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 selected a
sleeping village ‘Kanthapura’. He knew 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 he adopted.
This novel can be read and understood from 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 #Swamiji, 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, 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 proof
of exploitation done to the poor strata of Indian society.
Thus, on the basis of the above discussion, we may say that
Kanthapura represents an Indian village on a micro-level.
