Representation of Gandhian Consciousness in Indian English Fiction with Special Reference to Select Novels of R. K. Narayan

Abstract

The paper seeks to examine the representation of the Gandhian Ideals and principles and how Gandhi has been presented as an icon in select novels of R.K. Narayan (1906- 2001). For the purpose of this paper I have decided to incorporate three novels namely The English Teacher (1945), The Guide (1958) and The Vendor of Sweets (1967). The novelists particularly of the 1930s and 1940s owed their inspiration and the conditions of their emergence to two contexts- the social and political upheavals of the „Gandhian whirlwind‟ and the era of the late modernism in Europe. The novels laid in the nineteen-thirties and ‟forties invariably touch upon the national movement for political independence. R. K. Narayan delineates a critique of Gandhian principles in his novel The Vendor of Sweets where Mali, the son of a Gandhian sweet vendor, travels to America to pursue a course in creative writing, demonstrating the East-West encounter theme operating as the conflict between pre-industrial modes of life and mechanizations. In the novel The English Teacher Narayan presents the Gandhian views on education through the portrayal of the protagonist Krishna. Gandhi in his essay on „Satyagraha‟ opines that renunciation of selfish motives, passion and emotional bondage which according to the latter has been an Indian ideal of life. In his book Hind Swaraj, Gandhi presented a critique of modern civilization. In the novel The Guide Narayan narrates the journey of Raju from a tourist guide to become a saint. The paper further intends to explore how Gandhian ideas on „Satyagraha‟ and his views on modern civilization (Hind Swaraj), condition of women and colonial education system that form the crux of these novels. The protagonists of these novels were rooted and flourished in the Indian ethics and Indian philosophy. Gandhi is a „recurring presence‟ in these novels but he has been treated variously as “an idea, a symbol, a tangible reality, and a benevolent human being”.