SAHITYA CLASSES

INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH

RAJA RAO (8 November 1908 – 8 July 2006)
Raja Rao was a man who made wonders with his pen. He is the first English philosopher and novelist of Indian
literature. Raja is the most influential novelist that the nation has ever seen. Raja used English, French, and
Kannada to write the most beautiful words of an era. He was the most eminent novelist has been felicitated by
awards including Padma Bhushan award.
Some people make a prolific and unique place for themselves in this world and Raja Rao was one of them. This
great and magnificent novelist was born in a Brahmin family. His father used to teach Kannada, and his mother
was a homemaker. Raja lost his mother when he was at a tender age of 4. This loss was the turning point in his
life. Raja through his impressive, amazing and inspiring work has several times portrayed the orphanhood and
the absence of a mother. The early life of Raja Rao was very difficult. Raja completed his schooling from a
Muslim school and then went to the Osmania University.
Raja graduated from the University of Madras and there he received an Asiatic scholarship, from the
government of Hyderabad in the year 1929 for continuing his education in abroad. Raja then moved to France
and got admitted to the University of Montpellier. He was the first English philosopher and novelist of Indian
literature. Raja got married to Camille Mouly in 1931 and the couple split in the year 1939.
Raja Rao out of the world and most influential novelist has always left the world in awe of his work. Raja
returned from France in the year 1939. After returning to India, Raja revised with Iqbal Singh and gave the world
an amazing anthology of India from Ram Mohan and Jawaharlal Nehru, Changing India. Raja was an active and
an important part of the Quit India Movement that took place in 1942. Raja along with Ahmad Ali co-edited a
mind- blowing journal, Tomorrow.
Raja has always played a dynamic part in the nationalist movements. While his time in Bombay, Raja had an
association with Chetana, the cultural society that is known to propagate Indian thoughts and values. Raja Rao
has given some out of the box works to the world.
The “Serpent and the Rope” written by Raja, portrayed the relationship and the difference and the variance
between the Indian and the Western culture. Raja moved to the United States in 1966 and there he served as the
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas.
Some of the notable works by Raja Rao are:
➢ Kanthapura
➢ The Serpent and the Rope
➢ The Cat and the Shakespeare: A tale of India
➢ Comrade Kirillov
➢ The Chessmaster and his moves
➢ Companions
➢ The little gram shop
➢ Nimka
➢ On the Ganga Ghat
➢ Changing India
➢ Tomorrow
➢ Whither India
➢ The Meaning of India
➢ The Great Indian Way

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The Serpent and the Rope (1960)

It is a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India,
established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in
1964.
Rama, a young South Indian Brahmin from an orthodox family goes to France to do research on an obscure
historical subject. Twenty-one years old, he falls in love with Madeleine, a French virgin who is four years older
than he. They are married and have a son who dies soon after birth. The loss of the child is rarely ever brought up
again, but Rama and Madeleine inexorably drift apart. In fact, most of the time they are physically separated, and
their relationship is glimpsed either from his musings and entries in his diary or a few of her letters. Twice he
returns to India, once following his father’s death and again to attend a sister’s wedding. On the first trip back, he
meets Savithri, an emancipated, north Indian princess and is instantly attracted to her.
Later they meet in Cambridge, England, where they engage in philosophical discourses and in an affair, even
though she is engaged to a rising star in the firmament of Indian civil service whom she does not love. During his
second visit to India, even as he dreams of Savithri, while a guest in a friend’s house in Bombay, Rama shares the
wife’s bed as the husband prefers “white women.” Madeleine, of course, never learns about his philandering’s
and, for reasons not explained, becomes immersed in Buddhism. Ultimately the two are separated.
Although the book has been praised as a classic in the confrontation of two cultures, it really recounts the cultural
and emotional problems of a 21-year-old Brahmin whose roots are much too deep in Indian civilization for him
ever to be transplanted to Europe.
Rama’s loneliness, not an uncommon experience for many Indian students abroad, attracts him to the older
Madeleine, but clearly, he prefers Indian women. Madeleine, a remarkably passive French girl, is a devotee of
Indian culture, and, hence, their relationship does not reflect a conflict of two cultures. Rather, the book provides
an eloquent account of a young Indian’s reluctance to accept the European way of life, even though he does
seem to be amoral in sexual matters and remarkably well-versed in both European and Indian philosophy,
mythology and literature.

Kanthapura

Raja Rao's first and best-known novel, Kanthapura (1938), is the story of a south Indian village named
Kanthapura. The novel is narrated in the form of a purana by an old woman of the village, Achakka. Dominant
castes like Brahmins are privileged to get the best region of the village, while lower casts such as Pariahs are
marginalized. Despite this classist system, the village retains its long-cherished traditions of festivals in which
all castes interact, and the villagers are united. The village is believed to be protected by a local deity named
Kenchamma.
The main character of the novel, Moorthy, is a young Brahmin who leaves for the city to study, where he
becomes familiar with Gandhian philosophy. He begins living a Gandhian lifestyle, wearing home-spun khaddar
and discarded foreign clothes and speaking out against the caste system. This causes the village priest to turn
against Moorthy and excommunicate him. Heartbroken to hear this, Moorthy's mother Narasamma dies. After
this, Moorthy starts living with an educated widow, Rangamma, who is active in India’s independence
movement.

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Moorthy is then invited by Brahmin clerks at the Skeffington coffee estate to create an awareness of Gandhian
teachings among the pariah coolies. When Moorthy arrives, he is beaten by the policeman Bade Khan, but the
coolies stand up for Moorthy and beat Bade Khan - an action for which they are then thrown out of the estate.
Moorthy continues his fight against injustice and social inequality and becomes a staunch ally of Gandhi.
Although he is depressed over the violence at the estate, he takes responsibility and goes on a three- day fast
and emerges morally elated. A unit of the independence committee is then formed in Kanthapura, with the office
bearers vowing to follow Gandhi’s teachings under Moorthy's leadership.
The British government accuses Moorthy of provoking the townspeople to inflict violence and arrests him.
Though the committee is willing to pay his bail, Moorthy refuses their money. While Moorthy spends the next
three months in prison, the women of Kanthapura take charge, forming a volunteer corps under Rangamma's
leadership.
Rangamma instills a sense of patriotism among the women by telling them stories of notable women from
Indian history. They face police brutality, including assault and rape, when the village is attacked and burned.
Upon Moorthy's release from prison, he is greeted by the loyal townspeople, who are now united regardless of
caste. The novel ends with Moorthy and the town looking to the future and planning to continue their fight for
independence.

R. K. NARAYAN (October 10, 1906—May 13, 2001)

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami also known as R. K. Narayan was a twentieth century Indian
author. He is considered the prominent figure among his contemporaries, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, who
first wrote Indian literature in English. Additionally, he is praised for introducing this innovative genre to other
writers. Most of his works are set in, Malgudi, a fictional South Indian town.
Born on October 10, 1906, in Madras (Chennai), he was the son of a school headmaster. He spent most of his
childhood under his maternal grandmother’s supervision and care, as his father’s job required him to move from
places to places frequently. Out of boredom, he found his playmates in a peacock and a monkey. His family
mostly conversed in English and his grandmother not only took care of him but also educated him. She equipped
him with the worldly wisdom and taught him arithmetic, Sanskrit, mythology and classical Indian music.
Additionally, he attended numerous schools in Madras, including Lutheran Mission School and C.R.C. High
School.

Narayan was a voracious reader of with an insatiable appetite for the literary works of Wodehouse, Dickens,
Thomas Hardy and Arthur Conan Doyle . As he moved with his father to Mysore, he took advantage of the well-
stocked library at the college his father taught at. During this time, he applied at a university but failed to clear the
aptitude test. As a result, Narayan stayed at home for a full year, and he devoted that time to writing and reading
avidly. Eventually, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Maharaja College of Mysore. After his brief and
disappointing experience as a teacher, Naryan came to realize that his true potential lay in writing rather than any
other field. He wrote a book review of Development of Maritime Laws of 17th-Century England, which is
marked as his first serious writing. Occasionally, he wrote pieces for English newspapers and magazines. He
continued to pursue writing, even though his career did not hold much promise in financial terms. After getting
married to his beloved, Narayan landed a job as a reporter for a newspaper advocating non-Brahmins’ rights,
The Justice.

