Book Summary – Waiting for the Mahatma by R.K. Narayan
This is not one of wait to see the emancipation of one’s
lot, rather it is of how a selfish individual waits for the Mahatma’s clearance
to get married to the girl of his choice. The protagonist, Sriram, is an insipid person who can be
easily influenced by anyone. He grows up under the loving care of his
grandmother, after the early death of his parents. When he is twenty, his grandmother hands over the fat sum of
money she had been saving in his name. His irresponsibility is
known immediately, when he wants to withdraw a huge sum of Rs. 250, but his
watchful grandma restricts it to a decent Rs. 50.
Sriram then goes to the neighborhood shop and gives a
tenner to pay for colored drinks and plantains worth four annas (25 np).
The shopkeeper, Kanni, makes a reference of some ancestral debt which is
unknown to Sriram till then and sets off the remainder as the repayment towards
Singaporean cheroots his grandpa ordered and smoked while he was alive. Sriram loiters in the market and purchases a piece of
furniture because ‘the money in his pocket clamored to be spent’.
When he’s twenty-four, he comes across a pretty girl who
seeks a donation. It is love at first sight for him – he wants to know her
age, caste, eligibility for marriage, etc (but not her name), and puts eight
annas in her box (without even the rudimentary knowledge of the purpose of
donation) and thereafter sets upon the task of getting the details. He finds out from a jaggery merchant that the girl collected
money in connection with the visit of Mahatma Gandhi. At the same time,
Sriram regrets not pursuing college education, which would have taught him the
polish of treating a girl well.
Sriram goes to the venue on the banks of the Sarayu and
admires the air of importance with which the volunteers go about with their
jobs. He overhears a conversation whereby the official interpreter of the
meeting, Municipal Chairman, Natesh, is pointed to as one who runs with the
hares and hunts with the hounds. On the second day, Sriram manages a closer seat with an air
of authority on him, but feels guilty about looking at women who, the Mahatma
stated, were ‘mothers and sisters’. He could not stare at the men, who
were either shop-keepers or school teachers, and ‘a most uninteresting and
boring collection of human faces’. He was also afraid that Gandhiji may
read his mind.
He is unable to grasp the Mahatma on non-violence (his
‘confidence’ in his having understood ‘everything’ ever since he operated his
bank account, bites the dust). When the Mahatma speaks about
untouchability, he remembers how his granny always kept the scavenger a good
ten yards away by adopting a bullying tone and how he added fuel to the fire by
taunting him; he also recollects that the scavenger went about with his work,
unmoved. Sriram spots the girl who asked donation on the dais.
When he notices her wearing khaddar, he promptly changes his opinion of khaddar
from being the apparel fit only for cranks to how lovely it can be. He
wonders whether the wearer brought beauty to the material or whether it was
good by itself. He admires her confidence in facing a crowd. But,
he starts wondering if his grandmother would approve of a dark girl, if she
were so. He recollects that grandma had already seen one girl who’s a
yokel with her tight oily braid, gaudy village saree, et al. He tries to get closer to the girl when the Mahatma alights
the platform, and promptly regrets his dressing up in a mull dhoti and not in a
khadi dhoti. He tails the Mahatma to his hut in the sweeper’s colony, and
promptly recollects what a tough life they live. The reader is appraised
of the double standards which the Municipal Chairman applies, to host the
Mahatma at his mansion, to no success. But, that is not the end to the
administration’s effort to impress the Mahatma. His camping in the
sweeper’s colony makes it spick and span, and free from all the garbage which
is usually strewn all over. The reader is introduced to Gandhiji’s multi-tasking, but
shortly afterwards, Sriram is told that he should leave. Since it is the
donation girl who says it, his exit leads to an introductory conversation
between them. He wants to be a volunteer, but realizes that there are a
few requirements like truthfulness and discipline, to become one. She is
Bharati, often aggressive and stern in her behavior; but, she tells him that
she lost her father to the Non-Co-operation Movement in 1920, and her mother a
little later, and that she was adopted by the local Sevak Sangh and actually
christened by the Mahatma. If only to keep her company, Sriram agrees to
meet Gandhiji the following morning. Meanwhile, Granny is
so alarmed at the thought of Sriram being in the camp of an individual who
sought to make untouchables enter temples, and involve people in difficulties,
that Sriram’s teacher, who appreciates the boy, gets a piece of her mind.
