I.

Introduction

Life and Works of R.K. Narayan

Rasikpuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Narayanaswamy was born in his

grandmother's house in Madras on 10th October 1906. He shortened his name as R.

K. Narayan at the time of publication of his wide famous novel, Swami and Friend in

1935. His grandmother taught him Sanskrit verses and told him stories from Indian

Epics. He got love, affection as well as discipline from his grandmother. During his

early teenage years, Narayan moved to Mysore where his father had become the

headmaster of a prestigious high school. Mysore was very different from Madras with

such natural and man made beauty and Narayan rambled around a good deal and tried

writing poetry, which was much appreciated by his friends.

He learnt Hindu myths and epics from his grandmother which become the

inspiring materials for his writing career later. He spent his early years with his

grandmother and uncle. Later, he joined his parents, brothers and sisters in the family

home in Mysore. According to his memories, he was never particularly enthusiastic

about academic work. Narayan had his education entirely in south India. He attended

Lutheran Missionary School and Christian college and in 1930 received his B.A. from

Maharaja's college. He devoted himself to write in Modern India Literature. His

mother tongue was Tamil. He settled down in Mysore where the regional language

was Kannada. But he has written novels and short stories purely in English. Due to

his writing in English, he became famous in the literary field.

Narayan married Rajam in 1935 and the marriage turned out to be a happy

one. Rajam did not know English but she was very much interested in the work of her

husband. She always remained as a source of inspiration for him. Narayan has

reflected Ramaj's character and personality in many of his women characters. But
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unfortunately Narayan's happiness could not last long as Rajam died due to typhoid in

1939, leaving a young daughter, Hema. Her death was a shattering experience for

Narayan and taught him to the reality of life. We find a sort of autobiographical tone

in some of his works especially in The English Teacher.

Narayan was born in a middle class Hindu family in the southern part of India

and was brought up in a traditional Indian society. He was from a middle class

family. The day to day life of ordinary middle class people has influenced his literary

life. Not only this much, in his father's school literary, Narayan read a number of

British and American magazines and novels which made him very strong in the

western culture. On the other hand he was taught Hind culture by his Indian society in

general and parents and grandparents in particular. So we find mixture of these two

cultures in his writing that is explicit in The Dark Room, too.

After his Bachelor's degree, Narayan had spent a short time in teaching. Later,

he became a reporter of The Madras Journal for a short time. In this field, he could

not make money for his life. But he got chance to met with a wide variety of people,

many of whom provided him the characters for his novels.

Even if Narayan began his literary career with short stories which used to

appear in news papers, he has made a significant contribution to the development of

the Indo-Anglian novel. Professor Walsh holds the views, "If Anand is the novelist as

reformer, Raj Rao is the novelist as a metaphysical poet. Narayan is simply the

novelist as novelists"(1). He has published fourteen novels, more than two hundred

stories. His novel writing began with Swami and Friends (1935). This novel has

created Narayan's fictional world which is widely famous and repeated in his every

type of writing.
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After his first novel, Swami and Friends, he moved ahead with The Bachelor

of Arts (1937), and The Dark Room (1938). Then, the world war II disturbed him

from writing novels but the end of the war become the fertile land for his novel

writing with The English Teacher (1945), which was followed by Mr. Sampath

(1949), The Financial Expert (1952), and Waiting for Mahatma (1955), The Guide

(1958), The Man Eater of Malgudi (1962), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter

of Signs (1976), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), Talkative Man (1986), and The World of

Nagraj (1990) etc. are his major fictional works.

Apart from novels, R.N. Narayan has great contribution in short stories,

memoirs, essays and travelogues. A Horse and two Goats (1970), Malgudi Days

(1982), An Astrologer’s Day, Grandmother’s Tale and Under the Banyan Tree etc.

are the collections of his famous short stories. Similarly, My Dateless Diary and The

Emerald's Journey are his travel books. His collections of essays are: Next Sunday,

Reluctant Guru, A Writer’s Nightmare, A Story tellers World and Salt Sawdust. Also,

he revived the classic Indian epic like the Ramayana (1972) and the Mahabharata

(1978) condensing the length of the works and setting in modern surroundings.

His Style of Writing

R.K Narayan portrays social realism in his writing but not photographic

reality; he rather represents reality, which is artistic. In this sense, he differs from the

French realists and naturalists who were interested in the naked realism of life.

According to Bhatnagar, “Narayan depicts a kind of realism which is something more

than reportage"(24). Similarly another critic, William Walsh observes “… the

religious sense of Indian myth is part of Narayan’s grip of reality"(98).

Narayan blends his theme and style. He uses simple diction that mirrors the

daily life of the middle class people of Malgudi. The Malgudi of his novels in Indian
 4

is microcosm. Like Hardy’s Wessex, Malgudi is a recurrent local of his novels. It is

the symbol of Indian reality. What happens in Malgudi, is in fact what happens to the

Indians in general. His novels are set in the imaginary town, Malgudi which reflects

the typical Indian way of living that is colored with the touch of modernity in almost

all of his novels.

N.N. Sharan puts forth his view regarding the style and technique of novel

The Man-Eater of Malgudi, like “Here we meet a different Narayan who not only

asks fundamental questions about good and evil but also furnish his own answer to

them. While doing so, he bases his narrative technique on an ancient Hindu

myth"(228). In this way, Sharan regards the novel perfectly based on Hindu myth of

Bhasmasura. Even if he studied western culture, he deeply attached with his Hindu

religion and tradition which are clearly visualized in his writings.

Likewise, Shashi Tharoor expresses his view similar to Sharan. He says,

“Narayan follows the familiar pattern of take from the Puranas where a demon gets

too powerful, threatens the heaven with his elemental forces but finally goes up in the

air like a bubble in the sea leaving the universes as calm as before”. (380)

Narayan basically focuses on religious themes like renunciation, incarnation;

re-birth ahimsa and the law of Karma, female issue, marriage and so on. Irony, humor

and myth are also some components for picturing the ageless rich heritage of Indian

culture and tradition. He has projected his world of values juxtaposing tradition and

modernity in its different aspects. In that respect, he also mixes certain spiritual and

secular ideas with which Indians are normally familiar. William Walsh observes,

“The religious sense of Indian myth is part of Narayan’s grip of reality and his

particular view of human life and his individual way of placing and ordering human

experience”. (14)
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He handles English language successfully. His English language is simple and

clear. For Narayan English is an absolutely ‘Swedeshi language.’ He uses ‘Bharat

brand of English which should reflect the prevailing Indian conditions. Due to the

future of humor and irony, his technique becomes impressive. Mukherjee says:

His ironic dimension is an integral part of his comic vision. He

explores the tremendous possibilities of the comic in the common

place world of Malgudi. He is essentially a comic ironist who has

taken a keen interest in Indian life in and around Malgudi. His

humorous portrayal of outer and inner conflicts of man with touches of

pathos and irony demonstrates his insight into the human reality. (5)

Furthermore Hariprasanna comments on Narayan’s techniques and styles as,

“He is an enchanter, it is beautiful written, funny and haunting evoking in

marvelously rich detail the atmosphere of a small town in southern Indian and

creating a magical world into which the reader is instantly drawn"(188). He praises

Narayan’s craftsmanship and finds him as an enchanter who meticulously observes

the atmosphere of small town in southern India Malgudi with very funny and

haunting story.

Narayan basically focuses upon Hindu myth in his writings that is blended

with some of the modern characteristics in most all of his novels and short stories. He

exploits some traditional characters and some others have modern influence. Due to

the two modes of life, there are conflicts in the novels. The Dark Room can be taken

as epitome of such mingles. Savitri, the protagonist of the novel, is a symbol of

traditional Indian womanhood. She is deeply devoted to Ramani, her husband. She

takes her husband as God, but on the other hand her husband, Ramani wants to be

free from traditional religious life style. He rarely pays his attention to his wife and
 6

children. Similar quality can be seen in his next novel The English Teacher. In the

novel, Susila is living a traditional life, but her husband Krishna is influenced with

western way of life.

Review of Literature

Many critics have thrown light in their own manner on R.K. Narayan in

general and The Dark Room in particular. One of the critics Graham Greene observes

a strange mixture of humor, sadness and beauty in his novel. Greene comments to

Narayan as, "complete objectivity, complete freedom from comments”. (52)

Narayan is a conscious literary artist whose novelistic form is beautifully

determined by the dramatic need and nature of his materials. Prof. K.R.S. Iyenger

rightly remarks, “He is one of the few writers in India who seek their craft seriously,

constantly striving to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense of dedication

what may often seem to be the mirage of technical perfection". (32)

Narayan has enjoyed international fame for his literary contribution. He is

greatly admired by different writers. Graham Greene regards Narayan as, “Since the

death of Evelyn Waugh, Narayan is the novelist I most admire in the English

language"(22). Not only this much, he has received many popular awards in his life.

His eminent awards are: National Prize of Indian Literary academy, Sahitya Academy

Award, Padma Bhushal National Association of Independent School Award etc.

Narayan was a man with sharp and minute observation. His observation has

been reflected in his description of character and milieu. He was a very simple and

gentle. He is religious by nature. He has given vivid ideas of south Indian life style in

most of his novels. His presentation of life is realistic. As William Walsh observes, ".

