1. Title: Swami and friends
  2. Author: R.K Narayan
  3. Genre: Fiction
  4. Publisher: Hamish Hamilton,1953

DIFFERENT CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL

1.SWAMI

Swami is the ten-year-old protagonist of the novel. Swami is a schoolboy living in 1930, in the fictional town of Malgudi in the South of India under British colonial rule. At the start of the novel, Swami is a typical child who seems outwardly innocent, with only trivial concerns such as homework, impressing his classmates, and avoiding disappointing his father. Swami is considered average among his friends, neither especially clever nor stupid, brave nor cowardly. He is generally good-natured and gets along well with his peers and family, although he can be arrogant or deceitful at times, and is easily swept up in the plans and enthusiasms of others. As the novel progresses, Swami becomes more aware of his own identity and political consciousness and begins to define himself more in terms of his friendships and national identity than his family relationships. Swami is also a naturally good cricket bowler and prides himself on being nicknamed “Tate,” after a famous cricket player.

2.RAJAM

Rajam is the son of the Police Superintendent and one of Swami’s closest friends. Rajam is new to Swami’s school at the start of the novel, and initially Swami and Mani view him as an enemy due to his quick wits, fine clothes, and fearless nature. However, Rajam quickly becomes friends with Rajam and Swami and acts as their ringleader for the remainder of the novel. Rajam does well in school and is liked by most of his classmates, and he draws confidence from his father’s prominent position (Rajam’s father is the Police Superintendent), although it also causes him to oppose the political activity that his friends support. Rajam sometimes bullies his friends and acquaintances, but more often he unites them and urges them toward new goals, most notably the formation of a cricket team. Swami loves and admires Rajam but comes into conflict with him, first because Swami supports political action that opposes Rajam’s father, and later because he doesn’t live up to his promise on Rajam’s cricket team. Rajam is so angry at Swami for missing the cricket match that he stops speaking to him, and it is unclear at the novel’s end whether the two friends have reconciled.

3.MANI

Known as “the Mighty Good-For-Nothing,” Mani is Swami’s other closest friend. Mani is a fearless troublemaker who never does his homework, sleeps in class, and frequently resorts to violence to solve his problems. However, he is also a loyal and affectionate friend, and Swami is proud to be allied with him. Mani often plays a supporting role in Swami and Rajam’s friendship, though at the end of the novel it is Mani, rather than Swami, who takes on the role of Rajam’s best friend. Mani lives with a frightening uncle, but little else is known about his family or background.

4.SOMU

Somu is one of Swami’s friends from the Mission School. He is the class monitor and gets along well with everyone, students and teachers, although he does not excel academically. Swami thinks of Somu as the “uncle of the class.” When Somu treats Swami unkindly, the experience is one of the first times that Swami is forced to admit that the people around him are more complex than he might have guessed. Later in the novel, Somu disappears from the group of friends after failing an exam, and thus not being promoted to the next grade.

5.SANKAR

Sankar is one of Swami’s friends from the Mission School, known as “the most brilliant boy of the class.” Swami admires Sankar’s intelligence and relies on him for guidance at school. Sankar eventually leaves Malgudi when his father is transferred to a new town, and although he writes to Rajam and his friends intend to reply, they fall out of touch after realizing that they don’t have Sankar’s new address.

6.SWAMI’S FATHER

Swami’s father, W.T. Srinivasan, is an imposing figure who works at the courts and is usually strict with Swami. Swami sometimes feels afraid of his father, but at other times he turns to him for help and support. Swami’s father encourages Swami to study hard and helps him with homework and, notably, provides Swami with a study space within his own room. Late in the novel, Swami’s father reveals that his concern for Swami’s wellbeing outweighs his frustrations with his son, as shown when he searches for Swami all night and welcomes him home without punishment.