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In 1930, Narayan made an attempt at novel writing with Swami and Friends. It was his first novel featuring the
fictional Malgudi town set in British India. The novel illustrates the adventures of a group of young schoolboys,
ignoring the socio-political climate in India under British rule. Although the book is recently declared as one of
the best English novels to be written by an Indian, it received a host of rejection slips when Narayan tried to have
it published the first time. English writer, Graham Greene played a significant role in the publication of the book.
Subsequently, the author turned it into a trilogy writing sequels to the novel.
Narayan’s Bachelor of Arts traces the transition in the lives of rebellious youth to being mature adults.
The Dark Room highlights the predominant issue in a patriarch Indian society that is domestic discords. It portrays
the role of a man and a woman in a marriage as being oppressor and oppressed. Moreover, his other novels
manifest his discontent over the irrational Hindu ritual of matchmaking. His other notable works include, The
Financial Expert, The Guide, Malgudi Days and Gods, Demons and Others. Narayan received prestigious
accolades including the Sahitya Akademi Award and AC Benson Medal. He died in 2001, at the age of 94, in
Chennai.
He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
List of works
Novels
➢ Swami and Friends (1935, Hamish Hamilton)
➢ The Bachelor of Arts (1937, Thomas Nelson)
➢ The Dark Room (1938, Eyre)
➢ The English Teacher (1945, Eyre)
➢ Mr. Sampath (1948, Eyre)
➢ The Financial Expert (1952, Methuen)
➢ Waiting for the Mahatma (1955, Methuen)
➢ The Guide (1958, Methuen)
➢ The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961, Viking)
➢ The Vendor of Sweets (1967, The Bodley Head)
➢ The Painter of Signs (1977, Heinemann)
➢ A Tiger for Malgudi (1983, Heinemann)
➢ Talkative Man (1986, Heinemann)
➢ The World of Nagaraj (1990, Heinemann)
➢ Grandmother's Tale (1992, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ Non-fiction
➢ Next Sunday (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ My Dateless Diary (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ My Days (1974, Viking)
➢ Reluctant Guru (1974, Orient Paperbacks)
➢ The Emerald Route (1980, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ A Writer's Nightmare (1988, Penguin Books)
➢ A Story-Teller's World (1989, Penguin Books)
➢ The Writerly Life (2002, Penguin Books India)
➢ Mysore (1944, second edition, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ Mythology

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➢ Gods, Demons and Others (1964, Viking)
➢ The Ramayana (1973, Chatto & Windus)
➢ The Mahabharata (1978, Heinemann)
➢ Short story collections
➢ Malgudi Days (1942, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ An Astrologer's Day and Other Stories (1947, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ Lawley Road and Other Stories (1956, Indian Thought Publications)
➢ A Horse and Two Goats (1970)
➢ Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985)
➢ The Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories (1994, Viking)

Swami and Friends

Swami and Friends is the first of a trilogy of novels written by R. K. Narayan (1906– 2001), English language
novelist from India. The novel, Narayan's first, is set in British India in a fictional town called Malgudi. The
second and third books in the trilogy are The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.
Malgudi Schooldays is a slightly abridged version of Swami and Friends and includes two additional stories
featuring Swami from Malgudi Days and Under the Banyan Tree.

The Bachelor of Arts

It is the second book of a trilogy that begins with Swami and Friends and ends with The English Teacher. It
is again set in Malgudi, the fictional town Narayan invented for his novels.
The story describes the complex transition of an adolescent mind into adulthood and the heartbreak which a
youth faces. It revolves around a young man named Chandran, who resembles an Indian upper middle-class
youth of the pre-independence era. First, Chandran's college life in late colonial times is described. After
graduation, he falls in love with a girl, but is rejected by the bride's parents, since his horoscope describes him
as a manglik, a condition in which a manglik can only marry another manglik and if not, the non- manglik will die.
Malathi, the girl with whom Chandran falls in love after graduating from college, is then married to someone
else.
Chandran is absolutely heartbroken to the extent that he goes to Madras and starts living on streets. Famished,
delusioned and full of self-pity, he ends up wandering from one place to another. Also frustrated and desperate,
he then embarks on a journey as Sanyasi. On his journey he meets many people, and he is also misunderstood
as a great sage by some villagers. After 8 months, he thinks of what mess he has become and thinks about his
parents. Due to the compunctions and the realizations, he decides to return home. He takes up a job as a news
agent and decides to marry, in order to please his parents, thinking of the discomfort he had caused them earlier.
Even after returning home, he is still unable to get Malathi out of his head completely and though he tries hard,
the pictures and memories of her keep haunting him for a long time. After a long time, his father comes to him
with a proposal of marriage to another girl Susila. Chandran is still skeptical about love and marriage and initially
refuses but later decides to see the girl. When he goes on to see the girl, he ends up falling in love with her.

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The English Teacher

It is the 3rd of trilogy. This novel, dedicated to Narayan's wife Rajam is not only autobiographical but also
poignant in its intensity of feeling. The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher,
and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development.
As an English teacher and lecturer at Albert Mission College, Krishna has led a mundane and monotonous
lifestyle comparable to that of a cow. He too plays an important role of protecting the Indian culture. Soon his
life took a turn when his wife, Susila, and their child, Leela, come to live with him. With their welfare on his
hands, Krishna learns to be a proper husband and learns how to accept the responsibility of taking care of his
family. He felt that his life had comparatively improved, as he understood that there's more meaning to life
than to just teaching in the college. However, on the day when they went in search of a new house, Susila
contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keeping her in bed for weeks. Throughout the entire course of
her illness, Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic view about Susila's illness, keeping his hopes up by
thinking that her illness would soon be cured. However, Susila eventually succumbs and passes away. Krishna,
destroyed by her loss, has suicidal thoughts but gives them up for the sake of his daughter, Leela. He leads his
life as a lost and miserable person after her death, but after he receives a letter from a stranger who indicates
that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to communicate with Krishna, he becomes more
collected and cheerful. This leads to Krishna’s journey in search of enlightenment, with the stranger acting as
a medium to Susila in the spiritual world. Leela, on the other hand, goes to a preschool where Krishna gets to
meet the headmaster, a profound man who cared for the students in his school and teaches them moral values
through his own methods. The headmaster puts his students as his top priority, but he doesn’t care for his own
family and children, eventually leaving them on the day predicted by an astrologer as to be when he was going
to die, which did not come true.
Krishna gets to learn through the headmaster on the journey to enlightenment; eventually learning to
communicate to Susila on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt 'a moment
of rare immutable joy.

The Dark Room

Set in Malgudi, the story is about Savitri, a submissive housewife, who is married to Ramani, an employee of the
Engladia Insurance Company. They have three children, Kamala, Sumati and Babu. Savitri is a typical housewife
of the India of those times, very much dominated and neglected by her husband. There is a dark room in their
house where Savitri retires whenever her husband's harshness seems unbearable to her.
Savitri's husband has a torrid affair with a newly recruited employee in his firm. Savitri learns about it and
threatens to leave her husband's home. Ramani, in his arrogance, does not pay heed to the threat. But the fire
ignited inside Savitri is strong enough to remain steadfast on her decision and leaves after a bitter quarrel. She
tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide by drowning in a river. After some twists, typical to Narayan's style, such
as taking up a caretaker job in a temple, Savitri ultimately cannot bear living without her children, so she comes
back, then she starts deciding to live with the burden.

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Mr. Sampath– The Printer of Malgudi

It was adapted into the films Mr. Sampat (Hindi, 1952) and a Tamil film sharing the same title (1972).
To bring out the journal The Banner, Mr. Shrinivas, the editor, and Mr. Sampath, the printer, must work together.
The two entirely contrasting good-hearted characters forge a great partnership that makes The Banner the
cynosure of all eyes in Malgudi. However, a situation arises, and they must temporarily discontinue the
journal. Not to lay idle, they join hands with a film-making company where they must trace varying paths,
with their special bond still very deep. A love affair with the actress of the movie makes life difficult for the
daring and over-ambitious Sampath, while the ethical Shrinivas has his problems of over-responsibility. Some
sour incidents in the studio force Shrinivas to quit and revive his Banner with another printer, a thing that
doesn't seem to bother Sampath caught entirely in the charm of the heroine. But Sampath comes back after the
loss of the lady, his wealth, fame, and peace.

The Financial Expert

The Financial Expert takes place, as do many other novels and short stories by this author, in the
town of Malgudi. The central character in this book is the financial expert Margayya, who offers
advice to his fellow townspeople from under his position at the banyan tree. He is a man of many
aspirations, and this novel delves into some level of psychological analysis.

Waiting for the Mahatma

Sriram is a high school graduate who lives with his grandmother in Malgudi, the fictional Southern Indian town
in which much of Narayan's fiction takes place. Sriram is attracted to Bharati, a girl of his age who is active in
Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India movement, and he becomes an activist himself. He then gets involved with anti-
British extremists, causing much grief to his grandmother. Sriram's underground activity takes place in the
countryside, an area alien to him, and the misunderstandings with the locals provide the book's best comic
moments. After spending some time in jail, Sriram is reunited with Bharati, and the story ends with their
engagement amidst the tragedy of India's partition in 1947.
Waiting for the Mahatma is written in Narayan's gentle comic style. An unusual feature of this novel is the
participation of Gandhi as a character. His revolutionary ideas and practices are contrasted with the views of
traditionalists such as the town's notables and Sriram's grandmother. This note of ambivalence towards the
freedom movement may be due to Narayan's needing to reassure his mainly British audience. The political
struggle serves as a background to Sriram and Bharati's unconventional romance which is concluded outside
either's family circle. This is one of Narayan's most successful novels, where much happens behind the facade
of the low-key storytelling.

