R. K. NARAYAN’S THE MAN-EATER OF MALGUDI AND INDIAN MODERNITY
R. K. NARAYAN’S THE MAN-EATER OF MALGUDI AND INDIAN MODERNITY

Summary/Abstract: The work of R. K. Narayan, which encompasses the period of almost sixty years, is an outstanding example of how the crisis of Indian values and judgement due to the impact of modernity is grasped and progressively developed in Indian writing in English. In his novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961) Narayan’s perception of the crisis can be conveniently traced from the perspective of Indian tradition, that is, the same tradition the values of which are concerned. First of all, Narayan’s portrayal of the crisis is of a markedly dual character bearing a seal of one of the main concepts of Hinduism. The conflict of two antagonistic forces is represented by Vasu and Nataraj, the novel’s main figures. Vasu, in fact a bearer of purely capitalist values, is portrayed in inhuman terms; he seems to attack the very basis and ravish every aspect of the traditional Indian value system which is, on its practical level, represented as viewed by Nataraj. The philosophical-religious aspect of Hinduism stands out when Vasu’s intention to kill a sacred elephant for material benefit is revealed and Vasu’s existence is metaphorically presented as one of a ‘rakshasa’ (a kind of demoniac creature in Hindu cosmology). The closure of the novel reveals another aspect: the antagonistic forces are also cooperative and as Vasu’s presence cannot be undone it leaves its imprints upon Nataraj. Foreign influence becomes absorbed, as has always been the case in the past, into the complex and flexible socio-religious system which is Hinduism and everything happens according to its cosmological pattern.

• Details
• Contents