. . the religious sense of Indian myth is part of Narayan's grip of reality and his
 7

particular view of human life and his individual way of placing and ordering human

existence". (14)

In most of his novels through the use of imaginary town Malgudi, he attempts

to represent patriarchal society that could not really accept female as an Agent in

India. Narayan’s novel The Dark Room epitomizes the patriarchal mechanism of the

Indian Society. According to S. Krishna, “Narayan’s third novel, The Dark Room is

the story of a woman, who is neglected by her husband, decides unsuccessfully to run

away from home”. (xi)

Some other critics are very much interested with R.K Narayan’s imaginary

town, Malgudi where most of his novels are set. It remains a dream country in which

physical features of various places are fused in a single detain. Nagendra Nath Sharan

understands it as:

The physical geography of Malgudi is never dealt with as a set piece

but allows revealing itself beneath and between the events; one comes

to have a strong feeling for the place’s identity. The detail suggests

surely and economically, the special flavor of Malgudi, a blend of

oriented and pre-1914 British, like an Edwardian mixture of sweet

mangoes and malt vinegar. (68)

Sharan further stressed the universal quality of Malgudi, “Whatever happens

in India happens in Malgudi and whatever happens in Malgudi happened

everywhere”. (24) Narayan is compared with Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner

who also created imaginative setting like “Wessex"and

“Yoknapatawpha"respectively. Narayan has beautifully created his imaginary town of

Malgudi in which the action of his novels takes place. S.Krishna says:
 8

One of the important characters of the novel is that it gives its

personages, a local habitation and a name. Narayan follows the line of

Hardly and achieves his localization. Faulkner is another brilliant

name in America who has an excellent mastery of place in fiction. So,

is the case with Narayan in India. Faulkner’s fictional place is

Yoknapatawpa; Narayan’s fictional setting is Malgudi (27).

Narayan’s novels are flexible enough to be used in a variety of ways. His

fictional work ranges from tragedy to tragic-comedies to pure comedy. His fictions

explore idea, and ideologies, that is simply a mirror of life drifting into fantasy and

presents a slice of life or to some extent romantic image. Narayan’s fictions are

domestic comedies rather than tragedies. According to Sisir Kumar Das, “Narayan’s

fictional world is world of comedy that springs form community with markedly

traditional mores standards of behaviors and beliefs”. (71)

Narayan is primarily an artist with comic version. He has delighted his

countless readers with simple language and ironic comment. Shashi Tharoor, an

Indian critic, praises Narayan’s craftsmanship in this way, “R.K. Narayan is a master

of story teller whose language is simple and unpretentious, whose wit is critical yet

healing, and whose characters are drawn with sharp precision and subtle irony"(24).

Before reading Narayan’s third novel The Dark Room, some critics find it an

insignificant novel. One of such critics is A.N. Kaul who observes it, “The point is

that, like Mahatma, The Dark Room happens to be a weak and insignificant novel,

and it is obvious that Ibsenism or the feminist idea can inspire. Narayan’s imagination

as little as the political idea of Gandhism.”( Sharan 73). But this novel can not be read

only from the perspective of Ibsenism or femistic view. We can study this book using

the glass of modernity.

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R. K. Narayan is the foremost indo-English Novelist of today. He is

essentially ironic in his vision of life. His stories and novels as Bhatnagar believes,

"reflect his awareness about the fundamental disharmonies and absurdities which life

and world are constantly providing us. He accepts the reality of life ungrudgingly

taking things as they come to him"(99). Nowhere has he seemed to be writing with an

idea in his mind to rectify the situation or the word. In fact this type of realization and

attitude helped his form a balanced view of life and situations. He wrote nearly for

fifty years. Actually, it is the proper use of the eye, the mind and the heart behind all

his writings which reflect the excellence of his craftsmanship throughout.

Therefore, the earlier researchers haven’t talked about the novel from the

perspective of the modernity that enables the researcher to work on the field.

Story Synopsis

The story of the novel, The Dark Room by R.K. Narayan, mainly revolves

around the main characters Ramani, a modernist, and Savitri, a traditional Hindu

woman. Ramani thinks of himself as a man full of everything. Ramani does not want

to bear responsibility in a family, whereas Savitri intends to bear it. Savitri looks after

not only her husband and children, but also whole household activities, which will

turn into a mess without her presence. Everywhere she presents herself as Sharan

comments, "obedient, loyal, responsible"(5) and hence a traditional Hindu woman.

Here is the emergence of marital discord because of the couple’s divergent beliefs.

Ramani, a senior officer with the Engladia Insurance Company, keeps himself

observed in his work all day and night. He does not let the space for emotions and

feelings. Whenever his children see him, "they’re scared of him"(67) as Narayan

comments but the kids have proximity with the mother, for she pays adequate

attention to them. Modernity does not allow the emotions and feelings to be bloomed
 10

but always focuses on profits, benefits and reason that are represented by Ramani

whereas Savitri, a traditional Hindu woman cultivates emotional qualities like love,

affection, devotion, etc. in her.

Ramani is a stubborn fellow, he does not tolerate any advice from anyone

when he passes his matriculation, his father advises him to continue his further study,

but Ramani comes out a bitter reply, “I know better what I must do"(116). He often

feels that his wife has no right to object to his friendship with Shanta Bai. He

frequently comes home with his friends without notifying his wife that brings

difficulty in Savitri to serve the guests properly. But Ramani is oblivion towards

Savitri’s plight. Here Narayan comments on Ramani’s “He just picked up a friend at

the club and brought him home for dinner. It made him furious if it was suggested

that he should give notice: we are not so down –and-out yet as not to afford some

extra food without having to issue warnings before hand"(10). He seems very much

hypocritical in the sense that he does not want his guests be known about the lack of

foods in his house. He does not concern himself with his family nor does he want

them to know anything concerning his office. He does not try to listen to the advice of

his wife, he is unaware of his children’s health, education etc., he even neglects the

betterment of his office. He recommends appointing not an efficient employee for the

office, but the docile person who can be easily exploited. Here we can see

individualism in him because everywhere he performs his task in his own decision.

Ramani wants to go cinema with his wife but wants to leave to children

behind. He says, “The children can go some other day. Not a fly extra now"(20). But

Savitri wants to go with them. When Savitri listens to her husband’s desire to go

leaving children at home she says “Oh"(20) unhappily. She knows it will be useless to

plead. Ramani only focuses on the individual desire. He wants to be isolated even
 11

from his children. He wants to enjoy his life in his own way even neglecting

everyone. Though his daughter, Samati, pleads with him, he is indifferent towards her

appeal. It clearly displays that he does not pay any attention towards the emotion and

feelings of his children, rather he emphasizes on his freedom and thus he seems

irresponsible.

Savitri is not in the habit of taking meal before her husband takes. Ramani

correctly remarks, “What a dutiful wife! Would rather starve than precede her

husband. You are really like some of the women in our ancient books"(101). It can

easily be understood by the words of Ramani that Savitri has the traditional belief in

regard to her husband in every way. But Ramani always gets entertainment with

modern achievements like car, films, electricity without caring other members of his

own family. His life has been dramatically changed due to these scientific products.

He always gets expedition in his car and is familiar with the outer modern world. On

the contrary, his wife is confined within the four walls of the house; she hardly gets

time for outing with her husband. She spends her time in the traditional way. Here,

we can see the total disparity between the husband and wife where husband

representing modernity and wife representing the traditional Hindu culture. Because

of these two different poles they are always in conflict.

Shanta Bai who has been recruited by Ramani as part of his company brings

about the serious tension in the scenario. Employing a new face, even a female

creates rumors which eventually even Savitri comes to know about. Gangu, her close

friend, reports to Savitri as, “Don’t think I am gossiping, but there was another person

with him; perhaps it is that person about whom people are talking all this nonsense. I

didn’t want to tell you but I thought you might as well know, because what harm is

there?"(98). She starts suspecting Ramani and her suspicions are soon proved right
 12

that he has made an extra-marital relationship with her. Tired of being ignored by a

careless husband who even does not hesitate to beat his small child Babu severely,

she decides to leave the home. She can’t bear her husband’s behavior and says, “Do

you think that I will stay in your house, breathe the air of your property, drink the

water here, and eat food you buy with your money? No, I’ll starve and die in open,

under the sky, a roof for which we need be obliged to no man"(87-88).

Even if she leaves her home, she immediately realizes that it is a sin to leave

her husband and children in the cold. Rather she decides to end her life and jumps in

Sarayu River, however, she is saved by Mari, a part time thief but a blacksmith by

profession. He takes her to his home where she is well looked after by his wife,

Ponni. Deeply influenced by the traditional concept of untouchability, higher caste

Savitri denies taking any sort of food offered by the blacksmiths, Mari and Ponni.

When Savitri denies taking anything from them, Ponni rightly comments, “I see you

are a Brahmin and won’t stay and eat with us. I will ask someone of your own caste

to receive you”. (106)

Savitri gets job in a local temple for a meager earning, she finally believes that

she has the strength to live all by herself and make sense of her life. But she is soon

overcome by her desire for her children. She says, “I must see them; I must see Babu,

I must see Sumati, and I must see Kamala. Oh"(142). She ultimately decides to return

home. Because of her submissive traditional quality, she relegates her own ego and

surrenders to the Hindu religion and tradition not to her husband. But on the other

hand modern character Ramani never surrenders in front of tradition that is

represented by his wife, Savitri.

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II. Theoretical Modality

Indian Tradition

In the past, ancient Indian society was multi-religious and multi-linguistic in

nature. We can easily understand this from Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil literature. Writers

descried not only their people and landscape, but also showed a wide interest in the

natural surrounding, and the people of another land. Thus in ‘Ramayana’ there is the

description of hilly people, the forest dwellers and heaven, the world of God. The

writing reflected the traditional Indian belief in God. Furthermore the writings of

ancient India also reflected political and literal unity-in-diversity and diversity-in –

unity of Indian culture and society.

Traditional Indian society is in the bound of peasant-landlord relationship; it

observed the caste system placing Brahmans and Chhetrias at the upper level and

Baishya and Shudra at the lower place of social hierarchy. This hierarchy was mainly

based on occupation and birth. Charles Van Doren comments, “One is not only born a

Shudra; one also becomes a Shudra by the occupation one follows, which Shudra

alone must follow and which only Shudra may follow"(7). There were certain

occupations that upper-class people simply did not follow. Similarly different classes

also used to eat different foods differently and had different customs in family life.

The ancient cultures of the Indian subcontinent might have been the first to discover

the powerful means of maintaining social order. Doren believes, “Class

differentiation is the great foe of the equally great idea of social equality”. (7)

Traditional Indian social economy was based on agriculture that provided

food for large population. They had dug ditches and canals to irrigate their farms. Due

to the lack of modern system of agriculture, there was the mass poverty in India.

