Waiting for the Mahatma

Book Review

I read this book purely by chance. R K Narayan is not a writer whom I would choose for any reason whatever. He is too simple, simplistic. I was at school on Saturday last and I suddenly found myself without anything to do though I was on duty. Some duties are like that: like a traffic policeman’s duty on a road without any traffic! So I went up to the school library and picked up a book which looked clean. It happened to be Waiting for the Mahatma by R K Narayan. A small book of 200 pages which I almost finished reading on the same day.

The novel was originally published in 1955, written probably as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and India’s struggle for independence. The edition that I read is a later reprint by Penguin Classics.

Twenty-year-old Sriram is the protagonist though Gandhi towers above everybody else in the novel just as he did in India of the independence-struggle years. Sriram who lives with his grandmother inherits significant wealth when he turns 20. His parents were dead long ago. Sriram was a mediocre student at school and did nothing to improve himself later either. But a chance encounter with Bharati, a young and beautiful disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, transforms him totally. He decides to become a Gandhian. Bharati guides him exquisitely.

In a way, this is a coming-of-age novel. The frivolous young man grows up into a mature patriot and nationalist. Gandhi appears again and again with much inspiration. R K Narayan’s Gandhi is saintlier than the real Gandhi. Gandhi in this novel looks like an abstract ideal without any human frailty. And Bharati is a perfect disciple. Sriram is all too human, mercifully.

Sriram’s story is a skilful interplay between individual desires and nationalistic fervour. What really propels Sriram towards nationalism is his ardour for Bharati. There is no other way for securing Bharati’s affection than by becoming a Gandhian nationalist. Narayan is successful in dealing with Sriram’s growth into maturity and psychological depth.

Sriram has to struggle with his affection for his grandmother too. Grandmother doesn’t appreciate his nationalism. She doesn’t have any regard for people like Gandhi who are nothing more than trouble-makers. Why can’t Sriram live comfortably with the wealth she has amassed for him in the bank? Why does he opt for the discomforts of a Gandhian ashram when there is luxury waiting for him at home?

Grandmother is nearly heart-broken with Sriram’s prolonged absence from home. Towards the end of the novel, she is assumed to be dead and is taken to the cremation ground. Sriram reaches in time for the cremation after his release from jail. However, as the pyre caches fire, it is discovered that grandmother is alive. She is saved. But the same villagers who were grief-stricken hitherto are now absolutely opposed to the idea of the old woman’s return to the village. No one returns to the village from the grave. If they do, it will be ominous for the village. Grandmother abandons her home and chooses the holy premises of Banaras for the remaining days of her life. Narayan is best while dealing with characters like this grandmother.

The novel moves on to a great denouement which is a national calamity: the assassination of the Mahatma for whose arrival Sriram was waiting along with Bharati.

This simple story is a charming look at the freedom struggle years of India and Gandhi’s role in that struggle. Narayan is able to weave the communal clashes of the Partition days seamlessly into the narrative. A unique simplicity underlies the entire narrative in spite of all the conflict and tension. While that simplicity has its own mellow sweetness, it fails to see the complex depths of human existence and struggles.