The next morning, Sriram is introduced to Bapu and is given
the privilege of accompanying the latter on his morning walk. Sriram
becomes more cautious in his replies, as he fears that the saintly Mahatma may
actually see through his lies. Sriram is allowed to accompany the Mahatma’s tour of the
villages provided Granny concurs. Since she is not in favor of the freedom
movement and the Mahatma’s doctrine of Ahimsa, she comes across to Sriram as an
ill-informed, ignorant and bigoted personality. He knows he could not lie
to the Mahatma that he had taken Granny’s blessings; at the same time, he wouldn't be patient with her as she speaks condescendingly about the
Mahatma.During his conversation with Granny, she tries to find out if he had
eaten non-vegetarian food. Sriram puts her thoughts to rest, extolling
the Ahimsa doctrine of the Mahatma. The talk then moves to Granny fasting
every night (in deference to a social custom meant for widows), which goes
unnoticed and the hue and cry about the Mahatma’s fasts. She makes him
have dinner; and Sriram realizes it’ll be his last, at home. Rather than
expressly take Granny’s permission, he leaves behind a note of farewell and
goes into Gandhiji’s camp.
Sriram is happy with the respect he gets from the villagers, which he thinks is
a function of being a Gandhian. Sriram gets a new perspective of village
life, which is drastically different from the hitherto-imagined one of green
trees, step-tanks and temple spires and the like. Sriram gets a shock
when he notices an impoverished village just twenty miles from Malgudi but he
adjusts himself to it, if only to be a team-mate of his beloved.
When
Gandhiji departs, his assistant Gorpad goes along, while Bharati, Sriram’s
‘Guru’ stays back. One gets an idea of how people flocked to see the
Mahatma and how unassuming and normal he was amid all this.
Following the Mahatma’s departure, Sriram shifts to a deserted shrine on the
slopes of the Mempi hills. He feels the Mahatma’s presence, in
absentia. He recollects his tryst with the spinning wheel, another
failure of his. He eventually learns to spin the wheel and gets
appreciated by the Mahatma.
After
the imprisoned Mahatma gives the call of Quit India, Bharati assigns Sriram the
task of spreading the message. Sriram, whose nationalism was a means to
attain Bharati, wonders why he should waste a lot of paint to write the letter,
‘Q’, which seemed to be a part of the British ploy to drain the country of its
black paint. During such activities, the reader gets to know of counters
to Quit India – Quiet India, doubts over Indians’ capabilities of self-governance,
etc. – which indirectly bring out Sriram’s dismal failure in conquering his own
self. In addition, one learns of ‘fake’ nationalists who claim to have donated
for Gandhiji’s cause and put his picture on a wall in their office, but
actually indulge in deforestation and assistance to the British. One also
comes across a British planter who actually offers hospitality to Sriram and
tells him politely yet firmly that he was as attached to India as the latter
was and that he would not want to quit India. One also gets to understand
the general chaos and double standards of the people as well as Sriram's -
although he does his duty as a worker of the national cause, he has an inner
conflict about going back to his comfortable home on Kabir street. His
adventures as a freedom activist of the Mahatma’s path give the reader
occasions to laugh. Meanwhile, he even tries to marry Bharati by force
but she insists that she wouldn't marry him without Bapu’s sanction. Bapu
feels it’s not yet time for them to get married, but advises them to surrender
at the nearest police station. Sriram takes it as turning down and feels
dejected, whereas Bharati takes it as Bapu had written and plans for
productively passing time in jail. This time Sriram does not want to accompany
her but asks her if she’d marry him at the end of it all, and with Gandhiji’s
permission – she agrees to it.
