Kanthapura Representative of Indian Villages

  Kanthapura Representative of Indian Villages

Kanthapura is Raja Rao’s first novel written in English. In many ways, the novel is known for its merits.

The novelist chooses an imaginary village ‘Kanthapura’, situated on the slopes of the Western Ghat facing the Arabian Seas. Raja Rao did not select any city for the centre of action of the novel. Rather he picked a sleeping village ‘Kanthapura’. He knew it well that most of India lived in villages in that pre-independent period. He made this village alive with the best characterisation and narrative style adopted by him.

This novel can be read and understood at different angles and levels of its merits. In addition, it can be read and understood as the novel of the village Kanthapura that represents any Indian village of its times.

We find Kanthapura a microcosm of Indian villages.

In the very opening chapter, we have a very minute detail of its surroundings and also we have a glimpse of the whole village divided into quarters. The roads reaching this imaginary village are dusty and zigzag. The main cash crops of this area are coffee and cardamom, which are exported to England.

The society of Indian villages was caste-ridden in those days. Several other evils like child marriages, untouchability, maltreatment given to widows, gender bias, superstitions, illiteracy, dominance by the so-called upper castes, exploitation of the poor people, etc, also prevailed in Indian society.

We find all these social evils in Kanthapura also.

The whole village of Kanthapura is divided into quarters as the barriers in society. The people of the so-called upper castes like Brahmins were not supposed to mingle with the people of the so-called lower castes. If anyone dared to break the social set-up, he or she had to bear the brunt  (face bad consequences). Moorthy is a glaring example of this. He, along with his would-be generations, was excommunicated by the Shashtriji, who lived in a city and ruled over the Brahmins by his dictates.

But, Moorthy did not care for such big sharks of society and continued his efforts to make the people come out of their deep slumber of slavery and join Gandhiji's freedom movement. This was happening not only in Kanthapura but in other Indian villages also. Women also came forward to join hands with men to make India free from the Britishers. In Kanthapura, a women's group was formed to help the freedom fighters.

 Poverty prevailed in most quarters of Indian villages. We do find its reflection in Kanthapura also. Their dresses, food and huts tell the tale of their miserable life. Very few people like postmaster Suryanarayan, Patwari Nanjundia, Sidda, Waterfall Venkamma, Bhatta, and Patel Range Gowda are shown living comfortably in this novel. But the rest of the population of Kanthapura  lives in poverty.

Illiteracy and superstitions were found in any Indian village in those days of the 1930s. We also find illiteracy and superstitions in the people of Kanthapura.

Every village has a place of worship. The people of Kanthapura also had their temple of Kenchamma, their presiding deity. It is said that the goddess Kenchamma had long ago killed a demon and saved the people from his terror. Since then, the goddess has settled there as their saviour from any misfortune or disease. The people of Kanthapura are very religious and they worship their goddess with full faith. They organise ‘kathas’ and fairs to celebrate their festivals.

The condition of the labouring class has also been brought into focus in this novel. The people working at Skeiffington Coffee Estate is a proof of exploitation done to the poor strata of Indian society.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Thus, on the basis of the above discussion, we may say that Kanthapura represents an Indian village on a micro level.

 

Important Lines from English Poetry-English Literature-UGC NET Exam

Poets & Pancakes-Ashokamitran-Class XII English-Flamingo

Poets & Pancakes

Q1.  What does the writer mean by ‘the fiery misery of those subjected to make-up?

   Ans. The makeup room had a lot of hot bulbs always burning inside and a number of mirrors to reflect the heat. It was really very difficult and miserable for the artists to sit there for make-up. There were no cooling systems in those days. So the artists had to bear all that.

Q2. What is the example of national integration that the author refers to?

  Ans. The members of the make-up department were from various parts of India. Anyone could be the head of the make-up room. Once there was a Bengali as the head of this department. He was succeeded by a Maharashtrian. His assistant was a Dharwar Kannadiga. So it was the best example of national integration.

Q3. What work did the ‘office boy’ do in the Gemini studio? Why did he join the studios? Why was he disappointed?  Or Who was the office boy? What was his duty in the make-up department? How did he join the studios? Why was he disappointed and frustrated?

  Ans. The office boy was a forty-year-old man. He wanted to become a star actor, a top screenwriter, or a lyric writer. His duty was to apply make-up for the crowd players for shooting. So he remained unsatisfied and criticized everyone he felt jealous of.

  Q4. Why did the author appear to be doing nothing at the studios? (2011)  How was the author’s job odd in the eyes of the other staff? How did they respond to this?
Ans. Asokamitran’s job at the Gemini Studios was to collect information from newspapers and magazines and to paste the cuttings in files for reference. The other members of the studios always advised him to do a better job.

Q5. Subbu is described as a many-sided genius. List four of his special abilities. Or  Who was Kothamangalam Subbu? How did he make all the other staff hate him?
Ans. Kothamangalam Subbu joined the Gemini Studios as a clerk and remained the same in the records. But in practice, he soon acquired the status of the No.2 at the studios because of his amazing genius and different skills. He did any work for his boss and ignored the rest. This made the rest of the staff envy him.

 Q6. Discuss Subbu’s identity as a poet. Why was he not known as a poet?
Ans. Apart from being an amazing director of movies, Subbu had the identity as a poet. The world of his time and later never recognized him as a poet yet he was a great unknown poet. He wrote poems in the simplest Tamil language and was able to recreate the classical poems in his own style.

 Q7. Subbu was excellent as an actor too. Discuss.
Ans. Subbu was a good actor. He was able to act better than the lead actors yet never wished to take any lead roles in any movie.
Q8. In spite of all the good qualities and readiness to be a host at any time, Subbu had only enemies. Why?
Ans. Subbu was good to everyone he met. He always spoke with them nicely. He fed his relatives. He excelled with everyone in the Gemini Studios. But he was hated by most of them just because he was so close to the boss of the studios.   

Q1. What was the hierarchy observed at the Make-up Room in Gemini Studios?

Ans.   A strict hierarchy in the Makeup Room

The writer says that a strict hierarchy was observed in the make-up department. The job of the chief make-up man was to apply make-up on the faces of the chief actors and actresses. The senior assistant applied makeup to the faces of the second-number hero and heroine, and the junior comedian did makeup to the main comedian and others of the same rank.

The responsibility of the ‘office boy’ was to apply makeup material on the people who were playing the role of the crowd. He would mix paint in a giant vessel and slap it with a brush on the faces of the people hurriedly. It was done to hide every pore or patch on the face to make it look presentable according to the set-up norms. The mention of a separate office boy in the make-up room shows the large size of the Gemini Studios.

Q2. Write something about Ashokamitran’s job at the Gemini Studios.

Ans. Ashokamitran says that his duty in the Gemini Studios was to sit in a small room. The writer would sit in his desk and make cuttings of the important news-items and collect them in a file. People usually thought his job to be insignificant. So some people would take pity on him and deliver to him a long lecture on the necessity of getting a real job.

Even the ‘boy’ in the make-up department made Ashokamitran aware of the fact that his literary talent was being wasted on that petty job. The writer would every time pray for crowd shooting. It means that only crowd-shooting could save him the boy of the makeup department.

 

 

HTET- Haryana Teacher's Eligibility Test-Level 3_English Grammar