Torlok Singh closely observes and says, “Mass poverty in India is basically and to an
 14

overwhelming degree, a rural problem. It is implicit in the present structure and

economic basis of our rural society. If we are to abolish poverty, we must rebuild our

social and economic foundations."(1)

Indian people had a custom to marry their daughters before puberty, and

parents who had not succeeded in finding husbands for daughters past the age of

puberty, were regarded as guilty of a great sin. According to M. N. Srinivas,

“Bradmin marriage is in theory, indissoluble, and a Brahmin widow, even if she be a

child widow, is required to have her head shaved, and to shed all jeweler, and

ostentation in clothes."(Aiyappan and Ratnam 78). She was regarded as inauspicious.

Sex life was denied her. Among Hindus generally there was a preference for virginity

in brides, chastity in wives.

The institutions of the low castes were more liberal in the spheres of marriage

and sex then those of the Brahmins. In the case of the low caste marriage and sex

Srinivas comments, “Post puberty marriages do occur among them, widows do not

have to shave their heads, and divorce and widow marriage are both permitted and

practiced"(Aiyappan and Ratnam 78). Generally speaking, their sex code was not as

harsh as among Brahmins.

Brahmin women used to perform a number of religious vows, some of which

was to secure a long life for the husband. A woman’s hope used to predecease her

husband, and thus avoid becoming a widow. As Srinivas comment, “Women who

predecease their husbands are considered both lucky as well as good, while

widowhood is attributed to sins committed in a previous incarnation”. (Aiyappan and

Ratnam 79)

A wife who used to show devotion to her husband was held up as an ideal, as

a Pativrata, that is, one who regarded the devoted service of her husband as her
 15

greatest duty. There are many myths describing the devotion and loyalty of some

sainted women to their husbands. Furthermore, Indian society was deeply rooted on

the religion and superstition. They believed on God, worshipping to God was like

daily activities. They used to celebrate different festivals which themselves were

based on religion.

When the Indian society was religious, superstitious, patriarchal, agro-based

social structure, discrimination in terms of caste, deeply affected by poverty, then the

writing of that period reflected the same issues.

When India was colonized by British, the Indian tradition was slowly and

gradually affected by the western culture. Due to the mistreatment of western people

to Indian, they are tortured. When Indian social tradition was dismantled, the Indian

religion was mocked. During this period, Indian ethos gradually underwent a sea

change from the stock response of defeat and frustration and the trauma of inferiority

feeling to a new found self-awareness and self-confidence. Indian society started to

learn from western society and its experiences, and Indian writers experience progress

in the form of imitation and assimilation in creation. The ordeal of freedom struggle,

the communication problem, plight of untouchables, the landless poor, economically

oppressed and exploited people were the exponent of colonized society and the

literature it has produced.

Indian colonized society was in contact with the multitudinous riches of

European especially, English literature and culture. People started to think that to be

westernized in the language and culture is to command more and more prestige. In

short, Indian social life and its literature during colonial period is nothing but mere

imitation of their colonial master, their literature and society. Indian society had been
 16

blinded by the glare of western civilization. So they took it as something good and

prestigious and started to follow it.

Modern Influence in Indian Society

So far as the concern of the emergence of modernity in India, we should take

into account the scientific and technological development in advance. Modernity is

the transcendence of the past and reorientation towards the future. Modernity in India

came to have been recognized as synonymous to westernization. The emphasis on

English education in India also played a vital role in changing Indian society and

people towards westernization and modernization. However, modernity should not be

identified with formal and generic innovation but has to be related with a shift in

experience, a change in the relation between the past and the present. Modernity is the

consciousness of new age, new sensibility, and sense of the new attitude towards the

past as well as future with experiences of life.

Cricket is another symbol of modern Indian society. Today, the extraordinary

popularity of cricket in India is clearly tied up with national sentiments. Modern

Indian people are almost crazy with the game. But in the early history of the game in

India, cricket fostered two other kinds of loyalty. The first was religious identities.

The second, rather more abstractly instantiated in the sport, was loyalty to empire.

Hindus, Parsis, Muslims, the Europeans, and eventually the rest were organized into

cricket ethnic groupings, some of which included antagonists in which players as well

as crowds learned to think of themselves as Hindu, Muslim and Parsis in contrast

with the Europeans.

For the colonized, cricket become a matter of dignity. They tried to equalize

themselves with the colonizers by competing in the field of it which colonizer used to

think as a modern game and only in their access. Child psychology of colonizer can
 17

not remain indifferent with such matters of dignity. They used to think that playing

and watching cricket is to become modern. So they are obsessed with it.

Modernity was a technological advancement which contributed in the

development of electricity, transportation, commutations in India that made life of

Indian people more advance. Indian modernity is also the advancement over the

earlier literature and the progress in the different fields in accordance with time. With

the influence of modernity in literature, the relationship between the husband and

wife; tradition and modernity; cities and the villages; print culture and oral culture;

are directly affected. Even the trivial actions, sufferings and protests became the

theme. All these changes were inevitable results of technological advancement and

intervention in the production of literature and also the changes in the social fabric

that a new education and new administrative system has brought about.

The two centuries of British rule has created tension in the psyche of Indian

elite: it wants to assert its own distinctiveness and at the same time is attracted by the

power of India. All its side of progress and all its concepts and institutions is

borrowed by India. The modernity in literature both as an experience and project

comes out of the continuous tensions, rather than the synthesis between these two

worlds more or less identified as opposites. Not only the models of literary genre are

borrowed from European literature but also the debates relating to social authority

and individual freedom are the realms of private and public, myth and history also

characterize the colonial Indian culture. As Gayatri Spivak asserts:

The Indian anxiety for the west and its dilemma of the modernity has

creates an unresolved tension in Indian social life . . . traditional Indian

life world and emerging modern literature. The urge of imitation has

often overcome Indian writers and the search for modernity has been
 18

elusive. In India, society and its literature emerged as an assimilation

of the nature of imperial regime. The issue of sex and morality became

quite controversial and even the icon of modernity among certain

groups of Indian writing. (13)

The Indian writers realized that eroticism was different from the frank

portrayal of sex, the former aims at evoking certain emotive effects; the latter is part

of exploration of relationship between individual and society. The sexual relationship

was related to change in experience, but it had created tension between the social

authority and individual freedom. In literature, sex assumed a place of importance not

because there was any radical change in social relationship but certainly there was

any radical change in artistic consciousness. The treatment of sex became the

indicator of modernity, and changing perceptions of man-women relationship. In

modern time, Indian society has become more transparent to sexual matters.

The Indian modernity emerged from Indian society’s changing attitude

towards west, its transformation from agricultural state to semi-Industrial state,

establishment of financial institutions and Banking and society. As Appadurai Says:

The experience of modernity is local, but locality itself has undergone

a fundamental set of changes over the past five hundred years. We are

in the process of witnessing a fundamental transformation in the very

nature of world systems and global process. Various forms of global

interactions have always been with us, and so have various forms of

world systems. Even before maritime, expansion of the west in the

sixteenth century complex global formation did exist, but we are only

now beginning to theorize the shift from these early global process to

those that constitute global process today. (14)

 19

The Dark Room by R. K. Narayan revolves around the tension between

modernity and tradition. Since the novel was written around 1930s, and the Indian

society was in the transitional period of tradition and decolonization, the novel

depicts the dynamics of the Indian society. Indian people developed consciousness

about colonialism. As a result, India got independence.

The novel centers on the tension between the male and female, mainly

represented by Ramani and Savitri respectively. Ramani, being fascinated by the

modern life style, enjoys liaison, modern movies, parties etc. On the other hand,

Savitri’s faith on religion, her blind fidelity and the roles prescribed to the women

show her inclination to the tradition. In addition, Babu’s craze for cricket, electricity,

movies, and adoption of western system of education further highlights the influence

of modernity on the male. On the contrary, Gangu’s and Ponni’s inclination to the

traditional norms and values show that females are still traditional unlike men. Hence,

I will exploit ‘Modernity’ as a theoretical tool to analyze the text and justify the issue.

Tradition versus Modality

Modernity is the condition of being new and innovative which has generally

been opposed to tradition in contemporary analyses of social and political change. It

is the consciousness of time and space, and self and others that is shared by all the

human beings in the world. Modernity can be realized when tradition has been

destroyed and superseded. It is a radical threat to all history and tradition.

To understand modernity clearly, we must contrast it with tradition. Tradition

is social activities that are practiced for long. They are based on certain conventions

and customs which contained the value in the society. According to oxford Advance

Learner’s Dictionary, tradition is “a belief, custom or way of doing something that

has existed for a long time among a particular group of people". Generally it is based
 20

on religion and superstition that is more rigid and dogmatic. Traditional religious and

superstitious world views attempt to keep people in the condition of ignorance.

But modernity tries to demolish and replace all unnecessary superstitious

social norms and values and encourages all people to be more open and keeps them

away from the worthless social practices and impositions since it is break through the

tradition even though it somehow has some kind of traces of tradition. According to

Marshall Berman:

The maelstrom of modern life has been felt from many sources: great

discoveries in the physical sciences, changing our images of the

universe and our place in it; the industrialization of production, which

transforms scientific knowledge into technology, creates new human

environments and destroys old ones, speeds up the whole tempo of

life, generates new forms of corporate power and class struggle. . . (2)

The advancement of science and technology serves as the catalysts for

the flourishing of modernity. Modern science, communication, philosophy,

industrialization etc. stimulated the progress of human life, moreover, human

consciousness. To be particular, the beginning of modernity can be traced to that

intellectual fever that spread in Europe from the middle of the eighteenth century. The

French Revolution of 1789 was a point in the spread of this intellectual, spiritual as

well as political-economic social ferment in western society. In this regard,

Raghwendra Pratap Singh puts down, “The central and the fundamental thrust of the

modernity is the bold and unhesitating affirmation of the autonomy of human

individual and society"(13). It is that affirmation that rejects all external authority,

outside of human reason, whether of religious or of tradition.

 21

Charles Darwin is also vibrant modern philosopher who really challenges the

traditional thinking. Religion, a major part of tradition was threatened by the

Darwinian theory of evolution which assumes that survival of the fittest. He subverts

the traditional blind assertion of man as the descendants of God and probes the

reality, that is, men are the distant relatives of apes which challenged the superstitious

belief that man as the God gifted creature whereas other creatures were not. By

challenging this concept as Charles Darwin equalizes all the creatures, "declaring that

all the species had come about through evolution on the basis of natural selection.

