Tradition and Modernity in R.K. Narayan’s The Guide

Abstract

Of all Indian-English novelists of our day, R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) occupies a distinctive place by virtue of his wide range of subjects, impressive narrative technique, sparkling wit and humour and imaginative richness. R. K. Narayan might have created an imaginary world of his own, which is known as the Malgudi world, but his keen observation of men and women and their manners cannot be gainsaid. R. K Narayan is one of the leading writers of early Indian English novels. He was one of the ‘Big Three’ in Indian-English fiction, quoted by famous critic William Walsh. He was bracketed with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. R.K. Narayan has established himself as a writer of social incongruities. Like most Indian writers, Narayan’ writing too resolves around the houses of the Indian family and society. Narayan’ novels are tales of the common Indian individual located in and around Malgudi. Narayan’s Malgudi is famous because of its representative nature. Malgudi is fictional but smells, tastes and sounds like any common Indian town of 1940s-70s. The Guide is Narayan’s award winning Text. Narayan achieved the 1960 Sahitya Academy Award for the novel. The novel portrays the stories of individuals caught between a society rooted deep in traditional values, superstitions and believes and the newly developing ideas influenced by the arrival of western modernity. The conflict between the older and the new values, ideals and believe is very prominent in the novel’s narration. In The Guide, Raju can be considered as the average Indian in contact with the new modern concepts of life and survival.