Problems Of Adaptability And Amalgamation Through Orientalism In R. K. Narayan’s The Guide

Abstract

The British people tried to make Indians cultured and civilized through their language, English. They have created a power structure and English speaking atmosphere in uncivilized countries. Hence there is a dichotomy between the East and the civilized West. Native language is reduced to a poor level and as a result the colonized begin to imitate the colonizer. Slowly they have become willing slaves under foreign masters. Orientalism has become a style of thought in a large number of writers who have accepted the distinction between the East and the West. The relationship between Occident and Orient is a relationship of power domination and varying degrees of complex of hegemony. Tendency to despotism, aberrant mentality, habits of inaccuracy, backwardness are the characteristics of the Orient. They are different from Occidents. Orientalism is based on the highhandedness of the Occident.