May 27, 2017 02:02 PM
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It is a simple story about a kid named Swami in the imaginary town of malgudi. Simple tasks like going to school, doing homework and all, seems like a heap of struggles to him. Rk narayan has done a great work to write this story from the perspective of a child. For a child everything seems pure and innocent and when he sees something bad he is introduced to a whole new world where evilness exists. And the same thing happens with Swami. Swami is in a primary school in the british era. And this novel was published in the year 1935, an era of nationalist movements and anti-british sentiments. In the very first chapter the dominance of the british on india can be seen when the scripture teacher –ebenezar, tried to dominate the students with his thoughts on religion by cursing the hindu religion. Swami’s blood boiled and attacked him with questions like “if he was a god, why did he eat flesh and fish and drink wine?” to which Ebenezar punishes him.In chapter 12 ‘BROKEN PANES’, swami is introduced to a new world where he is fired with swadeshi zeal. He later joins the mob and vandalizing his school ‘albert mission school’ and then gets rusticated from it in a very dramatic manner with a touch of nationalism because of the fact that he calls his principal a ‘TYRANT’ for punishing him. Swami’s most of the problems is because of his academic life. In that time, use of cane, the degrading and humiliating nature of the ‘stand-up-on-the-desk’ punishment, the heavy workload- all are exposed for what they really are; a cruel education which mass-produces unimaginative clerks and subordinate staff to serve the british administrative machine.
Despite of these problems, swami’s innocence can be seen through the whole novel. First is when he makes a boat of paper and makes it run through a small stream, he then puts an ant on it. That happiness that was coming out through his smile was like he himself is playing with the ant but this happiness turned to sadness when the boat flips and drown. He prays to God for the ant’s soul. This reflects his innocence.
Another instance was when he could not get money from his parents or granny to buy a wheel, he put 6 stones in paper box and some leaf and soil and prayed to God to change it to 6 paise but it didn’t, so out of rage he threw the box and started weeping. But he picked it up and said sorry to God. What if GOD harms his granny, mother or his little brother?
But sometimes he acts like adult to overpower someone smaller than him by age or caste. In the chapter 15 ‘BEFORE MATCH’, he gives another kid greed of almond peppermint if he calls his friend- rajam. That child does so but instead of two almond peppermints he gives him 3 paisa coin. This shows how he learned to con people and lie as well.
His power of lying often gets mixed with his innocence. Like once he wanted to leave his school right after it finished rather than attending the drill classes. So he wanted to make a excuse of some sickness, so when he was asked by the drill teacher about his sickness he said ‘DELIRIUM’ about which he didn’t have any knowledge.
Despite of his innocence he sometimes loses his temper. Once he fought with all his friends for they called him a ‘TAIL’ of Rajam. On this he could not hold his anger as fingers were raised on his honesty and he didn’t like the fact that his own friends called him something that he was not. A TAIL. Swami slapped Pea and Sankar for that.
Swami’s imagination level is high. Most of his adventures, whether alone or with his friends, is simple like any other but what makes it special is their imagination. His imagination level can be seen many times like when he ran from Board high school in the same manner as he did in the albert mission school, he thought of every possible way that how he will start a new life by going to madras or even England.
There is another instance of his imagination power mixed with his innocence. One day his grandmother tells him to bring lemons for her because she had stomach pain but he rudely rejects her and leaves. When he was returning on his way to home he thought that what if Granny was angry with him or the worse what if she because of the stomach pain.
Because of his father’s fear he runs. He runs away and gets lost but eventually returns. But despite of all this his innocence stills lies in some part of his heart. When his friend Rajam was going away, he sobbed and apologized to him for he doesn’t turn up for the match. This also shows how a good friend he is and can ever be.
In conclusion I would like to convey that ‘SWAMI AND FRIENDS’ is a novel with a kid’s perspective added with British influence. Imagination level of a child is always very high during this age of Swami’s and Narayan has beautiful depicted it here. Innocence is what makes a child a child and RK Narayan has done it while portraying Swami and his friends.
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