There are many novelists in Indian English writing,
but a few of them have taken very seriously the art of writing in terms of
their talent we can think of Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. They remained stuck
to the course of creative writing. It was not a by product for them. before
independence and after it, there came other novelists who took the form on
their should and carried to a higher level. There we shave have to remember
Manohar Malgonkar and Kamala Markandeya.
(1)
Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004):-
He
was born in Peshawar, studied in Amritsar. He also went to England and attended
Cambridge. He got PhD in 1929. He lectured in Geneva at the league of Nation’s
School of Intellectual Co-Operation.
His
caste system made him to write. His career begun with a suicide of an aunt. She
had taken meal with Muslim and was ex-communicated. He then wrote many novels.
His first novel ‘Untouchable’ was published in 1935 and got success
immediately. It was a chilling expose of the day to day life of India’s
untouchable caste. It is the story of a single day in the life of Bakha, a
toilet cleaner, who accidentally bumps into a member of higher caste. He wants
to find a slave who can work. He talks to Christian missionary and followers of
Mahatma Gandhi but in vain. Newly introduced flush system toilet gives him
hope. He believes it would liberate him from age old work. He also hopes that it
would also eliminate the particular caste to do it. The simple book caught
plenty Punjabi and Hindi idioms. Anand was called Charles Dickens of India.
E.M. Forster, who was his friend, appreciated the book saying it touches the
heart directly.
‘Coolie’
was second novel published in 1936. he continuous to descrivbe the plight of
India’s poor. Coolie is a story of a 15 year boy trapped in the servitude as a
child labor. The boy develops T.B. dies.
‘Two Leaves and a Bud’ describes an exploited pleasant, who is killed while
trying to protect his daughter from being raped by a British Colonial official.
Anand
passed most of his time in London. He was drawn to the Indian independence
movement. He also supported such movement else where. While working with B.B.C.
he met George Orwell during Second World War. He returned to India in 1946 and
continued to pour novels. He contributed poetry, essay and autobiography.
Before this he published other novels: ‘The Village’ (1939), ‘Across the Black
Water’ (1940), The Sword and the Sickle’ (1942) these had been written in
England. Boyhood, youth and early manhood are the themes of this trilogy. It is
a long story of ‘Lalu Singh’ covering some years before the First World War to
Gandhian Age. The issue of coppersmiths-laborers and capitalists is discussed
in the next work ‘The Big Heart (1945). It is autographical in nature. Later
novels are: ‘The old woman and the cow’ (1960) and ‘The road (1961).
He
started writing autobiography, which he intended to write in seven parts.
‘seven Summers’ was the first. Another part ‘Morning Face’ (1968). Won him
National Academy Award.
Vitality and a kin sense of actuality are notable
marks of Anand. He is content to let his characters live and speak and act, so
psychological or ideological aspects are missing. But he is a ‘committed’
writer.
(2)
R.K. Narayan (1906-2001):-
He
was in Mysore. Till teenage he lived with one of his uncles. He grew up as a
Tamil speaking boy, learnt English at the school and learnt Kannada. With
efforts he became a graduate.
Most
of Narayan’s work, started from novel ‘Swami and Friends’ (1935) is set in the
fictional town of Malgudi which were published in ‘The Hindu’. ‘Swami and
Friends’ was based on his experience as a village school teacher. Like the
later fiction ‘The English Teacher’ (1945) and ‘The Vendor of Sweets’ (1967) it
a gently humorous, elegantly crafted picture of daily life in a fictional Southern
Indian town. In ‘Bachelor of Arts’, the hero, with great efforts passes B.A.
and in frustration hopes to become Sadhu. Then he marries, after a short job
and manages to be a teacher. Then follows pain and pleasure with a happy end.
‘The English teacher’ is the song of love in marriage. There, we find plenty of
things like tragedy and fantasy and then anticlimax.
Waiting
for Mahatma’ has political background. The theme is the Bharti-Sriram romance
but Gandhi’s influence is very much seen. In the last group Narayan gives ‘Mr.
Sampath’, The Financial Expert’, ‘The Sweet-Vendor’ and ‘A Tiger For Malgudi’:
there is a different exotic world of half headed or hearted and ‘Sayasis’. All
of them don’t belong to Malgudi, some of them have been imported.
‘The
Guide’ won Sahitya Academy Prize in 1960. Principal character Raju is a
rascal-a Sadhu involved in romantic adventures. Technical advancement is
noticed here. The zigzag narration doesn’t confuse the reader. ‘The sweet of
Vendor’ (1967) is the story of Jagan who starts living with half American and
half Korean girl. This creates many ripples in peaceful Malgudi. The conflict between
good and evil is seen but it is sharply found in ‘The man-eater of Malagure’.
Narayan’s
Malgudi is smaller in comparison to Hardy’s Wessex but what Narayan does within
that compass is magnificent. He has taste and ease. Like Anand he doesn’t exploit
sex. There’s seldom politics. Narayan is the master of comedy but also has good
command over tragic human situations. Neither bitter criticism nor staunch tradition defender, Narayan is. Over all, he
is having little ironies satiric circumstance, tragic-comedies of mischance.
Smiles and tears are found together. Disturbance is created then normalcy
returns. it finds balance in the world.
‘A
Horse and Two Goats’ (1970), ‘Malgudi Days’ (1982) and ‘Grandmother’s Tale’
(1994) are short story collections. They have simple yet insightful character
portrayals and often reveal subtle ironies. He also worked in reviving the
great Indian epics. ‘The Ramayana’ and ‘The Mahabharata’.
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