A house for Mr. Narayan

                                                    

The Karnataka government's plan of converting English fiction writer RK Narayan's house into a museum has created a storm in the state's literati circles. Calling the well-intentioned move on the part of the state government a wastage of tax payer's money, well known Kannada authors have branded one of India's most loved English writers a non-Kannadiga and an outsider of Tamilian origin.

Though Narayan lived most of his life in Mysore and spent most his writing life at his Yadavgiri home, a group of well-known Kannada writers and intellectuals have taken umbrage at the state government promoting a non-Kannadiga writer while allegedly ignoring regional ones. Their September 18 petition released to the media says that, ''Narayan was from Tamil Nadu. He was born in Madras (now Chennai) and received his education there.  All his novels were in English and most of them were published from America. He did not acquaint himself with the Kannada language and never had any relations with the local Kannada people’’. The signatories to the petition included noted writers like SL Bhyrappa, GS Shivarudrappa, LS Sheshagiri Rao, DA Shankar, G Venkatasubbiah, M Chidanandamurthy, GS Siddalingiah and Sumathindra Nadig.

Addressing press, DA Shankar, retired English professor from the University of Mysore and one of the signatories to the petition said, "Why should the government spend taxpayers' money? How relevant is it linguistically and culturally? Narayan didn't relate to Kannada". Echoing similar sentiments, noted Kannada writer GS Shivarudrappa says, "RK Narayan, though he stayed in Mysore, didn’t socialize with the people here. He didn’t participate in any of the movements which tried to empower the Kannada language and neither did he promote the language in any platform."

The writers are particularly miffed over the fact that the state government is spending more than Rs 2 crore to convert Narayan's house into a heritage site, and are purchasing the house at the current market price from the author's family. They have questioned why the government has not undertaken similar projects in the case of Kannada writers like Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, DR Bendre and Kuvempu, who they feel have contributed much more to literature than Narayan. The writers have demanded that if the government still wants to go ahead with the plan, Narayan’s family should donate donate the house, instead of selling it to government.

While there has been opposition, there has also been outpouring of support for the government’s initiative. Liberal writers and intellectuals in Karnataka have severely criticised Byrappa and others and feel that labeling Narayan, who’s famous Malgudi days achieved nation-wide popularity when it was televised on Doordarshan by actor and director Shankar Nag, a non-Kannadiga, smacks of linguistic chauvinism. Noted playwright and theatre personality Girish Karnad has rubbished the idea of Narayan being an outsider, saying that he is as much a Kanndiga as anybody else. When contacted Jnanpith awardee and noted Kannada writer UR Ananthamurthy said, "RK Narayan is a great writer. He was as much part of Mysore and the state as anybody else. To say that he does not belong here shows the mean-mindedness on the part of those who are opposing the government’s initiative. It doesn’t matter whether wrote in urdu, Konkani or Marathi, as long he lived the state, he belongs Karnataka."

Ananthmurthy however is not sure that the idea of converting writers' houses into memorials is a good one. Citing his reservations, he says, "It is a bit of a risky step. Our experiences have shown that, it is easy to buy a house but to maintain it is the difficult part and our government is not good at that’’. Meanwhile the government has reiterated that it would go ahead with the project.