The Guide
Like most of his works the novel is based on Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. The novel describes the
transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy
men of India.
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The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's
National Academy of Letters.
Railway Raju (nicknamed) is a disarmingly corrupt tour guide who is famous among tourists. He falls in love
with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologist Marco. Marco doesn't approve of Rosie's
passion for dancing. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing career. They
start living together, but Raju's mother doesn't approve their relationship and leaves them. Raju becomes
Rosie's stage manager and soon, with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer.
Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her life. He wants to build as
much wealth as possible. Raju gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two-year sentence. After completing
the sentence, Raju passes through a village where he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guide). Since he
doesn't want to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to stay in an abandoned temple, close to the village.
There is a famine in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast in order to make it rain. Raju confesses the
entire truth about his past to Velan, who had developed a complete faith in Raju like the rest of the villagers.
With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After
fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down
as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of
whether he died, and whether the drought ended.

The Man-Eater of Malgudi

This story revolves around the life of an Indian printer named Nataraj. Nataraj lives in a huge ancestral
house in Malgudi, a fictional town in south India. This place is near Mempi hills which is very calm,
pleasant and beautiful. He leads a contented lifestyle, with his own circle of friends, such as a poet, a
journalist named Sen, and his one employee, Sastri. Like his other novel, Talkative Man, R.K. Narayan
introduces a character who enters the life of Nataraj and the town of Malgudi. The character, Vasu, is
a taxidermist who comes to Malgudi in search of the wildlife in Mempi hills near Malgudi. His
introduction begins with his arrival at Nataraj's printing press, where he demands the printing of 500
visiting cards. This arrival begins the relationship between Vasu and Nataraj. While Nataraj wasn't
sure whether Vasu is a friend or an enemy, he dislikes the company of Vasu because of his brazen
actions.
Vasu is a bully and is once compared to a Rakshasa (a demon) by Nataraj and Sastri. Vasu takes up
residence in the attic of Nataraj's press by chance and convinces Nataraj that he would stay there as a
guest (self-declared) only for a few days until he gets put up some place else. Little known to Nataraj,
Vasu sees the place very suitable for his activities as a taxidermist plans otherwise. Vasu is a 'pehelwan'
(muscleman), proud of his strength. As the story continues, Vasu encroaches on Nataraj's life, every
now and then bullies away his friends, his customers, shoots someone's pet dog and many other animals
and birds near the dwelling place, poaches wildlife from Mempi hills, creates stench in the
neighborhood through his activities as a taxidermist. When Nataraj questions this, Vasu files a
complaint with the Rent Control authority on Nataraj as a self-declared tenant, entertaining women in
the attic, disturbs the peace of Malgudi, whom the narrator refers to as "the man eater of Malgudi."
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As in Talkative Man, the end comes with the commemoration of a function. This time, it is for the
release of a poetry book on Krishna by his poet friend. Rangi informs Nataraj that Vasu wants to kill
Kumar, the elephant, which Nataraj had brought down from Mempi Hills to treat an ailment as a
favour to one of his friends. Muthu, the tea shop owner helps Nataraj, when Nataraj happens to meet
him under unexpected circumstances, owing to Vasu's adventures. Now Nataraj comes to know of
the plans of Vasu to shoot Kumar, the temple elephant, for his collection and business. The
protagonists frantically try to stop him, but in vain. As Nataraj decides to talk to Vasu for once and for
all, he finds Vasu sleeping, but the next morning he discovers that Vasu is dead.
The autopsy takes place with the verdict being that he was not poisoned and that he was attacked on
the head by a blunt weapon. The case is closed, but the reputation of Nataraj's press is ruined and his
friends and other people start avoiding him. Later, Nataraj learns through his friend Sastri (who learns
from Rangi) that Vasu was not murdered but died in an attempt to smash a mosquito sitting on his
temple. He had damaged one of his nerves with his powerful hand and died instantly.
Now Nataraj was rid of Vasu, and the story ends on the note that all demons-rakshashas, devils and
monsters bring the downfall to themselves. The narration is very humorous and lively all along.
The story with its pleasant twists features the metamorphosis of a quiet, spineless man (Nataraj) to rise
up against his "friend" Vasu.

Characters
➢ Nataraj- a printing press owner.
➢ Poet- friend of Nataraj.
➢ Sen- A journalist, friend of Nataraj.
➢ Sastri- employee and friend of Nataraj.
➢ Vasu- a taxidermist, the antagonist of the novel.
➢ Muthu- a tea shop owner.
➢ Kumar- an elephant, brought from Mempi Hills by Nataraj, for medical treatment.
➢ Rangi- a temple dancer and a prostitute.
➢ Joshi- doctor who treats Kumar (the elephant).

The Vendor of Sweets

The story is about Jagan and his son Mali. It revolves around the issues arising from the generation gap between
father and son. Narayan in his superb style narrates the pr of his role in India's freedom struggle during his youth.
Gita forms the staple of his life. He tries to act on the principles described in the great epic. Naturopathy forms
the pivotal of his life and he even desires to publish his natural way of living in the form of a book, but obviously
it is a futile dream as the draft has been gathering dust in the publisher’s office for the last five years. He wears
hand spun cloth that signifies purity to him. In his early days Jagan loses his wife Ambika because of his belief
in nature cures. He had never spent much time with his wife, something that causes discontent in his son Mali.
Mali has got his passport and tickets ready without even informing Jagan about his plans.
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Mali, without his father's permission discontinues his education, and goes to America to get training to write a
book. But the old man accepts even this diversion with good heart and treasures every letter received from
Mali and proudly exhibits it to anyone who cares to listen. A few years later, he comes back very Westernized
and brings along a half-American, half-Korean girl, Grace. Jagan assumes that they are married, though Mali
never told him this in a straightforward way, which causes great disappointment to Jagan. Jagan however
develops an affection for Grace and feels Mali is not giving her the attention she deserves. Soon Mali expresses
a desire to start a machine factory with some partners from America.
He asks his father to invest in this factory. Jagan is unwilling, which causes friction between Jagan and Mali.
Troubled by the turmoil, Jagan decides to retire from active working. As this is happening, Mali is caught by the
police for drunkenness and deserts his wife. Jagan then asks his cousin to make sure that Mali stays in prison for
some time, so that he can learn his mistakes. Jagan also gives some amount of money to the cousin so that he can
buy a plane ticket to Grace so she can go back to her hometown.
The conflict between the old and young generation, their ideals and the generation gap make 'The Vendor of
Sweets' a memorable story. This novel was made as a TV serial in Hindi and subsequently dubbed into English.

Main characters
Jagan: The protagonist. A follower of Gandhi in his youth, he is now a vendor of sweets.
Mali: Jagan's son. Blame his father for his mother's death. After living in America, he dislikes his hometown and
wants to "modernize" it.
The cousin: The Man about-town, he claims his cousinhood with the whole town. he proves to be helpful to Jagan
in creating a communicative bridge.
Grace: a half American half Korean girl Mali brings home, claiming she is his wife. She works like a catalyst
between the two cultures and tries to integrate into the Indian culture she has entered.

The Painter of Signs

One of Narayan's later works, the Painter of Signs is a bittersweet novel that looks at the lives of Raman, a painter
of sign boards, and Daisy, a social worker interested in curtailing India's population growth. The story is set in
Malgudi, like many of Narayan's works with the Sarayu, Ellaman street and The Boardless Hotel being significant
landmarks in the novel. At its very core, The Painter of Signs is Raman and Daisy's progressive love story in a
conservative town in South India.
Raman is a sign-painter who takes the art of calligraphy very seriously. He devotedly creates the perfect signboard
for all his customers, taking great care in the styling of words on the board. Made using the "best rosewood" from
the Mempi mountains, Raman believes that his signboards are a notch above his rival Jayaraj's. Living with his
aunt, a conservative old woman who likes to ramble about mythological stories and old family gossip, on
Ellaman Street, Raman goes through periods of frustration at his aunt's interest in his going abouts and feelings of
guilt for ignoring her affection and presence. Not orthodox himself, Raman neither sports a tuft like others from
his caste nor has inhibitions in eating meat if necessary. He looks down on superstitions and old-fashioned
notions of religion and caste and spends his time reading ancient copies of books on science and history. He does
have a tendency to quote from the scriptures and make associations with events in the scriptures and those in
his life.
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Daisy, an intense young woman involved in family planning campaigns, hires Raman to make a signboard for
her office. For no reason whatsoever, Raman finds himself bewitched by her beauty, and more so by her
precision, authority and her devotion to her career. It so happens that he has to accompany Daisy on a three-
week campaign in the villages around Malgudi to identify potential sites where he can paint signs and messages
on population control and finds himself further attracted to her firmness, simplicity, and her tendency to shun
luxuries and comforts of all sorts. He finds that his resolve to remain unmarried, seeing marriage as
commonplace and unnecessary, is weakening.
The story goes on to outline Daisy's complicated past and her eventual admission of a mutual attraction for
Raman. The two start spending the nights together and decide to get married in the "Gandharva" style, the
simplest form of marital union. Daisy seems to be unaffected by the relationship though and tells Raman that
she will not change her last name, or house-keep for him. Raman mulls over the eventualities of such a wedlock
but is steadfast in his affection and love for Daisy and constantly tells himself that her needs and wishes will
always be more important than his. His aunt, upset over her nephew's unorthodox afflictions - especially at his
decision to marry out of caste - asks him to arrange a one-way trip to Banaras for her. His repeated beseeching to
her to stay and bless him and Daisy have no effect. On the morning that Daisy is to move into Raman's house on
Ellaman Street, she changes her mind about Raman, feeling that her sense of purpose and her independent
existence may be affected by married life. She decides to leave Malgudi for a three-year family planning
initiative in villages all over India. Confused and befuddled, Raman tries his best to convince her, telling her
that his house on Ellaman street will be open for her whenever she decides to return.
The Painter of Signs is preoccupied with the complications of human characters and human relationships. As
Raman finds himself being torn between his aunt and Daisy, the traditional way and the modern way, we see
the protagonist as being "in-between" in the town of Malgudi. At the end of the novel, Raman's aunt left for
Benares on a pilgrimage and Daisy left the town of Malgudi to pursue her career which means that Raman is left
alone in Malgudi. This depicts the fact that it seems as though Raman cannot facilitate either woman or what they
represent (traditionality and modernity respectively), thus presenting the problematic themes of human
character and their relationships with one another.

