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An Eco-Critical Analysis of the Indian Scenario with Reference to Novels of R.K.Narayan

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An Eco-Critical Analysis of the Indian Scenario with Reference to Novels of R.K.Narayan ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 Dr.G.Kamatchi, M.A., M.Phil, Ph.D. Guest Lecturer, Department of English, Government College for Women (Autonomous), (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University) Kumbakonam– 612001. Cell No: 8667272324. E.mail: [email protected] AN ECO-CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INDIAN SCENARIO WITH REFERENCE TO NOVELS OF R.K.NARAYAN ABSTRACT Of late the literary critics, poets and the novelist pay full attention on the importance and analyse in deep level, the thick bondage between the nature and the society. The authors have become the eco-conscious and environment care takers in their presentation. They take more serious thinking in presenting the issues in a fittest manner and make the readers to fall in line the nature and eco-activities. The authors like R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao, Kamala Markanday, Anita Desai, and Kiran Desai are some important examples. They have applied the best presentation in the literatures to impress the importance of the environment in depth. This has created an important observation by the readers and brought the scenario to a good level on the key parameters of the environment. The healthy environment becomes a dare necessity for the humans. They made it to feel the environment is the life blood and to be cared all thorough the life. The paper is done on an elaborate way on the presentation of the author. R.K.Narayan. The terminology ‘Environment and Eco- criticism’had drawn the attention even at the nineteenth century. Key Words : Eco-criticism, Ecological, Nature, Landscape and Pollution. Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 123 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 AN ECO-CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INDIAN SCENARIO WITH REFERENCE TO NOVELS OF R.K.NARAYAN Eco-Critical is the study of literature and the environment from an multiple point of view, where the scholars of literature analyze texts that provide environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. Ecocriticism, in its simplest possible terms, is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. The holistic approach of Ecocriticism maintains that literature cannot be approached in a way that sets man and nature in opposition to each other. Instead, it examines man as a part of ecosystem. A close relationship between Nature and literature have shared in almost all cultures of the universe.The writers of today in order to understand this intimate relation between the two components have textualised the entire analyses. But these ecosystems have been adversely affected by the ever-increasing population and wealth of mankind. Under these circumstances it was impossible for literature, well known for reflecting the contemporary issues, to remain unaffected by these depletions. The word ‘ecocriticism’ first appeared in William Rueckert’s essay “LiWhen we talk about Man- Nature relationship there are two beliefs which need to be analysed viz. The Eastern belief and the Western belief: The Eastern belief propagates that Man and Nature complement each other by sharing the responsibilities of creation and its sustenance. In the absence of Nature man cannot exist. He will be lost. But the Western belief opposes this eco-affable notion. The western concept places man as superior to Nature where he acts as the master of Nature. He acts as a selfappointed authority. This belief system claims the superiority of civilization over nature. Under the influence of this belief, Man has always tried to conquer Nature without ever stopping and giving a thought to the end result. Such environmental crises that Nature has been portrayed as benign and the creator and as well as aggressive and destructive and depending upon the situation, mood and need of the story, these qualities are applied accordingly. R.K. Narayan is a regional novelist like Faulkner and Hardy. He too has created a fictional town called Malgudi on which all his stories are based. It is the only locale of his eleven novels and many short stories. It is difficult to comprehend his art and mind comprehensively Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 124 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 without a thorough understanding of his Malgudi – the fictitious appellation given by him to the region. Its geography and life in his variegated shades and forms has been painted in his prose narratives. It is true that the action in his novels centres round Malgudi; though literally. Malgudi is the fictional setting of R.K.Narayan’s all novels and stories. Malgudi is also an imaginary South Indian town round which R.K.Narayan has woven the complex pattern of the lives of his character. The