Kanthapura
35 pages • 1 hour read
Raja Rao
Raja Rao
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in
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Themes
Caste and Class
As a village, Kanthapura is divided firmly by the Indian caste system, much like India is divided during this time period. This manifests in both physical and subtler ways—the village is literally divided into quarters for each caste, and the system is enforced by social oversight. Although there are friendships across certain classes, the Pariah class are uniformly treated as exiles from society and ostracized by all classes. Moorthy’s embrace of them is one of the greatest shocks to the existing social structure, and leads to his excommunication from the Brahmin class. Outsiders who do not fit into this traditional caste system, such as the Muslim Bade Khan, often find themselves without a place in the village—not exiled, but simply with no role to play.
This existing caste system is seen in other elements of the society as well, such as the Sk
Kanthapura is often known as a Gandhian novel, as it is a re-enacted story based on the revival of a small, sleepy village during the nationalist struggle for independence, spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi. What is reflected in the novel is that, in the aftermath of Gandhi’s non-violence and non-cooperation movements, such resurgences were actually taking place concurrently across India in thousands of Indian villages in the dynamic days of , when Gandhi transformed the entire country into a throbbing army of enduring and disciplined freedom fighters.
There were three basic aspects of the Gandhian movement- the political, the socio-economic and the religious, and Rao tactfully incorporates all these three aspects in the complex narratorial fabric of the novel. Kanthapura, thus, regenerateswith vigour and fervour of a people whose spirit has been infused with Gandhian philosophy of freedom and self-dependence. Therefore,
Kanthapura exists not only as a political document but also as an intense work concentrating as much on the socio-economic progress and religious
as a struggle for freedom. This unit will enable you to critically appreciate the novel, Kanthapura which is often refe
In the novel, Rao explains vividly the evils of the Red Man’s administration in India. The exploitation of Indians by the colonialists led to the formation of Gandhi’s freedom movement. In Kanthapura, Moorthy, a strong supporter of Gandhi, moves home to the remote village to mobilize people against the evils of the colonialists in their country and forms a Congress. When villagers demonstrate against the oppression of their masters in the coffee plantations, the government sends its police officers to terrorize the protesters. Many people are killed and wounded, and Moorthy is arrested alongside other freedom fighters. Throughout the novel, the reader witnesses the hardships Indians had to go through before gaining their independence. There are tortures, killings, unlawful arrests, economic oppression, political oppression, unfair working conditions, high taxes, and more—all of which inspire Gandhi and his movement, and, in the novel, the villagers of Kanthapura.
Women's roles in Kanthapura center on their significance in the nationalist struggle—they march, protest, passively resist, boycott, read newspapers, and more—and how that significance is undermined by the traditiona
23 Nationalism and Resistance: Raja Rao, Kanthapura
Ananya Bhattacharjee
Introducing the Author
Raja Rao is one of the most acclaimed writers of Indian English Literature. He was born in in Mysore and belonged to a south Indian Brahmin family. He did his matriculation from Hyderabad and then went to Aligarh in order to pursue higher education. There he was inspired by Prof. Dickinson to study French language and literature. He got his B.A. degree from a college in Hyderabad and received a scholarship from Hyderabad University with the help of which he went to France and started studying French literature there. He did his Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Cazamian at the University of Sorbonne. He lived in France for quite a long time from to He returned to India in and lived for some six to seven years and again went back to France in and stayed there till While living in France he got married to an American actress named Katherine and also has a son by her. His first novel Kanthapura was written during the times when he was living in France. Before going to France Raja Rao wrote a number of essays to convey love for his nation and also show how fascinated he
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