A Tiger for Malgudi

The story of the novel is told by a tiger in the first person. Deeply moving is the attachment of the tiger to the
monk and the monk's care for the tiger. R. K. Narayan consulted with noted tiger expert K. Ullas Karanth on the
writing of this novel.
The tiger recounts his story of capture by a [circus] owner, but he never tried to escape. He lived freely in the
wild jungles of India in his youth. He mates and has a litter with a tigress and raises a litter until one day he finds
that hunters have captured and killed his entire family. He exacts revenge by attacking and eating the cattle and
livestock of nearby villages but is captured by poachers. He is sent to a circus in Malgudi, where a harsh animal
trainer known only as "the Captain" starves him and forces him to do tricks in the circus. He lives in captivity
successfully for some time, but eventually his wild instincts overcome him, and he mauls and kills the Captain.
After an extended rampage through town, he is recaptured, but this time voluntarily by a monk/renunciant with
whom he befriends and finds peace on the hills. The monk, called the Master, later realizing his own days are
coming to an end, donates the elderly tiger to the local zoo, where he is cared for, admired by onlookers, and
passes his days.
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Talkative Man

Set in Malgudi, the main character is an ordinary man who is wealthy and works as a journalist. He has a
regular routine in his life: post articles in the post box, have a talk with people in a tea shop, go to library and
house. One day, he meets a man from an unknown land called "Timbuctoo", another of Narayan's creations,
the land being similar to the US. The man seems to have come for an official duty for UN and, seeing the
calmness of the place, decides to stay here for his work. There comes a twist of what is exactly the man up to
and how the main character of the novel solves the problem. The story is simple, and the author honestly
admits to being a short story writer, rather than a novelist as he tells; most of the people skip the intrinsic
details given about the places and only catch the content (at the end of the book, his words about the story). It
is a good read book and can be read for the calmness with which Narayan writes his story, as a critic rightly
points out.

The World of Nagaraj

Set in Malgudi, novel is about Nagaraj. Nagaraj's world is quiet and comfortable. Living in his family's spacious
house with only his wife, Sita, and his widowed mother for company, he fills his day writing letters, drinking
coffee, doing some leisurely book-keeping for his friend Coomar's Boeing Sari Company, and sitting on his
verandah watching the world and planning the book he intends to write about the life of the great sage Narada.
But everything is disturbed when Tim, the son of his ambitious land-owning brother Gopu, decides to leave
home and come to live with Nagaraj. Forced to take responsibility for the boy, puzzled by his secret late-night
activities and by the strong smell of spirits which lingers behind him, Nagaraj finds his days suddenly filled
with unwelcome complication and turbulence, which threaten to forever alter the contented tranquility of his
world.
Characters

Nagaraj: A mild-mannered man belonging to a wealthy aristocratic family based in Kabir Street. Bereft of any
children himself, he develops a fondness for his elder brother's son, christened Krishnaji, but generally known
as Tim. He leads a tranquil life in his ancestral house and nurses grandiloquent plans to write a book on the life
of the Sage Narada.
Sita: Nagaraj’s wife- sometimes seems very sharp and farsighted.
Gopu: Nagaraj's elder brother, ambitious, and always self-centered man. Other characters include: -
Jayaraj, the photographer, whose shop is located at the Market archway. He sleeps on a wooden bench in front
of his shop because he feels his camera lens might get stolen and is woken up by Nagaraj every day.
Kanni the Paan-Wala, the old absent-minded priest,
Bari the stationery owner and the drunkard engineer and Talkative Man.

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Grandmother's Tale

Grandmother's Tale is a novella by R. K. Narayan with illustrations by his brother R. K. Laxman published in
1992 by Indian Thought Publications. It was subsequently released outside India as The Grandmother's Tale by
Heinemann in 1993.This book, more than any others, exhibits Narayan's experimental tendencies. The book is
about Narayan's great grandmother who is forced to travel far and wide in search of her husband, as narrated to
him by his grandmother.

MULK RAJ ANAND (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004)

One of the first Indian writers in the English language to make a mark on the international scenario, Mulk
Raj Anand was an author with hundreds of novels, short stories and essays to his name. Considered a pioneer
of the Anglo-Indian fiction, he is best remembered for his depiction of the poorer classes of people in India
and their plight. His writings are rich with the realistic and touching portrayal of the problems of the common
man, often written with heart wrenching clarity. Mulk Raj Anand was much too familiar with the problems
of the poorer sections himself. The son of a coppersmith, he had witnessed cruelties of unimaginable horrors
unfold before his own eyes—all that stemmed from the caste system that loomed over India like a malignant
curse. He was an avid learner and went to Cambridge for higher education where he became actively
involved in politics. He later returned to India to campaign for the cause of India’s independence. A bold and
outspoken writer, he exposed several of India’s evil practices through his writings. He was a prolific writer
and authored a great number of works, most of them were a commentary on the social structure of his time.

Childhood & Early Life

• He was born in Peshawar to Lal Chand—a coppersmith and soldier—and Ishwar Kaur. From an early age,
Mulk Raj was pained by the problems of Indian society that stemmed from the issues of religion and caste.
• He began to write from a young age; some of his early works were inspired by the love he had for a Muslim
girl who was unfortunately already married. He was also angered by the suicide of a relative who had been
ostracized for sharing food with a Muslim. These events inspired him to vent his frustration through words
• He went to Khalsa College, Amritsar, and then to the University of Punjab from where he graduated in 1924.
While at the college, he became involved in the Non-Co- operation Movement in 1921 and was imprisoned
for a short while.
• Thereafter he went to University College, London on a scholarship before enrolling at the Cambridge
University. He earned his PhD in 1929. In England, he actively became involved in left wing politics.

Career

• He became a writer in English language as English language publishers were more open to publish the kind
of themes he wrote on. His writing career began in England where he used to publish short reviews in T. S.
Eliot’s magazine, ‘Criterion’.
• During the 1930s and 1940s he was very active in politics and spoke regularly at the meetings of India
League which was founded by Krishna Menon.

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• Over this period, he became acquainted with the likes of intellectuals, such as, Bertrand Russell and Michael
Foot, and authors like Henry Miller and George Orwell. He was deeply influenced by M.K. Gandhi.
• His first novel, “Untouchable’ was published by the British firm, Wishart in 1935. The story was about a day
in the life of Bakha, a boy who has to become a toilet cleaner just because he belongs to the untouchable
caste. The novel was seen as a poignant reminder of the atrocities of the caste system in India.
• In 1935, he played an important role in the founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association in London
along with the writers Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali.
• His heart wrenching novel ‘Two Leaves and a Bud’ (1937) again dealt with the way the lower caste people
are exploited in India. It was the story of a poor peasant who is brutally killed by a British officer who tries
to rape his daughter.
• He joined the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war in 1937. As a socialist, he wrote numerous articles
and essays on Marxism, Fascism, Indian independence and other political issues.
• In 1939 he began lecturing in literature and philosophy at the London County Council Adult Educational
Schools and the Workers’ Educational Association where he taught till 1942.
• In 1939 he wrote ‘The Village’, which was the first part of the trilogy that would include the novels ‘Across
the Black Waters’ (1940) and ‘The Sword and the Sickle’ (1942). The trilogy was about was about a
rebellious adolescent and his experiences in the World War I.
• Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he divided his time between London and India. At both places he was
involved in politics—he was associated with the British Labour Party as well as the Indian National
Congress.
• Anand worked as a broadcaster and scriptwriter in the film division of the BBC in London during the World
War II. He returned to India after the war. He founded the fine-arts magazine, ‘Marg’ in 1946.
• He spent the next several years from 1948 to 1966 teaching at various universities. During the 1960s he
served as Tagore Professor of Literature and Fine Art at the University of Punjab.
• He served as the fine art chairman at Lalit Kala Akademi from 1965 to 1970. He also became the president
of Lokayata Trust in 1970.

