Malgudi, South India, 1930s

The majority of the novel occurs in the fictional town of Malgudi, in the South of India, in the 1930s. While Malgudi is fictional, it is grounded in realistic details which give it a sense of geography. For instance, at school Swami notes he is learning Tamil, which gives the reader a better sense of where the book is. And the novel shows the political and social climate of India in the 1930s, when resistance to colonialism began to swell with support.

The Albert Mission School

This Christian-focused, all-boys school is where Swami attends classes until he is expelled later in the novel. While the school is a Mission school, teaching Scripture classes and generally having a Christian focus, students of all religious faiths are permitted to attend. While Swami initially finds the schoolwork overbearing and challenging, he later realizes how easy it was, in...