Even man. That was hard to swallow"(Charles Van Doren 280). Especially religious

people got great blow upon their beliefs which were not scientific at all, and could not

justify using any philosophical reason.

Karl Marx, a German philosopher, is best regarded as the upholder of

modernity. He challenges the Hegelian idea and asserts, “It is the matter that

determines consciousness not the idea"(Gaarder 397). He attacks the bourgeoisie by

blaming them as the exploiters of the proletarians. He redefines the hitherto society

and explores the perennial conflict between the ‘Haves’ and ‘Haves not’. That is to

say, Karl Marx, as a purveyor of modernity, contributes a great deal to fill up the

consciousness in the proletarians. Similarly, Freud, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard are,

among other, the outstanding contributors for the emergence of modernity. Freud

breaks the binary between savage and civilization and asserts that all men are guided

by the unconscious, which is replete with sexual instincts. He further claims, "the

conscious constitutes only a small part of the human mind. The conscious is like the

tip of the iceberg above sea level”. (Gaarder 435)

Likewise, for the advancement of modernity, the credit goes to Nietzsche. He

dismantles the blind faith; the western thought has brought up with it, on religion and
 22

God. He stands as a modern figure when he advocates the death of God. Meanwhile,

Kierkegaard emerges with a new vision of human existence. He undermines the

concept of objective knowledge and universal truth, but emphasizes on the multiple

truths and subjective knowledge as the need of the day. According to Kierkegaard,

‘rather than searching for the Truth with a capital ‘T’ it is more important to find the

kind of truths that are meaningful to individual’s life. It is more important to find ‘the

truth for me’. (Gaarder 379)

Thus, modernity always stands in opposition to tradition, since the former

comes up with a deconstructive strategy of status-quo. On the contrary, the latter

often clings to, "religious world views, as attempts to keep people in a condition of

ignorance and superstition . . ."(Hamilton 35). Commenting on the relation of

modernity with tradition Horold Rosenberg writes, “It is a tradition of overthrowing

tradition”. (Berman 16)

However, Octavio Paz is not happy with the mission of modernity which aims

to renew the tradition. He has lamented that modernity is "cut off from the past and

continually hurtling forward at such a dizzy pace that it can not take root, that it

merely survives from one day to the next"( Berman 35). That is to say, modernity

neither roots itself anywhere permanently nor does it restrict itself to a specified field.

It is a renewed consciousness in social norms, values (culture), life world, ideology,

tradition etc. something which is modern in the present turns out to be obsolete in the

future. Therefore, I think that the spirit of modernity relies on contingency of renewal

or reformation.

Thus, the concept of modernity, though originally dates back to the

Enlightenment is not tied up with a particular time, space and realm. Although it is

ostensibly a western trend, it is pervasive across the world and the form of modernity
 23

varies from one society to another. In this regard, Arjun Appadurai and Carli A.

Breckenridge view:

Modernity is now everywhere, it is simultaneously everywhere, and it

is interactively everywhere. But it is not only everywhere, it is also in

a series of somewhere, and it is through one such somewhere, India,

that this volume enters the global reality of modernity and for such a

localized entry we propose an other general category. (2)

Overall, despite the ostensible differences in the notion of modernity, the

aforementioned critics characterize modernity as a deconstructive sprit, which

critiques the traditional social orders and a traditional set of beliefs. Modernity adopts

empiricism and rationalism as the touchstones to critique or judge the religious

beliefs, societal mores and values and the position of man in the universe. With

reference to the subversion of tradition, Marshal Berman comments:

All fixed, fost-frozon relations, with their train of ancient and

venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new formed

ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts

into air all that is holy is profaned, and men at last are forced to face . .

. the real conditions of their lives and their relation with their fellow

men. (21)

In other words, modernity is not such a notion which can be stable; rather it is

the time consciousness. It is the, "ephemeral, the fleeting, the contingent"(116),

according to Michael Foucault. Today’s beliefs, ideas and outlook may turn out to be

traditional in no time. Therefore, “modernity excludes itself from clinging to the

present. Instead, its task is to heroize the present”. (Foucault 117)

 24

However, regarding modernity, the theorists have different views. Habermas,

though regards modernity as an incomplete project and traces its root to the

Renaissance, he attributes the formal development of modernity to the Enlightenment.

The term, ‘modernity’ used to be defined in relation to the past, but Kant uses the

‘Enlightenment’ and ‘modernity’ interchangeably, and asserts that enlightenment is

the break away with the tradition. Hence, since the Enlightenment, modernity is

viewed as an autonomous project and something which is particularly new and

distinct. The Enlightenment paves the way for the advancement of science, art and

morality. Habermas, albeit contends the newness as the project of modernity, sees

lack of the communicative rationality resulted from the autonomous development of

science art and morality. Then, Habermas emphasizes on the integrity among them.

He further views the aim of modernity as the unifying force of these discrete

realms.(284)

Likewise, Lyotard’s basic premise rests on the access to modernity. Yet, he

talks about the tenets of postmodernism and believes that postmodernism is the

nascent state of modernity (Lyotard 245). His idea, the critiquing and experimenting,

the spirit of postmodernity, gives birth to modernity when it is at apex. Although

Habermas and Lyotard argue each other, their ultimate essence orients to modernity.

Both of them regard modernity as the consciousness of overall aspects of life, which

is only possible via critiquing the tradition.

Similarly, Foucault, regarding modernity brings forth the idea of Baudelaire,

"modernity is characterized in terms of consciousness of the discontinuity of time: a

break with tradition and a feeling of novelty"(Foucault 261). Foucault further refutes

modernity as a specific epoch, rather opines that it is a set of characteristics of an

epoch. Moreover, he coincides with Habermas, Kant and Lyotard when he puts down,
 25

“Modernity is an ‘attitude’ a way of thinking and feeling, a way of acing and

behaving . . ."(Foucault 262)

Development is pre-requisite of modernity-development on science, media,

communication that radically changes the human life and makes it more standard and

easier than that of earlier; scientific development changes the human life along with

human psyche which helps to develop all human creativities. To be modern is

transformation of ourselves and the world that threat to destroy "everything we have,

everything we know, everything we are"(Berman 1).

Due to the scientific development, the universe became a small village where

all cultures mix into one in which Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into one’ (qtd. in

Berman 1). Modernity unties all human beings. Scientific discoveries, transportation,

communication etc. make the world small and single. Different kinds of mass media

which are the result of science like radio, computer film and television have control

of our lives without ordinarily intruding on them. These media can’t be avoidable

because they are around us. It has made mass more creative, safer, more healthful,

and richer in creative possibilities. It is the media that makes the people up to date.

They give the hot news to human being so that people can easily mobilize themselves

in the complex world.

In the modern world, media plays significant role in educating the people.

Even those people, who can’t manage time for going college, are also getting

knowledge at home through media. So media has contributed to knowledge and

education of the people. Because of the media, we understand the world better than

our grandparents were. Charles Van Doren says, “Because of the media we

understand democracy better than almost anyone understood it a century ago.

Because of the media, we have a deeper distrust of war"(274). It is the media that
 26

speaks against the tyranny and all kind of injustices. So it is the advocator of

democracy and freedom.

Electricity is another significant marker of modernity. It was discovered by

Benjamin Franklin in the 1750s which has had a tremendous impact on the history of

mankind because it as Charles Van Doren argues that "dissolved the difference

between night and day and masked the change of the seasons"(270). Moreover, it

provided the new source of energy which helped to intensify the industrial revolution

that dramatically changes human life. Today, millions of city dwellers never

experience a dark night. It reduces the dependence only in fossil fuels for energy.

Thousands of scientific modern machines are run by electricity that is more advance

and cheaper than fossil fuels.

Winter was not just cold but also dark and any evil might lurk in the dark.

That way the concept of priests and other so called educated people but it became

mere superstition when electricity brightened the night and made it like the day.

Electricity not only lightened the dark but also converted cold into worm and vice

versa. In fact, the world is benefited much from the discovery of electricity, which is

one of the most important aspects of modern life. It has radically changed the face of

the earth.

Similarly, transportation is a milestone of modernity that made the world

small and easier than that of earlier. Due to the development of different sorts of

vehicles, we, modern people can travel throughout the world easily. Various vehicles

like aircraft, ships, and land vehicles made human life doubtlessly comfortable. It is

the modern science that makes it possible. It has brought revolutionary change in the

traditional concept of human being, for example moon used to be taken as God,

especially in Hindu religion, but modern scientists have been thinking about the
 27

settlement on the lap of moon. It is one of the greatest challenges to tradition due to

scientific development, which is case of modernity.

Despite being facilitator of modern life, media along with electricity has made

life artificial. People are interested to leave imaginative life as in the film. Such

imagination has lured for a worthless copy which is one of the components of the

destruction of civilization and morality. Due to such kind of temptation, people

almost forget their duties and responsibilities. They want to live isolated life in

imagination.

Because of the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteen century, human beings

have been getting into new life. Social and political changes and economic

development were the causes of Industrial Revolution. It brought both positive and

negative impacts in human life and nature. Before industrial revolution, the life was

so hard; people used simple machines to make their works easier. Socio-economic

side was very poor. Agro-based economy had not maintained the standard of life.

There was no development of transportation and communication. But after the dawn

of industrial revolution, great changes emerged as a result, life become comfortable

and smooth. It brought many social changes. The middle class grew and progressed

rapidly. They owned most of the factories, they hired the workers in low payment and

treated them as objects and handled the big industries, mines, banks and what not. In

it, Marx believes, “The bourgeoisie has turned away from the family its sentimental

vial, and reduced the family relation to a mere money relation"(23). The power

holders treat their family members themselves in terms of money then how can they

treat workers as human beings. So we can say that such kind of modernization has

mechanized the modern life.

