Hello and welcome to the Discourse. R. K. Narayan was known for depicting common Indian characters in a realistic yet humorous manner. He judged the Indian life of his time dispassionately and depicted the different colors of life in his words sans any propaganda or socio-political motivation. His characters are closer to reality and often present perfect accuracy because of this, the reader can easily relate to the characters of Narayan’s novels. The Bachelor of Arts was the second novel of Narayan’s trilogy set in the fictional Malgudi which was published in 1937. While the novel is suffused with the colors of Indian traditions and attitudes, the characters are all human. Instead of harshly criticizing the ills of society, he presents them as a mix of gentle irony and sympathy, quiet realism and fantasy. He is not frustrated with the societal conditions and appears optimistic for the future of Indians. He shows goodness along with the ills of Indian society through his novels.
Characters of The Bachelor of Arts
Chandran is the protagonist of the novel. He is the elder son of H.C. Venkatachala Iyer, a retired District Judge of Malgudi. Chandran is a witty, intelligent, and laborious young man who is studying as a final year student of B.A. History in Albert Mission College, Malgudi. His education has made him unorthodox he believes that old customs and traditions should not stand in the way of the happiness of people. H.C. Venkatachala Iyer is a common Indian father, a patriarch who is responsible for the financial well-being and reputation of the family. Chandran’s mother is a homely traditional, noble lady. She isn’t a submissive lady but a strong-headed person devoted to her husband and children. She is very orthodox and conservative and knows and respects the traditions of society and wants her family to adhere to them strictly. Seenu is Chandran’s younger brother. He is very much attached to Chandran. Mr. Brown is the principal of the college and Professor Ragavachar is the teacher of History. Professor Gajapathy is a lecturer of English literature.
Ramu, Mohan, Natesan, and Veerasami are four college friends of Chandran. While Chandran is too fond of Ramu and spends most of his time with him, they gradually lose contact after college life. Mohan is a poet but he is not good at studies. He flunks college and decides to work as a correspondent for ‘The Daily Messenger.’ He is laborious and becomes successful through his hard work. Unlike Chandran’s other friends, Mohan remains a helping friend of Chandran throughout his life. Malathi is a 15-year-old beautiful girl whom Chandran sees on the banks of the river Sarayu and gets fascinated by her charm. This fascination soon turns into infatuation and becomes a cause of struggle as her parents reject Chandran’s proposal to marry Malathi because Chandran is Mangalik-- a superstition in which marriage to a non-Manglik, Malathi, would lead to her early death. Ganapati Sastrigal and Srouthigal are marriage makers who try to help Chandran get married to Malathi but fail. Kailas is a man who forces his friendship on Chandran during his days at Madras where he goes to visit his uncle, aunt, and cousin. Ragavan is a barber in Madras who helps Chandran turn into an ascetic. Murugesan is an influential General Manager of Engladia Limited at Madras who helps Chandran in acquiring the Malgudi agency of The Daily Messenger at the request of his uncle. Susila is the daughter of a lawyer from Tarapur, a neighboring town of Malgudi. She is beautiful and full of tender feelings and skills. She can play vena and sing well. She is educated and respects traditions. Her father sends a marriage proposal of Susila with Chandran. Chandran feels the same fascination towards Susila at their first meeting that he felt for Malathi and soon they get married to make a happy couple.
Summary of The Bachelor of Arts
The novel begins as Chandran is preparing for a debate in College. The College Union Secretary Natesan has asked him to be the prime mover of the debate against Professor Ragavachar on the topic that ‘Historians must be slaughtered first.’ Chandran is not comfortable about it because he is a history scholar and he respects professor Ragavachar too much. Natesan promises him that he will not invite Professor Ragavachar to debate but insists that they cannot find any better speaker than Chandran and hence, he has to take the lead. Chandran prepares well and offers a good debate. His prime opponent also presents a strong rebuttal. The audience finally votes in favor of annihilating the historians and Chandran wins. Principal Brown then congratulates Chandran and offers a five-minute debate on why Historians must be slaughtered and five minutes debate on why historians must be respected.
