Gandhian Thought and Nationalism in Waiting for the Mahatma

The Second World War period’s growing chasm between the Hindu and Muslims communities, India and Britain, the Bengal hungers, the “Quit India” movement and the mounting frustration and misery are cov ered in novels like Bhabani Bhattacharya’s So Many Hungers, R. K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma and Kamala Markan dya’s Some Inner Fury. R. K. Narayan is a novelist, who u ndoubtedly is one with his people and surroundings. He has mastered the craft of representing his people, thei r values and ethos. There are claims of his concern about the daily travails and frustrations of his characters and a g eneral apathy towards their contribution to the soc iety and politics. Some critics have even claimed that Narayan is esse ntially apolitical. Similarly, there are other crit cs who eulogize Narayan and argue that, any work of art is consider ed to be the product of the historical, political, social and economic movements of its time. So, they have explored the p resentation of national tradition in the works of R . K. Narayan. This paper discusses Waiting for the Mahatma as a work w hich reverberates with Gandhian philosophy and ideo logy of nationalism of 1950’s.