traditional elements such as the Portrayal of Indian family, dominating husband, submissive wife, innocent children with many inhabitants, the village environment – all these clearly manifest traditional perspective in this novel. The principal land marks of Malgudi – Malgudi Station, the Central Co-operative land Mortgage Bank, the Bombay Anand Bhavan, Kabir Street, Lawley Extension, The Royal Hair – Cutting Saloon, the statue of Sir Fredrick Lawley, the office of ‘Banner’, the Sarayu River, Nallappa’s Groves, Mampi Hills, Hotel, Cinemas, Colleges – all these make strong social frame work which the juxtaposition of the age old conventions and the modern characters provide much of comedy. Malgudi is of all absorbing interest to the readers of R.K.Narayan. It is not a mere geographical expression; it has a distinct personality of its own. We always feel the touch of Malgudi as it appears as familiar as our home town. The setting of Malgudi is quite distinctive and most part of its, is descriptive. The places of Malgudi are not overshadowed by the people who inhabit it. There are characters that give meaning to the places of Malgudi and make them real and life-like. The sense of familiarity of the streets and lanes of Malgudi is homebred. It helps the readers to be intimate. It creates a deeper and better understanding of its people and places. Malgudi like other places of India is a town where castes and occupations are stable. Marriages are arranged. Astrology is generally accepted, though it is not always practiced. Malgudi is related to each and every one since long with minor changes here and there. The great charm of R.K.Narayan lies in making Malgudi, its people and their values real for the readers. His most serviceable tool in establishing the intimate sense of reality are keen observation, sympathy, unfailing human and gentle satire, still we live in the same familiar surroundings of Malgudi. Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 125 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 There are familiar faces and places - Market Road in the life line in Malgudi. Anderson Lane, Kabir Lane, Albert Mission School, Lawley Extension. The Central Co- operative Land Mortgage Bank, England Banking Corporation and the Sunrise Pictures give the town a distinct personality and peculiarity. The word and word of Malgudi is warm and intimate. It is life-like and interesting with smells, sights, sounds and flavours of its own. The Financial Expert is a regional novel. The entire scene except Madras episode takes place in Malgudi. In this novel we are told of the Market Road, lawley Road, Vinay Mudali Street, the Railway Station, the Town Bank, The Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank, the Garden printery, the Town Elementary School, the Memphi Hills and Lawley Extension etc., Margayya transacts his business in front of the Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank, and lives in Vinayak Mudali Street, the Book Domestic Harmony Publishers in Gordon printery. Balu is admitted in the town Elementary School. Margayya deposits his money in the town Bank. Balu lives in a magnificent residence situated at Lawley Extension. It is named after Sir Fredrick Lawley, but later it’s renamed as ‘Gandhi Nagar’. Balu’s Wife is the daughter of a tea estate owner at Memphi Hills. Margayya goes to Madras in search of Balu by train. Malgudi has its centres of recreation too. It has two clubs one English club and the other Indian club. In the Financial Expert we learn that Dr.Pal, the Palace Talkies which shows both Tamil and English films. Dr.Pal and Balu often go to cinema. Malgudi is to be imagined as a medium-sized South Indian town, reminding us of both Mysore and Bangalore. There is an imaginary river flowing part this town, and behind the river lie to equally imaginary Mempi Hills. In fact, the Malgudi novels of R.K.Narayan, including the Financial Expert, remind us strongly of the Wessex novels of Thomas Hardy. Wessex was the title which Thomas Hardy gave to the region in which placed the action most of Lib novels. Wessex is an imaginary name, as is Malgudi. Thomas Hardy used the name “Wessex” for the region in which his native country of Dorset was situated; and in the same manner R.K.Narayan gave the name Malgudi to be Southern town in which he placed the action of most of his novels. In this connection it is to be recalled that R.K.Narayan is himself a Southerner, with Tamil as his native language. Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2019 126 http://adalyajournal.com/ ADALYA JOURNAL ISSN NO: 1301-2746 The Financial Expert, the hero Margayya had five phases of his development. The Financial adviser to the peasants, with his grey, discoloured, knobby tin trunk, transacting business under a banyan tree in front of the Malgudi Central Co-operative Bank, the prosperous publisher (in collaboration with the printer Mr.Madan Lal) of domestic Harmony(Originally entitled a Bed-Life, or the Science of Marital Happiness).
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