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B.A English Literature
[1st Year, 1st Semester]
Core Paper IV: INDIAN WRITINGS IN ENGLISH
Unit - 5 : Fiction
Kanthapura by Raja Rao
About The Author:
Raja Rao was born in 1909 in the village of Hassana, in Mysore in a very old South Indian Brahmin family. He lived in France from 1928 to 1939, returned to India on the outbreak of World War II in 1940 and again went to France in 1946 and lived there till 1956. It was in France, thousands of miles away from India that his first novel Kanthapura (1938) was written. His love for Indian culture and philosophy colors his second novel The Serpent and the Rope (1960).
Introduction:
Raja Rao's novel Kanthapura is the first major Indian novel in
English published in 1938. It is a fictional but realistic account of how the
great majority of people in India lived their lives under British rule and how
they responded to the ideas and ideals of Indian nationalism.
The theme of Kanthapura may be summed up as ‘Gandhi and our
Village’. Though the narrative style makes the book more a Gandhi Purana than a
piece of mere fiction. Kanthapura follows the oral tradition of Indian
Sthala-Purana. The story is narrated in flashback by Achakka. The style of Raja
Rao in Kanthapura combines the flexible expression of English languages with
the fast tempo of Indian speech in a very pleasant manner. It provides delight
to the Indian readers because those of simple yet beautiful English prose.
Summary:
The story of Kanthapura is about a village in the south of India
and how the rise of Gandhism in the 1930s affects it. It is told by an old
woman named Achakka, but she uses the word "we" a lot and doesn't say
much about what she thinks and feels.
Moorthy is the major character in this book. He is a young man who lived in the city and was kind, smart, and educated. Moorthy becomes a follower of Gandhi and goes back to his village to share the Mahatma gospel, which is mostly about freedom from British colonial rule and self-rule. He goes from house to house to talk about how important Gandhi's fight for freedom was. As he carefully explains to his neighbours how love, truth, and nonviolence will help them get free, he gains more and more support. One of his more divisive ideas is that the Pariahs shouldn't be shunned as much as they are.
Moorthy and a few other young guys
are leading the way in the village to set up a Congress Committee. People from
the city who work for Gandhi bring informational papers that are given out for
free to make sure people know what the goals of the freedom movement are. The
Congress makes a Corps unit whose job is to teach people in the movement how to
stay nonviolent at all times, even when government forces are trying to hurt
them.
As soon as Gandhi's freedom movement starts up in Kanthapura, the
British government comes up with plans to stop it and keep Gandhi from getting
too far. Bade Khan, a police officer, is sent to Kanthapura village by the
government to calm things down. Bhatta, who owns a lot of land and is rich,
helps the police officer and tries to get his friends to turn against Moorthy.
Moorthy and his followers gather the village to protest how the
Pariahs (coolies) at the Skeffington Coffee Estate, a British plantation
nearby, are treated badly. They hold protests and shout their support for
Gandhi. In response, the colonial police hurt many locals and arrested others.
Villagers expect justice and take to the streets to protest this decision. The
colonial government reacts more harshly this time. During the picketing, the
cops don't care about old people, kids, or women. When they see their fellow
locals being hurt by the government, the coolies who work at the Skeffington
Coffee Farm get angry. They decide to join the protest, which makes things even
worse. Because of this, Moorthy is taken into custody and given a long prison
sentence. Rangamma stays and runs the Congress to continue Gandhi's fight for
freedom. She is well-educated and well-liked. She gets a lot of young women
together and teaches them to lead the fight for freedom. Moorthy finishes his
sentence and stays away from Kanthapura to work for the cause.
The leaders of the movement start a campaign asking their followers not to pay taxes and land income to the government. They teach their members how important it is to stay peaceful even though the government is trying to take away their farms and property. As a response, the government goes to Kanthapura and beats and shoots the marchers, hurting thousands of them. When people are shot without mercy, protesters start to fight back. The protesters are put down by government troops, and they are then forced to leave the village. Some of the women set fire to the village before leaving. They find safety and comfort in a nearby village, but most of them will stay here for good.
Characters List:
Moorthy: Moorthy is a young Brahmin who has gone back to his home town of Kanthapura. He is described as a "noble cow" who is "quiet, generous, serene, respectful, and brahmanic". He gets a lot of ideas from Mahatma Gandhi's effort to free India through nationalism. People in Kanthapura love and admire him, and they decide to follow him without question. In the book, he is called the "small mountain," while Mahatma Gandhi is called the "big mountain." He is able to set up the Congress Party in Kanthapura according to Gandhian ideas. He sticks to truth, nonviolence, and civil disobedience, and he won't even protest the fact that he is in jail. At the end of the book, he is out of jail and wants to help Gandhi and Jawarhal work towards "swaraj" (self-rule).
