R. K. Narayan: The World of Malgudi

R. K. NARAYAN
THE WORLD OF MALGUDI

A novelist to be successful tries to limit his fictional activity to the narrow boundaries of a region or a limited circumference of his chosen place which, as a matter of fact, becomes his fictional world. A novel is generally expected to be the presentation not only of men, their manners, mental activities and social matters inclusive of customs and traditions but also of the geographical features of the place where these people live as their lives and behavioural patterns are largely conditioned by the physical features of the place where they live. As such often the success of a novel depends on the successful selectivity of a particular locale for the fictional activity. As a result the distinctive spirit generated by the place pervades the pages, characterizes the people that inhabit the place and ultimately symbolizes the place and its people. The greatness of the novel lies in the fact that the place, limited as it is, transcends its limits and gets identified with the universal; in other words, the microcosm becomes the macrocosm.

R. K. Narayan is such a novelist whose novels, though they primarily centre round a narrowly demarcated place such as Malgudi, rise above the regional framework and become novels of greater significance and broader vision. That is why, on the face of it, Narayan appears to be a regional novelist whose plots have a fictional locale, namely a small township of Malgudi in South India. Just as Hardy’s novels are called Wessex novels, in the same way Narayan’s novels are called Malgudi novels.

In this way Narayan’s Malgudi has the analogical relationship with Hardy’s Wessex. As Prof. K. R. Sinivasa Iyengar remarks, “Malagudi is Narayan’s Casterbridge”. Scholars have made vain attempts and wild surmises in identifying this small town of Malgudi. Prof. Iyengar himself thinks that it could be the Malgudi on the bank of the river Kaveri near Yadavagin in Mysore. Some others tried to identify Malgudi with Coimbatore which shares many common features such as a river on one side, forests and hills on the other, a mission school and a college, extension to the municipal limits, mills, etc. But all these specu­lations remain only imaginary and Narayan’s Malgudi seems to be a product of his own mind, a world of his imagination.

He has not drawn any map of this place as William Faulkner did, nor had he a clear-cut map in his mind as Hardy had of his Wessex, though others have done the work for Narayan as, for instance, M. K. Naik has appended a map of Malgudi in his book The Ironic Vision. As time progresses, Narayan’s Malgudi also has grown. The distinctiveness of the fictional setting is quite obviously felt in his creation of the imaginary town Malgudi and it is against this ground that his characters engage themselves with stresses and strains of life. This inter-relatedness of the place and its people is able to convey an intimate sense of the place, as “a novel is essentially bound up in the local, the real, the present and the day-to-day experience of life”.

Malgudi, purely an imaginary place that stands for a small South Indian town, becomes the setting for all his novels. In other words the fictional world of Narayan became the world of Malgudi and as such the world of Narayan is essentially the world of Malgudi. When he was asked how the idea of the place and its name struck his mind, he is reported to have replied that it was in September, 1930, that name Malgudi struck his mind as he woke up on the day of Vijayadasami.

It seems once when his uncle asked him why he wrote about some vague place, not found anywhere while there are millions of real places he can write about, Narayan answers why he chose a fictional place like Malgudi. He explains, “An imaginary town like that has great possibilities. You can make anything out of it, whereas if you set your town in a real place you are bound by geography and its existing structure. But in a place like Malgudi, though the heart of the city may be fixed it can expand”.

The above explanation of R. K. Narayan is the most satisfactory one that supplies the sound reason for his decision of choosing one imaginary place of Malgudi as the centre of the actions of his characters. While Hardy in his novels invests the place, whether Egdon Heath or Casterbridge, with symbolic significance, Narayan does not create any such symbolic atmosphere. But in his novels the place becomes a living reality lending credibility to the deeds of the people. In a sense Malgudi is “Narayan’s Casterbridge”. By presenting the socio-cultural milieu and by showing the inter-relatedness as well as interdependence of the place and its people, Narayan gives equal importance to the locale as to the personae. The minute drawing of the topographical details of Malgudi and its vicinity makes the place breathe with life. Though Malgudi is his own creation, he succeeds in capturing “the spirit of the place” and makes it permanent.

