Structure

The plot of the short story “English Babu” by Vijay Medtia is structured around a conflict within an Indian family living in England, triggered by the narrator’s son planning to marry an English woman. The story is constructed using typical plot elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.  The plot is fragmented through the use of flashback.

Title

The title of the story, “English Babu”, is comprised of an English word and a Hindu word which translates into ‘sir’, but also into ‘lord’ or ‘king’. In India, this word is typically used to show respect for men.

The title refers to the narrator, an Indian man who moves to England in the 1960s with the intention of staying there temporarily, but who ends up living in England for 40 years.

The phrase “English Babu” appears in the story when the narrator Ramesh recalls his father calling him this name because of his critical attitude to India:

‘No cleanliness and why is there no road traffic sense? And by God it’s so hot here.’
Father had laughed and looked out across the wide green fields, saying, ‘Our Ramesh has become an English babu.’
‘I haven’t become English,’ I replied, irritated. (ll. 48-52)

Symbolically, the title refers to the fact that Ramesh gradually changes as a result of living in England. He becomes influenced by Western thinking and more willing to give up some of his traditional Hindu values. This development is marked several times in the text: “…day by day the old conservative customs were giving way to more and more liberal beliefs. The change expressed itself in the most unexpected senten...