).

Thus for the sake of people and their religious belief, he is firm in making
fast. On the twelfth day of the ‘Swami’s’ fast, he hears rain in the hills and sags
down. In a masterful stroke Narayan leaves the readers in a state of wonder as to what
happens to Raju. But what matters is that he stops thinking about himself that he is
free from attachment of any kind. He does become the ‘Guide’, but, of a superior
mould in the final analysis. Radhakrishnan says:

…when the mirror of understanding is cleansed of

the dust of desire, the life of pure consciousness is
reflected on it. When all seems lost, light form
heavens breaks, enriching our human life more
than words can tell.24

One cannot fail to appreciate the rainbow magnificence of life in R.K.

Narayan’s novels. It is the miracle of faith forged by the use of myth that is enacted in
these novels. Despite the use of myth, it is the credible universe changed with moral
imagination that comes to us in the above unforgettable novels of the Grand Old Man
of Malgudi.

Renunciation is one of the recurrent themes found in the novels of R.K.

Narayan. The author’s preoccupation with the theme seems so strong that it seems to
willy nilly find place even in some of his other novels than The Bachelor of Arts. The
Guide is one example where we find the renunciation theme remarkably handled by
Narayan.

When The Bachelor of Arts opens we find Chandran, the protagonist

preparing himself to take the final year B.A. exams. We subsequently see him get his
Bachelor’s degree. Structurally the novel is neatly divided into four parts dealing with
 83

the following four important phases of Chandran’s life spread roughly over four
years. Chandran getting the Bachelor’s degree, his encounter with love, his
renunciation, and his marriage with Suseela.

In the second part of the novel, on one of his river ramblings, Chandran sees
Malathi and is instantaneously drawn to her. He feels that he is deeply in love with
her. He tries his level best to marry her but cannot marry as her father thinks that their
horoscopes do not match. It is ironic, that Chandran has never spoken to the girl nor
has he ever presented himself before the girl. Malathi seems to be blissfully unaware
of his existence let alone his love for her. It is a complete one sided infatuation on
Chandran’s part.

In the third part of the four part novel, Chandran renounces the world by
becoming a Sannyasi. For all the renown Narayan has won for his realistic portrayal
of life, the way Chandran’s renunciation is presented in The Bachelor of Arts seems
quite contrived and implausible. Dejected in love, Chandran leaves Malgudi for
Madras. He is to go his uncle’s house but does not go there. Instead goes to a hotel,
stays therefore a day and moves even form there without any particular destination in
mind.

Chandran’s decision to become a Sannyasi seems rather abrupt and impulsive.

Even though he gives up his Sannyasiship after eight months, his abrupt
transformation as a Sannyasi for eight months seems rather unrealistic and incredible.
On giving a slip to Kailas, Chandran gets into a tram to go somewhere not knowing
where exactly to go. He has not shown at any point until then any proclivity or
propensity to become a Sannyasi. The reader do not in the least expect him to take
that decision when he spots a barber sitting on the steps of a temple and gets his head
tonsured; with the same barber’s help he procures the clothes of a Sannyasi. He
crossed the road, and got into a tram, and settled down comfortably in a seat. The
conductor came and said, “Ticket, Please. Where does this go? Mylapore. One ticket,
Mylapore. How much?” (p. 102)
 84

For the next half an hour his problems as to where to go were set at rest.
When the train halted at the terminus he got down and walked till he saw the
magnificent grey spire to Kapaleswarar temple against the morning sky. He entered
the temple, went round the holy corridor, and prostrated before every image and
sanctuary that he saw. He saw a barber sitting on the steps of the temple tank waiting
for customers. Chandran went to him and asked, “Will you shave me?” “Yes, master”
The barber was rather surprised… (p. 104).

Narayan tries to justify Chandran’s transformation as a Sannyasi by

describing his renunciation as something different, “He was different from the usual
Sannyasi, others may renounce with a spiritual motive or purpose… But Chandran’s
renunciation was not of that kind. It was an alternative to suicide. Suicide he would
have committed but for its social stigma. Perhaps he lacked the barest physical
courage that was necessary for it. He was a Sannyasi because it pleased him to
mortify his flesh. His renunciation was a revenge on society, circumstances, and
perhaps, too, on destiny” (p. 108).

