Published Paper Details:

Ethics, in the Indian civilizational imagination, has rarely been confined to formal treatises or philosophical abstractions; instead, it has travelled quietly through stories, memories, and lived encounters. This paper introduces the concept of "narrative dharma" to examine how Sudha Murty's fiction functions as a contemporary ethical knowledge system rooted in Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). Through seemingly simple narratives, Murty transforms everyday life into a site of moral inquiry, where ethical understanding emerges not through instruction but through experience, empathy, and reflection. Focusing on selected works such as Wise and Otherwise, Gently Falls the Bakula, Dollar Bahu, and Grandma's Bag of Stories, the study explores how Murty's storytelling enacts a form of experiential ethics, a mode of learning that aligns closely with traditional Indian pedagogical practices such as kath?-parampar? and the guru-shishya ethos. Her narratives foreground ordinary characters confronting moral dilemmas shaped by family, gender, class, and social responsibility, thereby embedding ethical reasoning within culturally familiar contexts. The paper argues that Murty's fiction does not merely depict moral values but performs ethics, allowing readers to participate in ethical decision-making through narrative engagement. Methodologically, the study adopts an interdisciplinary framework combining narrative ethics, value education theory, and literary pedagogy. By reading Murty's fiction as ethical pedagogy rather than moral didacticism, the paper highlights how Indian values such as dharma, seva, sahajata, and lokasangraha are re-articulated for a contemporary readership. The paper also briefly situates Murty's narrative ethics within the educational vision of NEP-2020, which emphasizes holistic learning, ethical citizenship, and culturally rooted knowledge practices. By conceptualizing Sudha Murty's fiction as an ethical classroom without walls, this paper offers a fresh intervention into Indian English literary studies, demonstrating how narrative can function as a living archive of Indian Knowledge Systems and a powerful medium for value-based education in the present era.