Chandran then prepares hard for his final examination and becomes a Bachelor of Arts. He has plans to go to England for higher studies. After college, he starts feeling lonely as his friends gradually start losing contact. He realizes the immaturity of college friendship and comments, “People pretended that they are friends, but the fact is they are brought together by forces of circumstances. How true!!!” One day, while he goes for a stroll on the banks of the Sarayu river in Malgudi, he chances upon a young girl (Malathi) playing with her young companion on the sands of Sarayu. Chandan habitually used to watch young girls at the banks of the river and markets but he never felt such a strong attraction towards any girl ever. He tries to know more about Malathi but doesn’t dare to talk to her. He comes to know that Malathi lives in front of his friend Mohan’s house. His mother realizes that Chandran is facing some emotional turmoil and asks him. Chandran reveals that he wants to marry a girl named Malathi before leaving for England as he loves her. His mother insists that the proposal must come from the girl’s family and only then they will discuss the prospects of his marriage with Malathi. Chandran never talked to Malathi but he wishes to marry her. He takes the help of Ganapati Sastrigal and Srouthrigal to arrange his marriage with Malathi. Sastrigal takes the horoscope of Chandran and discusses him with Malathi’s family. Malathi’s father rejects the proposal because Chandran is Manglik and according to superstition if a non-Manlik girl marries Chandran, she will die soon after their marriage. Chandran decides to write a letter to Malathi in which he requests her to wait for him for two years, he will complete his higher studies and return from England with a stable career and then he will marry her. He gives that letter to Mohan to give to Malathi who lives in front of Mohan’s house. Mohan takes the letter but decides not to deliver it to Malathi as he feels Malathi is not a good match for Chandran. Srouthigal, being an expert in horoscopes tries to offer some solution to Malathi’s father but he fails to convince him. This breaks Chandran’s heart as Malathi is married off to another suitor soon and he feels helpless. Dazed by this emotional turmoil, he decides to leave home and show his rebellion against orthodoxy and superstitions. He goes to Madras and stays at a hotel where he meets Kailas, a very hospitable but reckless young man. He forces his friendship on Chandran and takes him to various places to visit. He openly spends a lot of money on Chandran as he believes that “A man must spend forty years in making money and forty years in spending it” and he acts on this principle. He is a drunkard and gives to excessive spending. He keeps two wives and yet comes to Madras for visiting prostitutes. Initially, Chandran is comfortable with Kailas but soon finds his lifestyle suffocating. He makes a distance with Kailas. Chandran is not at all interested in alcohol or prostitutes. He rather decides to turn an ascetic and lead a celibate life. A barber named Ragavan is very impressed by Chandran’s resolute and helps him in becoming an ascetic and cuts off his hair. For eight months, Chandran keeps moving from one place to another like a hermit, spending most of his time in meditation and introspection. Soon this life of solitude starts to wear off. Chandran starts feeling guilty about deserting his family and parents. The toil and aimlessness of life as a hermit dawn over Chandran and soon he decides to return to normal life as a householder but he has no money to go back. He contacts a postmaster and asks him to send a wire message to his father and demands Rs20 from his father. His father immediately sends Rs50 for his son’s help. Chandran immediately gives away the clothes of the hermit and decides to return to Malgudi. After reaching, he tells to his father that he doesn’t want to waste his father’s money by going to England, rather, he would try to find some work in India. He meets Mohan who suggests that if Chandran gets the Malgudi agency of The Daily Messenger, he will be able to make a stable career. Chandran’s father arranges a meeting of Chandran with Murugesan, an influential General Manager of a private company in Madras. Murugesan recommends Chandran’s name for the Malgudi agency holder of The Daily Express. Chandran returns to Malgudi and starts working as the publisher of the Malgudi newspaper. He still misses Malathi and is sad about her. One day, his father gets a marriage proposal for Chandran with Susila, the daughter of a lawyer from Tarapur, a nearby village. His father asks Chandran to go and meet Susila but Chandran is not interested as he doesn’t want to marry at all. Chandran’s mother insists that he should meet Susila once and she will go to Tarapur with him to see her. Chandran agrees reluctantly. During their journey to Tarapur, his mother says that a marriage has to observe certain well-set procedures and principles of social propriety. She offers the reason for her orthodoxy. She says that one should marry a girl of a family of similar status as his own family and she defends dowry by saying that the dowry is a girl’s right in her parental property and her father’s duty to ensure his daughter’s and her husband’s welfare. She believes that marriages are a matter of destiny, not of choice. She claims, "It is all settled already, the husband of every girl and wife of every man. It is in nobody's choice." She mentions her own experience and says that she was rejected by four persons before her marriage was fixed to Chandran’s father. She then says "You can marry only the person who you are destined to marry and at the appointed time. When the time comes, let her be the ugliest girl, she will look all right to the destined eye.”
Finally, they reach Susila’s home. Susila is a very beautiful young voluptuous girl who is full of tender feelings and feminine strength. Like Chandran’s mother, she is confident and believes in her tradition. She expertly plays vena to welcome Chandran and his mother. Chandran feels the same strong fascination towards Susila at the first sight that he felt for Malathi and soon he finds himself engrossed with her charms. He feels sorry for having doted on Malathi whose very name is tongue-twisting and whose beauty cannot stand comparison with Susila who is ‘divine’. Soon Chandran marries Susila and describes her merits to Mohan in poetic terms. Mohan is satisfied seeing his friend happy with his married life.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the History of Indian English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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