Indianness in R.K. Narayan’s novel “The guide”

Indianness and Narayan‟s writings are almost synonymous. In fact, India with its landscape, culture, conventions and customs becomes picturesque in his writings including The Guide. Again to a large extent, the country India is an ideal representative of the sub-continent India. But universality in The Guide (1958) cannot be ignored because the country India and India as a sub-continent undoubtedly symbolize many features of the world. This paper attempts at examining Narayan‟s creation of characters who represent both sub-continental and universal elements. The Guide reveals the Indian way of life and also the culture and tradition of India. R.K. Narayan has used typical Indian characters and Indian atmosphere to portray Indian culture. The main characters of this novel are Raju, Rosie and Marco. R.K. Narayan has given a true social picture of India through „The Guide‟. The traits of Indian manners and customs are also reflected in this novel. Hospitality of Indians is a well known trait all over the world. Narayan has given a clear picture of India at the time of narration without idealizing the country and he has not also condemned it. The poverty of India has been reflected with a personal touch of the author. The villagers are shown as suffering from poverty and ignorance and their illiteracy has been reflected as the root cause for all their sufferings. There are as gullible and kind hearted as any Indian village habitats. This paper aims at annotating the concept of Indianness in the novel The Guide by R.K. Narayan. The task has been taken to analyse the Indian characters and Indian atmosphere as presented by Narayan in this novel to exemplify the culture and tradition of India.