 28

The owners had the concept of business and also had the capacity to

manipulate the workers and the government. Due to this the owner became fatter and

fatter but poor workers turned into poorer. Van Doren severely comments on such

mistreatment by saying, " human beings had not yet learned how factor-induced

specialized labor also destroys the souls of human beings by treating them as the parts

of a machine"(216). This is the negative aspect of industrial revolution that gave birth

to the capitalism. Often factory workers have to work long hours under unhealthy

condition.There was and still is a debate about the beginning and ending of

modernity. Critics like Habermas believe that, "modernity is the consciousness of

time"(74).

They believe that modernity is just departure from old ideas. Greek time was

modern because it was separated from pagan past. Similarly Renaissance was modern

because it was new and different from middle age. It means modernity was defined in

relation to past. But Kant believes that modernity is a period that " began from

eighteenth century and ended in twentieth century"(17). For him there was not or

can’t be modern before and after Enlightenment period. Unlike Kantian belief,

Michael Foucault believes that modernity is "consciousness of discontinuity"(113)

that is simply a break from tradition; it could be in Greek period, in Renaissance, in

eighteenth century and so on. He believes that one modernity is different from other;

it means there is plurality of modernity.

Hence, without transcending the traditional norms and values, modernity is

impossible. On the other hand, tradition can’t remain constant for forever.

Furthermore, once modern turns into tradition along with the change of time. It does

not mean, modernity stands on entirely new foundation but there is some

reformations. So in the society, there is practice of tension between tradition and

 29

modernity which the researcher tries to show in the research carried out on R. K.

Narayan’s The Dark Room.

 30

III. Textual Analysis

Tradition and Modernity: An Analysis of R. K. Narayan’s The Dark Room

Literature is the manifestation of contemporary social realities where the

writer is born and grown up. It reflects the social structure, framework, and customs.

It carries out the social ideologies in general and people’s behaviors, needs and wants

etc. in particular. In this regard, R. K. Narayan’s writings are the reflection of Indian

society of 1930s where we can find two ways of life that are traditional and modern.

Narayan depicts peripheral and dynamic effects of modernization, progress on the

village, caste system, rural poverty, male dominated society, conflict between

ancestral orthodox and rebellious individualism, modern hypocrisy, scientific

development and its effect in modern society, various exploitation in the modern

world especially Indian society before and after colonial period.

In all of the Narayan’s novels, Indianness is reflected in various ways. He

wrote many novels and short stories addressing humanity as a central theme. He had

started writing under the influence of events occurring around him. His main concern

is on the small segments of the Indian middle-class society and its mores and

traditions as well as influence of modern way of life. The theme that has mostly been

projected in his novels is the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity in its different

aspects. Though he writes in English, his attitude towards the western world is bitter.

Especially, he criticizes the ex-colonizers of India who invaded the local culture and

tradition of India. So, we can find the confrontation between the orient and the

occident in most of his novels. It means there is tension between Indian tradition and

western forms of life.

To show the traditional and western forms of life within single society, he

creates imaginary setting of Malgudi which one or other way depicts the Indian
 31

reality. In fact, Malgudi is an Indian small town that stands at a nicely calculated

comic distance between the east and west or tradition and modern. We see the deep

reason for Narayan’s choice of the small-town. The superficial influence of western

or modern forces on it do not destroy its basic characters. It still retains and displays a

more human way of life. Narayan himself describes Malgudi in the novel The Dark

Room:

Malgudi in 1935 suddenly came into line with the modern age by

building a well equipped theatre-the palace Talkies-which simply

brushed aside the old corrugated-sheet-roofed Variety Hall, which

from time immemorial had entertained the citizens of Malgudi with

tattered silent films. (22)

It means Malgudi is India which was traditional but slowly and gradually is

becoming modern. Here, People are enjoying with film along with other scientific

products.

Tradition and Modernity: Two Modes of Life

The Dark Room depicts two polar modes of Indian society, the traditional and

the modern, which are represented by female characters like Savitri, Sumati, Kamala,

Ponni, Gangu and male characters like Ramani, Babu, Mari etc. respectively. They

come from different worlds with disparate outlook that poses a continuous conflict

between and among them. They symbolize a contrast between two worlds-one

traditional and other modern.

Savitri, a devoted wife of Ramani and a good mother of their three children-

Babu, Sumati and Kamala, represents traditional Indian society. She is loudly and

deeply devoted to her husband and children. She goes on a futile quest to maintain

good relationship with her husband where as her husband, Ramani by being
 32

influenced with modern world, does not like to confine within the social

responsibility. Thus, he transcends the social rules and regulation and establishes

extramarital relationship with Shanta Bai, one of his staff in his office, Engladia

Insurance Company. These two worlds represented by Savitri and Ramani, are totally

different with each other.

The traditional world represented by Savitri always seeks to maintain social

system that is status-quo at the backdrop of social, cultural and religious rules and

regulations while the world represented by Ramani always seeks to subvert such

traditional world under the influence of modern world. These two incompatible

worlds, in the novel, always create tension between tradition and modernity

In the novel, The Dark Room Savitri, the female protagonist, represents the

pre-modern traditional world in which she performs her role that is assigned by Hindu

culture and tradition. She is presented in such a way that she can’t revolt against her

irresponsible husband and father because the society schooled her to be submissive,

dutiful, faithful worshipper, devotee towards her husband and children. Not only this,

she is depicted as an honest wife, who does not resist her husband even in the blunder

committed by him. She serves him as a true devotee. She even after knowing the true

nature of Ramani, does not hate him rather wants to manipulate him in her favor

being honest and submissive.

Savitri is an ideal wife and mother without any selfish motives. She follows

the mainstream patriarchal norms and value of Hindu culture. In Hindu culture and

tradition, the wife never takes her food before her husband takes. Savitri also being

such type of lady does not take her meal before her husband takes. Her husband

Ramani correctly remarks, “What a dutiful wife! Would rather starve than precede

her husband. You are really like some of the women in our ancient book"(11). Her
 33

very name is mythical. In the Hindu myth Savitri is the devoted wife of Satyavan who

follows Yama and succeeds in getting back the life of her husband. In the novel, the

heroine Savitri has some of the precious traits of the mythical Savitri.

Romani can not understand his wife properly so fails to make his family

happy. He, an essentialist, strives to dismantle Savitri’s ideology by establishing

extramarital relationship with Shanta Bai, his office staff. He can’t limit himself to

Savitri any more and taunts her time and again and treats her as a doll or means of

fulfilling his physical desires, wants and necessities but on the contrary Savitri takes

him an ideal husband. Thus, the tension between them mounts high as the novel

moves ahead.

Ramani has illicit relation with Shanti Bai, a major cause of tension, who

comes in between Ramani and Savitri and loots Savitri’s happiness. It means, Shanta

Bai, etymologically Santa means peace, is responsible for all ‘Ashanti’ [discord] in

Savitri’s life. She even fails to understand another female’s plight. She freely enjoys

with Savitri’s husband. Ramani, due to the love of Shanta Bai, does not take any

responsibility to his family whereas Savitri wants to maintain a good family

relationship and attempts to keep her family harmonious and peaceful but goes in

vain.

Savitri believes in religion, superstition, manners, social norms and values and

ideal family and also desires these qualities within her husband. But in contrast,

Ramani enjoys his life in his own way by neglecting his other members of the family.

He has odd relationship with cute and somehow modern girl, Shanta Bai. They enjoy

watching film even in the night. Slowly they forget their family in particular and

ignore the whole society in general. They visit different places by his car. In one

sense, Ramani is guided by Dionysian qualities of merrymaking and enjoying, which

 34

are related to the ingredients to modern, while Savitri is guided by Apollonian quality

of rationality that she wants to maintain ideal family members. That is what Nietzsche

believes. Ramani is lustful for material life that he has expensive and furnished

furniture in his house and office and also possesses a very beautiful car.

Savitri, on the other hand, is ritualistic who always attempts to win her

husband’s heart when she comes to know that he follows another woman, and tries

her best to bring him back. She beautifies herself with new clothes, and make up with

cosmetics and "sees her in the mirror in the evening"(81). She hopes her husband

comes back from Shanta Bai. But all her attempts go in vain when Ramani does not

come at that night. When she sees nothing in her favour, she leaves her house,

husband and children. This is in one sense a challenge to the male hypocritical

society. This event gives no solace to Ramani. He is tortured when his children

frequently ask about their mother. “All right, father. But I have come to talk about

Mother. What about her?"(155), asks Babu. He becomes more shattered when Babu

asks, “Is she alive?"(155). Saying this Babu bursts into tears. In this context, Narayan

rightly comments, “Ramani was slightly frightened. He himself had not been quite

easy in mind since the morning"(155) because Savitri has left the house. Her escape is

a kind of threat to male hypocritical social structure. This is a kind of tension that is

bound to resolve in one way or other.

Savitri does not have any intention to divorce as modern people do, but she

challenges just to change her husband’s individual behavior so that he can give more

time to his family rather than other woman. Divorce is against of Hindu religion so

she never thinks of this; rather she returns her house after some days with more love

and affection towards her family members as traditional woman does. It is obvious

that Savitri attempts to live a free, independent life forsaking the house not because
 35

she intends to shatter Ramani and children’s life but because to protect him from

being ruined due to his lustful and mechanical relationship. Hence, leaving home and

entering into the dark room for Savitri, are defensive strategies to get her husband

completely back to her.

Savitri tries her best to correct the ways of her husband but her efforts prove

futile at the end. Hence, one day she revolts and leaves the house in a huff. At this

place she reminds us of Nora Helmer in Ibsen’s famous play The Doll’s House. When

her friend Gangu sees Ramani and Shanta Bai sitting together in the Tamil Picture

Hall, she informs all the events to her intimate friend, Savitri. Savitri shatters when

she gets the information about her husband’s infidelity. It is the Hindu culture that

never accepts extramarital affair. Since Savitri is the product of the same Hindu

culture, she can not bear it anymore and challenges her husband and says, “Don’t

touch me! You are dirty, you are impure. Even if I burn my skin, I can’t cleanse

myself of the impurity of your touch"(102). Here, her intention is not to loose her

husband but to make him correct and responsible towards her and children

completely.

