ARIEL UNIV CALGARY, DEPT ENGLISH, SS 1148 2500 UNIVERSITY DR NW, CALGARY, ALBERTA T2N 1N4, CANADA
Abstract
Indian novels have increasingly turned to representing rural life. In addition to work produced by regional artists, the work of writers such as Munshi Premchand, in Hindi, and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, in Bengali,
reflects the everyday problems of rural communities. Premchand’s Godaan expresses profound indignation and protest against the obscurantist beliefs, archaic and harmful customs, and social distinctions that fetter rural Indian society. In K.S. Venkataramani’s novel Murugan, the Tiller, “The scene shifts from village to town and back from town (or city) to village, till [sic] at last one has the feeling that all roads lead to
Murugan and his rural experiment” (Iyengar 279)
