LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 26:1 January 2026
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Selvi M. Bunce, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
         Nathan Mulder Bunce, M.A., Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Honorary Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

Poetic Encounter
Available in https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09TT86S4T

Poems
Naked: the honest musings of two brown women
Available in https://www.amazon.in

Decrees
Available in https://www.amazon.com

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2025
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Language, Culture, and Identity: A Linguistic Study of R. K. Narayan's Fiction with Reference to Malgudi Days

Dr. Ravindra Goswami

Abstract

This paper investigates how language functions as a vehicle for culture and identity in R. K. Narayan's short-story collection Malgudi Days (1943). Through a linguistically informed stylistic and sociolinguistic analysis of selected stories, the study explores how narrative voice, dialogue, register, idiom, and deixis construct local cultural worlds and social identities in the fictional town of Malgudi. Drawing on sociolinguistic theories of language and identity (Edwards, 2009; Bourdieu, 1991), postcolonial frameworks (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 1989; Bhabha, 1994), and stylistics (Leech & Short, 2007), the paper argues that Narayan's linguistic choices do cultural work: they naturalize an Indian socio-cultural worldview, present layered identities (regional, caste/class, generational), and negotiate Anglophone literary forms with indigenous narrative content. The paper concludes that Malgudi Days is a fertile site for examining the interplay between language, culture, and identity in Indian English fiction.

Keywords:R. K. Narayan; Malgudi Days; language and identity; sociolinguistics; stylistics; postcolonial literature; Indian English.

Introduction

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan (1906–2001) is one of the foundational figures of Indian English fiction. His Malgudi stories — concentrated, economical, and rooted in a small South Indian town — register the everyday using deceptively simple language that conceals complex cultural meaning (New Yorker, 2006). Scholars have long commented on Narayan's characteristic irony, humane realism, and his ability to represent “Indianness” without rhetorical excess (Mukherjee, 2000; Narasimhaiah, 1969). This research focuses on Malgudi Days as a linguistic text: how do lexical choices, dialogue patterns, narrative stance, and pragmatic implicature in the stories work to construct local culture and individual/social identity? Research questions guiding this paper:
What linguistic devices does Narayan employ to represent Malgudi's social and cultural world?
How do dialogue and register encode social identities (class, age, gender, caste/ritual roles)?
In what ways does Narayan's English negotiate colonial/Anglophone literary forms while retaining local cultural sensibility?

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Ravindra Goswami
Seth G.B. Podar College, Nawalgarh (Raj)
Goswami.raaj23@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.