It is rather disturbing to note when R. K. Narayan is called a regional novelist. Since all his novels are set in the surroundings of Malgudi, P. P. Mehta says, “The regional novel finds its full expression in R. K. Narayan”. While A. V. Krishna Rao calls Narayan “a regional novelist”, Prof. William Walsh remarks that “Narayan’s Malgudi novels are regional but not parochial”. It is true that the action in his novels centres round Malgudi; though literally it is a small township created by the novelist for his convenience, metaphorically it grows far beyond the chartered dimen­sions where the limits fade leading to the new vistas of a wide world.

To say that he is a regional novelist is to misrepresent his creative activity, mistake the significance of his work and to misread his fiction. In spite of the provincialism and localization of the life of the narrow world of Malgudi, the characters outgrow their limited regional boundaries and their actions get generalizad. That is why Meenakshi Mukherjee rightly says, “R. K. Narayan successfully achieves a universal vision” through his non-metropolitan situations.

Malgudi is created as a self-contained town with a centrally located market, a taluk office, a court, a police station, a jail, an officer’s club and other clubs, two schools – Albert Mission School and Board High School – a town hall, a library, hotels, hospitals, banks, cinema theatres, weaving mills, a railway station, taxis, autos and so on. There are many streets and lanes and roads; while the Market Road is in the heart of the town, the Forest Road leads to the Mempi Forest. The ringing of the gong at the taluk office is heard in Swami and Friends and The vendor of Sweets. It is a town with a Municipal Chairman and a judicial court.

In the Waiting for Mahatma, when the Municipal Chairman organizes the reception and meeting of Gandhi, the District Magistrate attends the meeting. In Swami and Friends, Narayan makes a mention of lawyers and the closures of courts in the midsummer heat of May. In the novel The Dark Room a character Tanamma, the wife of the Public Prosecutor, visits Savitri the adjournment lawyer who is skillful in getting a case prolonged.

In another novel Mr. Sampath, the District Judge inaugurates the film “The Burning of Kama” under the banner of the Sun Rise Pictures. It has got a Public Library and Reading-Room where Madhu, the talka­tive man, often meets Rann, the self-styled Futurologist in The Talkative Man. Albert Mission College is mentioned in The English Teacher where Mr. Krishna works as a lecturer. Many printing presses are there; one of them is run by Nataraja in The Man-Eater of Malgudi, while the other by Sampath in Mr. Sampath. A new press is seen in The Talkative Man. In the Waiting for the Mahatma Sriram is kept in the jail at Malgudi itself.

There are many banks and industries. There is Engladia Banking Corporation in Mr. Sampath with Edward Shilling, a tough man, as its manager. There is a branch of Engladia Insurance Co., for which Ramani is the local manager in The Dark Room. The Central Cooperative Land Mortgage Bank is introduced in the Financial Expert, while in The Waiting for the Mahatma we come across a Fund Office from where Sriram’s grandmother gets regular payment. Mills in and around Malgudi reveal the industrial growth of the town. While Swami and Friends introduces mill managers Mr Hentel and Pelty, The Bachelor of Arts presents two weaving mills and a Mill Road.

The focus of awakening interest in Malgudi is its railway station situated at the southern end of the town. Without this railway station, there cannot be any action in The Guide where Raju, popularly called Railway Raju, acts as the tourist guide for all the visitors who alight there. Only in the capacity of a guide he is introduced to Macro and Rosie and this acquaintance ultimately decides the destinies of all the three. It is at the railway station that the Talkative Man chances to meet the robust lady commandant Sarasa (the wife of Rann) whose imposing as well as pragmatic nature brings out the true nature of the station master and the porter. The growth of Malgudi and the growing popularity of the Mempi Hills lead to the simultaneous growth of the railway station.

