Social Background In Kanthapura

Name: Hina Chauhan
Sem: 1
Roll No. :  12
Batch:  2018-20
Enrollment No. : 2069108420190006
Paper No. :  04 Indian Writing in English
Topic: Social Background in Kanthapura
Email ID: hinachauhan36511@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department Of  English,M.K.Bhavnagar University.

                  

                                    Social Background in Kanthapura

 Raja Rao is one of the greatest of Indian novelists writing in the English literature. Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan are the only two-come anywhere near him.But Raja Rao is entirely different from them In his art as a novelist, Raja Rao is entirely different from them and in his enchanting prose style.This pre-eminence is surprising when we remember that the bulk of his published work is small.

 Major works by Raja Rao

□ The Cow of the Barricades and other stories (1947)
□   Kanthapura  (1938)
□  The Serpent and the Rope (1960)
□ The Cat and Shakespeare  (1965)

                      There are two parts Raja Rao's works  First, The Early Phase and second ,The Later Phase.

          "Range of life as well as the levels of consciousness he has brought into the novel form, along with the creation of a suitable medium for his concerns’ which are at once timeless and temporal, metaphysical and social, immediately local but also international, so as to enlarge the frontiers of the fictional form itself and justify the name of an innovator. In modern Indian fiction, which, thanks largely to him, more than any other single writer, has been ushered into the mainstream of twentieth century literature. "

       Kanthapura is his first novel, it is a classic of the Gandhian movement, a work in which the Gandhian struggle for independence and its impact on the Indian masses finds; its best and fullest expression. It is also great village novel, a novel with, “the various facets of the village life, with its socioeconomic divisions, superstitions, religious and caste-prejudices, blind faith in Gods and Goddesses, Poverty ,petty ,jealousies, dirty lanes , shady gardens ,snake-infested  forests, dirty pools, hills , rivers and changing seasons."Kanthapura is a microcosm of the macrocosm; it is Indian in miniature. The novelist's style of narration makes it a Gandhi Purim or a Gandhi epic. The novelist does not write ,"Babe English "but Indian English ,an English eminently suited for the expression of Indian (or present)sensibility. He has tried to adapt his English style to the movement of a Sanskrit sentence. His style has the flavour of Kannada speech, and its rhythms are almost incantatory, the rhythms of Sanskrit, a language which is the source of Indian languages. This evolution of a suitable style for the expression of Indian Sensibility is Raja Rae’s most significant contribution to the Indo-Anglican fiction.
 

                         Another of his important contributions is the fusion of a Western art form with an Indian theme and the Indian way of treating it. He has followed the oral Indian tradition of story telling and so the narration is digressive and episodic. As the old narrator's stream of reminiscence proceeds, there is a free mingling of fact and fiction, poetry and reality, the perennial and the present, and "This makes 'Kanthapura ' a distinctive novel, almost a new species of fiction."The use of the Laotian mythical -technique enables the novelist to exalt Gandhi as Ramatex see Bharat Mata as Site and the Redman as Rattan. This mingling of Gods and men, of myth and legend with contemporary reality, is true to the Indian tradition of story telling. This makes Kanthapura a Gandhian epic, “a veritable Grammar of the Gandhi myth-the myth that is but a translation of reality. It will always have a central place in Gandhian Literature. "(Iyengar)
 

                      Kanthapura is a major achievement, but Raja Rae himself considered it confused and immature. Kanthapura was published in 1938, and after that, there was a long silence until 1960, when he come out with his Serpent and the Rope. The art of Raja Rae shows a steady progression from Kanthapura to The Cat and Shakespeare. He is constantly changing, growing and becoming different. There is constant evolution of his art and technique.

 In Kanthapura, the narrator is an old grandmother, and her stream of memory forms the narration of the novel.
 

Her narration is gossipy and chatty. She is garrulous and there are numerous digressions and episodes. Much is superfluous. It is in the traditional Indian style of oral story telling.

♢♢ A Political As well as Social Background of novel:-
                  Kanthapura is not only a fine work of art but it also aims at rousing the conscience of the country and even of the world at large, at the ills and injustices which plagued Indian life in 1930.Though the novel depicts the freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi as the main theme, it also aims at social reform. It is so because the Gandhian movement did not aim at Sara it could be attained after certain social reforms and social awakening. These social reforms included freedom from economic exploitation by the West by boycotting foreign goods and by spinning yarn and wearing Khaki made from it, also eradication of untouchability and the rigidities of caste system and removal of illiteracy and ignorance and superstition. At the end of the novel there is also a mention that Raja Rao through his hero Moorthy,doesn't regard Gandhism as the last word and that he believes that the basic ill in India was something more fundamental than conceived by Gandhiji.i.e.,inequality.
 

    □ The Freedom movement
    □ British Rule
    □ The Caste system
    □ Social Awakening

The Caste system :-
 

                                One of the most important evils in Hinduism is the caste system. In Kanthapura there is much implied criticism of it.It is described through Bhatta, and later through Swami.Both are conservative, orthodox Brahmins, are the agents of British government and work together to frustrate and defeat the Gandhi -movement. Since the Swami's power rests on the superiority of the Brahmins over other castes, he takes the view that the caste system is the very foundation of Hinduism.He maintains that no Brahmin should have contact with the pariahs, and threatens to excommunicate Moorthy because he does so.Later this threat is actually carried out.People of the lower castes aren't admitted inside temples but must have darshna of the God from outside.Though the pariahs don't seem to mind this much, there is a movement that the doors of the temples should be thrown open to all classes. One of the followers of Gandhi in Karwar has already done that.He is Advocate Ranganna who describes his meeting with the Swami.The Swami had sent a message to the advocate that he described to see him.The Swami told him that for some time there had been too much of this pariah business. According to him it was polluting for a Brahmin to mingle with a pariah. He maintained that the pariahs couldn't be uplifted through the efforts of others.

Social Awakening :-
                           The boycott of foreign goods was meant to cripple the efforts of foreign manufacturers to exploit and impoverish India,and the insistence on spinning taught people the dignity of labour as well as self reliance. In a poor country like India simple living must be practised.Moreover, spinning could provide a regular income to the common masses, especially to women who have no other means of earning available to them.Gandhi 's emphasis on education and avoiding alchoholic drinks had both a moral and an economic aim.If the poor coolies who are grossly exploited by the owners of plantations learn to read and write, they would become better acquainted with their rights and wouldn't be cheated so easily. Drink is the greatest enemy of the poor because it never allows a person to spend his income on essential items or make a saving for a rainy day.The picketing of the toddy grove and the toddy both has the immediate effect of making the coolies realise how evil toddy-drinking is ,so that some of them even take a pledge that they would never touch the poisonous drink again.

Conclusion :-
                       Literature is a medium of political, social and religious awakening in a country and it is natural that during India's own part.Most of the creative writing which influenced India's national movement had taken into account the personality and achievements of Mahatma Gandhi who dominated the Indian political scene from 1916 till his death in 1948.For thousands of India’s illiterate peasants Gandhi came to stand for a religious avatar or incarnation of a god, and even many of the more sophisticated city-dwellers looked upon him as a prophet as well as saviour.