LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Language Use and Society in R. K. Narayan's
The Man-eater of Malgudi

Susan Nirmala.S, M.A., M.Phil.

Language and Its Influence on Society

Language is one of the most fundamental aspects of human behaviour and it is a social phenomenon. More often than not, human beings use language to communicate with one another. The relationship between language on the one hand, and society and culture or behaviour on the other, has been viewed from several angles: 1. It is society that determines language. 2. Society and language are two different, independent and separate entities. 3. One is the cause and the other is the effect.

Whichever positions one takes, language certainly is an important means for the transmission of social structure from one generation to the next generation.

Even as language may differ from one ethnic group to another, its manifestation within an ethnic group may also differ from group to group, profession to profession and person to person. This flexibility and variation offer many ways to seek, reveal and establish, and retain and preserve identities of individuals, groups and pursuits, etc.

Standard language both written and spoken, regional and social dialects, as well as speech variety used in a variety of professions, usually referred to as register, and special markers or ways of use of speech that characterize an individual's speech from another (broadly called as idiolects), gender distinctions in use of language, etc. are some of the manifest representations that are available to creative writers in delineating their characters.

An Indian creative writer writing in English depicting Indian ethnic, social, and even metropolitan/urban Indian groups and characters is confronted with several issues relating to the exploitation of language markers in delineating his or her characters, events, etc.

Socio-Cultural Descriptions Found in Indian Writing in English through Language

Indian writing in English reflects its Indianness largely through the exploitation of the socio-cultural factors which form the background and function as the prime mover of the story. Names of individuals and places where events take place also add to the Indianness of the language used. Indian myths, folktales, folk metaphor, proverbs, Indian flora and fauna also form an important part of the Indianness. Indian traditions, Indian customs, Indian costumes, Indian beliefs, Indian food habits, music, Indian religion, etc., have their own specific characteristics and find their way in Indian Writing English.

Caste identification through professions, dress code, language use, place of settlement within a town or village, and "peculiar" sectarian practices are also exploited in creating an aroma of Indianness. Unconsciously, such descriptions may also reveal the underlying discriminations and prejudices.

Women in the Indian society get different roles and are viewed in different angles on the basis of the role they have in their families or society at large. They are more stringently subjected to a moral code in the traditional and not so traditional descriptions. And this also brings in Indianness. The status of women and the nature of women are duly reflected in the writings of Indian authors writing in English.

Stratification of the people on the basis of occupation and the names of the various professions and address terms also reflect the socio-cultural situation.

So, through the medium of language, whether deliberate or non-deliberate, aspects of Indianness are revealed in creative Indian writing in English.

Language Use in The Man-eater of Malgudi

Generally speaking, R. K. Narayan uses direct and plain language in his novels, especially more so in The man-eater of Malgudi (Narayan 1961). Narayan's use of simple vocabulary and plain and less involved language may be due to several reasons: he was writing about events taking place in an Indian community of characters located in India; he was also writing largely for an audience who already are familiar with the environment. Both these necessitated a kind of plain and direct language. His metaphors and other references were also directly from Indian contexts with Indian connotations, not needing to use words within which Western/European cultural meanings would dominate. In any case, as Alan Warner points out, "a good writer is not measured by the extent of his vocabulary, but by his skill in finding the 'mot juste' the word that will hit the nail cleanly on the head." (A Short Guide to English Style, 38)

Narayan himself in an interview remarked about the 'plainness' of his language:

It has been my aim to develop a medium - a transparent medium which gives to the reader an illusion that he is reading the book in his own language, not in an alien one. It is not opaque, it is not coloured … (10)

What is striking in Narayan's creativity is the peculiar use to which he puts language in The Man-eater of Malgudi. His vocabulary, though accused of being 'lean' is refreshing and interesting. It is his style of words used, which has to be noted.

A business man is reduced to his initials 'K.J.'; he is Malgudi's aerated water specialist; the lawyer achieves distinction because he is an 'adjournment' expert; the seventy year-old man needs no identification except to be called a 'septuagenarian'; Nataraj comes to be viewed as an 'abductor of elephants' by the tailor and party, who in turn pities Muthu for having to treat all his 'elephant associates' to tea; he also experiences an 'unholy thrill' (as though thrill can be classified as being holy and unholy) as he talks to Rangi at one stage. Equally interesting is the way in which Narayan describes certain articles: The 'Queen Anne Chair' and four more chairs of 'varying heights and shapes' which adorn Nataraj's parlour are resurrected from the family lumber room. The leg harmonium, numerous old bottles, several philosophical volumes have a special status as remnants of the joint family.

Narayan has fashioned for himself a kind of diction of common life for his Indian scene - a medium which is at once casual and convincing and used with complete confidence. It can always subtly convey the flavor of Indian speech in an Indian setting without any of the awkwardness of translation. Narayan's use of English is superbly simple and straightforward. The secret of his success lies in the perfect matching of content and form, matter and manner in the most original use of language.

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Identities Reflected in the Discourses of Male speakers - A Malaysian Chinese Perspective | Phonological Processes in English Speaking Indian Children | Communication Apprehensions in English Language Classrooms in Schools in Pakistan | Language Use and Society in R. K. Narayan's The Man-eater of Malgudi | A Comparative and Contrastive Study of Preposition in Arabic and English | An Insight into Pratibha Ray's Women Characters in 'The Stigma' and 'The Blanket' | Islamic Terms in English Usage | Love is More Than Language - Feminine Sensibility in the Works of Lakshmi Kannan | The Effect of Reading Strategy Training on University ESL Learners' Reading Comprehension | A Socio-Semantic Study of 'Can' and 'Could' as Modal Auxiliaries in English | Teaching and Learning Language Through Distance Education - Kannada for Administrators: A Case Study | HOME PAGE of July 2009 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR