Representation of Socio Cultural Change in the Post Independence India in the Selected Novels of R K Narayan Khushwant Singh Kamala Markandaya and Shobha De

Abstract

Society is an organized form of structure which brings its residents together to form a unit.From the ancient times, Indian society characterizes within its fold various languages, faiths, philosophies, and individuals of different periods. It is this fusion that has made India an extraordinary mixture of cultures.Change is the law of nature. Therefore, the Pre- Independence India also witnessed the spate of certain changes which experienced a fast run during the later half of the nineteenth century. This process had greatly affected the life of the Indians in the twentieth century as a whole.Indian English literature has struggled hard for centuries to prove its existence and dignity, and has now achieved global appreciation. Various novels in India have been written as a response to certain historical movements or events such as Gandhian Movement, the Partition, and the emergence of the New India. With the advent of Narayan s series of Malgudi novels a new aspect was given to the novel of social portrayal. Khushwant Singh was the first Indian novelist in English to write about the disaster caused by the Partition with his very first novelTrain to Pakistan. Khushwant Singh always succeeds in presenting the hard core reality of life, the changes which have come in the life of man. Kamala Markandaya through her novels tries to project her characters and situations in this clash between spiritual materialistic values. Shobha De, a pragmatic and realistic writer,tells through her novels that if one is not witty and courageous, one cannot succeed in the big cities. About their narrative aspect, we can say that all the four novelists cannot be put aside calling them as traditional novelists, at least when we consider their art of story- telling, and use of various techniques used in their works. Thus, to conclude, we can say that literature is a mirror which reflects the altering beat of a country in totality and the society in particular. It presents the social realism, affords a form to the various methods in