RK Narayan

• Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (10 October
1906– 13 May 2001). Born in Madras Presidency British

India.
• He was a leading author of early Indian literature in
English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
• He began his writing career in 1935 with “Swami and
Friends.”
• Narayan’s mentor and friend Graham Greene was
instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four
books including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami
and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.
• He has been compared to William Faulkner who created a
similar fictional town and likewise explored with humour
and compassion the energy of ordinary life.
• William Walsh compares Narayan with Katherine
Mansfield in whose case:
“ The personal part, the known place, the home, the
physical context and chores of the household, family
relationships, and in particular the friction and
harmony of young and old , these are the points
through which the line of her art goes. And much the
same might be said of Narayan.”
• Swami and Friends (1935)
• The Bachelor of Arts (1937)
• The Dark Room (1938)
• The English Teacher (1945)
• The Financial Expert (1952)
• Waiting for Mahatma (1955)
• The Guide (1958)
• The Man-eater of Malgudi (1961)
• The vendor of Sweets (1967)
• Talkative Man (1986)
• The world of Nagaraj (1990)
• Grandmother’s Tale (1994)
• Simple, straightforward narration characterised by an
unabashed, authentic Indian flavour.
• A subtle sarcasm highlights the idiosyncrasies of
everyday Indian life.
• His pen converses with the paper in words filled with
individuality, humour, candour and idealism.
 Published : 1935
 Swami and Friends is the first of a series of
novels written by RK Narayan.

 The second and third books in the trilogy
are The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.

 The novel is set in British India in a fictional town
called Malgudi.
 The novel follows a ten-year-old schoolboy,
Swaminathan, and his attempts to court the favour of a
much wealthier schoolboy, Rajam.
• Swami and Friends registers all the small confusions of
a child reaching the end of an idyllic childhood and
facing the difficulties of adulthood.
• The new urban India with its missionary schools and
government bungalows that intimidate Swami, is the
very same one in which Narayan was expected to find
his place. This original mix of “sadness and beauty”
was that compelled Graham Greene to get the novel
published.
• Colonial domination is one of the major themes of the
novel where Dr. Ebenezer defames the native Hindu
Gods as lifeless and dirty objects and uplifts their God.
• The other themes are the themes of disobedience,
conflict, control, power authority , rebellion and
Independence.
• Published : 1937
• 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 Bachelor of Arts depicts an idealistic college
student who attacks the bourgeois order but eventually
reconciles himself to an obedient, lawful existence.
• The Bachelor of Arts has youthful vigour. The conflict
of an emerging young population with age-old
traditions and conceptions is a very humble question
directed towards a brand-new India in making.
• Narayan has utmost sympathy towards the Indian
youth which is time and again brutalised by the
harshness of elderly snootiness. This phenomenon
even forces the novel’s protagonist – Chandran, to
abandon all worldliness and embrace the life of an
ascetic.
• This theme of abandonment and reconciliation is
deeper than first impressions. It is an indirect attack on
colonialism which, with its half-baked modernity, has
deracinated many an Indian.
 It is the last novel of his trilogy.
 The story is a series of experiences in the life of
Krishna, an English teacher, and his quest for
inner peace and self-development after the
traumatising death of his wife.
• In The English Teacher, the bliss of domestic life is
celebrated not by blaring shehnais and loud Dholkas,
but by detailing the little squabbles, the reading of
poetry, the love for the first child, the search of new
house.
 This is the most autobiographical of all Narayan’s
novels, whose own mundane life was transformed for
the better by the arrival of his wife.
 The common themes of this novel are theme of love,
existentialism and education.
(RK Narayan with his wife Rajam Narayan)

 Published : 1955
 Waiting for the Mahatma is perhaps the work
that deviates the most from his previous ones.
Narayan uses as background the Indian freedom
movement that sense of time and idea of who you are-
so necessary to the writing of realist fiction.
 A sense of ambivalence towards the freedom struggle
of India is always present, though never expressed. In
fact Gandhi alone emerges as the active self-aware
Indian in the novel struggling and failing to awaken an
intellectually and spiritually dormant colonial society.
 This novel revolves around the exploits of a boy named
Shriram who plunges into the national movement as a
Gandhi follower because he is love with a woman
named Bharati ( a clear personification) as he becomes
disillusioned later to go astray and pick up arms.
 The commom themes of this novel are the theme of
love, independence and ideals of Gandhi , i.e., non-
violence, truth and renunciation.
 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.
 The daily life of the Indians, the ethnicity of the land and
indeed the superstitions and value of India gains a contour
in the remarkable novel the Guide.
 The central theme of the novel is transformation of Raju
from his role as a tour guide to that of a spiritual guide.
 Feminism, karma, materialism, past and present are the
other themes of the no vel
 The film Guide was released in 1965, based on the novel. It
starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rahman in the lead role.
The film’ score was composed by SD Burman.
 The book was also adopted to a Broadway play by Harvey
Breit and Patricia Rinehart,and was satged at Hudson
theatre in 1968 with Zia Mohyeddin playing the lead role
and Ravi Shankar scoring the music.
 In a career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received
many awards and honours for his works.
 Sahitya Akademi Award for The Guide in 1958.
 Padma Bhusan in 1964.
 Filmfare Award for the best story for The Guide in 1966.
 AC Benson Medal by the Royal Society of literature in 1980.
 Elected an honorary member of the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and letters in 1982.
 Nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1989.
 Besides, also conferred honorary Doctorates by the University
of Mysore, Delhi University and the University of Leeds.
Rasipuram Krishnaswami
Narayanaswami Iyer, died on
May 13th, 2001. leaving behind a
rich series of books, which
cliché’d as it sounds, still makes
him and his imagination alive.
 RK Narayan, the doyen of Indian English Novelists is
one of the most admired writers in English today.
 In nearly half-a-century of creative writing, he has
undoubtedly built up edifice of fiction which will
endure the worst ravages of ephemeral trends and
flashy vogues in literature.

RK Narayan

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RK Narayan

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• Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (10 October

1906– 13 May 2001). Born in Madras Presidency British

novels written by RK Narayan.

are The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.

(RK Narayan with his wife Rajam Narayan)

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