Major Works

• His best-known work was the novel ‘Untouchable’ which tells of the story of a boy, Bakha, who is
destined to become a toilet cleaner just because of his caste. The plot revolves around what happens
when he meets an upper caste man and encounters atrocities.

Awards & Achievements

• He was honored with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award in 1967 for his vast
contributions towards the field of Literature & Education.
• He won the Sahitya Academy Award for his novel ‘The Morning Face’ (1968).

Personal Life & Legacy

• He met actress Kathleen van Gelder in London, and the couple married in 1938. Their union
produced a daughter. The marriage however unraveled and the couple divorced in 1948.
• In 1950, he married Shirin Vajibdar, a classical dancer
• He died in 2004 at the age of 98.

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Untouchable (1935)

The novel established Anand as one of India's leading English authors. The book was inspired by his aunt's
experience when she had a meal with a Muslim woman and was treated as an outcast by his family. The plot of
this book, Anand's first, revolves around the argument for eradicating the caste system. It depicts a day in the
life of Bakha, a young "sweeper", who is "untouchable" due to his work cleaning latrines.
Set in the fictional Indian town of Bulandshahr, Untouchable is a day in the life of a young Indian sweeper named
Bakha. The son of Lakha, head of all of Bulashah’s sweepers, Bakha is intelligent but naïve, humble yet vain.
Over the course of Bakha’s day various major and minor tragedies occur, causing him to mature and turn his
gaze inward. By the end of the novel Mulk Raj Anand, the author, has made a compelling case for the end of
untouchability on the grounds that it is an inhumane, unjust system of oppression. He uses Bakha and the people
populating the young man’s world to craft his argument.
Bakha’s day starts with his father yelling at him to get out of bed and clean the latrines. The relationship between
the father and son is strained, in part due to Bakha’s obsession with the British, in part because of Lakha’s
laziness. Bakha ignores his father but eventually gets up to answer the demands of a high-caste man that wants
to use the bathroom. This man is Charat Singh, a famous hockey player. At first Singh also yells at Bakha for
neglecting his cleaning duties. The man has a changeable personality, however. It isn’t long before he instructs
Bakha to come see him later in the day so he can gift the young sweeper with a prized hockey stick. An
overjoyed Bakha agrees.
High on his good fortune he quickly finishes his morning shift and hurries home, dying of thirst. Unfortunately,
there is no water in the house. His sister Sohini offers to go fill the water bucket. At the well Sohini must wait
behind several other outcastes also queued up. Also waiting for water is Gulabo, mother of one of Bakha’s friends
and a jealous woman. She hates Sohini and is just barely stopped from striking the young woman. A priest from
the town temple named Pundit Kali Nath comes along and helps Sohini get water. He instructs her to come clean
the temple later in the day. Sohini agrees and hurries home with the water.
Back at home Lakha fakes an illness and instructs Bakha to clean the town square and the temple courtyard in
his stead. Bakha is wise to the wily ways of his father but cannot protest. He takes up his cleaning supplies and
goes into town. His sweeping duties usually keep him too busy to go into town, and so he takes advantage of the
situation by buying cigarettes and candies.
As Bakha eats his candies, a high-caste man brushes up against him. The touched man did not see Bakha because
the sweeper forgot to give the untouchable’s call. The man is furious. His yelling attracts a large crowd that joins
in on Bakha’s public shaming. A traveling Muslim vendor in a horse and buggy comes along and disperses the
crowd. Before the touched man leaves he slaps Bakha across the face for his impudence, and scurries away. A
shocked Bakha cries in the streets before gathering his things and hurrying off to the temple. This time, he does
not forget the untouchable’s call.
At the temple, a service is in full swing. It intrigues Bakha, who eventually musters up the courage to climb up
the stairs to the temple door and peer inside. He’s only standing there for a few moments before a loud
commotion comes from behind him. It’s Sohini and Pundit Kali Nath, who is accusing Sohini of polluting him.
As a crowd gathers around, Bakha pulls his sister away. Crying, she tells him that the priest sexually assaulted
her. A furious Bakha tries to go back to confront the priest, but an embarrassed and ashamed Sohini forces him
to leave. Bakha sends his sister home, saying he will take over her duties in town for the rest of the day.

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Distraught over the day’s events, Bakha wanders listlessly before going to a set of homes to beg for his family’s
daily bread. No one is home, so he curls up in front of a house and falls asleep. A sadhu also begging for food
comes and wakes him. The owner of the house Bakha slept in front of comes out with food for the sadhu. Seeing
Bakha, she screams at him and at first refuses to give him food. She finally agrees to give him some bread in
exchange for him sweeping the area in front of her house. As Bakha sweeps, the woman tells her young son to
relieve himself in the gutter where Bakha is cleaning so he can sweep that up too. A disgusted Bakha throws
down the broom and leaves for his house in the outcastes' colony. Back at home, it’s only Lakha and Sohini.
Rakha, Bakha’s younger brother, is still out collecting food. Bakha tells his father that a high-caste man slapped
him in the streets.
Sensing his son’s anger, Lakha tells him a story about the kindness of a high-caste doctor that once saved
Bakha’s life. Bakha is deeply moved by the story but remains upset. Soon after story time, Rakha comes back
with food. A ravenous Bakha starts to eat, but then is disgusted by the idea of eating the leavings of the high-
caste people. He jumps up and says he’s going to the wedding of his friend Ram Charan’s sister.
At Ram Charan’s house, Bakha sees his other friend, Chota. The two boys wait for Ram Charan to see them
through the thicket of wedding revelers. Ram Charan eventually sees his friends and runs off with them despite
his mother’s protestations. Alone, Chota and Ram Charan sense something is wrong with their friend. They
coax Bakha to tell them what’s wrong. Bakha breaks down and tells them about the slap and Sohini’s assault.
Ram Charan is quiet and embarrassed by Bakha’s tale, but Chota is indignant. He asks Bakha if he wants to get
revenge. Bakha does but realizes revenge would be a dangerous and futile endeavor. A melancholic atmosphere
falls over the group. Chota attempts to cheer Bakha up by reminding him of the hockey game they will play later
in the day. This reminds Bakha that he must go and get his gift from Charat Singh.
Bakha goes to Charat Singh’s house in the barracks but cannot tell if the man is home. Reluctant to disturb him
or the other inhabitants, Bakha settles under a tree to wait. Before long, Singh comes outside. He invites Bakha
to drink tea with him and allows the untouchable to handle his personal items. Singh’s disregard for Bakha’s
supposed polluting presence thrills Bakha’s heart. Thus, he is overjoyed when Singh gives him a brand-new
hockey stick. Ecstatic about this upswing to his terrible day, Bakha goes into the hockey game on fire. He scores
the first goal. The goalie of the opposite team is angry over Bakha’s success and hits him. This starts an all-out
brawl between the two teams that ends when a player’s younger brother gets hurt. Bakha picks up the young
boy and rushes him home, only to have the boy’s mother accuses him of killing her son. Good mood completely
destroyed, Bakha trudges home, where his father screams at him for being gone all afternoon. He banishes Bakha
from home, saying his son must never return. Bakha runs away and takes shelter under a tree far from home. The
chief of the local Salvation Army, a British man named Colonel Hutchinson, comes up to him. He sees Bakha’s
distress and convinces the sweeper to follow him to the church. Flattered by the white man’s attention, Bakha
agrees, but the Colonel’s constant hymn singing quickly bores him.
Before the two can enter the church, the Colonel’s wife comes to find him. Disgusted at the sight of her husband
with another “blackie,” she begins to scream and shout. Bakha feels her anger acutely and runs off again.
This time Bakha runs towards town and ends up at the train station. He overhears some people discussing the
appearance of Mahatma Gandhi in Bulashah. He joins the tide of people rushing to hear the Mahatma speak. Just
as Bakha settles in to listen, Gandhi arrives and begins his speech. He talks about the plight of the untouchable
and how it is his life’s mission to see them emancipated. He ends his speech by beseeching those present to
spread his message of ending untouchability.
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After the Mahatma departs a pair of educated Indian men have a lively discussion about the content of the
speech. One man, a lawyer named Bashir, soundly critiques most of Gandhi’s opinions and ideas. The other, a
poet named Sarshar, defends the Mahatma passionately and convincingly. Much of what they say goes above
Bakha’s head, so elevated are their vocabulary and ideas. However, he does understand when Sarshar mentions
the imminent arrival of the flushing toilet in India, a machine that eradicates the need for humans to handle refuse.
This machine could mean the end of untouchability. With this piece of hope Bakha hurries home to share news
of the Mahatma’s speech with his father.

Coolie (1936)

The novel reinforced Anand's position as one of India's leading English authors. The book is highly critical of
British rule in India and India's caste system. The plot revolves around a 14-year-old boy, Munoo, and his
plight due to poverty and exploitation aided by the social and political structures in place.
In 2004, a commemorative edition including this book was launched by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh.