Hindu women are honest and want always to be honest and at the same time

they hope same from the side of their husband. They can easily forgive their

husband’s minor mistakes but can not bear when their husband wonders hither and

thither with other women. Traditional Hindu women live under the guardianship of

their husband. They don’t go outside even for the job. They totally depend on their

husband that is why; females are always under the domination of the male. But when

they find male out of the boundary of Hindu custom, they are not ready to accept such

immoralities. In the novel, Savitri is the representative of Hindu female. Her husband,

Ramani goes beyond the family relation. So Savitri challenges him and says, “Do you
 36

think that I will stay in your house, breathe the air of your property, drink the water

here, and eat food you buy with your money? No, I’ll starve and die in the open,

under the sky, a roof for which we need be obliged to no man”. (87-88)

Savitri severely challenges her modern hypocritical husband Ramani who

either one or other way is influenced by western way of life. When she can not

correct his immoral character, she leaves her house, husband along with her dear

children-Babu, Sumati and Kamala. She thinks her suicide rather than divorce which

is completely against of Hindu tradition and religion. Later neither she is able to die

nor able to escape from Hindu tradition. It means she returns her house and takes her

responsibility that the society assigns. Returning home refers to returning to tradition.

Traditional Hindu mother and wife Savitri can not think her life in other way.

Her husband and children are her world. She can’t go beyond them. To listen her

husband’s every comments silently, to accept of his order, to wait him for food even

the whole day, to take care of her children from every side etc. are her way of life.

She even can’t imagine her life beyond this until she knows her husband’s infidelity.

But on the other hand, Ramani can not limit within family boundary, Hindu religion

and customs. He wants to fly beyond such traditional forms of life. He does not

hesitate to keep extramarital relationship with Shanta Bai. He is totally individual that

is one of the modern features. He is so much indifferent with other’s behavior and

especially in Savitri’s tension created by himself by keeping extramarital relationship.

When there is argument between them, Ramani says, “I’m very sleepy. I’m waiting to

bolt the street door and go to bed; that is, if you decide to go out”. (88)

This individual trait is one of the causes of tension in the novel. Traditional

character Savitri tries her best to maintain social life but modern character Ramani

attempts to cross it.

 37

Traditional religious world view is greatly threatened by the Darwinian theory

of evolution which assumes that ‘Survival of the fittest’. Earlier, God was at the

centre. People used to think that everything happens because of the desire of God but

later Charles Darwin challenges it by saying, “It is not the God who makes things

happen in the world but it is the nature that is at the centre"(Gaarder 409). This theory

of evolution slowly and gradually affected the social order. People don’t believe in

God blindly when the concept of God was changed, then traditional social structure

was also get changed people became secular. In this novel too we find such

characters. Ramani epitomizes this issue. He does not believe on God so he enjoys his

life in his own way.

Narayan presents Ramani as the representative character of Indian society

who is away from traditional social structure. On the other hand, Savitri is still

following the religious world order but later part of the novel she is somehow

changed herself. She leaves her house at the last part of the novel even though she

returns lastly. Here, we can find dynamism of Indian society that is changing slowly.

Traditional concept of male as superior and female as inferior creature, is also

threatened by Freud when he says all human beings are guided by their

‘Unconscious’ level of mind (Gaarder 434). The contemporary society was also

influenced by this theory which is explicit in the Narayan’s The Dark Room. The

female protagonist, Savitri is slowly and gradually becomes conscious over the male

domination and also becomes aware about equality between male and female so she

challenges the traditional society. She leaves her house and "walks down the silent

street"(89). Most probably, Savitri knows that consciousness is guideline of all human

beings so there is no distinction between male and female. The knowledge creates a

tension in the novel.

 38

Furthermore Savitra is a religious figure who always believes on God so

worships Him. She not only gives her time to her family and herself but also to God

with whom she has deep devotion. Narayan comments:

Now Savitri had before her a little business with her God. She went to

the worshipping room lighted the wicks and incense, threw on the

image on the wooden pedestal handfuls of hibiscus, jasmine and

nerium, and muttered all the sacred chants she had learnt from her

mother years ago. (4)

But on the other hand, Ramani is secular man who does not care the God and

worships Him. He has concentration only his physical needs and desires so he runs

not after the God but other female outside his family. This is one of the major causes

of tension in the novel.

Savitri has a belief on tradition, religion and has deep attachment on family

members and always loves all human beings in general and her family members in

particular. It is one way of life in the novel which sharply contrasts with the modern

way of life that is led by Ramani who is self-centered, does not understand other’s

plight, needs and even forgets his own responsibility to his family and society. This

contrast creates tension in the novel that is the representation of whole Indian society.

It is not only the case of Savitri and Ramani who are sharply divided into two

modes of life that are traditional and modern, but also we can find such distinction in

other characters in the novel. Babu, the only son of Savitri and Ramani, is influenced

with western way of life like his father. He is deeply attracted with western form of

education. He likes English medium school and also obsesses with English film very

much. When his mother asks him to go for Hindi film, his remark is explicitly
 39

negative on it. So, he says, “I don’t like Indian films, mother. I would like to be sent

to Frankenstein which is coming next week”. (25)

But on the other hand, his two sisters, Kamala and Sumati are somehow

traditional. They are taught to do the household work. They know the social position

given to them. They think that it is the female who should do all the household work

and male should not interrupt it. In Navaratri festiveal, there is a plan to show dolls.

Kamala and Sumati think that it is their job to decorate these dolls but opposite their

thinking, when Babu himself starts to decorate them, they feel unusual and say, “Are

you a girl to take a hand in the doll business? Babu, go and play cricket. You are a

man"(30). This sort of discrimination between male and female is completely

traditional thinking which Babu directly rejects, “Shut up"(30) because he does not

believe on such narrowly constructed division. Due to these two poles of life, there is

tension in the novel.

Furthermore, Babu does not believe on superstition. He strongly resists to the

traditional superstitious belief when there is conflict between Ranga, a cook of their

family, and him. Ranga challenges to Babu but Babu takes a risk at that challenge

which itself is modern quality. There is the belief that a person who looks at Ranga’s

eyes, he or she turns to stone. Kamala and Sumati tell him, “Many of the furlong and

mile stones in the place were once human beings who had dared to look into the

cook’s eyes"(151). So they request the cook and say, “Forgive him for our sake . . .

please take your eyes off him"(150). The modern boy does not afraid with the

superstitious belief so says, “All right, I will. I am not afraid of your powers of

magic"(150). Due to such different views and beliefs, there is conflict and that creates

tension in the novel.

 40

Babu is intelligent and has knowledge of modern things like electricity. On

the occasion of Navaratri festival, the children become gay and jubilant. Babu, a boy

of artistic taste, wants to decorate the house with dolls which are going to be

demonstrated in the festival with electric bulbs. But traditional characters, Kamala

and Sumati differ with him who think it is practically the girls’ business.

Babu is also individual like his father who hates marriage much. When his

mother asks about his marriage, wife and children, he asks, “Why do you always talk

about marriage? I hate it. I am not going to marry even if it is going to cost me my

life"(84). It means he wants freedom and does not like to take any family

responsibility as western people do.

Similarly, the tension between tradition and modernity can also be seen in

Ponni and her husband, Mari. Ponni is traditional and superstitious. She strongly

believes on caste system who learns that Savitri is a Brahmin by caste. So she assures

Savaitri of a safe stay in her house. She is ready to clear a part of the house and she

says she will not go there. She further says, “I will buy a new pot for you, and rice,

and you can cook your own food. I will never come that way. I will never cook

anything in our house which may be repulsive to you. Please come with me"(144).

Narayan’s descriptions of this type have given the novel a realistic touch.

On the other hand, Mari, Ponni’s husband, is somehow modern. He does not

believe on such fictitious and imaginary things. Furthermore, he is not confined in the

four walls of house like his wife Ponni rather he goes out for his work and sees the

world better than her. He moves place to place crying, “Locks repaired, sirs,

umbrellas repaired!"(161). So, he knows the world better than his wife.

Thus, R. K. Narayan implies two different modes of life that are conventional

and modern represented by Savitri, Kamala, Sumati, Ponni and Ramani, Babu and
 41

Mari respectively. Traditional characters always try to follow the old values, norms

and rules and regulations of society. They are not so much influenced by the modern

development and also they believe on religion, superstition and so on. On the

contrary, modern characters always try to subvert traditional rules and regulations.

They are highly influenced by scientific development. These two modes are the major

causes of tension in the novel.

Modern Hypocrisy in the Novel

Modern people are showy in nature. They want to show outer reality even if

they have no inner potentiality. It means they are hypocritical in nature. Modern

Indian people also deserve such quality. In the novel, modern character Ramani

epitomizes the hypocritical behaviours. Ramani does not care any lack in his house

and does not like to show his weakness to his guests whom he invites. Once his cook

says, "there are only a couple of potatoes"(39). He further asks with Savitri, “Do the

cooking without vegetables and the mustard . . ."(39). Even such a lack is there in his

house, he is so much indifferent with it but ironically he has no any feeling of

responsibility to the family. Rimani as the guardian of his family is supposed to

maintain peace but he destroys every harmony in the family by enjoying with another

woman Shanta Bai.

Ramani often brings guests without informing his wife about the arrival of

guests but he gets angry with any suggestion and does not tolerate any poor show in

the dining room. Here, Narayan comments:

Ramani was never in the habit of announcing in advance the arrival of

a guest or of tolerating any poor show in the dining room. He just

picked up a friend at the club and brought him for dinner. It made him

furious if it was suggested that he should give notice. (10)

 42

Ramani never has a habit of accepting his weaknesses. He is a single headed

man who sees not beyond his desire and intension who neither accepts realities nor

any one’s suggestions. He always desires to hide the lacks of house to prove him as

civilized; prosperous and wealthy.

Ramani is individual character who does not care other’s problems, needs and

responsibilities. He must have taken more responsibility of his family but he is

indifferent towards it. He does not care his children’s health but does not fail to create

a terror on them. When Babu becomes sick, his mother Savitri cares him but Ramani,

father does not pay any attention towards his health rather he says, “Babu get up;

Don’t miss your school on any account"(1). But Savitri, a traditional Indian woman,

cares her child Babu’s health and lovingly treats by saying, “Lie down Baby you are

not going to school today"(1). Here, I mean modern people like Ramani are

indifferent towards others’ plight but traditional Hindu religious people like Savitri

are filled with love and affection, they have deep attachment to the society or family.