7.SWAMI’S MOTHER

Swami’s mother appears in the novel only occasionally, usually in the context of providing Swami with something he wants or backing him up in an argument with his father. She is presented as a mild woman who is mostly concerned with her family and managing the household. She loves Swami deeply and also gives birth to a baby boy, Swami’s brother, who occupies her attention for much of the novel

THEMES OF THE NOVEL

  1. The Political and the Personal Under British Colonial Rule

Set in a fictional town in south India circa 1930, Swami and Friends is defined by the pressures and complexities of British colonial rule over India. While the book’s events revolve around common childhood trials and tribulations, the personal experiences of the protagonist and his friends are colored by their political context, even when the characters themselves have little understanding of it. By examining British colonial rule through the lens of an ordinary boy’s relatable childhood, R.K. Narayan demonstrates the pervasiveness and subtlety of this political structure’s power.

The lighthearted conflicts of the book’s early chapters underscore Narayan’s point that that colonialism is present even in the innocent misadventures of children, although it may seem entertaining, inconsequential, or even impressive in their eyes. Narayan first addresses the influence of colonialism in the book’s opening chapter, when Swami and his classmates attend scripture class with Mr. Ebenezer, their fanatical Christian teacher. Narayan notes that the students sometimes enjoy the class because of the “stirring pictures” they imagine based on Biblical tales. For Swami and his friends, the Christianity imposed on them at the mission school is initially a source of idle entertainment rather than a menace or something to contemplate deeply.

The budding friendship between Swami, Mani and their new classmate Rajam again illustrates the ways that the young boys take existing power structures for granted. Although Mani and Rajam at first intend to fight with each other, that animosity quickly dissolves into mutual admiration, leaving the boys untroubled by their initial reliance on violent dominance to solve their problems. When Swami finds out that Rajam’s father is the Police Superintendent, he is impressed and excited to be associated with such power, again demonstrating his childish inability to reflect on the value and legitimacy of the powers around him.

The formation of the cricket team initially serves as a way for Swami and Rajam to repair their friendship after their conflict over what Rajam calls Swami’s “political activities,” but eventually, the cricket team is also responsible for the breakup of Swami and Rajam’s friendship, when Rajam is unable to forgive Swami for missing the match. By using the game to both unite and divide the story’s protagonists, Narayan indicates the extent to which the characters may be at the mercy of English influence, even as they devote themselves to an English sport with seeming freedom.

2. EDUCATION AND OPPRESSION

Difficulty within educational settings is one of Swami’s constant conflicts throughout the novel. Rather than simply depicting the ordinary childhood struggles of homework and unfair teachers, Narayan uses these familiar obstacles to enact a smaller version of the colonial oppression that suffuses the book. For Swami, school is a place of both growth and restriction, where rigid rules come into conflict with Swami’s nuanced inner life. Throughout, Narayan’s depictions of Swami’s school days add depth and specificity to the book’s larger points about the intersection of the personal and the political.

Many of Swami’s most immediate experiences of oppression occur within school settings. He encounters violence, humiliation, and requirements that quash his imaginative and sensitive nature. All of these restrictions on Swami’s individual life seem to mirror the dehumanizing nature of colonial power on India’s larger population. At both of his schools, Swami is subject to punishments that cause him pain and embarrassment, such as being caned or being made to stand on a bench in front of the class. After he leaves the Mission School and enters the Board School, Swami’s schedule becomes more restrictive, and he is required to complete drill practices and scout classes after school in addition to a heavy load of homework. Even though the Board School Headmaster is eventually revealed to be a frail older man who sleeps on the job, he still wields absolute power over Swami and will not let him leave school early to participate in cricket practice. Narayan’s descriptions of Swami’s engagement with academic work also hint at the way that his schools fail to engage his full humanity. Puzzling over a mathematical word problem about selling mangos, Swami feels “utterly hopeless” without deeper knowledge of who the men in the problem are and how their personalities affect the situation. With this example, Narayan hints at the ways that Swami perceives the lack of humanity in the structures he encounters at school.