Bhatta: Bhatta owns a lot of land in Kanthapura and is very rich. He takes advantage of the people in the village and has nothing to do with Gandhi's ideas. He then works against Moorthy when he tries to start the Congress Party. He does this because he is a secret spy for the British government. During the revolt, people burned down his house.
Patel Range Gowda: Patel Range Gowda is the village's official Chief Executive Officer. But he runs the whole town like the mayor. Range Gowda has a strong and intimidating presence, and no choice can be made without his approval. People in the town call him the "tiger" a lot. He uses his social power to help Moorthy, and in the end, his patelship is taken away from him.
Rangamma: Rangamma is a strong woman with a "different, soft-voiced, gentlegestured" manner, but she can also read and write. She is a widow with no children, but people admire her because she is determined and has high goals. She thinks that Gandhian Moorthy is better than Bhatta's religious rule. She teaches the women of Kanthapura how to resist without violence and gets them to form a group called "Sevis." Eventually, she is put in jail.
Bade Khan: Bade Khan is a Muslim police officer who just moved to Kanthapura. He is big and has a beard. Skeffington Coffee Estate is where he stays. He works for the British government and doesn't like protests of any kind. At one point, when Moorthy tries to meet the people who work on the coffee farm, he beats him badly.
Kamalamma: Kamalamma is the sister of Rangamma. She stands in stark contrast to the values exhibited by Rangamma. She rejects her sister's conversion to the Gandhian lifestyle. The only concern on her mind is to somehow remarry her widowed daughter Ratna
Ratna: Ratna is the fifteen-year-old daughter of Kamalamma. However, she has more in common with her Aunt Rangamma. She, too, is inspired by the Gandhian philosophy. She is very iconoclastic and independent and does not care for traditional social propriety. She leads the Sevis after Rangamma's imprisonment, having attained a new gravitas and wisdom. At the end of the novel, after having spent some time in prison, she comes out to visit the people of Kanthapura and then heads to Bombay.
Narsamma: She is Moorthy's elderly mother, who loves her son very much but is extremely distressed to think about the trouble he is bringing to the village—especially excommunication. She eventually dies due to her distress.
Narrator: The narrator is an old widow with only sons, one of them being Seenu. We do not learn much about her as an individual, as she always speaks collectively.
Waterfall Venkamma: She is a spiteful, gossipy, and constantly aggrieved woman in the village.
Ramakrishnayya: He is the learned, elderly father of Rangamma. One evening, he trips and loses consciousness, then dies.
Jayaramacher: He is a Harikatha-man Moorthy brings to the village for the Ganeshjayanthi. Instead of telling them about Rama or Krishna, he tells the villagers of Mahatma Gandhi. This causes a bit of trouble and he is not invited back.
Mr. Skeffington (Nephew): The successor to control of the Skeffington Coffee Estate, he does not beat coolies like his uncle did, but takes Indian women for his own pleasures and punishes their husbands/fathers when they do not go easily.
Mr. Skeffington (Uncle): The British owner and founder of the Estate, he is cruel to those who work for him. Seenu: One of the narrator's sons, he becomes a Ghandi-man and works with Moorthy, teaching the Pariahs and helping with the Congress committee. He is arrested and is still in jail at the end of the novel.
Siddayya: A coolie at the Skeffington Coffee Estate, he has been there a long time and tries to let the new coolies know what they should expect here.
Rachanna: One of the most prominent Pariah men in the text, he is killed in the uprising.
Nanjama, Chinnamma, Seethama, Satamma, Ningamma, Vedamma: They are village women.
Vasudev: A Ghandi-man and comrade of Moorthy's, he helps organize the Pariahs at the Skeffington Estate.
Rangappa: He is the Temple brahmin, who is against the Gandhist movement in the village.
Seenappa: He is an advocate who loses his wife and who Bhatta sets up with Venkamma's daughter in order to win her loyalty against Moorthy and Gandhism.
Sankar: The secretary of the Karwar Congress committee, he tries to help Moorthy fight his charge, but agrees to help run the meetings in his stead. He has Rangamma come live and work with him. He is an ascetic widower who will not remarry because he loved his wife so much, but the people are generally fine with this because they respect him despite his idiosyncrasies.
Ranganna: He is a Brahmin who opens his private temple to the Pariahs. He is arrested when he gives a speech at the Congress criticizing the Swami and the British government.
Seetharamu: He is an advocate who lives in the city and will not remarry because he loved his wife so much. He provides the villagers with updates as to what is going on with Moorthy. At one point, he is thrown in prison himself, and has horrible stories to tell of its conditions.
Radhamma: She is a village woman who gives birth during the uprising.
Puttamma: She is a
village woman who is raped during the uprising.
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