Motor-cars, taxis and taxi-drivers can also be found here. In Swami and Friends, Swami goes to the club in the car of his father’s friend. In The Dark Room, Ramani has a car; in The Man-Eater of Malgudi, Vasu owns a jeep. Gaffur the taxi-driver is a popular person who figures in The Guide, The Vendor of Sweets and The Talkative Man. The Talkative Man being a recent novel shows the growing use of cars and auto-rickshaws, and in this novel Dr. Rann is seen always engaging a taxi whenever he wishes to go with Girija, the librarian’s grand­daughter.

In the world of Malgudi there is no dearth of hotels, clubs, studios, theatres, etc. We come across numerous hotels such as The Taj, Anand Bhavan, the Modern Lodge, etc. Macro stays with his wife Rodie till he parts with her in Anand Bhavan. There are clubs and cinema theatres for people who want to have some diversion. Swami’s father is a member of a club, so is Brown the Principal (in the Bachelor of Arts)and they play tennis there. Ramani (of The Dark Room)is also a member of a club and he goes to the Palace Talkies along with his wife Savitri. The fact that English films also are screened can be inferred from the Bachelor of Arts where Chandran goes to a night show in the company of his friend Ramu. Many photo studios such as Star Studio have come up.

Thus the whole township of Malgudi, purely a land of imagination, appears vibrant with life and in fact it becomes a living presence in all his novels, from the earliest novel Swami and Friends to the recent novel Talkative Man. Each novel enlarges the boundaries of the place and opens new vistas of life with gradual modernization and industrialization. Rural folk of simple living, with traditional set-up, gradually undergo a change with the impact of Western influence and the technological advancement. Anderson Lane, Lawley Extension remain as relics of its pre-independent glory, while the re-naming of roads, parks and colonies after national leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru marks the significant change that comes after independence. There is gradual development in the transport facilities. Mempi Bus Transport Corporation comes into existence on account of which journey to Mempi Hills becomes very easy.

Malgudi never loses its pristine glory in the midst of this enormous growth. The river Sarayu, with its legendary origin from the arrow of Sri Rama, flows to the north of the town and it is only ten minutes walk from Ellaman Street. (At a short distance from the river) A short walk after crossing the river where it is considerably shallow leads to the enchanting greenery of Nallappa’s mango groves where Mr. Sampath with the help of Hollywood director starts the initial shooting of his film under the banner of the Sun Rise Pictures. The same road leads to Mempi Forest and thence to Mempi Hills which supply all the timber and wood needed for the construction of houses.

In the world of Malgudi, one can witness the conflict between traditional and modernity which is best illustrated in his novel The Bachelor of Arts which shows that while Malgudi begins to reveal the signs of awakening to the Western ideas and modern civilization it lingers long in accepting it and tries to cherish its own traditional values and practices. The tradition-bound world of Malgudi is not a fertile ground for the fulfilment of love-marriages; obviously it becomes a futile attempt for Chandran to marry Malathi, the girl of his choice. Tradition believes in arranged marriages, and love marriages are a matter of horror to the people of older generation.

Chandran appears to be a bit of a modernist in the company of his friends who often go to night shows and use cigarettes. But his mother is religious, austere and orthodox in her conduct. While her fingers turn the beads, her lips utter the holy name of Sri Rama, part of her mind is filled with the thoughts of her domestic sphere as her eyes look at the beauty of coconut trees. Chandran’s argument fails to convince her, because until she is alive she would insist on respecting the old custom. As a result Chandran does not succeed in marrying Malathi and in a mood of disappointment he becomes a Sanyasi. In the end he realizes that his renunciation is not at acceptance of ascetic values but a mere rejection of tradition; he wakes up to the reality and tries to make peace with the society by yielding to a conventional marriage, thus resulting in the affirmation of traditional values.

