This is a question that is asked for December 2021 IGNOU term-end examination.
A Tiger for Malgudi is a novel written by an Indian writer, RK Narayan. RK Narayan narrates the story point of view of a tiger named Raja. In the novel, the tiger recounts or recalls incidences that happened in his life. Throughout the novel, the tiger nostalgically speaks about his childhood, adulthood, and old age.
The tiger is the most important character in the novel. The novel’s title, as you know, refers to the tiger. The novel is based on the story of the tiger’s life. He is the protagonist as well. In this novel, Narayan depicts different stages of the tiger’s life since his childhood. Based on the life of the tiger, the novel has been divided into four parts or stages
Stage 1- During this period, Raja has a fear of anyone. He considers himself “the Lord of the Jungle”. He always terrifies other animals and forces them to go away from his path. He uses the opportunity to punish the other animals. Thus, the youthful vigor, pride, and carefree behavior of Raja are described in the first stage of his life. In this stage, he is a symbol of pride and carefree life.
Stage 2 This stage presents the youth, Raja. Youthful Raja comes across a tigress one day, they fight each other. Both of them were seriously injured. Later both of them love each other and are born with four cubs. Raja lives happily with his family making a cave his home.
The tigress and the cubs are killed by human beings. After losing his family, Raja takes revenge against human beings and starts to hunt their cattle. Soon after he is captured by Captain, the owner of the “Grand Malgudi Circus”. The intelligent tiger learns the tricks of the circus and becomes its main attraction of the circus.
Later, a film producer takes him to act in a film. And Captain lent the tiger for the shooting of the film. The film shooting was a horrible experience for him. On the film set, Captain uses the electric metal gadget to train him. One day Tiger kills him in an act of self-defense. And he escaped from there.
Stage 3 During this period that the spiritual transformation of Raja occurs. The Tiger reached a Yogi and he follows him like a disciple. The Yogi, in his turn, does not allow the people to call the tiger “a brute”, treats him as an equal, and takes him out of Malgudi. The Yogi became a master for him. The Master discusses difficult concepts like God, Karma, etc. with him and gives discourses on the Bhagavad Gita. The presence of the Master and his teaching on philosophical matters transform the tiger slowly.
Stage 4 In this stage, he becomes an older tiger and starts to struggle for hunting and protect himself. The Master approaches the zoo keeper of Malgudi to take him to the zoo, where he can have food without hunting. Now both old friends are going to separate. And the Mater tells him that their spirits will unite in future life.
The tiger for Malgudi ends with the spiritual union between man and animal. In the novel,, Rk Narayan uses unconventional methods for narrating the story by using a tiger as a narrator. This is the tiger, Raja that makes the novel more different from other novels.