In his essay Imaging India: Nation and Narration K.C.

Baral attempts to decipher

various cognitive pictures of Indian nation and nationalism that have been painted
by authors and writers such as Nirad Choudhuri, R.K. Narayan, V.S. Naipu! and
others.
For Nirad Choudhuri, there is nothing to be very happy about India as a nation. As
a typical westernized Indian, Choudhuri draws comparison between everything
Indian with the British. Chaudhuri feels that the loss of Indian self is irrevocable
(Baral 73).
But for R.K. Narayan, India is something different. He sees the possibility of
India's restoration. He appreciates the achievements of India's classical culture.
Narayan feels happy in a compassionate absorption of himself in the lives of
ordinary Indians. For this reason alone, Narayan's Indian microcosm Malgudi, his
fictional world, mirrors the life of the sub-continent in all its diversity (Baral 73-
74).
So, his novels finely portray the issues raised and faced by the people in India
during the Struggle for Independence. Narayan had started writing at a time when
the Indian scenario was throbbing with high idealism, freedom movement.
Through his writings, Narayan tries to highlight the then foremost national issues
and these issues are still relevant.
In his first novel Swami and Friends, Narayan highlights the problems with certain
socially accepted practices. The first novel focuses on the plight of students,
punishments of caning in the classroom, and the associated shame.
A general perception on Narayan was that he did not involve himself or his
writings with the politics or problems of India, as mentioned by V. S. Naipaul in
one of his columns. However, ironical presentation of the freedom movement in
India is beautifully illustrated in Swami and Friends. In this novel Swami, the
protagonist, burnt his 'cap' in excitement, while participating in swadeshi
Movement.
In the chapter titled "Broken Panes" in Swami and Friends, Narayan announced
very solemnly: Thousands of citizens of Malgudi had assembled to protest against
the arrest of Gauri Sankar, a prominent political worker. A man gave a speech on
how India was culturally and geographically more powerful than the European
powers yet, the Indians bowed down to the Englishman. Deeply stirred by the
speaker’s speech, Swaminathan involuntarily shouts “Gandhi Ji ki Jai”
Paul Brians, in his book Modern South Asian Literature in English, says that the
fact that Narayan completely ignored British rule and focused on the private lives
of his characters is a political statement on its own.
In the study of nation and nationalism in Indian writing the theme of Gandhism
naturally comes forward. The glimpses of the idea of nation and nationalism are
depicted in Narayan's novel based on Gandhian thoughts. The values he held high
in his characters are Gandhian. Narayan highlighted not only the traditional ideal
of renunciation but also his values included moral uprightness, truthfulness and
other issues that cover a man's life. In Swami and Friends R.K. Narayan tries to tell
us the impact of Gandhian thoughts on the minds of Swami and his friend, Mani:
Swaminathan resolved to boycott English goods and decided to wear only khadi.
This is how Narayan tried to tell how Swami, the hero of the novel, got initiated
into the Gandhian way of national protest. The evening's programme, as narrated in
the novel, closed with the bonfire of pieces of foreign cloth. Gandhi's ideas
appealed to Swami in a personal way because of his demoralizing experience in the
scripture class. Narayan's simple language created a picture of how people's apathy
turned into their involvement with the national cause.
Thus, it is seen that in a modem multicultural and multidimensional world, the
problems of cultural identity and nationhood have manifested themselves in a
variety of ways and have led writers to explore both their colonial past and
hybridized present.