The
susceptibility of Sriram to any kind of influence is demonstrated by his coming
under at the tutelage of a pseudo-Gandhian, Jagadish by name, a terrorist who
wears khadi and has a photo studio for the front end. With a few words of
appreciation, Jagadish makes him a willing slave, makes Sriram work hard to
further his sinister intention, and even sets up a secret radio at the
abandoned temple, which served as Sriram’s residence, to communicate with the
Indian National Army.
During the course of transcriptions of the radio messages, Sriram even gets to
hear the voice of the legendary Subhas Chandra Bose, but the message gets
disturbed. Sriram is naive enough not to understand Jagadish’s
continuation of the message. Jagadish even gets Sriram to derail a train
by offering the bait of talking to Bharati – and Sriram agrees to it, only for
the sake of Bharati, and becomes a ‘Wanted’ person for the police. Now to
meet Bharati he has to shave off his head and grow a dropping mustache like a
Mongol. While growing the mustache, he indulges in various seditious
acts, which he begins to enjoy, if only as a source of relief from his lonely
and isolated life. Whenever he wonders if the Mahatma would ever approve
of his activities, Jagadish uses the name of Bapu to divert the topic and put
Sriram’s doubts to rest.
When
he actually goes to meet Bharati, she sends Sriram a message that subterfuge
cannot be done, and that he should go and see his granny who’s said to be very
ill. Sriram goes to his home in the dead of the night, in disguise, but
his voice betrays him and the neighborhood shopkeeper recognizes him. From him, Sriram learns that Granny had passed away the previous night, and that she
was not her usual self ever since she learnt that her grandson had
abandoned home to get after a girl, and that he was also a Zigomar. The
shopkeeper, Kanni, gives him food (on credit) but, however, does not betray him
for the award on Sriram’s head. Since Sriram cannot lead Granny’s funeral
procession, he seeks Kanni’s help, with the freedom to spend as much as
needed. Kanni’s due diligence and commitment to the family is contrasted
with the family priest’s greed. After certain rituals are followed, and
certain others, rejected by Sriram, the funeral pyre is lit, and then Granny
moves her toe! Before she is burnt alive, the fire is doused (despite the
priest’s disapproval!) and she is nursed well till the doctor arrives and
treats her and, advises that she be taken back home. The priest considers
this as inauspicious, and his objection is sustained this time. So she’s
taken to an abandoned old building, between the river and the town. She
recovers, people pour in at this miracle, and the police come looking in a
couple of days. Granny advises him to keep away from who make him tread
the wrong path. He goes away along with the police after putting her to
sleep and entrusting her to the care of Kanni.
Sriram quickly adjusts to jail life. Since he is detained under the
Defense of India Rules, he can be retained for as long as the police
wanted. His efforts to get a little more privacy for the prisoners is scoffed
at by the prison authorities, who let him off with a warning. Since he
did not surrender himself along with Bharati, he wasn't a political prisoner;
he spent his days with several prisoners undergoing varying terms of rigorous
imprisonment. They are known by the offenses they have been convicted of,
and Sriram realizes that they had humanity in them in that they wondered why he
derailed a train at the instance of one individual, especially when he had got
no profit out of it! He looked forward to stone breaking sessions because
they took him out of the jail, even if under surveillance. Conversations
between prisoners centered around what brought them there, future plans, philosophical discourse, bullying, et al, which kept him away from gloom.
He would be in the company of loneliness after all his cell-mates fell
asleep. He would wonder if Bharati got married to her compatriot (who,
incidentally used to address her as ‘sister’), or if she’d direct the shooting
party if he were caught making his escape.
One
day, Sriram gets a visitor who brings him the news that Granny had since
shifted to Benaras, that she requires money, and he had come to seek Sriram’s
permission to send the amount of accumulated money of rent on the house to
her. It is news to Sriram that the house had been let out (with due
precaution on vacation) to a yarn merchant, and that his belongings had been
kept safe in the end room.