Ranani wants to be free from any responsibility and duty. He desires to fly as

a bird in the sky without any sort of obstacle which indicates search to absolute

freedom. He strongly denies even his wife’s suggestions who loves him dearly and

takes him as a God. Ramani comes from office to go cinema with his wife without

taking children Babu, Kamala and Sumati. Savitri requests him to take their children

but it goes in vain when he says, “The children can go some other day. Not a fly extra

now"(20). When Kamala insists to go with them, Ranani infuriates with her and says,

“Learn not to whimper before your mother". (21)

Furthermore, Ramani does not let his wife going out in his absence. He does

not attempt to understand his wife’s or children’s desires and needs. One day, Ramani

comes home faster than other days for cinema but he does not find his wife at home.
 43

He sends his youngest daughter to call Savitri. Savitri surprisingly asks the matter of

his arrival so fast. “I don’t know mother. I was playing in Kutti’s house when he

called me up and told me to find you at once. I couldn’t stop and talk to father. He

looked so angry"(19), says Kamala. She does not dear to ask any question with her

father because of fear she has. The fear is caused owing to the cruelty he shows to his

family members. Similarly her mother is surprised because of the cruelty.

But ironically Ramani does whatever he likes even if he does not let his wife

to go out. He wants to be free almost every time. He enjoys with his wife without

their children. Not only with his own wife but also he does not hesitate to move freely

with his office staff named Shanta Bai who divorced from her own husband.

Whenever Shanta Bai is appointed in his office, slowly and gradually, he pays his

attention not to her wife but Shanti Bai. Sometime he delays to arrive at home

because he gives time to Shanta Bai. In this Narayan remarks, “At two o’clock he

went home. He drove the car into the garage with as little noise as possible, opening

the gate and then the garage door himself. He felt rather irritated afterwards, when he

walked back into house from the garage."(65)

Ramani’s behaviors are not normal to Savitri. He enjoys his life giving torture

to others. He does not feel any sort of guilt rather he knocks on the door loudly,

calling “Savitri, Savitri!"(66) a dozen times before she could get up from her bed and

come to the door. Ramani severely condemns her, “Have you dined? . . . I suppose

you are too sleepy to serve me . . . sometimes a man may have to return home late.

One can’t always be rushing back, thinking of the dinner"(66). In this situation, he

would have some guilt feeling but behaves as if it was Savitri’s mistake. It is actually

modern male’s master mentality who could not see other’s life at all.
 44

Similarly, the temple-priest who is a fairly old man is more hypocritical and

worldly and less spiritual. He feels that he has an absolutely correct understanding of

human beings. He is very greedy. His yard-stick of measuring people’s love of

religion is that they should exhibit their faith in religion by offerings to the gods. In

his talk to Mari, a black-smith, he opines, “Now-a-days you fellow must to worship

the God free; no offerings, not even a piece of coconut"(130). In the name of God, he

tries to exploit the innocent people like Mari, Ponni etc. in fact, the priest himself is

not religious man.

Thus, R. K. Narayan in his novel, The Dark Room strives his best to depict the

hypocrisy of modern Indian people. Modern Indian people are showy by their natures

who try to cover the inner reality. That is caused because of the conflict between their

temptation towards western culture, that is modernity and their inherited reality that is

tradition. To show such hypocritical behavior of Indian people, Narayan exploits two

characters-Ramani and a priest in the novel.

Reflection of Industrial Revolution and its Effect on the Indian Society in the

Novel.

The universe has become a miniature society because of the scientific

development where all cultures mix into one in which Marx said, ‘all that is solid

melts into one’ (qtd. in Bermen 1). Modernity unites all human beings. Scientific

discoveries-transportation, communication and media etc. make the world small and

single. Different kinds of mass media which are the result of science like radio,

computer, film and T.V. have control of our lives. We cannot avoid these media

because we are surrounded by them. They help the people update their life providing

the hot news which ultimately mobilizes the people to adjust in the complex world.

But those who cannot accommodate the new scenario have to suffer much. Ramani
 45

and Babu, the modernist characters, who accommodate the industrial and scientific

advancement, spend the life comfortably whereas Savitri, Gangu, Sumati, etc. cannot

adjust in the changed industrial scenario and hence fade away or suffer. Ramani

travels the places in his car, goes to the movie and enjoys his life and Babu also

enjoys looking and playing cricket; however females are confined within the four

walls of the house. Narayan rightly comments on Ramani’s life:

Ramani laughed faithfully and drove the car towards the river. She sat

nestling close to him as he drove, and said suddenly. Let us drive

round the town once and then go to the river. Ramani stopped,

reversed and drove the car into the town and about the streets. I’m

rather mad tonight she said. I hope you don’t mind it. (71)

Because of the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth century, human beings

have been getting into new life, social and political changes and economic

development. Before industrial revolution, the life was hard; people used to exploit

simple machines to make their works quite easier. Socio-economic side was very

poor. Agro-based economy had not maintained the standard of life. In the past, there

was no development of transportation and communication. But after the dawn of

industrial revolution, great changes emerged. As a result, life became comfortable and

smooth. It brought many social changes. The middle class grew and progressed

rapidly. Factories were started to have been run by them, they used to hire the

workers in low payment and treated them as objects. In it, Marx believes, "the

bourgeoisie has turned away from the family its sentimental vial, and reduced the

gamily relation to a mere money relation"(23). Everything was concerned with the

money, property and prestige not with familial sentiments, feelings and emotions. In

the novel, Ramani does not valorize the sentiments and feelings of his wife and
 46

children. What he focuses is his job at the Bank and his way of life. He never tries to

make his life better with the assistance of Savitri. When Savitri makes up her mind to

leave the house, he has not become disappointed, rather he shouts aggressively. All

the pity and mercy are grasped by the reason. Ramani does not hesitate to beat his

own son brutally. Narayan writes:

In helpless anger Babu remained silent. His father slapped him on the

cheek. “Don’t beat me, father”, he said, and Ramani gave him a few

more slaps. At this point Savitri dashed forward to protect Babu. She

took him aside, glaring at her husband who said, “Leave him alone, he

does not need your petting”. She felt faint with anger. (38)

Industrial revolution has brought the modernity and it has its effect in

India also, however this revolution or modernity has also imported the negative

impact to some extent, it has brought positive change. With the establishment of

industries, employees are exploited physically, sexually, and mentally as well. People

started to keep servants or valets in their houses. In this regard, Karl Marx states that:

In the earlier epochs of history we find almost everywhere a

complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold

gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights,

plebian, and slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild

masters, journeymen, apprentices, and serfs; in almost all of these

classes, again subordinate gradations. (21)

Here, in The Dark Room, the main character Savitri scolds her cook, Ranga,

she scolds him as, “Why are you in such a hurry to finish your work and go home?

Home; always dying to return home. Dust and grime everywhere, at every corner.

You shall not go home before ten from now. Understand me?"(74)
 47

Furthermore, Ramani, a married but irresponsible man and a boss of Engladia

Indurance Company, exploits Shanta Bai mentally as well as sexually. Because of the

industrial revolution there was the emergence of many industrial factories, banks,

insurances, etc. which had the sole purpose of profit. The employers used to advertise

for the position of the employees. While appointing the employees, they would

commodify the human beings and grasped the excessive benefit from them. As a

result, the factory owners were getting rich and prosperous day by day, but the

workers had to linger in the same poor and pathetic situation. The human relationship

has changed into the relationship of money and profit. Humanity has faded way rather

exploitation, deception was prevalent everywhere. The trace of exploitation can be

deciphered in the following lines:

Her tone was soft and pleasing. Ramani wanted to ask her if she could

sing well but restrained himself and “yours is a very interesting story.

Then, I suppose you saw our advertisement?"Yes, I did. I sent my

application to all the branch offices and I was called up for interview

only by you. (52)

Shanta Bai was not called by any other office where she applied for job except

Ramani. Why did Ramani call her for interview? It is obvious that he wants her

because it is easy to control her and makes the excessive use of her for his own

benefit. Not only that, he has made extramarital relationship with her which

ultimately brings tension in the novel.

The employeers are deceived in such a way that the information about the

salary is not given previously in the advertisement and when they are selected for the

job only then they come to know about their salary which is highly lower than

expected. Now, it complicates them whether to accept the job in that low salary or
 48

leave it, they are mentally panicked. This is also a kind of official exploitation. That’s

why modern world is not devoid of exploitation. The following line of the text

clarifies the implicit exploitation done on the employees. “I had no business to

imagine it because the advertisement never mentioned the amount”, (55) Shanta Bai

says.

Modernity has the positive influence as well. Electricity is one of the

significant markers of modernity. It was discovered by Benjamin Franklin in the

1750s which has had a tremendous impact on the history of mankind because it as

Charles Van Doren believes, “…dissolved the difference between night and day and

masked the change of the season"(270). Moreover, it provided the new source of

energy which helped to intensify the industrial revolution that dramatically changes

human life. We can apparently see the influence of electricity on Babu, Sumati,

Kamala, Chandru, etc. in the novel The Dark Room. Chandra, Babu’s friend, wants to

build his career in the field of electricity. He has made miniature dynamos, electric

bulb and telegraph sets. To highlight the issue of electricity, Narayan writes:

Sumati and Kamala were delighted. “It is going to beat the pavilion in

the Police Inspector’s house,"they said ecstatically Chandru worked

wonders with piece of wire and a spanner . . . it was great triumph for

Babu. He felt very proud of being responsible for the illumination.

(33)

Not only this much, industrial revolution makes the life of the people

excessively busy; they even cannot give the proper time for their children and wife.

When the children ask the whereabouts of their father, Savitri replies, “He was so

terribly busy the whole morning that I couldn’t get a word with him"(77). Ramani is a

modernist character who has to spend the busy hectic life whereas the traditional
 49

character like Gangu has enough time. She goes to the house of different people to

spare her time. She mostly spends her time in backbiting of other people. Traditional

characters, especially women, do not want to struggle hard and make their life busy.

