Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Raja Rao was an Indian English novelist who took birth in 1908 in the princely state of Mysore, Karnataka. His first novel was Kanthapura which was first published in the year 1938. It is a story based on a fictional South Indian village named Kanthapura. The novel became a huge success and established Raja Rao as one of the major Indian English writers who won the Sahitya Academy Award of 1964. He was also awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature by Oklahoma University in 1988. His other major works include The Serpect and The Rope which is a semi-autobiographical novel and was published in 1960. Raja Rao was a metaphysical writer who borrowed his writing style and structure for his stories and novels from Indian mythical stories and folk epics.
Characters of Kanthapura :
Moorthy is the protagonist of the novel. He lives in Kanthapura village and belongs to a middle-class high-caste Brahmin family and lives with his widowed mother Narasamma. He is a noble, quiet, serene, and generous person who leaves the village to attain higher education at the university of the city. At the University, he comes in touch with the nationalist fervor of Mahatma Gandhi and turns a non-violent Gandhian activist for Independence. After returning to the village, he tries to spread the message of Gandhi. Bhatta is a wealthy Brahmin of the village who doesn’t like Gandhian’s idea against untouchability and opposes Moorthy in establishing a unit of Gandhi’s Congress Party in Kanthapura. Patel Range Gowda is another powerful wealthy person in the village but he belongs to a lower caste. He is very shrewd but honest. He is often considered the leader of the village and called the ‘tiger.’ Rangamma is a 30-year-old childless widow of Kanthapura who is a bit educated and can read and write. She has read a lot about Gandhian ideas and philosophy. She openly opposes Bhatta’s caste discrimination and religious dictatorship. Everybody respects and listens to her. Bade Khan is a Muslim British officer appointed at the police station of Kanthapura. He is a brutal agent of the British government who deals with any kind of protest with extreme harshness. Kamalamma is the elder sister of Rangamma who sternly opposes Gandhian views. His 15 years old daughter Ratna is a child widow and Kamlamma’s only worry is to somehow remarry her daughter. Ratna on the other hand is inspired by Rangamma and devotes herself to the Gandhian revolution. Jayaramachar is a Brahmin priest whom Moorthy calls to the village for Hari-katha but instead of telling the villagers of Ram-Katha he. Talks about Mahatma Gandhi and his nationalist revolution. Rachanna is a coolie working in the Skeffington estate. Achakka is an old Brahmin widowed woman in the village. Seenu is her son. Achakka is the narrator of the novel she tells stories and past histories of the village. Mr. Skeffington is the founder and owner of a tea estate in the village who is very cruel to the workers. His nephew Skeffington too is very brutal and beats coolies for no cause. Vasudev is a brahmin clerk working in the Skeffington estate. He is a friend of Moorthy. Goddess Kenchamma is the village deity representing spiritual power and divinity.
Summary of Kanthapura:
The novel begins as Achakka starts telling the story of her village. She is the oldest widow in the village living with her sons. She knows everything about the history, culture, and people of the village and often tells stories of the past. Achakka tells how Goddess Kenchamma who lives on the upper Kenchamma hills appeared when a demon attacked the village during the ancient past and since then, Kenchamma became the village deity who protects the villagers. She then talks about people of various castes living in the village and informs that though some upper caste brahmins headed by Bhatta try to establish their dominance, the wealthiest and strongest person of the village is Patel Range Gowda, a low caste shudra. Everyone respects and listens to Range Gowda and caste discrimination isn’t a very serious issue in society. She then tells about Moorthy, a young Brahmin lad living with her widowed mother Narasamma. He had been a curious and different child since an early age but when he went to the city to attain higher education, he came under the influence of Gandhi. Another Gandhian of the village is Dore, however, Moorthy is loved by all. After returning from the city, enlightened by Gandhian thoughts, Moorthy starts educating people of lower castes and tries to oppose caste discrimination. Bhatta, a senior Brahmin of the village doesn’t like Moorthy for his Gandhian views as he is habitual in exploiting people of lower castes.
One day, Moorthy finds a Shivalinga on a farm while working and then he established the linga in the village temple to celebrate the occasion, he calls Jayaramachar to recite Hari-katha. Jayaramachar visits the village and after worshipping Shivalinga, he starts talking about Mahatma Gandhi and his revolutionary ideas. He exhorts the villagers to think about social issues and contribute to the independence movement. All villagers are impressed by his talks but Bhatta and a few others including Moorthy’s mother Narasamma don’t like Jayaramachar’s speech. Moorthy starts spreading Gandhi’s views in the village and he plans to turn all villagers into stanch non-violent volunteers of Gandhi. He throws out his foreign clothes and his foreign books into the fire and started wearing a Khadi. He openly started exclaiming that foreign clothes are symbols of oppression and slavery while Khadi is the symbol of national pride and self-reliance.
