Quest for truth: Metaphysics and Raja Rao

Abstract

Like Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao is one of the greatest Indian novelists writing in the early phase of Indo-Anglican fiction. Raja Rao expressed his metaphysical quest in his novels, Kanthapura, The Serpent and the Rope and Cat and Shakespeare and some other novels. These novels can be termed 'Metaphysical Novels'. Raja Rao has been acknowledged as a writer with a mission. This article explores his quest to find the answer of the fundamental question that every human asks himself or herself at some point in time — “Who am I?” This is a question that haunted Rao throughout his life as he attempted to arrive at some reconciliation about himself as an Indian author writing in English about Indian sensibilities in a foreign land.