Narayan’s defense that Chandran’s renunciation was an alternative to suicide

is not very convincing. If committing suicide is ruled out by Chandran for its social
stigma, so should be renunciation; for becoming a Sannyasi has as much stigma about
it, if not more, as committing suicide.

It is mentioned in the novel that Chandran spends eight months as a Sanyyasi

but, Narayan deals with this eight month period of Chandran’s life rather curiosity.
Chapter twelve of the novel, which runs into about eight pages alone, deals with
Chandran’s renunciation. Possibly Narayan’s intention was to show that eight months
was a brief spell in Chandran’s life. But the entire time frame of the novel includes
roughly only four years of Chandran’s life – since he enters his final year B.A. till the
time he is married – within a span of four years, eight months is not too short a period
to be covered just in a single chapter especially when that period is unique and has
special significance.
 85

Narayan possibly could not use more space for this eight month period in
Chandran’s life because he was not at home elaborating on Chandran’s renunciation
which was not all that plausible. Therefore he wanted to slur over it and be done with
it as quickly as possible. The same Narayan, in his The Guide handle’s, Raju, the
protagonist’s renunciation with remarkable ease dexterity. That The Bachelor of Arts
published in 1937 is only Narayan’s second novel largely explains his inexperience
and awkwardness in handling Chandran’s renunciation. The Guide, on the other hand,
was published in 1958; twenty – one years after The Bachelor and twenty – three
years after Narayan began his writing career. This substantial period of experience in
writing seems to have helped Narayan in handling the renunciation theme in The
Guide with extraordinary mastery.

Raju’s life as Sannyasi in The Guide does not seem to outlast that of Chandran
in terms of time. But his transformation into a Sannyasi, though a counterfeit one, is
so convincing that he fits the role of a Sannyasi like a glove. The portrayal of Raju’s
Character from the beginning is such that the readers don’t find his Sannyasi’s role
contrived or implausible. He has always shown the tendency to be different from the
rest by falling in love with the wife of another man and by keeping her in his home
defying both his mother and the society. While Chandran voluntarily embraces
Sannyasiship, Raju, inevitably, is forced to play the role.

Just prior to assuming the role of Sannyasi, Raju has served a two year
sentence in prison and his stay there has made him tough enough to face any kind of
life including that of a Sannyasi. So when we find Raju staying all alone in the
secluded temple located by the river near a village, we do not wonder how Raju
manages to survive in an atmosphere of that kind. But when Chandran becomes a
Sannyasi on his own volition, we are intrigued as to how he copes with the utter
contrast between the safe, snug atmosphere of home which seems to be the only one
he has known in his life prior to becoming a Sannyasi and the unprotected harsh life
of a Sannyasi which is a total- antithesis.

But Narayan does not dwell on this in detail except for mentioning that
Chandran initially feels a craving for coffee but gradually he overcomes even that.
How Chandran as a Sannyasi copes with his basic need for food and sleep is dealt
with by Narayan very cursorily in a matter of fact tone. “When he felt hungry he
tapped at the nearest house and begged for food, or he begged in the bazaar street for
 86

a coconut or plantain… Anybody invited him to sleep under a roof he did it, if not; he
slept in the open, or in a public rest-house where - were gathered scores like him” (p.
107).

Knowing Chandran for what he is, the readers find it difficult to believe that
he is capable of begging for food without any compunctions or qualms. It is equally
baffling that Chandran who has always enjoyed an exclusive bedroom for himself at
home is able to sleep without any problem in the open along with other Sannyasis.

It is rather amazing that Chandran shows no signs of missing anything in the

world or expresses no sense of regret, guilt or shame for eight months. But one fine
night after eight months we see him subjecting his soul to a vivisection, “He sought
an answer to the question why he had come to this degradation… He had deserted his
parents, who had spent on him all their love, care and savings. He told himself that he
had surely done this to spite his parents, who probably had died of anxiety by now.
This was all his return for their love and for all that they had done for him” (p. 111).
That Chandran subjects himself to self introspection as late as eight months after
wandering as a Sannyasi leaves the readers wondering how and why he withholds
this introspection for eight long months.