Two Leaves and a Bud

Like his other novels, this one also deals with the topic of oppression of the poor and is about a peasant who
tries to protect his daughter from a British soldier. The story is based in the tea plantations of Assam. The
book was subsequently adapted to a Hindi film, Rahi, by Dev Anand and simultaneously released in English
as The Wayfarer. The book depicts in detail the concept of haves and have-nots and the exploitation of one at
the hand of the other, in pre-independence India.
This is a dramatic novel that ends with a "tragic clash of interests and destinies".
Gangu is a middle-aged peasant living in Hoshiarpur with his wife Sajani and his daughter Leila. Because of
his outstanding debts he ends up losing his lands and as such, readily agrees to travel to Assam to take on a
plantation job that would pay well and allow Gangu to own his own land. However, upon his arrival Gangu
finds that this was all a trick and that the job is essentially slave labor. Their pay is not even enough to buy
food and many of the merchants offer loans with interest rates so high that repayment is impossible. Gangu
and his family are forced to live their lives in squalor and to endure all sorts of abuse and degradation. On top
of this Sajani and Leila are subjected to rape and other sexual degradation.
The general poor treatment and living conditions provoke concern in the plantation's doctor, John De La Harve,
especially as the threat of cholera looms over the plantation. He tries to persuade the plantation's boss, Croft-
Cooke, into improving conditions of the workers (called coolies) but to no avail, as Croft-Cook believes that
coolies are sub-human and are not deserving of even the smallest human consideration. As a result, the
plantation is struck by cholera and Sajani ends up contracting and then dying of the disease. Since he is too poor
to perform the necessary last rites, Gangu tries to borrow money from Croft-Cooke but is turned away because
he is believed to be carrying cholera.
Things take a turn for the worse when Reggie Hunt, a British officer, takes notice of Leila and chases her with
the intent to rape her. Gangu tries to stop him but is instead shot and killed by Hunt. The officer is charged with
Gangu's murder, but a trial comprised predominantly of Englishmen finds him not guilty.

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The Village

This book was the first of a trilogy that included Across the Black Waters and The Sword and the Sickle. The
plot centers on India's political structure, specifically the British rule and the independence movement. The
novel revolves around Lal Singh a peasant in the Punjab, his antics going against social norms while in the
village, his subsequent enrollment in the army and his troubles in the army, culminating in his return to the
village.

Across the Black Waters

It describes the experience of Lalu, a sepoy in the Indian Army fighting on behalf of Britain against the
Germans in France during World War I. He is portrayed by the author as an innocent peasant whose poor family
was evicted from their land and who only vaguely understands what the war is about. The book has been
described as Anand's best work since the Untouchable.
In Lalu's tragedy lied the tragedy of the Indian village and Anand dramatizes a poignant truth: to dispossess
any one of land is to deny him an identity. —Basavaraj Naikar The book is part of a trilogy (along with The
Village and The Sword and the Sickle) that chronicles the life of Lalu as he struggles to rise from the bottom
of Indian society. In the background is India's fight for independence. This book is the only Indian English novel
that is set in World War I and portrays the experiences of Lalu, who only wants to reclaim the piece of land
his family lost as a reward for serving. But when he returns from war, he finds his family destroyed and his
parents dead. The novel's larger themes are that of war and death Lalu encounters Western culture.

The Sword and the Sickle

Like his other novels, this one also deals with the topic of social and political structures, specifically, the rise
of Communism. The title for the book was given to Anand by George Orwell. The novel was in keeping with
British and American writings of the time. The book was the final part of the trilogy that included The Village
and Across the Black Waters.

The Private Life of an Indian Prince

The book is classified as one of Anand's most impressive and important works. In keeping with his other
writings dealing with the topic of social and political reform, this book deals with the abolition of the princely
states system in India. While the novel is not an autobiography, like many of his earlier novels, it follows an
autobiographical tone.
In 2004, a commemorative edition including this book was launched by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh.

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ANITA DESAI (24 June 1937-…)

Anita Desai (born 1937) has been touted by “British Writers'” A. Michael Matin as “one of the preeminent
contemporary Indian novelists,” even referred to by many as the Mother of the Indian psychological novel
genre. Her meticulous depictions of modern Indian life, combined with an elevated level of linguistic skill that
frequently enters the poetic realm, have secured her a place of honor in the pantheon of Indian authors.

Early Life

Anita Desai was born on June 24, 1937, in the hill station of Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh, India. She was one of
four children: she had a brother and two sisters, all raised in what was a British colony in their youth. Desai’s
father D.N. Mazumdar was a Bengali engineer. Her mother, Toni Nimé, was German and met Mazumdar in
Germany, then emigrated to India in the 1920s. Desai has said that it was exposure to her mother’s European
core that allowed her to experience India as both an insider, and an outsider.
Although Desai was formally educated in English, she was raised speaking both Hindi and German in her home
in Old Delhi. She attributes some of the diversity of her fictional characters to having lived among a mix of
Hindu, Muslim, and Christian neighbors while growing up.
In the 1996 Contemporary Novelists, Desai revealed to critic Bruce King that she began writing early, saying,
“I have been writing since the age of seven, as instinctively as I breathe.” At the age of nine, she began her
publishing career when a submission she made to an American children’s magazine was accepted and
published. At the age of ten, Desai had a life – changing experience as she watched her society ripped apart
by the violence born of the Hindu – Muslim conflict during the division of British India into the nations of India
and Pakistan. Her Muslim classmates and friends disappeared without explanation, all of them fleeing from
Hindu violence. British Writers’ Matin described how the “stupefying bloodshed and violence . . . erupting from
the dream of independence” informed the tone of her early fiction.

Education

Desai’s formal education was in the English language, and her writing was always in English as a result. She
attended British grammar schools, then Queen Mary’s Higher Secondary School in New Delhi. She was
accepted at Miranda House, an elite women’s college in Delhi, and in 1957 at the age of 20 she received a B.A.
with Honors in English Literature from Delhi University. Already hard on the heels of her dream of being a
writer, she published her first short story the same year she graduated, in 1957. Desai continued to compose
and publish short fiction, working for a year in Calcutta and marrying business executive Ashvin Desai on
December 13, 1958. They had four children, sons Rahul and Arjun, and daughters Tani and Kiran.

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Life as a Writer

While raising her children, Desai maintained her efforts as an author and completed her early novels while her
family grew. The Desais lived in Calcutta from 1958 to 1962, then moved to Bombay, Chandigarh, Delhi, and
Poona. Each new location provided an additional rich back – drop for the young author’s fiction. Desai became
a freelance writer in 1963 and has retained this as her occupation ever since. She addressed her craft in the King
interview, “[Writing] is a necessity to me: I find it is in the process of writing that I am able to think, to feel,
and to realize at the highest pitch. Writing is to me a process of discovering the truth.” Desai contributed to
various prestigious literary publications, including the New York Times Book Review, London Magazine,
Harper’s Bazaar and Quest. Her first novel, Cry, the Peacock (1963), was published when she was 26 years
old. In 1965 she published her second novel, Voices in the City, which revealed Calcutta as seen by a group
of aristocratic siblings, and she left India for the first time to visit England. While in Europe, Desai gathered
material for her third novel, Bye – Bye, Blackbird (1971). She directed her focus inward, experimenting with
both content and form. 1974 saw the release of her first attempt at juvenile literature, The Peacock Garden,
and the next two years yielded another adult novel, Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975), followed by
another juvenile venture titled Cat on a Houseboat (1976).
Although her first three adult novels were not favorably reviewed, her later work garnered growing attention
for what the 1999 Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century critic Janet Powers referred to as “a
sensitivity to subtle emotions and family reverberations . . . [an] intuitive awareness [that] emanates from a
distinctly feminine sensibility.” Her next three adult novels gained her international recognition. Her 1977
novel, Fire on the Mountain, featured three female protagonists each subdued or damaged in some way coming
to terms with how place effects their realities. In 1978 she published Games at Twilight, a collection of short
stories and the 1980 novel Clear Light of Day, a study of Delhi that combines fiction with history to explore
the lives of a middle–class Hindu family. In 1982, she released another children’s piece titled The Village by
the Sea, followed two years later by another adult novel, In Custody (1984).
Desai entered the scholarly world in a position as the Helen Cam Visiting Fellow at Girton College in
Cambridge University, England from 1986 to 1987. She came to the United States in 1987 and served as an
Elizabeth Drew Professor at Smith College from 1987 to 1988 and a Purington Professor of English at Mount
Holyoke College from 1988 to 1993. In 1988 she wrote another novel, Baumgartner’s Bombay, and by 1989
her status as a significant postcolonial novelist had been cemented in literary circles. Fame, however, appeared
far off due to the post – 1947 prejudice against Anglophone literature, particularly that written by female
authors. In 1993 Desai took as post as Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
has remained there ever since.
In 1992, Desai’s children’s book The Village by the Sea was adapted and filmed as a six – part miniseries by
the BBC, and in 1993 she co – authored an adaptation of her novel In Custody that was filmed by Merchant –
Ivory and released in 1994. Desai wrote two more novels – Journey to Ithaca (1995) and Fasting, Feasting (1999)
– and one more short story collection, Diamond Dust (2000).