The economic development of Malgudi gradually leads to the ignoring of traditional customs and acceptance of modern outlook. The change to modernity can be first witnessed in The Dark Room, where Malgudi, as early as in 1935, suddenly comes into line with the modern age by building a well-equipped theatre, Palace Talkies. Ramani hints at the progress the town has achieved. As the Branch Manager of the Engladia Insurance Company, he feels proud of getting the lakhs of business. A similar change is discernible in the attitude of the women. They feel happy to see themselves liberated from the chains of tradition and get economic freedom for which the supportive evidence can be got from Shanta Bai who says, “I love unconventional things. Otherwise I should not be here, but nursing children and cooking for a husband”.

Savitri wants her daughters to become graduates so that they can have economic independence and they need not depend on mar­riage for their needs. Being a traditional housewife Savitri suffers on account of the conflict between the old and the new values. She tries to bid goodbye to her domestic sphere. Her going away from her husband results only in her coming to him in the end. Mr. Sampath gives an elaborate picture of the fast -changing situation of Malgudi. “Overnight as it were Malgudi passed from a semi-agricultural town to semi-industrial town, with a sudden flux of population of all sorts.” The Municipal Chairman frequently speaks of a grand “Malgudi Extension Scheme”. And hopes of developing it into a garden city. The District Board President has been invited to the programme of opening a bridge across the Sarayu, five miles from the heart of Malgudi. The Vendor of Sweets reveals that plans for a hydro-electric project were afoot somewhere on the Mempi Hills.

In spite of this amazing development in the fabric of life of Malgudi, the basic texture of the life of the middle-class people remains by and large unaffected. In Mr. Sampath Srinivas’s wife remains the same old traditional Hindu housewife and doesn’t want to go alone in the town. Ravi’s mother cannot shake herself off the superstitious ideas and continues to think that her son is possessed by some evil spirit. Her native ignorance reaches the climax where she brings a magician to perform some occult exercise to drive away the evil spirit.

            The English Teacher whenSusila, Krishnan’s wife, falls ill, his mother feels that it is caused by the influence of the evil eye and calls for a Swamiji who utters some Mantras, takes a pinch of sacred ash, rubs it on her forehead and ties a talisman to her arm. The society is not free from inhibitions with regard to girls that belong to the traditional families having dancing as their profession.

A close observation of the vivid spectrum of the life of Malgudi presents the life of the Indians in general and reflects the life of a larger world, the Indian sub-continent. The little world of Malgudi with its socio-political changes and economic as well as industrial development stands for the wider world of India and the fast-changing nature of her character in all the walks of life ever since she became independent. The East-West confrontation or the conflict between tradition and modernity, presented intensely in the later novels such as Mr. Sampath, Waiting for the Mahatma, is not only a feature of Malgudi but it is a strong aspect of the life of the growing and rising country such as India.

The greatness of R. K. Narayan lies in making the life of Malgudi a realistic experience and enlarging the limited sphere of Malgudi to global limits. Thus one can find the tradition-oriented Indian world, symbolically presented in the miniature world of Malgudi, trying to achieve multifarious progress in all the fields of life and thereby awakening to modernity.

REFERENCES

1. “Indian Writing in English” (New Delhi: Sterling, 1985), p.360.
2. Eldora Welty, ‘Place in Fiction’, Critical Approaches to Fiction, ed. by Shiv K. Kumar & Keith McKean (New York: McGraw-Hili, 1968), p.254.
3. Susan E. Croft, ‘Interview with R.K. Narayan’, R.K.Narayan: A Critical Spectrum (Meerut: Shalabh 1983), p.30.
4. K.R.S. Iyengar, “Indian Writing in English,” p.360.
5. M.K.Naik, ‘The Spirit of the Place’, Literary Endeavour, Vol. III, Nos. 3&4 Jan-June 1982, p.7.
6. P.P. Mehta, Indo-Anglian Fiction: An Assessment (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1983), p.199.
7. The Indo-Anglian Novel in the Changing Tradition (Mysore: Rao & Raghavan, 1972), p.136.
8. W. Walsh, R. K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation (1983), p.7.
9. “The Twice Born Fiction” (New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann 1971), p. 25.