One normally decides to become a Sannyasi on reaching self-realization. But

ironically enough, Chandran here gives up his Sannyasiship the moment self –
realization dawns on him. Chandran walking out of his Sannyasiship is as dramatic
and abrupt as is his entry into it. It symbolically begins with the shaving off of his
head and beard and ends with a shave.

Given the personality that emerges of Chandran until he decides to become a

Sannyasi, one finds it rather incredible that Chandran takes such a drastic step. Even
if he takes that decision on impulse, he is not likely to have sustained as a Sannyasi
for eight long months with the kind of abandon and ease as is shown in the novel.

Thematically it seems that the novel would not have lost much even without
the third part which deals exclusively with the renunciation theme. This part does not
seem well interwoven into the text of die novel; instead it looks imposed. There are
no hints in the first – two parts that the novel will move in the direction of what
happens, in the third part. Nor are there any allusions to it in the fourth part. Thus the
third part of the novel seems rather imposed than interwoven.
 87

For all its contriteness, the renunciation theme in The Bachelor of Arts is
presented with Narayan’s characteristic brilliant irony. One important function the
renunciation episode plays in the novel is to lead the protagonist towards self-
realization. Chandran emerges with a better understanding of himself after going
through the renunciation phase and the third part of the novel becomes thematically
significant to that extent.

The clash between tradition and modernity is an important aspect of R.K.

Narayan’s novel The Vendor of Sweets. In the novel, Jagan, the protagonist and his
son, Mali, represent two opposite ends, “tradition and modernity”25 respectively. The
conflict between them acquires larger proportion, signifying dichotomies at various
socio-cultural levels such as “the division of East and West, of young and old, of
child and parent etc.”26

In the novel, the elements of tradition are based on the Hindu view of life and
the Gandhian ethics, the two most powerful influences discernible in the character of
Jagan. Throughout the novel, he refers to The Gita, The Puranas and other Hindu
scriptures as his ideals to guide him. Besides being a descendant of an orthodox
Hindu family tradition, which considerably shapes his bearing and mind, there is also
a marked influence of Gandhian ethics on his day to day activities.

As a student, he had participated in the freedom movement under the

influence of Gandhi and he considers himself representing the generation which still
upholds the legacy of the Gandhian era, the great phase in our national history. He
has lived a very restricted life following:

…the Gandhian way of life to the minute details

eating natural salts, wearing khadi, spinning
charkha, reading Geeta and writing a book on
nature therapy, and he wishes even others to do
the same.27

Jagan’s son, Mali, is a dropout from college. Having lost his mother in
childhood, he is brought up under the restricted freedom of a principal father and
develops rebellious tendencies. Later, lifting money of his father secretly, he goes to
Michigan (America) to do a course in story writing. His stay in America transforms
the entire orientation of his personality. In his attitude and outlook, he shifts from one
 88

extreme to another – a conversion of all Indian traits into an American mode of life
various stages of his complete deviation from his tradition have been made explicit
through his letters, in which he passes shocking information to his traditionalist father
to have “taken to eating beef”28 or having plan to solve India’s food problem by
allowing the cow slaughter on mass scale.

His physical relation, without marriage from the girl friend, whom he has
brought from America professionals, his avid obsession to make quick money even at
the cost of human values, his total disregard for his cultural roots and an equal
affinity to American mercantile attitude; all these make him represent the Western or
modern values of life.

However, “modernity, which is often linked with technological

advancement,” 29 is best represented in the novel through the industry of story writing
machine, which Mali wants to set up in Malgudi. This machine, as a symbol, evokes
two major modernist values – mechanization of an area of activity which requires
remaining human and a frenzied effort for material prosperity. Jagan refuses to
promote the project, quite against the expectation of his son, for ethical and
ideological reasons. This ensures the clash between Jagan and his son, representing
traditional and modern values respectively.

