RAMOS, Mara Danica V.

(2010-52708)

B Secondary Education (Social Studies)

CL 40 WFY WF 4-5:30 PM Final Paper

Problematique: How did R.K. Narayan represented the lingering influence of British colonizers

in India in relation to the re-emerging Indian identity in his book The English Teacher?

Western to Eastern, Restriction to Progression;

Krishnas Journey to Self-Realization

1945 It was the time when the British Empire is slowly losing hold of India. Indians,

both Muslims and Hindus, are clamouring for their own independence. However, despite of the

rising Indian nationalism, it is still hard for the Indians to be freed from Western influence, as it

has dominated them for more than three centuries.

It was the same year when R.K. Narayan, the internationally-acclaimed Indian writer of

Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts published his third novel, The English Teacher. It

is dedicated to his wife, Rajam, who died of typhoid fever in 1939. His grief and struggle to raise

their only child, Hema, is translated into his novels character, Krishna.
 Set in the fictional town of Malgudi, which Narayan created to serve as the microcosm of

India in his novels, Krishna is an English lecturer in Albert Mission College. He led his life in a

monotonous manner which supposed to satisfy him, though his idealistic and philosophical self

felt something missing. All has changed when his wife and child decided to leave his father-in-

laws house and live with him. Every anxiety cause upon him by this new life with his family is

countered by the spontaneity it brings. His contented life with his family was cut short when

Susila, Krishnas wife, contracted typhoid and died.

Krishnas feeling of emptiness has returned though he remained strong for his only child,

Leela. However, his life has taken a different turn when a mysterious letter is delivered to him

from a spirit medium who claimed to be able to communicate with his wife. In his journey to

self-improvement, he also found help in his daughter and her headmaster, who struck him as odd

at first, but inspired him to leave his unsatisfying job as a lecturer. When Krishna is finally able

to communicate with his wife by himself, it is also the moment that he had reached self-

realization and could start a simple yet meaningful life.

Through Krishna, R.K. Narayan is able to capture the turmoil within himself as well as

the times when the novel is published. Narayan, like Krishna, does not only brood over his own

happiness and misfortunes but also his own environment and the system on which he is under.

Just like Malgudi is the representation of India in Narayans novels, Krishna could also

represent Indians who were in the process of attaining liberty from their Western overlords.

Parallel to Krishnas journey, Indians were also nursed under the Western yoke; however, their

sense of identity is lost. Paradise it might be, there will be a time when such fantasy will be

broken and reality settles in. Equivalent to Susilas death is the maltreatment Indians suffered
under British rule. But through rediscovering oneself and freeing ones thoughts, Indians are

able to regain their self-identity and independence, with a promise of progress and direction in

the future.

In contrast to the notion that Western influence and ideas represent progress, it serves the

opposite in the novel The English Teacher. It represents the shackles for Indians to be free and to

progress, as they need to have their identity first, which the British stole from them and imposed

systems that are alien from their own. In Krishnas case, it is embodied in the educational

system.

Right at the beginning, the manifestation of the restricting influence of the British is

depicted through language. Krishnas supervisor lectured them on the importance of the English

language, and the need to preserve its purity (Chapter 1, p. 6) because of the horror of finding

out one of their students writing honour without the u. Krishna defended the student by saying,

American spell honours without the u though his fellow professor rebuffed it as a foolish

buffoonery owing to his loyalty of a life-time to English language and literature (Chapter 1, p.

16). Krishna pointed out that this opinion is actually rooted from their colonial experience and

remarked, If we had Americans ruling us, I suppose we would say the same thing of the English

people (Chapter 1, p. 16).

The characters rigid adherence to the British English shows that just like language, the

Indian colonial experience binds people from considering other alternatives to being civilized,

as the Westerners put it, except by accepting the Western rule and culture. By adopting the

culture of their Western colonizer, they are influenced and therefore, dictated by it. It is just like
the college boys of Albert Mission College, who willingly subjected themselves in such

institutions in hopes for knowledge.

Who am I that they should obey my command? What tie was there between me and

them? Did I absorb their personalities as did the old masters and merge them in mine? (Chapter

1, p. 12) Krishna had no connection to his students, and yet he could shout at them because he is

their source of knowledge in English literature, as much as English masters could shout at the

native Indians because they are the source of civilization.

Powerful and unchallengeable as British influence and thoughts can be, it is shown in the

novel that not all the times they could project superiority, just like in things that cannot be

avoided, like death. Two well-known doctors from the Krishna Medical Hall came to check on

Susilas condition, which they belittled as a fever which goes strictly by its own convention and

rules. It follows a time-table and shows a great regard for those who understands its ways!