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Critical Reception

Despite the fact that Desai does not view herself as a political writer, her social commentary is considered to
be powerfully and accurately rendered in her fiction. Her use of image and symbol is sophisticated, and
Contemporary Authors critic Anthony Thwaite points out that thanks to her mastery of the literary image, “she
is such a consummate artist that she [is able to suggest], beyond the confines of the plot and the machinations
of her characters, the immensities that lie beyond them – the immensities of India.” It is British Writers A.
Michael Matin’s belief that this focus on the poetic language – one of Desai’s hallmarks – has resulted in a
decided lack of critical treatment of her work as a postcolonial author, because critics find her style to be
Eurocentric rather than traditionally Indian in nature. Matin hopes that future scholarship will grant Desai the
place she deserves among the postcolonial greats.

Contemporary Novelists’ King identifies two types of Desai novels: those about “what men do,” and those
about “what women feel.” The Bloomsbury Guide further supports this by defining Desai’s fiction as novels
that “frequently depict the attempts of urban middle – class women to harmonize the needs of the self with the
demands traditionally made of Indian women by the family, caste, and society.” The connection between
family members, and the way the cultural experience of Indian women in particular affects those connections
emerges as a recurring theme in Desai’s work as she deals with contemporary Indian life, culture clashes
between the East and the West, generational differences, and practical and emotional exile.
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century’s Powers identifies a frequent female character type in
Desai’s fiction, “a newly heroic and thoroughly modern model of the saintly Indian woman. Those qualities
that enabled the traditional woman to survive in an arranged marriage are those of Desai’s independent woman,
who is autonomous, yet bound up with caring for others.” Powers believes that “although Desai offers
negative examples of women unable to realize their own needs because of oppression by traditional customs,
she also presents the difficulties faced by newly liberated women in giving their lives purpose. The feminist
message, that women are senselessly harmed by denial of opportunities for self – realization, comes through
loud and clear; but so does the question of what an independent woman’s identity might be.” In an essay titled
“Indian Women Writers,” Desai stated that “criticism is an acquired faculty,” and that Indian women have
always been discouraged “from harboring what is potentially so dangerous.”

Desai’s own work uses a sharp eye to address the changes that have complicated Indian society since
independence in 1947, and the trouble outsiders face when trying to grasp the intricacies of Indian culture.
Powers feels that “read chronologically, Desai’s novels demonstrate her constant experimentation and
progressive maturation as a writer,” treating issues like “the emotional poverty of the liberated woman,” and
“the demise of a rich cultural tradition.”

Desai’s descriptive skill is widely acclaimed by critics, despite disagreement regarding her content.
Contemporary Authors critic Pearl Bell states that although Desai’s “Novels are quite short they convey a
sharply detailed sense of the tangled complexities of Indian society, and an intimate view of the tug and pull
of Indian family life.”

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Contemporary Authors reviewer A.G. Mojtabai agrees, noting that Desai’s novels “delineate characters,
settings, and feelings intricately, yet economically, without extraneous detail or excessively populated scenes.
Properly observed, a roomful of people is crowd enough, and in the right hands – as Anita Desai so amply
illustrates – world enough.” Her “elegant” and “lucid” novels have enjoyed a broad audience outside her native
India, a reality that has exposed more people to her unique view, but perhaps deterred her ascension to the top
of the Indian literary realm.

True Measure of Success

Desai, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and teaches writing at MIT has been appointed to various
literary offices. She was a member of the Advisory Board for English at Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi from
1975 to 1980, and a member of the National Academy of Letters, as well as becoming a Fellow for the Royal
Society of Literature in England in 1978. She was appointed Honorary Fellow for the American Academy of
Arts and Letters and has produced three well – liked children’s books, an unusual feat for an Indian author of
her caliber.
As Desai explained to Contemporary Novelists’ King, it is writing’s ability to “[enable] her to think and feel
and discover truth” that has driven her to such creative height and depth. She explained that all her writing is
“an effort to discover, to underline and convey the true significance of things. That is why, in my novels, small
objects, passing moods and attitudes acquire a large importance . . . One hopes, at the end of one’s career, to
have made some significant statement on life – not necessarily a water – tight, hard – and – fast set of rules, but
preferably an ambiguous, elastic, shifting, and kinetic one that remains always capable of further change and
growth.” British Writers’ Matin maintains that if one wishes to measure Desai’s true achievement, they “must
look beyond those books that bear her own name on the title page” and take note of the score of current Indian
Anglophile authors who have enjoyed success as a direct result of Desai’s struggle to be heard.

The Zigzag Way

In The Zigzag Way, Eric is a self-absorbed North American academic, bored by his studies, unable to commit
to the fantasy of writing his novel. He may have reached premature domestic bliss with his girlfriend, Em
('They seemed already to have reached a stage that many couples require 30 years to achieve'), but he is
beginning to stifle her with his possessiveness. Will the relationship last?
When Em is offered a sabbatical in Mexico, it seems a fresh start. Eric decides to accompany her, somewhat
to her concern. But Mexico is where Eric's journey begins. He travels high up in the Sierra Madre to undertake
a quest to find out more about his grandfather, a Cornish miner who, as a young man, emigrated to Mexico to
work the mines in the days just before Pancho Villa and revolution came to Mexico.
The novel is structured as three interwoven narratives: Eric's modern-day story; the life of Dona Vera, the
autocratic 'Queen of the Sierra', who has a dubious European past of her own; and the story of Eric's
grandmother, a young Cornish girl who journeyed to join her fiancé in Mexico only to die while giving birth.
It is only on the feast Day of the Dead, when the locals celebrate their lost loved ones, that the various strands
of the novel come together, and Eric faces up to his past.
Refreshingly, instead of saddling Eric with a creaky new romance, Desai makes the true revelation in his life
more internal.

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Like Desai's earlier novels, The Zigzag Way tackles stereotypical Western views of Indians, antisemitism, the
tensions of family life and the alienation of middle-class women. But, at times, character loses out to detailed
panoramic descriptions of Mexico and it is easy for readers' attention to flag. Only in the final section about
Eric's grandmother, a proper, flesh-and-blood woman, does the novel stop being a poetic travelogue and really
start to live. At her best, Desai approaches the Mexican landscape like a master cinematographer (her earlier
novel, In Custody, was filmed by Merchant Ivory) and one senses The Zigzag Way might work best as a film.

Fasting, Feasting

The story focuses on the life of the unmarried and main character, Uma, a spinster, the family's older daughter,
with Arun, the boy and baby of the family. Uma spends her life in subservience to her older demanding parents,
while massive effort and energy is expended to ensure Arun's education and placement in a university in
Massachusetts. Aruna gets married. In part two we are introduced to Arun in America. Therefore, we can
compare and contrast between the Indian and the American culture.
Rather a series of events from a life than a complexly plotted work. We follow the fortunes of Uma and Arun
as they engage with family and strangers and the intricacy of day to day living.
The novel is in two parts. The first part is set in India and is focused on the life of Uma who is the overworked
daughter of Mama and Papa. She is put upon by them at every turn, preparing food, running errands. In the
early part of the novel, we see her struggling at school. She is not very bright but loves the sisters who teach
and appreciate her. Finally, she is made to leave school and serve her parents.
We meet many interesting characters through her; Ramu-Bhai a travelling bon viveur who tries to show Uma a
good time. He is banished by her parents.
Another character is the religious Mira Masi who tells Uma all the tales of Krishna and takes her to the ashram
allowing her to escape her mother's domination for a time.
Uma's parents attempt to marry her off on three occasions; on the first occasion the chosen man fell for Uma's
younger sister, Aruna. On the second her parents accept her marriage on behalf of her before finding out later
that their dowry has been spent and the engagement is cancelled. On the third occasion a marriage took place,
but it turns out the Uma's new husband already has a wife. She lives with his sisters while he lives in another
town spending her dowry on his ailing business. Uma's father quickly spirits her home.
We are also told of the episode of Anamika's (Uma's cousin) sad fate. She has won a scholarship to Oxford,
but her parents insist that she get married. She does and fails to please her husband by providing him with
children. He keeps her for a time as a servant but eventually she dies by burning. It is strongly hinted that her
in-laws killed her. The final scene of Part 1 is the immersion of Anamika's ashes in the sacred river.
We are left with great sympathy for Uma and her simple kindness as she survives as best she can in a not
altogether friendly world.
In Part 2 we meet Arun, Uma's privileged brother. He is attending college in America and during summer
holidays he lives with the Pattons, an all-American family. Again, plot is not complex or intricate. The events
are told in a serial manner as Arun encounters them.
Of note is his intense dislike of American food and cooking methods. He is dismayed at the behaviour of
Melanie, the daughter who is deeply troubled and suffering from bulimia. Although Mrs. Patton seems to care
about Melanie, she does little to help. While apparently close, the family are actually distant from one another,
something very different from Arun's experience of family life in India. Arun spends most of his time alone and
isolated. Arun tries his best to escape from the western society but in vain.
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In Custody