The arrival of machine based on the principle of ‘electronic’ or ‘electric’ was

a queer thing in Malgudi, so when Natraj informs Jagan that Mali “…wants to
manufacture story writing machines”30, he is just baffled. Mali displays his eagerness
in waiting for the parcel of machine to arrive. In his zeal to start the project at the
earliest, he finds the country just inadequate to keep pace with his fast moving
American tempo. To his assertion for having… “never seen a more wasteful country
than this.”31 Jagan retorts, “We find it quite adequate for our purpose” (p. 82). He
demonstrates various operative systems of this machine to Jagan, quite oblivious of
the reaction caused in the latter:

You see these four knobs? One is for characters,

one for plot situations, one for climax, and the
 89

fourth is built on the basis that a story is made up

of character, situations, emotion and climax, and
by the right combination…32

Mali further explains, “You can work on it like a type writer. You make up your mind
about the number of characters. It works on a transistor and ordinary valves
absolutely fool proof. Ultimately, we are going to add a little fixture, by which any
existing story could be split up into components and analyzed; the next model will
incorporate it” (pp. 82-83). So this machine aims to produce creative writing like an
industrial product, to be sold like consumer goods. Even the critical and evaluative
process is to be mechanized as if to add qualitative refinement in the product.

Jagan, who is a sort of writer himself considers Mali’s effort as perversion of

art and creative activity. He considers creative writing as an aesthetic experience. In
his opinion, books must be treated respectfully, being a form of “…the Goddess
Saraswathi.”33 He feels no one can be a writer unless one receives inspiration from
the God. Thus he asserts, “I know Kalidasa was a village idiot …until the goddess
Saraswathi made a scratch on his tongue and then he burst into that song
Syamaladandakam and wrote Sakuntala and so on” (p. 38). So the difference in the
cultural value is obvious enough. For Mali creative writing is as much a mechanical
effort as manufacturing a toothpaste or paper, where as for Jagan, it is as aesthetic
experience.

Even before leaving for America, Mali had expressed his desire to become a
writer, but Jagan lacks conviction in his writing abilities. He curiously asks whether
“Mali is really helping mankind with his writing.”34 He has also misgivings about his
son’s experience of life and his equipment to become a writer. So he “…wanted to
know which language his son’s muses accepted, whether Tamil or English.”35 Thus in
the opinion of Jagan, languages, the experience of life, the ideal to help humanity, are
some of the basic conditions of creative writing. This traditional idealistic approach is
sharply antagonistic to what Mali visualizes writing stories by mixing various
 90

components like the preparation of a drug. For Mali, writing has relevance only in the
terms of materialistic gains.

Jagan is also furious at the idea of going to America to learn the technique of
story writing. It was outrageous and hurt his national pride. Jagan very sarcastically
asks, “Did Valmiki go to America or Germany in order to learn to write his
Ramayana?”(p. 58) Instead, he suggests Mali to go to village granny. Mali and Grace
make combined effort to involve Jagan in their project to manufacture story writing
machine. Jagan is quite puzzled to see the apparatus of the machine. He closely reads
the headings, “Characters: good, bad, and neutral. Emotions: love, hate, revenge,
devotion, pity, complexities, characters, incidents, accidents, climax: placement and
disposal and conclusion” (p. 83).

Quite upset by his concrete mechanical presence of an aesthetic process,

which appears to him like an object of other planet, many contrasting notions hover
in his mind. In a persuading tone he explains to Grace, “…do you know that our
ancestors never even wrote the epics? They composed the epics and recited them, and
the great books lived thus from generation to generation by the breath of people” (p.
84). Mali, with complete disregard for Indian tradition and with a desire to keep pace
with modern life, asserts, “Oh, these are not the days of your ancestors. Today we
have to compete with advanced countries not only in economics and industry but also
in culture” (p. 86).

Grace further informs Jagan that nowadays most of the best sellers are the
products of machines. Jagan is not at all convinced by the logic of Mali and Grace,
expressed in the favour of the machine. He is also skeptical of the objectives of
Mali’s proposed company which intends through machine to “…cut time and
distance, and lift the country out of its rut.”36 Jagan with all his traditional values and
beliefs upon his back refuses to be trapped in the American mercantile quagmire.

Jagan and Mali hold divergent views even in the matters of their business
ethics. In spite of the incongruities in his character, Jagan believes in the Gandhian
ideal of “simple living and high thinking.”37

He regards his business as a sort of duty in line of the Karmayoga of the Gita,
which has a humanitarian value also, “I just keep the business so that these poor
 91

fellows (his staff) may not be thrown out of employment” (p. 86). Money is an evil is
his favourite refrain and in business he has no motive to accumulate wealth, “I do not
accumulate, it just grows naturally” (p. 46). The money he earns he does not spend in
buying materialistic comforts for himself. Even in his dress he wears khadi spun by
his own hands. So even in the matters of business he has an idealistic approach.