Bhatta decides to oppose Moorthy’s plan of establishing a unit of Congress party in the village by making his own political party of upper castes. He uses his social power to excommunicate Moorthy from the village for ridiculing and opposing age-old traditions of the village by interacting with people from different castes. Moorthy is forced to leave the house while his mother Narasamma suffers depression because of it. Moorthy starts living outside the village at the house of Rangamma, a widow who is educated and a Gandhian herself. Together they continue to spread the Gandhian way of thinking. Rangamma would gather village women and will teach them and make them learn how to spin wheels and produce Khadi clothes. His mother Narasamma is now alone in the village and she is very sad as her son has been excommunicated. She dies of a heart attack.
Meanwhile, Bade Khan, a Muslim police agent of the British government is appointed at Kanthapura. He is a notorious police officer who is infamous for his atrocious behavior against native people. When he tries to arrange accommodation in the village itself, Range Gowda refuses to let him settle there. Thus, he goes to the Skeffington estate where Mr. Skeffington offers him a hut to live alongside the coolies. A maistri has been appointed by Mr. Skeffington to lure impoverished people from all around India to work in the estate under inhuman conditions in horrible conditions at the estate. Mr. Skeffington has devised a devious plan to ensure that the coolies once join his estate, remain indentured labor for their whole life. He would give very low wages, and when in need, he will offer debts at enormously high-interest rates. He would deliberately make things of daily usage very scarce in the nearby area of the estate and then sell them at exorbitant prices to his coolies. He even appoints a few hooligans to make these coolies addicted to alcohol so that they may never succeed in collecting enough money to think about going away and making a better life. Bade Khan ensures that nobody will oppose or question M. Skeffington and his nephew. As Mr. Skeffington gets old, his nephew takes over the management of the estate. He is relatively less cruel to the coolies but he has a liking for the wives and daughters of coolies and would often grab and sexually assault them whenever he wishes. One day, when he tries to rape a young girl of a laborer working on the estate, her father opposes him in trying to save his daughter. Mr. Skeffington kills the coolie. Bade Khan ensures that he is not framed for the murder charges. Vasudev is a friend of Moorthy who works in the estate. With his help, Moorthy starts gathering coolies of the estate, teaching them how to read and write and evoking their self-pride in a Gandhian manner. Thus, he becomes trouble for Mr. Skeffington, his nephew, and Bade Khan. Meanwhile, Rachanna, a coolie dares to raise his voice against oppression and decides to leave the estate and go settle in Kanthapura. However, Bade Khan brings his police force along with the hooligans of the Skeffington estate and attacks Rachanna. All the coolie women of the estate gather in protest to protect Rachanna and during the commotion, a few women grab Bade Khan and beat him up while snatching away his beard. When Moorthy comes to know all this, he feels disheartened because the violence of any sort is against Gandhian principles. Thus, he decides to stay on fast for three days as penance. Ratna, a 15-year-old widow girl takes care of him during his fast. Her mother Kamallamma is the elder sister of Rangamma but unlike Rangamma, she hates Gandhians. Bhatta devises a plan to take the help of Kamalamma against Rangamma and other Gandhians by arranging the remarriage of Ratna but Ratna is not ready to marry. Rachanna starts living in the village and soon gathers sympathy from the villagers. Moorthy arranges a protest march against the oppression of coolies in the estate with the help of villagers. Their protest march is completely non-violent while they demonstrate and shout slogans praising Mahatma Gandhi and voicing the need for independence. They call for non-cooperation and ask people not to buy foreign goods and clothes, not to pay taxes and land revenues, and other forms of non-violent protests. The British government doesn’t take the march lightly and Bade Khan is ordered to oppress any such march. He again gathers his policemen and hooligans of Skeffington estate and attacks the protesters. This time, he is more cautious and vicious and specifically targets women. The police and Skeffington’s henchmen brutally beat women and rape them. Moorthy is arrested for disturbing the peace and order of the area.
In jail, Moorthy continues his non-violent protest and refuses to take the help of lawyers to get out. At last, he is released from jail but when he returns to Kanthapura, he sees total devastation. Farmlands have been burnt and almost all homes and huts have been demolished. He wonders what happened when Aachakka comes to him and greets him. She informs that after his arrest, the police force raised the village and brutally assaulted the men and women of the village. Many men were injured, some were killed, and many women were raped. After that, it became impossible for the women to stay in the village and thus, they decides to sell their homes and farmland to the people of Bombay city at negligible prices. Before leaving the village, they set fire to their crops and homes as they couldn’t use them. Moorthy is too sad by knowing all this. He wonders if his Gandhian belief is of any good. He remembers Kenchamma who failed to protect the village this time because while she is a fierce warrior goddess who fought and killed demons, Moorthy trusted the Nonviolence of Gandhi. Moorthy finds his belief in Gandhian ways cracking bit by bit. He is now more interested in the socialist movement demanding land redistribution and equal distribution of wealth.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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