The schools’ dual role as structures of both support and oppression plays out vividly in the way that the school setting can change quickly from organized to chaotic. This sense of instability and potential for confusion again functions as a microcosm of Swami’s broader sociopolitical context, where the margin between safety and danger is often small. When the term ends at the Mission School, jubilant celebration rapidly turns into destructive mayhem. As Swami reflects on the rumor that enemies stab each other on the last day of school, Narayan writes: “Swaminathan had no enemy as far as he could remember. But who could say? The school was a bad place.” This scene exemplifies the uncertainty and sense of amorphous danger that pervades Swami’s life at school and, as the story progresses, begins to affect him outside of school as well.

3. INNOCENCE,FAMILY AND GROWING UP

Just as Swami’s story reveals the somewhat illusory nature of personal identity, so too does it slowly strip away conventional notions of childhood innocence. While Swami seems at first to embody the quintessential idea of a carefree child, his growth over the course of the novel shows that even children of his young age are burdened by serious concerns and real-world threats. Narayan demonstrates this gradual loss of innocence in large part through his portrayal of Swami’s relationships with the members of his immediate family, which grow increasingly complicated and less protective over the course of the story.

At the start of the novel, Swami is almost wholly dependent on his family. He blithely takes them for granted while also calling on them to support his whims and desires, and their firm but kind presence grounds the seeming innocence that Swami enjoys in the early chapters. Swami’s mother and father, though strict at times, offer him safety and resources to pursue his academic and social goals. Even when Swami meets Rajam, whom he views as a role model, he still requires his father’s room and his mother’s cooking in order to host Swami at his home. Thanks to his parents’ help, the visit goes well, and Swami feels independent in his friendship with Rajam even as he relies on his family to support it. Swami’s Granny, whom he considers unsightly and senile but nevertheless loveable, also offers him unquestioning comfort. She affirms Swami’s stories even when they are implausible, and although she tells him stories from the family’s past, Swami dismisses her words as “old unnecessary stories.” Swami views his relationship with his grandmother as simply “snug and safe,” but Narayan makes clear that this perception relies on Swami’s ability to ignore the more complex, challenging stories that his grandmother wishes to tell. In describing the conflict between Swami and his headmaster at the mission school, Narayan hints again at the deeper reality that underlies Swami’s outwardly innocent reliance on his family.

When Swami goes missing, a chapter from his father’s perspective reveals that he is completely powerless to find Swami and, given that Swami actually ran away, save him from himself. His father’s desolation and inability to alter the situation underscores the fact that Swami must now take responsibility for himself, rather than relying innocently on his family. When Swami is rescued by Mr. Nair, he is initially confused and calls the man Father. He is unable to understand his situation, thinking: “Who was this man? Was he Father? If he was not, why was he there? Even if he was, why was he there? Who was he?” This internal breakdown of Swami’s ability to comprehend his father’s role in his life represents a moment of profound growth in Swami’s self-efficacy and maturity. Later, he laments that he forgot to say goodbye to the Officer, hinting at the core truth that one cannot appreciate childhood simplicity until it is gone. Swami still lives with his family at the novel’s end, but he has lost the illusion that his life there is innocent or free of worry.

SWAMI AND FRIENDS SUMMARY

A young boy named Swami wakes up on Monday morning in the town of Malgudi in South India. He rushes through his homework at his desk in his father’s room and then goes to the Mission School, where he is bored throughout most of his classes. Swami gets a bad grade on his mathematics homework and then, in his scripture class, gets into an argument with his teacher Mr. Ebenezar, a Christian fanatic. Swami is offended at his teacher’s dismissal of the value of Hinduism and arrives at school the next day carrying a letter from his father to the Mission School Headmaster, in which his father complains to the headmaster that the school does not welcome non-Christian boys.