Deven earns a living by teaching Hindi literature to uninterested college students. As his true interests lie in
Urdu poetry, he jumps at the chance to meet the great Urdu poet, Nur. Under the advice of his friend Murad,
an editor of a periodical devoted to Urdu literature, Deven procures a second-hand tape recorder so that he can
help transcribe Urdu's early poetry, as well as conduct an interview or even write the memoirs of Nur.
However, things do not happen as he expects them to.
Devens' old friend Murad visits Deven with an offer for him to interview a great Urdu poet Nur Sahjahanabadi
who lives in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi for his magazine. Deven is fond of Urdu poetry. He accepts the offer.
At First, he thinks that he is getting a chance to meet a great Urdu poet but after reaching his house he notices
the unbearable condition of Nur's house. When he meets Nur, he refuses to give an interview by saying that
Urdu is now at its last stage and soon this beautiful language will not exist. But he shows some trust in Deven.
But Deven gets annoyed by the condition of Nur's house and drops the idea of interviewing Nur. Murad again
convinces him to interview Nur with the help of tape recorder so that it can be further used for audio learning
by Urdu scholars. Deven, who is a poor lecturer, asks for money from the college for a tape recorder. He goes
to a shop to buy, where the shopkeeper, Jain, offers him a secondhand tape recorder. At first Deven refuses to
purchase it, but later Jain convinces him that it is a machine with good quality and his own nephew Chintu will
help them to operate it while recording the interview. Unwillingly,
Deven agrees to purchase it. Nur's first wife promises Deven that she can arrange a room for Deven if he gives
her some money. Deven arranged the money for the payment to her by the college authority with the help of
his colleague-cum-friend Siddique. He then goes to Delhi with Chintu for recording. but he fails to record the
interview. Now, he not only has no recording but also has to bear the expenses like payment demanded by
poet, his wife, nephews of Jain etc.

Characters

1. Deven Sharma- he is a Hindi professor in Mirpore, who is tired of his mundane life. He loves Urdu and is a
big fan of Nur, a famous Urdu poet. He also gets the opportunity to meet Nur.
2. Nur- a famous Urdu poet who laments the loss of a beautiful language (Urdu), and thereby a culture. He is a
man of age and experience. He lives in misery and confusion as both his wives are constantly involved in a
row.
3. Murad- a cold and calculating friend of Deven who owns a publishing house in Delhi. He exploits Deven and
deceives him throughout the novel.
4. Siddiqui- Deven's fellow lecturer of Urdu, is a figure of the decline of the language and culture for which he
stands.
5. Nur's second wife- she is a jealous and calculating woman who is trying to steal the limelight off Nur. She
is hungry for fame and wealth.

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The Village by the Sea
It is set in a small village called Thul in Western India (14 kilometres from Bombay) and focuses on a family
trying to make ends meet. The main protagonists are Lila, the eldest child who is 13 years old, and her 12-year-
old brother Hari. They also have two younger sisters, Bela and Kamal. They live with their mother, who has
been chronically ill and is bed- ridden. Their father is an alcoholic, which forces Hari and Lila to manage the
family. There is a lot of pressure on them due to the constant demand of meeting their needs. Although their
father was earning money, he used to spend it to buy alcohol. With two younger sisters and a bedridden mother
to take care of, life for Lila and Hari is too hard. Hari decides that he has had enough and leaves for Bombay
to find work. Lila is left alone to take care of her family and struggles to do so. Help comes from an unexpected
source, the rich De Silvas who have a farmhouse- Mon Repos next to their hut. Meanwhile, Hari is new in the
city of dreams, Mumbai and he is all alone. A kind restaurant owner, Jagu, pities upon him and welcomes him
to work in his restaurant. There, Hari builds a strong friendship with Mr.
Panwallah, the lovable watch repairer whose shop is just beside the shop Jagu had. Through his experience with
Mr. Panwallah and Jagu and the chain of events that take place in Bombay, Hari realizes that he could actually
make a career as a watchmaker. Meanwhile, Lila, Bela and Kamal admit their sick mother in town hospital
through the help of the De Silvas. Their father turns over a new leaf and accompanies their mother throughout
her 7- month treatment. When Hari returns to the village soon-after, he finds the environment of his home
totally changed. As Hari reunites with his sisters, they all begin sharing stories with each other detailing the
changes that took place after Hari left. Hari also explains the watch repair skills he learned in Bombay and
reveals his plans to start a small repair shop in the village. Together, Lila, Hari, Bela, and Kamal all form a plan
to use Hari's saved money (which he made and brought back from Bombay) to start a small chicken farm as a
start-up business for the family and financial support base for Hari's future repair shop. As Hari goes to the
village to buy chicken netting fence and tools to build a chicken pen, a traveller converses with him and
marvels at Hari upon learning his plans. As the novel ends, the traveller highlights Hari and his sister's resolve
to adapt and change in this growing and ever developing world.
Anita Desai has explicitly described in her very own style of writing, and she shows how Hari in the
dilapidated conditions of the Sri Krishna Eating House finds warmth and affection through Mr. Panwallah -
owner and watch mender of the Ding-Dong watch shop. Mr. Panwallah instills confidence in Hari and comforts
him when he is terribly home sick. He even gives Hari a vivid and inspiring future and teaches him watch
mending. This shows that even in one of the busiest, rickety and ramshackle cities such as Bombay there is
still hope, love and affection. He also goes back to Thul with the help of Mr. Panwallah and Jagu insisting to
buy the bus ticket. Jagu's generosity by giving him some extra money to be brought back to his family.

Clear Light of Day

Set primarily in Old Delhi, the story describes the tensions in a post-partition Indian family, starting with the
characters as adults and moving back into their lives throughout the course of the novel. While the primary
theme is the importance of family, other predominant themes include the importance of forgiveness, the power
of childhood, and the status of women, particularly their role as mothers and caretakers, in modern-day India.
The novel is split into four sections covering the Das family from the children’s perspective in this order:
adulthood, adolescence and early adulthood, childhood, and a final return to an adult perspective in the final
chapter.
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The story centers on the Das family, who have grown apart with adulthood. It starts with Tara, whose husband
Bakul is India’s ambassador to the USA, greeting her sister Bimla (Bim), who lives in the family's Old Delhi
home, teaching history and taking care of their autistic brother Baba. Their conversation eventually comes to
Raja, their brother who lives in Hyderabad. Bim, not wanting to go to the wedding of Raja’s daughter, shows
Tara an old letter from when Raja became her landlord, in which he unintentionally insulted her after the death
of his father-in-law, the previous landlord. The section closes with the two sisters visiting the neighbors, the
Mishras.
In part two of the novel, the setting switches to partition-era India, when the characters are adolescents in the
house. Raja is severely ill with tuberculosis and is left to Bim’s ministrations. Aunt Mira ("Mira-Masi"), their
supposed caretaker after the death of the children’s often absent parents, dies of alcoholism. Earlier, Raja's
fascination with Urdu attracts the attention of the family's Muslim landlord, Hyder Ali, whom Raja idolizes.
After recovering from TB, Raja follows Hyder Ali to Hyderabad. Tara escapes from the situation through
marriage to Bakul, leaving Bim to provide for Baba alone, in the midst of the partition and the death of
Gandhi.
In part three Bim, Raja and Tara are depicted awaiting the birth of their brother Baba in pre-partition India. Aunt
Mira, widowed by her husband and mistreated by her in-laws, is brought in to help with Baba, who is autistic,
and to raise the children. Raja is fascinated with poetry. He shares a close bond with Bim, the head girl at
school, although they often exclude Tara. Tara wants to be a mother, although this fact brings ridicule from
Raja and Bim, who want to be heroes.
The final section returns to modern India and shows Tara confronting Bim over Raja's daughter's wedding
and Bim's broken relationship with Raja. This climaxes when Bim explodes at Baba. After her anger fades,
she decides that family love is irreplaceable and can cover all wrongs. After Tara leaves, she goes to her
neighbors the Mishras for a concert, where she is touched by the unbreakable relationship they seem to have.
She tells Tara to come back from the wedding with Raja and forgives him.
Desai considers Clear Light of Day her most autobiographical work as it is set during her own coming of age
and also in the same neighbourhood in which she grew up. She describes herself as placing "a premium on
setting", unlike other Indian writers.
The book is set at various times around the partition in Old Delhi.

Poetry in Clear Light of Day

In this book, Desai quotes poems 12 different times, in addition to using a line by Iqbal as a part of a song at
the end of the book. Poets quoted include T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land and Burnt Norton),Alfred, Lord
Tennyson (Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Now the White), Lord Byron (Isles of Greece)Sir Muhammad Iqbal
("Thou didst create...into an antidote", and "Your world is the world...over my world you have dominion")
Algernon Charles Swinburne(The Garden of Proserpine) and D. H. Lawrence (Ship of Death).The poetry each
serves to convey not only a particular aspect involved in the poem, but also the importance of education.

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