Sriram dreams of escaping from the cell and getting Bapuji’s nod for helping all
prisoners escape. In this connection, he seeks the help of the bully of
the jail who is philosophical enough to advise him against it; the bully even
suggests that Sriram marry a ‘good girl’ and not the ‘jail-bird’! This
makes Sriram get annoyed and give up the idea.
With
the news of Indian’s impending independence reaching the jail inmates, there is
hope of release, but the doubt is whether non-political prisoners will be
released. Despite the jail chief’s suggestion to represent his case for
classification as political prisoner, he thinks that Bharati may not approve of
it and is on his own till his turn comes for release.
Sriram has some requests from his cell-mates which are more of the wishful
thinking variety, but actually spends half of his jail earnings on the tips to
the warders, who tailed him on that count.
While
ordering for ‘good’ food at his favorite eatery, Sri Krishna Vilas, Sriram
gets to know of the now-prevalent evils of hoarding, adulteration, etc., which
come as a rude shock to him since he expects independent India to be better
than British India. Sriram goes to Jagadish who is now a photographer,
who showcases an album of India’s struggle for Independence- an album which
includes their hideout in the abandoned temple – and rues fact that his
chronicling does not win him a post of power. Sriram feels sad that all
the service he had done only helped a photographer to showcase his
talent. He then realizes that the inspiring underground worker was no more
than an ego-centric fellow! But his visit serves the purpose in that
Sriram learns that Bharati was amongst the earliest political prisoners to be
released, and that she had left for Noakhali in East Bengal, where communal
riots were on. Jagadish suggests Sriram write to her but ends up writing
it himself.
Pat comes the reply that Sriram can meet her after January 14th.
During his journey, Sriram realizes his not knowing Hindi prevented him from
socializing, though jail-life taught him to be his own companion. He has
a close shave with fanatics, who let him go only because he and they share the
religion. On top of all that, the train is crowded to the fullest, and he
cannot get his favorite coffee.
Anyway, on reaching Delhi, he finds
Bharati waiting for him – he’s worried about his appearance whereas Bharati is
affectionate. She arranges to get his clothes washed (he expects that she
does it for him as a wife would have done). She cares for a lot of homeless
refugee children, and tells him that the Mahatma had not been able to spare a
thought about their marriage since he is pained by the suffering of the women
during Partition. She gives a detailed account of the Mahatma’s work
during Partition, of how he gave solace to the sufferers and changed the
perpetrators forever, and of his according supremacy of humanity over
religion. She adds that Bapu and his team were under threat, and that she
had decided to take her life rather than give up her honor, if it came to
that. She tells him that she was given the special charge of children,
who have been given names of birds and flowers, and that Bapu once said that
even a number would be better than a name, if a name meant branding a man on
the basis of religion. She recollects the reasons why the conversation
about their marriage did not proceed on two previous occasions.
An
appointment is taken for the next afternoon, and Sriram is worried about his
answers to Bapu’s possible questions, but Bharati tells him that he can say
anything, as long as it is the truth. Now Sriram dreams about the
arrangements to make in case of a ‘yes’. When they observe the busy
Mahatma from a distance, Sriram wants to back off, but Bharati insists that
Gandhiji wanted them to meet him that day. When the meeting finally takes
place, Sriram confesses to Bapu that he had actually indulged in
violence. The Mahatma talks about the purification effects of fasting and
Bharati offers to do it on Sriram’s behalf. It is time for the evening
prayer, and finally Sriram requests Bapu’s permission to marry Bharati.
Gandhiji blesses them and suggests the next day as the date of the wedding,
offers to officiate and also give the bride away. As he moves towards the
prayer venue, he turns round and expresses a premonition that he may not attend
the wedding and stresses that it should go on despite his possible absence and
Bharati agrees to it.
Only
on turning the page of the book does the reader realize that this was the
prayer meeting where the Mahatma was assassinated.