Swami tells his four closest friends about the letter. These boys are Somu, the friendly class monitor; Mani, a powerful but lazy bully; Sankar, “the most brilliant boy of the class”; and a small boy named Samuel, nicknamed “The Pea,” who is not remarkable in any way except that he makes Swami laugh more than anyone else. Later in the day, the headmaster scolds Ebenezar but also tells Swami not to report incidents to his father in the future, saying that the boys should instead turn to the headmaster with any problems.

On the subsequent evening, Swami and Mani sit on the banks of the Sarayu river, discussing a classmate named Rajam who Mani wishes to throw into the river. It becomes clear that Rajam is known in school as a kind of rival to Mani, due to his fearlessness, intelligence, and wealth. Rajam’s father is also the Police Superintendent. Swami insists that he supports Mani more than anyone else, and when they return to school Swami begins acting as a go-between for the two rivals. Eventually, they decide to meet for a fight on the banks of the river to see who is more powerful. But when the time for the fight comes, Rajam suggests that they put aside their differences and become friends, to which Mani happily agrees. Having always admired Rajam, Swami is also delighted at this turn of events and glad to be the friend of both powerful boys.

The reader is introduced to Swami’s grandmother, whom he calls Granny. She lives with Swami’s family in a small passageway, and Swami feels safe and secure in her company. Swami excitedly describes Rajam to Granny and, although she tries to tell him stories of his own grandfather’s similarly impressive accomplishments, Swami refuses to listen. On a Saturday shortly thereafter, Swami ignores his grandmother’s requests to spend time with him and instead goes with Mani to Rajam’s house, where they are impressed by his luxurious home, numerous toys, and the delicious food his cook serves.

Back at school, Swami runs into his three friends Somu, Sankar, and The Pea. However, they are unfriendly to him and make a joke about a “tail.” After school, Swami makes Somu tell him about their joke, which it turns out refers to their calling him “Rajam’s tail” because they believe Swami now thinks himself too good for his old friends. The rejection by his friends is the “first shock” of Swami’s life, and he reflects miserably on how quickly people can change. At home, he makes a paper boat and puts an ant on it, then watches as the boat is consumed in a flood of water. As the days continue, Swami’s friends continue to ignore him, and school becomes an increasingly painful experience.

In April, Swami and his classmates have only two weeks before their school exams. Swami’s father forces him to study constantly, and all of his friends are also unhappy under the stress of studying. Swami only feels that his efforts are worthwhile when his father compliments his work. Shortly before the exam, Swami makes a list of supplies that he needs and, disappointed that “his wants were so few,” he makes a more complicated list and brings it to his father. His father scolds him and refuses to give him money to buy supplies, instead telling him to take supplies from their desk at home.

At last, Swami’s final exam is over. He worries that he finished faster than his friends and did not write enough for one question, but his worry quickly turns to excitement as the other students finish and form a joyful crowd to celebrate the end of school. The group of boys destroys paper and ink bottles, creating happy chaos until a school administrator breaks up their celebration.

In August, Swami and Mani find themselves in the midst of a protest for Indian independence. Moved by the speakers, Swami and Mani swear to support India against England and boycott English goods, with Swami even burning his cap when someone suggests that it’s foreign-made. The next day, Swami is nervous about not wearing a cap to school, but finds a crowd of protesters blocking entrance to his school. The group says that school is canceled due to the imprisonment of an Indian political worker, and Swami gets caught up in breaking windows and destroying property at both the Mission School and the nearby Board School. Eventually, the protest moves to a square in town, where Swami sees Rajam’s father order his policemen to violently disperse the crowd, a sight that shocks and frightens Swami.

Six weeks later, Rajam finds Swami to tell him that he forgives his political activity and to invite him to form a cricket team. Swami has transferred to the Board School, while his group of friends back at the Mission School has broken up: Somu was held back, Sankar moved away, and the Pea started school late. Swami agrees to join the cricket team, and he and Rajam call themselves the M.C.C. With Mani, they write a letter to a sporting goods company ordering supplies. Although the company writes back asking for a deposit, the boys continue believing that their supplies will arrive and begin practicing with improvised equipment in the meantime. Swami quickly reveals himself to be a good bowler and earns the nickname Tate, after a famous bowler.