(Chapter 3, p. 77). They thought that through scientific knowledge, they already mastered even

life and death, when in fact, it is still unpredictable. Krishnas mother also brought a Swaniji for

Susila, whose visit proved to be futile at all. Nevertheless, though both methods failed to save

Susila, it showed that both have no advantage over another and henceforth, are both equal. There

is no dominant way of healing, and as healing practices is a part of culture, hence there is no

dominant culture either.

But Krishnas response of seeing the Swaniji could also be attributed to Indian colonial

influence. I felt ashamed and wished that I could spirit away this mystic (Chapter 3, p. 84). He

held doctors with high regard, though the Swaniji serves the same purpose and could even

perform with the same results. But because the Swaniji represented the barbarous and the
uncivilized past of India before the colonizers come, it could be seen as Indians being ashamed

of their own while esteeming those of the colonizers.

But because of the death of his wife, Krishna opened himself to acquaintances that he

could have rejected as the Swaniji. They are the spirit medium and the Headmaster. They

represent the opposite of his life as a college professor, as the spirit medium represented the

spiritual realm of Indians opposite of the Western scientific view on things. As to the

Headmaster, he represented the opposite of Krishnas college, as he handles children without any

structural curriculum and learns from them, not the other way around as implemented in the

Western notion of college and education.

As his wifes death added more emptiness to Krishnas life, the letter from the spirit

medium provided him more than what he expected. It does not only fill the void caused by the

death of his wife but also the meaning of life that he felt was missing at the beginning of the

story. It is not through his numerous classical books, but through meditation, which he treated as

a joke in the beginning when he teased his wife upon seeing her saying her prayers, Oh!

Becoming a yogi! (Chapter 2, p. 33). Clearing ones mind might sound easy, but to Krishna, it

proved to be difficult. Not only because of yearning for his wife, but also of his contemplative

nature.

The Headmaster demonstrated to him how life should be if he wanted to improve his

psychic connection with his wife. The Headmaster lived his life as if every day is his last, owing

it to the astrologer who predicted his death in a precise moment. He is responsive to his

surroundings and learns by its ways, unlike Krishna whose knowledge is based from his classical

books. His teaching method, The Leave Alone System, differs greatly from the spoon-feeding
method in Krishnas college. At first glance, it might strike someone as disorganized, however,

seeing how the college boys and children learn under different teaching methods, the latter will

emerge as better learned.

And I have always felt that for the future of mankind, we should retain the original

version, and Im trying a system of childrens education. Just leave them alone and they will be

all right. The Leave Alone System, which will make them wholesome human beings, and also

help us, those who work with them, to work off the curse of adulthood (Chapter 6, p. 148).

Looking at the educational philosophies today, such educational system is not only

something existed in the past but is actually a manifestation of the philosophy of progressivism

in education. Just like the Leave Alone System, advocates of progressivism believe that the child

should be free to develop naturally and interest and experiences of the child is the best stimulus

for learning.

Seeing such contentment and happiness brought by such vocation to the Headmaster,

Krishna is influenced and thus began to view his college work and education in general in a

different light. This education had reduced us to a nation of morons; we were strangers to our

own culture and camp followers of another culture, feeding on leavings and garbage (Chapter 8,

p. 178). In this case, he realized that the emptiness he had been carrying all along from the start

is not only applicable to himself but to his own country. Numerous works of English playwrights

and novelists are being taught, but such literature will be useless as people do not see the point of

using it to their daily lives. Meanwhile, in the Leave Alone System, the students are able to

derive their lessons from their surroundings and experience, which could be readily applied to

the resources that they derived it from.

 But Krishna is neither ungrateful nor belittle the English writers he learned from his

college. However, it is the system in which those English writers and their works are taught that

deeply dissatisfy him. I am up against the system, the whole method and approach of a system

of education which makes us morons, cultural morons, but efficient clerks for all your business

and administrative offices. You must not think that I am opposed to my particular studies of

authors (Chapter 8, p. 179)

After realizing what he want to do with his life as well as conditioning his mind to be

receptive, Krishna could finally see his wife. As for the India that he represents, realizing what

they want to do with their country after their independence as well as conditioning their minds to

be ready for such event will be the true actualization of the independence they are fighting for.

Like Krishna, they must return to their roots and not be ashamed of it, for what they were before

will bring them to what they could be tomorrow. Ones roots are not a sign of backwardness,

rather, are vehicles to go forward.

R. K. Narayans The English Teacher served as the guide for the impending

independence of his country. Two years after the novels publication, the Indian Independence

Act was signed by the British. But looking at India today in the age of globalization, the

colonizers never left their psyche. They invested themselves for the benefit of the European and

American costumers through call centers and software companies while failing to meet the job

demands of the market. Education is used to serve these Westerners, while the self-identity of

Indians is being reduced to English-proficient workers accommodating their former colonial

masters. Unlike Krishna, they have not yet found fulfilment, and they have not yet escaped the

influence of Western powers in expense of losing ones identity.

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