Obituary
R.K. Narayan (1906 - 2001)
The death of the prominent Indian author R.K. Narayan on 13 May has spurned a flood of obituaries and comments testifying to his great popularity. All commemorations share a deep affection, not so much for the person of the author as for the world he created in his novels: the imaginary South Indian town of Malgudi and its lively characters. Narayan used this setting for the majority of his novels. His story-telling talent and the deeply humane description of minor changes and calamities in this microcosm made the reader feel more at home in this town with each new novel.
R.K.
Narayan (1906 - 2001)
Narayan started writing in the 1930s and published a large number of novels and essays, columns, and articles in newspapers and periodicals. His major recognition as a prominent Indian writer came with the novel The Guide (1958), which was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award. It was the first English book that was honoured in this manner and it was a great step in the recognition of English as a medium in Indian literary discourse. Narayan wrote in English but he cannot be compared to recent post-colonial Indian writing in English. His novels look inward at modern Indian society and brought this world closer to an audience abroad to whom India was a far and distant country. His writing was remarkable for its light, slightly humorous tone and easy narration with an enormous potential to captivate the reader. Thus he won over many readers outside India and created a perception which helped the acceptance of later Indian authors.
The novels of Narayan are world literature in an odd sense. If one reads Narayan's works now, it seems like his view on life and society in South Asia is somewhat outdated, but perhaps it is a nostalgia for a more confined, simple world that immediately captivates the reader. Times have changed in India yet Malgudi, as Narayan created it, will always be there for those who venture into these unique tales. *
IIAS, Leiden