Quite the contrary, Mali represents American mad rush for money, which is
acquisitive and non-humanistic. He has an expansionist plan to increase his business
with “…American collaboration with two hundred dollars.”38 This high sounding
business expertise, which is directionless, is beyond the comprehension of Jagan.
Jagan has many other ideals of life to cherish besides money, and the allurement of
“…a nice air conditioned room with a couple of secretaries”39 offered to him by Mali,
appears bitterly ironical in the context of his Gandhian and traditional approach to
life. Shiv K. Gilra asserts:

As a novelist Narayan carries on the great

tradition of comedy in his distinctive manner. He
shares his comic vision with world’s great
humorist from Chaucer to modern times.40

He generally aims at the portrayal of life by combining together “comic irony and
moral earnestness.”41 These qualities of Narayan’s art are visible even in the novel
The Vendor of Sweets.

Jagan and other important characters in the novel have ambivalence in their
personalities reflecting the presence of “good and evil … set in a precarious
balance.”42 Jagan frequently quotes lines from the scriptures, even though; he has not
read them, which accounts for the controlled irony running parallel to the theme. This
is true to his practice of Gandhian principles and the Gita as well. He advises to
conquer taste to conquer self without knowing why. The ideals of charity for the
poor, by keeping the price of his sweet meats lower, has also underlying motive to
spread business. He has no scruples in keeping double cash book, as to his knowledge
Gandhi has nowhere mentioned sales tax. He even does not forget to take his cheque-
book with himself even while, going to Vanprastha.
 92

Yet, it is to the credit of “Narayan’s gift as an artist, that Jagan is neither a

hypocrite nor a figure of fun.”43 In spite of all his incongruities, he draws our
sympathy and in overall estimation. William Walsh asserts:

He is both a comic and anguished figure, comic in

his innocent combination of commercial
sharpness, fiscal duplicity, vanity, and genuine
reverence for Gandhian spirituality; anguished in
his lacerated relationship with his sullen, brutish
son Mali.44

The events of his life also suggest the difficulty in “following Gandhian ideals in
present day society.”45 As James Dale says: “Perhaps the most valuable element in
Narayan’s novel for modern man, caught up in the frenzied rush of the acquisitive
society, is his rejection of mere materialism, his insistence on the supreme importance
of human relationships the spiritual values which should underline them.”46

The ideological differences between Jagan and Mali, thus, signify the clash
between traditional, human, spiritual values and modernity that promises prosperity
by the use of machine.

Thus to sum up, Narayan has presented all the themes very carefully. Almost
all his novels touch upon the above mentioned themes. The average and the middle-
class milieu of Malgudi and the family provide Narayan to study at close quarters
human individuals and human relationships in all variety and intricacy. His vision is
characterized by a unique Indian sensibility.
 93

NOTES AND REFERENCES:

1. Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London:

Routledge, 1985. p. 58.

2. Amin, Qasim. The Liberation of Women – A Document in the History of

Egyptian Feminism. Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press,
1992. p. 77.

3. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar, The Norton Anthology of Literature

by Women: The Traditions in English. U.S.A: W.W. Norton &
Company, Second ed., 1996. p. 260.

4. Allison, Dorothy. A Question of Class in Perspectives: Women’s Studies.

ed. Renae Moore Bredin. Boulder, Co: Coursewise Publishing, 1997. p.
105.

5. Das, Veena. The Body as Metaphor: Socialization of Women in Punjabi

Urban Families. Manushi. Number Twenty Eight, 1985. p. 3.

6. Murshid, Ghulam. Reluctant Debutante: Response of Bengali Women to

Modernization. 1849-1905. Rajasthani: Sahitya Samsad, Rajasthan
University, 1983. p. 60.

7. Mitra, Rajendra Lal. Cited in The Hindoo Patriot, 25th July, 1887.

8. David Lodge and Nigel Wood. Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader.
Delhi: Pearson Education, 2004. p. 389.