Short Summary of
“Waiting for the Mahatma” by R. K. Narayan
In Waiting for
the Mahatma (1955), Narayan uses as background the Indian Freedom Movement,
from which he, like so many other Indian writers of the time, had derived the
basic nationalism that sense of place and time and some idea of who you are so
necessary to the writing of realist fiction.
Narayan, as a
young man, was forbidden by his family to have anything to do with the
agitators for freedom. The more benign aspects of the British presence in India
the new educational institutions, the new career opportunities had brought
their own kind of freedom to many Indians, including people in Narayan’s
family.
His father, the
headmaster, knew where his future lay when he adopted modern ways and turned
his back on his tradition-minded parents and brothers; and then, too, Narayan’s
own writing came to depend heavily on patronage by British publishers and
readers. He, like many members of the new and insecure colonial bourgeoisie,
could not but feel a profound ambivalence about the mass movement against the
British ambivalence never clearly expressed but always present in his writings.
There is a short
story he wrote soon after independence, “Lawley Road,” which portrays some of
the confused impulses and blind nationalism of that mass movement. The story,
which is included in Malgudi Days, describes how the statue of a British man
called Lawley is scornfully dismantled and sold and then reinstated by the
municipal authorities after Lawley is discovered to be the creator of Malgudi.
But it is in
Waiting for the Mahatma that you find a franker ambivalence about that
anti-colonial struggle and its impact on the Indian masses. Here many more
Indians are making of the Freedom Movement whatever suits their private narrow
ends: men eager to revere Gandhi as a mahatma, eager to be touched by his aura
of holiness, while remaining indifferent to, or simply uncomprehending of, his
emphasis on developing an individual self- awareness and vision.
There is the
corrupt chairman of the municipal corporation who has replaced, just before
Gandhi’s visit to Malgudi, the pictures of English kings and hunting gentry in
his house with portraits of Congress leaders; he then worries about the
low-caste boy Gandhi talks to sullying his “Kashmir counterpane.” There is the
novel’s chief protagonist, Sriram, another feckless young man in Malgudi, who
joins the 1942 Quit India movement after falling for Bharati, an attractively
gentle and idealistic young woman in Gandhi’s entourage.
Sriram drifts
around the derelict, famine-stricken countryside, painting the words “Quit
India” everywhere, arguing with apathetic and hostile villagers about the need
to throw out the British. His weak grasp of Gandhi’s message is confirmed by
the fact that he lets himself be persuaded by an egotistical terrorist to
become a saboteur. He is arrested and spends years in jail, longing for
Bharati. His abandoned grandmother almost dies and then goes off to live her
last years in Benares; and then Gandhi himself, devastated by the massacres and
rapes of Partition, is assassinated on the last page of the novel.
Even before his
death, as Waiting for the Mahatma shows, Gandhi’s spirit had been absorbed into
the ostentatious puritanism of the men who came to rule India, the uniqueness
of his life and ideas appropriated into the strident Indian claim to the moral
high ground a claim first advanced through Gandhi’s asceticism and emphasis on
nonviolence, and then, later, through the grand rhetoric of socialism,
secularism, and nonalignment.
In fact, Gandhi
alone emerges as the active, self-aware Indian in the novel, struggling and
failing to awaken an intellectually and emotionally torpid colonial society, a
society made up overwhelmingly of people who have surrendered all individual
and conscious choice, and are led instead by decayed custom and herd impulses,
in whose dull, marginal lives Gandhi comes as yet another kind of periodic
distraction.
The one other
person who embodies individual initiative and positive endeavor in the novel
and he makes a fleeting appearance turns out to be a British tea planter; and
Narayan makes him come out very much on top in his encounter with Sriram. He is
friendly and hospitable to Sriram, who has painted the words “Quit India” on
his property. Sriram, unsettled by the tea planter’s composure, tries to assume
a morally superior position. Narayan shows him floundering, resorting fatuously
to half-remembered bits and pieces of other people’s aggressive anti-British
rhetoric.
