Kanthapura

 Kanthapura

Born Nov.8,1908, Hassan, Mysore,south india-died july 8,( 2006, Austin, Texas,U.S) Indian writer of english-language novels and short stories.

Descended from a distinguished brahman family in southern India,Rao studied(B.A.,1929)at Nizam college,Hyderabad,and then left India for france to study literature and historyat the university of Montpellier andthe sorbonne

• Rao’s second novel:

The Serpent and the Rope(1960),

Considered his masterpiece,is a philosophical and somewhat abstact account of a young intellectual Brahman and his wife seeking spiritual truth in India, France, and England;it plays on the dialogue between Orient and Occident. His four books up to date are the novels.

1. Kanthapura -1938
2. The Serpent and the Rope -1960
3. The Cat and Shakspeare-1965
4. The Cow of the Barricades-1947

• Kanthapura-The Village:

‘knathapura’ portrays the participation of a small village of south India in the national struggle called for by Mahatma Gandhi. Imbued with nationalism,the villegers sacrifice all their material possessions in a triumph of the spirit, showing how in the Gandhian movement people shed their narrow prejudices and united in the common cause of the non-violent civil resistance to the British Raj.

Class structure:

• Untouchability
• Structure of the village
• Superstitions among people
• Exploitation due to class
• Caste and creed
• Class discrimination
• Society and discrimination

We see some points about it:

1. Untouchability :

Kanthapura has narrow structure. In this village have people of many castes. They lived peacefully. In this village upper class people otherwise they were casted out from that particular.if a person goes to Pariah’s house, he would to take bath and go Kashi for Purification purpose.

2. Structure of the village:

In the village house were the symbols of status. There wereless government serrvents in this village. Those who were there got respect. There was the house of post master. He lived in two stories building. Palwari had glass paned windows. The houses are individualized and particularized.

3. Exploitation due to class:

The condition of the village was such that upper class-exploited the lower class people.the whole description of working labourers is touching. Remaining hungry of half hungry,poorly-nourished they had to work very hard.

4. Caste and creed:

The small village symbolically, depicts the country’s condition, during the time of freedom struggle,people of all castes unanimously united themselves to fight against the country’s enemy. Educated people were influenced by Gandhi and became his followers. They cast away the social norms of caste.

• Conclusion:

Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is one of the finest novel to come out of mid-twntieth century India. It is the story of how Gandhi’s struggle for independence from the British came to a typical village, Kanthapura in South India. Younge Moorthy, back from the city with”New Ideas”cuts across the ancients barriers of caste to unite the villages in non-violent action which is met with violence by landlords and police.