The M.C.C. schedules a cricket match against another local team, but Swami is still not able to get enough practice time. With only a week left before the match, he decides to try and get a pass from a physician named Dr. Kesavan. Dr. Kesavan proclaims Swami healthy but agrees to tell his headmaster that Swami should get to miss drill practice. Delighted, Swami skips drill practice every day to attend cricket, only to find at the end of the week that the doctor never spoke to the headmaster. The headmaster threatens to cane Swami, but Swami throws the cane out the window and runs away. Swami fears that his father will be too angry to let him live at home without attending school, so he decides to run away. He goes to the Mission School and, after reminiscing about how much he loved being a student there, he finds Rajam to say goodbye. However, Rajam convinces Swami to run away only briefly before participating in the match and then leaving for good.

Ten days later, Swami still has not spoken with Rajam due to fear of his reaction. However, he has learned that Rajam’s father has been transferred and the family is about to move away. Swami searches his possessions for a going-away present for Rajam, settling on a book of fairy tales, and resolves to go to the train station in the morning to give it to Rajam. Swami goes to the station but is again too intimidated to talk to Rajam, who gets on the train without saying goodbye. Panicking, Swami asks Mani for help and the two boys run alongside the train, finally giving Rajam the book. Rajam seems to say something to Swami, but his words are lost under the noise of the train. Mani tells Swami that Rajam has his address and will write, but Swami is unsure if Mani is telling the truth.

VOCABULARY

  1. Dismal: Showing or Depression
  2. Dingy: of a dark, dull, or dirty color or aspect; lacking brightness or freshness
  3. Wry: produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features
  4. Enmity: very deep unfriendly feeling
  5. Protestation: the act of protesting
  6. Impertinent: intrusive or presumptuous, as persons or their actions, insolently red; uncivil
  7. Denounce: to pronounce especially publicly to be blameworthy or evil
  8. Incongrous: inconsistent within it self
  9. Sublime: tending to inspire awe usually because of evaluated quality
  10. Alacrity: promptness in response is cheerful readiness
  11. Subside: wear off or die down
  12. Wink at: give one’s silent approval to
  13. Lusty: vigorously passionate
  14. Prescribe: issue commands or orders for
  15. Excerpt: a passage selected from a larger work
  16. Twentieth: position 20 in a countable series of things
  17. Din: a loud harsh or strident noise
  18. Mate: a person’s partner in marriage
  19. Go to sleep: prepare for sleep
  20. Roar: make a loud noise, as of an animal
  21. Excite: act as a stimulant
  22. Promote: assign to a higher position
  23. Chatter: talk socially without exchanging too much information
  24. A lot: to a very great degree or extent
  25. Uneasy: causing or fraught with or showing anxiety
  26. Come out: appear or become visible; make a showing
  27. Improve: to make better
  28. Look into: examine so as to determine accuracy, quality, or condition
  29. Satisfactory: giving contentment
  30. Doubtful: fraught with uncertainty
  31. Stride: walk with long steps
  32. Relate: give an account of
  33. Crowded: overfilled or compacted or concentrated
  34. Out of: motivated by
  35. Celebrated: widely known and esteemed
  36. Comfortable: providing or experiencing physical well-being or relief
  37. Mood: characteristic state of feeling
  38. Flood: the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto land
  39. Ring: a toroidal shape
  40. Slightly: to a small degree or extent
  41. Quarters: housing available for people to live in
  42. Describe: give a statement representing something
  43. Stand in: be a substitute
  44. Loud: characterized by sound of great volume or intensity
  45. Novel: an extended fictional work in prose
  46. Familiar: a friend who is frequently in the company of another
  47. Clearly: without doubt or question
  48. Career: the particular occupation for which you are trained
  49. Burst: come open suddenly and violently
  50. Fool: a person who lacks good judgment

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Leave a comment

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started