In this regard, R. K. Narayan mentions that Gangu without asking says, “Don’t think I

am gossiping, but there was another person with him perhaps it is that person about

whom people are taking all this nonsense"(87). Gangu here criticizes Ramani

unnecessarily.

The aforementioned paragraphs evidence both positive and negative aspects

of modernity and hence show how the tension between the tradition and modernity

exists. Because of electricity, means of transportation, development in industrial

sector; the living standard of modern people has become terribly comfortable whereas

the coin has another side as well for those traditional who can not adjust in the

changed scenario. Moreover, the factory owners are used to exploiting the laborers

compelling them to work in low wage. In consequence, there is tension between

modernity and tradition.

Colonial Impact in the Indian Society as Reflected in the Novel

The term colonialism can be understood as the specific form of cultural

exploitation that developed with the expansion of Europe over the last hundred years.

Colonialism is the process of the country dominating other countries with different

strategies. Though colonialism was discerned as the pathetical domination in the past,

nowadays any kind of hegemony can be categorized under colonialism; either it is

cultural or educational or economic or something related to sports, music films, etc.

Colonialism is such a process in which tussle always exists; there is traumatic

relationship between the victorious settlers and the original inhabitants. Colonialism

is an act of restructuring a new community; it is believed that colonialism is the

 50

consequent and control of other people’s land. It was the European expansion of

power into Asia, Africa and America, and later America started the mission of

colonizing over underdeveloped and developing countries not explicitly but

implicitly. However, here, we are perusing the European impact upon India and or

Indian way of life.

According to Marxist critics, the earlier colonialists were per-capitalists and

the modern capitalism was established along with the notion of Western. Colonialism

restricted the economics, natural resources of the colonized drawing them into the

problematic condition creating the complex relationship not only between the

colonizers and the colonized but also among the colonized themselves.

The colonies had to supply the raw materials and the slaves for colonial

consumption. The colonies had also to provide markets for European goods. Because

of the colonial impact on Ramani, he always dominates his wife just as the colonizers

dominate the colonized. He scolds his wife accusing of her committing many

mistakes. He does not even favor the meal prepared by Savitri. He says:

Brinjals, cucumber, radish and greens, all the twelve months in the

year and all the thirty days in the month. I don’t know when I shall

have a little decent food to eat. I slave all day in the office for this

mouthful. No lack of expenses, money for this and money for that. (2)

Here, we can see the conflict between the tradition and modernity and

or the colonized and the colonizer. Savitiri is a colonized character whereas Ramani is

the colonizer.

The colonialist used to take English language and English culture as the

means of exploiting the orients. Wherever they wanted, they used to impose English

language in the academia and institutions in the colonies. They themselves wanted to
 51

teach, write about and research the orient. It is a main way of colonizing that is

dominating the orients.

Gangu, in spite of being the colonized, wants to know more about English

language and English culture. Because she is shaped in such a way that she sees

nothing magnificent beyond English language. She can also be considered as the

orientalist and or colonialist. Narayan comments, “For serving on public bodies she

felt she ought to know a little more English than she needed to read fairy tales and

write letters to her husband at the beginning of their married life."(15)

In the same manner, Babu also prefers to read in English school and makes

the study of everything with the use of English language. He prefers to see English

film at the cost of Hindi. That sort of tendency appears in him because of the

influence of the English people. Whereas Sumati representing the nationality and

tradition states that she does not like English language and English film at all. In this

regard, we can see the glimpse of clash between the colonial product (Babu) and its

opponent (Sumati) which is substantiated by the following lines:

“I don’t like Indian films, Mother. I would like to be sent to

Frankenstein, which is coming next week”. Babu says.“I don’t like

English films. Let us go to this tomorrow”. Sumati said. “It is because

you don’t understand English and films”. Said Babu. As if you were a

master of English and understood all that they say in the films: why do

you pretend? Said Sumati. (25)

Colonial discourse about the orient including oriertalism plays vital role in

serving the purpose of European expansion, but it also brought some sort of resistance

in almost everywhere in the non-western world.

 52

In the text also Savitri resists the normalized rules practiced in India just as the

colonized resist the colonizers. She is fed up of the nagging and bullying behaviors of

Ramani who is the embodiment of colonialism and decides to desert him, the house

and the children behind, and passes her time individually. She strongly resists on the

domination and humiliation of Ramani and challenges, “Do you think I am going to

stay here? . . . Do you think that I will stay in your house, breathe the air of your

property, drink the water here and eat food buy with your money? No . . ."(88)

Colonizers occupy the land of colonized and absorb their power and rule them

as master does to the slave. The colonized has to follow whatever the colonizers order

them. Ramani is interpreted as the supporter of colonialism whereas Savitri as an

opponent of that sort colonialism and domination. Though she tries to be free from

the clutch of domination, she becomes a mere puppet in the hands of her husband and

follows whatever he orders her. Acceptance of one’s lot rather than protest or revolt

has been ingrained in her and she has been taught to find her happiness in it, although

it might be irksome to other. The woman cannot be herself in the society which is

exclusively masculine. Narayan writers in the novel:

How impotent she was, she thought, she had not the slightest power to

do anything at home, and that after fifteen years of married life Baby

looked very ill and she was powerless to keep him in bed; she felt she

ought to have asserted herself a little more at the beginning of her

married life and then all would have been well. (6)

Savitri seems to be bold and brave but in the hands of her husband,

who is tyrannical and unkind, becomes weak and powerless. Women in particular life

are judged by man’s low, as though they are not women but men. This sort of attitude
 53

creates the tension between the male and the female which is analogous to the

colonizers and the colonized.

Colonialism has influenced the Indian people in such a way that they

commence to consume or take every European mores and activities as their own. But

it is not applicable to all Indians, so there is the emergence of disparity between the

modern characters who want to update themselves in changing circumstances, and

traditional characters who want only to preserve culture. Babu, being a modern

character, always desires to watch and play cricket whereas his mother and sisters do

not emphasize cricket because they are traditional characters. Because of two diverse

attitudes, there is always a conflict or misunderstanding amongst the characters just as

the clash seen between the colonized and the colonizers. Babu is impressed by the

westerners so deeply that he rejects even the tiffin if he is not provided with money

for cricket fee. He wants to adopt the whole western life, sports, language at the cost

of his own original Indian life style, mores and games. To show his inclination

towards cricket, Narayan brings about the following lines in text. “Mother, I won’t

touch the Tiffin unless you promise to give me my cricket fee tomorrow. I must give

four annas to the captain”. (80)

Thus, colonization of almost two centuries, India was deeply affected and

Indian people were suffered from it. People like Ramani learnt to dominate and

exploit his wife and workers in his house and office. It is completely the Western

master mentality to over look others. Babu and Gangu, the two other characters are

influenced by the Western form of life who try to adopt the Western culture. On the

other hand, Savitri like characters are victimized by the attitude and behavior of the

characters who are influenced by western mentality, which is the root cause of tension

in the Indian society. Hence modernity tried to over power the tradition which is
 54

some how static. That tension between tradition and modernity created dynamism in

the Indian society which the novelist, R. K. Narayan has vividly depicted in this

novel, The Dark Room.

 55

IV. Conclusion

It is, with the evidences of the aforementioned illustrations, firmly averred

that R. K. Narayan’s famous novel, The Dark Room has depicted the issue of tension

between tradition and modernity in colonial Indian society. Because of tension, there

is internal dynamics in Indian society and Indian nation-state in general. The tension

is primarily seen between the female and male characters that represent the tradition

and modernity respectively. Along with the characters, Malgudi, the setting of the

novel is also presented as a platform for the change from tradition to modernity.

Moreover, the industrial revolution, colonial mentality and modern hypocrisy have

remarkable influence on the characters which further support to add some bricks in

the emergence of tension.

The Dark Room, at first, deals with the early phase of Malgudi that is colonial

Indian which presents the society as primitive, religious and utterly patriarchal. The

central female character Savitri is a paragon of this kind of society. She, having the

secondary position in the society, represents the position of all women in the pre-

colonial India. In such a society, we hardly find the account of the scientific and other

modern awareness, for instance, clothing, film, interest in sports, use of modern

machines and vehicles etc.

However, in the successive chapters, R. K. Narayan presents the same city

Malgudi, in its later phase, which represents the modern and scientific society. In this

phase, the modern character Ramani is highly concerned by attributing the modern

dispositions like independent life, interest in film, use of luxurious vehicle, etc.

Ramani strives his best to subvert the ancient society due to western influence.

Atheist Ramani is indifferent towards his duties and responsibilities in a family and
 56

even does not hesitate to make extra-marital relationship with Shanta Bai, which

consequently brings about tension in the novel.

Because of the Industrial Revolution, there was change in Indian society

which is vividly seen in the novel. It has made the life of the people comfortable and

happy, but if the people can not accommodate the new scenario, they have to suffer

much. Ramani and Babu, the modern characters who accommodate the industrial and

scientific advancement spend the life comfortably whereas Savitri, Gangu, Sumati,

Kamala etc. can not adjust in the changed industrial scenario due to their unshakable

faith in religion and responsibilities and hence suffer. This displays the tension in

owing two incompatible entities.

Tension and internal dynamics in Indian society happen because of the impact

of westernization, modernization and colonization. Colonialism has influenced the

Indian people in such a way that they commence to imitate every European mores and

activities as their own. But it is not applicable to all Indian people. So there is the

emergence of disparity between the modern characters who want to reform

themselves in changing circumstances and the traditional character who want to

preserve their own ancient culture. Traditional values are followed and implemented

by the females and modern and western values are imitated by the male. Thus, there

is almost the subversion of the originality of both cultures, and there is double and

partial existence of these cultures which ultimately result into tension that brings

about dynamism in society.

In this way, Narayan’s The Dark Room visualizes the tension between

tradition and modernity, which cause the internal dynamics in Indian society. The

tension appears because of the female’s dominant faith in primitive, religious,

patriarchal norms and values and male’s desire to follow the western forms of life.
 57

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