Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms.

Graves: Goodbye to All That.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

Mahatma Gandhi returns to India from South Africa.

Muslim League and Congress Party agree to work together to campaign for self-government.

Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

End of World War I.

Versailles peace conference. Montague-Chelmsford Reforms (Government of India Act): reorganizes central legislature but falls short of Indian expectations. Demonstrations against British rule become widespread; massacre of peaceful protesters by armed British troops at Amritsar. Non-cooperation movement launched by Gandhi. League of Nations created.

Opening of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta.

Gandhi sentenced to six years' imprisonment for civil disobedience he is released after serving two years. Establishment of USSR. Stalin beomes General Secretary of Communist Party.

Gateway of India monument in Delhi is completed. Gandhi undertakes a fast to end Hindu Muslim rioting. Death of Lenin.

Commuter rail service introduced in Bombay.

Germany admitted to League of Nations.

Lindbergh makes first solo flight over Atlantic.

Gandhi nominates Jawaharlal Nehru to succeed him as leader of the Congress movement. Wall Street Crash. Period of worldwide depression begins. First non-stop flight from England to India.

DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT 1930 Graduates from Maharaja's College. Begins work on Swami and Friends while staying with his grandmother in Bangalore. After abortive attempts to become a railway officer and bank official h takes up teaching at a governmen school in Chennapatna. Faulkner: As I Lay Dying.

Pritchett: The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories.

1931 Gives up teaching and resolves to become a full-time writer, which he is able to do with the support of his family. Stays in Madras where he pursues editors of newspapers and magazines; one book review and an article published. His friend Kittu Purna leaves for Oxford, promising to find a publisher for Swami and Friends. Premchand: 'Deliverance'.

Woolf: The Waves.

Walpole: Judith Paris.

Hammett: The Glass Key.

1932 Receives 18 rupees for the publication of a short story in The Hindu. Tagore: Sheaves, Poems and Songs.

Premchand: Arena of Action.

Huxley: Brave New World.

Waugh: Black Mischief.

1933 Publication of a children's story brings in 30 rupees. A short piece, 'How to Write an Indian Novel', lampooning Western writers, is accepted by Punch. In July, while staying with his sister in Coimbatore, sees a young girl drawing water from a street-tap and falls in love with her. Befriends her father, a headmaster, and asks for her hand in marriage. After some difficulties, the wedding takes place a few months later, and Rajam joins her husband's household. Takes a job as Mysore correspondent for The Justice, a Madras newspaper. Maugham: Ah King.

Wodehouse: Mulliner Nights;

Heavy Weather.

Hemingway: Winner Take

Nothing.

1934 His father becomes bed-ridden after a severe stroke. Purna approaches Graham Greene, who is living in Oxford, and gives him the manuscript of Swami and Friends. Fitzgerald: Tender is the Night.

Waugh: A Handful of Dust.

Ninety-two Days.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

Mahatma Gandhi sets off on famous salt march, sparking off a wave of anti-British demonstrations and boycotts. Chandrasekhara Raman wins Nobel Prize for Physics.

Inauguration of New Delhi as India's capital. Series of Round Table Conferences in London to discuss the future of India (to 1933).

Clampdown on demonstrators in India; 60,000 Congress activists are imprisoned. Gandhi's hunger strike against the treatment of untouchables. Election of Roosevelt in US.

Gandhi's hunger strike to protest against British oppression in India. Hitler becomes German Chancellor. Roosevelt announces 'New Deal'.

Gandhi resigns from Congress Party.

DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT 1935 Shortens his name to R. K. Narayan on Graham Greene's suggestion. With the help of Greene, his first novel Swami and Friends, set in the fictional town of Malgudi, is published in the UK by Hamish Hamilton. The book receives enthusiastic reviews though sales are disappointing. Gives up his job on The Justice. Anand: Untouchable.

Isherwood: Mr Norris Changes Trains.

1936 Birth of his daughter, Hemavati. Anand: Coolie.

Premchand: The Gift of a Cow.

Orwell: Keep the Aspidistra Flying

1937 The Bachelor of Arts is published b Nelson, thanks again to Graham Greene's recommendation. Death of his father. Money is short and Narayan works as a hack journalist to make ends meet. Anand: Two Leaves and a Bud.

Kumar: Tyagapatra (The Resignation).

Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men.