9. Kaul, A.N. R.K. Narayan and The East-West Theme: Indian Literature, Ed.
A. Poddar. Shimla: Indian institute of Advanced study, 1972, reprinted
after revision in Meenakshi Mukherjee’s considerations. Bombay:
Allied, 1977. p. 49.
 94

10. Gorsky, Susan. The Gentle Doubters: Images of Women in English

Women’s Novels, 1840-1920. p. 28.

11. Marks, Elaine and Isabelle, de Courtivoron, eds, New French Feminism.
New York: Schocken Books, 1981. p. 203.

12. Weeks, Jeffrey. Sexuality. London and New York: Rutledge, 1986. p.
24.

13. Narasimhaiah, C.D. The Swan and the Eagle: Essays on Indian English
Literature. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1969. p. 153.

14. Ian, Milligan. The Novel in English: An Introduction. London: Macmillan

publishers Ltd., 1983. p. 2.

15. Narayan, R.K. The Financial Expert. Mysore: Indian Thought

Publications, 1958. Subsequent references to this edition appear as page
numbers.

16. Ian, Milligan. The Novel in English: An Introduction. London: Macmillan

Publications Ltd., 1983. p. 148.

17. Narayan, R.K. Gods, Demons and Others. Mysore: Indian Thought
publications, 1967. p. 4.

18. Iyengar, K.R.S. Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Sterling

Publishers, 1990. p. 211.

19. Narayan, R.K. The Man-Eater of Malgudi. Mysore: Indian Thought

Publications, 1980. Subsequent references to this edition will appear as
page numbers.

20. Iyengar, K.R.S. Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Sterling

Publishers, 1990. p. 230.
 95

21. Narayan, R.K. Gods, Demons and Others. Mysore: Indian Thought
Publications, 1977. p. 5.

22. …, The Guide. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1983. Subsequent

references to this edition will appear as page numbers.

23. Updike, John. Malgudi’s Master. The New Yorker, June 23, 1997. p.
134.

24. Radhakrishnan, S. The Bhagavadgita. London: George Allen & Unwin,

Ltd., 1963. p. 36.

25. Gilra, Shiv. K. The Essential Narayan in R.K. Narayan: A Critical

Spectrum. Ed. B.S. Goyal. Meerut: Shalabh Book House 1998, P.
102.

26. Walsh, William. R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation. New Delhi:

Allied Publishers. Pvt. Ltd, 1983. p. 152.

27. Jha, Rama. Gandhian Thought and Indo-Anglian Novelists. Delhi:

Chanakya Publications, 1983. p. 147.

28. Narayan, R.K. The Vendor of Sweets. Mysore: Indian Thought

Publications, Spt. 1983. p. 62.

29. Singh, Yogendra. Modernization of Indian Tradition: A Systematic Study

of Social Change. Faridabad: Thomson Press (India) Limited,
Publication Division, 1973. p. 107.

30. Narayan, R.K. The Vendor of Sweets, Op. cit., p. 93.

31. Ibid., p. 82.

32. Ibid., p. 89.

33. Ibid., p. 37.

 96

34. Ibid., p. 47.

35. Ibid., p. 48.

36. Ibid., p. 91.

37. Ibid., p. 45.

38. Ibid., p. 85.

39. Ibid, p. 84.

40. Gilra, Shiv K. “The Essential Narayan,” Op. cit., p. 101.

41. Shepherd, Ron. The Sublime and the Ridiculous: Allegory and Irony in
R.K. Narayan’s Fiction. 1983. in R.K. Narayan: A Critical Spectrum,
Ed. B.S. Goyal. Op. cit., p. 77.

42. Ibid., p. 79.

43. Sundaram, P.S. “The Ambivalence of R.K. Narayan,” in Emplorations in

Modern Indo-English Fictions, Ed. R.K. Dhawan. New Delhi: Bahri
Publications Vt. Ltd, 1983, p. 151.

44. Walsh, William. R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation, Op. cit., pp.
147-148.

45. Sharma, G.P. Nationalism in Indo-English Fiction. New Delhi: Sterling

Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1978. p. 285.

46. Dale, James. “The Rootless Intellectual in the Novels of R.K. Narayan,” In
R.K. Narayan: A Critical Spectrum, Op. cit, p. 97.