Assistant Professor

Department of English

Sardar Bhagat Singh Constituent Government College

 Dhaka Puvanya, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 

Abstract

Kanthapura is a great work of Raja Rao. Raja Rao is one of the best Indian novelist writing in English. His first and best known novel kanthapura earned him and international identity.  Raja Rao received several of India’s highest honours as  The Sahitya Akadami Award, Padam Bhushan and Neustadt International prize for literature. His first Nobel kanthapura is in largely realist vein. It describe village and its residents in Southern India. Kanthapura is Raja Rao's best known novel, particularly outside India. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is set in the background of India’s freedom struggle. Raja Rao’s novel kanthapura is a Gandhian novel. The novel describes the events that take place in kanthapura under the impact of Gandhi’s non violent freedom struggle. Kanthapura is a novel written by Raja Rao, an Indian author and one of the pioneers of Indian literature in English. Published in 1938.

Keywords: Nationalism, Gandhian Philosophy, Ideology, Gandhian, Significant, Colonialism, Non Violent Resistance, Satyagrahi.

Introduction

Raja Rao was an Indian English writer, novelist and short story writer. Kanthapura is a novel written by Raja Rao, an Indian author and one of the pioneers of Indian literature in English. It is considered a significant work of Indian literature, exploring themes of nationalism, non-violent resistance, and the impact of colonialism on rural Indian society. Raja Rao began publishing his first stories in magazines and journals in 1931, with his first Novel kanthapura coming out in 1938. When Raja Rao returned to India the next year, he became involved in the nationalist movement. Raja Rao labored alongside Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and sought his guru, Sri Atmananda, whom he met in Trivandrum, Kerala.

Reflection of Gandhian Philosophy  

Kanthapura is a Gandhian novel. We cannot find Gandhi himself in the novel but his characteristic is there in the protagonist  of the novel Moorthy. He was taking part in the struggle for freedom. He made efforts to unite people as Mahatma Gandhi did. Kanthapura is the story of a village in the south of India and how it is affected by the rise of Gandhism in the 1930s. The main character in this novel is Moorthy, a humble, intelligent and educated youth who spent time in the City. Moorthy becomes a devotee of Gandhi and returns home to his village spread the gospel and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, which primarily focuses on freedom from British colonial rules and self governance. He moves from one house to the other to preach the significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for freedom, gaining more and more support as he patiently reasons with his towns people about how love, truth and non violence will help them free themselves. One of the more controversial things he espouses is that the Pariahs should not be marginalized so strongly. Moorthy is deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non voilence and Satyagraha , which inspires him to take up the cause of freedom and fight against the oppressive British regime. Moorthy’s character embodies the spirit of idealism and determination. Raja Rao’s novel kanthapura is a Gandhian novel. This novel describe the events that take place in kanthapura under the impact of Gandhi’s nonviolent freedom struggle. When Moorthy saw Gandhiji addressing a public meeting he felt the impact of Gandhiji and he became a Gandhian. He joined the freedom struggle. Moorthy organizes the Gandhi work in the village. He forms the Congress committee. He calls the Harikatha man. He spreads the Gandhi’s message of eradiction of untouchability. He goes from door to door, even in the pariah streets.  Gandhian philosophy is introduced into the novel though Moorthy. He was attracted by Gandhi's idea of making cotton yorn on a spinning wheel and wearing clothes spun and woven by their hands. They didn’t permit foreign clothes. The villagers made their song for Gandhi Ji which describes the influence of Gandhi ji on them.

The Representation of Woman in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura  

Raja Rao has a very well- portrayed woman character in the novel Kanthapura. They play an active role then men, the women are an inspirable part of the novel. Story is narrated by Achakka, an elder Brahmin woman with an encyclopedic knowledge about everything in her village. She tells the story in the meandering, nonlinear style of a sthala- purana, a traditional Legendary History of a village, its people, and its Gods. In the novel the woman takes a significant role as satyagrahi. When Moorthy the protagonist comes back from the city as a Gandhian man. He goes to the women of his village and distributes free charkhas among them, telling them the foreign goods have made India poor. Hence women can play an important part in the struggle by spinning and wing home made things. Moorthy like Gandhi knows the importance of women in struggle and hence makes Rangamma, a rich and educated widow a member of Congress committee said, "We need a woman for the committee for the congress is for week and lowly".  When Moorthy is arrested along with a number of men, the women of Kanthapura continues the struggle. They are molested tortured, raped and even beaten but they don’t lose hope.

Through the novel Raja Rao throws light on the importance of women in the  freedom struggle. He explores through the novel that women can also take part in the affairs of the state as well as religion.  Kanthapura is a novel criticizing the orthodoxy as well.

Kanthapura as a postcolonial Text & Treatment of Indian Sensibility

Kanthapura is a novel which is considered during the colonial time but it can be seemed as a postcolonial Text as per it’s many aspects. Remarking Kanthapura as a postcolonial text it can be said so as Kanthapura is very concerned to describe on the construction of Vedic Hindu ideal for women and explain the authentic history to investigate the women ‘s issues they face during the colonial period . The aspects of Indianization of the novel, Kanthapura deals as a postcolonial text.

Postcolonialism term as the discussion of nationalism and experience such as slavery, race, gender, migration and place as well as responses to the discourses of imperial Europe such as history, anthropology, philosophy and linguistics.

A literary work can be analyzed through various angles and narrative technique is one of the important angles to judge a work of Art. As literature is all about experimentation with different literary words and styles, a writer experiments with various innovative narrative techniques in order to make his work effective. In this light, Raja Rao ‘s Kanthapura is a triumph of narrative art. In this novel, the writer uses some popular Indian myth and superstitions to give an Indian flavor to the novel.

Instead of using Western style, Raja Rao uses the ancient Puranic method of story  telling which, according to him, is true to Indian atmosphere and which gives an Indian flavor to the novel. Raja Rao does not follow the western concept of chapter division in the novel and Kanthapura is narrated as a continuous tale. Kanthapura is third person narrative through the eyes of an old woman named Achakka. Raja Rao tells the story in oral tradition of story telling without any break. While describing the geographical details of Kanthapura village, it appears as if the author is talking to the readers. Raja Rao uses long sentences in order to show the continuous flow of thoughts of the Indian people. This kind of narration is used in many of Raja Rao’s other stories also. Raja Rao employs a stream of consciousness technique. Where the narrative flows seamlessly from one character’s thoughts and perception to another. This technique allows for a deeper exploration of character ‘s inner lives and subjective experiences.

Conclusion

The novel is written in a rich blend of English and Indian vernacular language. Raja Rao incorporates elements of Gandhian philosophy, the native language of the region, to create an authentic and immersive reading experience. The use of vernacular language also serves to capture the essence of the Indian village life and culture. The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed, omniscient narrator who represents the collective consciousness and oral tradition of the people. It serves to highlight the unity and solidarity of the community in their struggle against colonialism.

Reference

1. Raja Rao,(2014) ‘Kanthapura’ Penguin Book India,
2. “Kanthapura”, Raja Rao ( 2014)
3. Mondal, Anshuman. "The Ideology of space in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura." Journal Commonwealth Literature.
4. Gandhi, M. K. "On Untouchability." The second Assassination of Gandhi? Ram Puniyani. Delhi: Media House, 2003
5. Raja Rao, Kanthapura, Oxford University Press Delhi 2005.
6. Dey, Esha. "The novels of Raja Rao" . New Delhi; Prestige Books,1992