Department
of English,
M.k.BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Name :- Upadhyay Mansi M.
Roll no :- 23
Enrollment no :- 2069108420190042
Email id :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Department :- M.A. English department
Submitted To :- Prof. Heenabamam. zala
(Head
of English Dept.M. K.
Bhavnagar University)
Semester
:- 1
Paper
no :-
(4) ( Indian writing in English )
Assignment :- Critically analyze kanthapura as a Gandhian epic.
Assignment :- Critically analyze kanthapura as a Gandhian epic.
1) Critically
analyze kanthapura as a gandhian epic.
There were three
Indian modern writer of classic. Their contribution in classic is very
significant. They are :-
1.Raja rao
2. R.k. narayan
3.Mulk raj anand
1.Raja rao
2. R.k. narayan
3.Mulk raj anand
Introduction :-
There
were three Indian modern writer of classic. Their contribution in classic is
very significant. Mulk raj anand, r. k narayan, raja rao those three person are
great dramatist of the Indian writing in English. In Indian literature we have
many forms like epic, lyrics, drama, short stories and fables but we should wit
of novel very long time.
Raja rao :-
Raja
Rao is most remarkable person of Indian writing in English in novel. A novelist
and a short story writer, he too is a child of the forces let loose by the
Gandhian Revolution as also of he steadying pulls of past tradition. “An epic
is a long narrative poem and a great and serious subject related in an elevated
style and centered on a heroic or quasidivine figure on whose action depend the
fate or tribe a nation or the human race.”
Gandhi was no less than the hero of an epic. The freedom struggle of Indian was
an epic struggle. Thousands of people sacrificed their lives. It was remain in
the background through the novel; Gandhi is no doubt the hero of movement on a
small village called Kanthapura. By reading the novel one get idea about the
methods and principle of Gandhi. Moorthy and the others freedom fighters of
Kanthapura are followers of Gandhi and use Gandhian methods in their struggle
against the government. They followed the path of non- violence.
Creative works of Raja
Rao
(1)
Kanthapura
(1938)
(2)
Cow of the Barricades and other
Stories
(3)
The Serpent and the
rope
(1960)
(4)
The cat and Shakespeare
(1965)
(5)
Comrade
Kirillow
(1976)
(6)
The policeman and the
Rose
(1978)
(7)
The Chess master and his
moves
(1988)
(8) On the
Ganga
Ghat
(1989)
Kanthapura
:-
Although dense with expressions of Indian customs, epical
history, politics, and religion, Kanthapura is unusual as an
Indo-English novel because the female characters serve in the forefront of
revolutionary struggle. In her concluding summary, Achakka expresses her belief
that what has happened in her village is essentially positive. Things have
changed irrevocably.
In
form, Kanthapura is an extension of the Indian oral tradition, adapted
to a Western language and genre. The extensive use of songs and prayers,
allusions, and digressions, and the more limited use of proverbs and epic lists,
or catalogs, contribute to the folkloric nature of the writing. Sometimes the
pace is heightened by a piling-on of compound sentences at a breathless tempo,
and the use of tales-within-tales promotes the sense of impromptu fabrication
and immediacy.
Kanthapura is one of the earliest examples of
the Gandhian novel: fiction that derives its moral force from the figure and
precepts of the great political and spiritual leader. It is not simply an
exotic tale of a vanished era but also a clever use of a colonial language to
serve didactic ends. Like the early novels of Mulk Raj Anand, it is a
deliberately moral fiction, but unlike Anand’s work, it is not almost
exclusively sociological in tenor. By providing detailed notes on Indian terms
and allusions, Rao is able to extend the reach of his fiction, compelling
Western readers to slow down their pace of reading, examine the network of
mythological and historical associations, and note the analogies which he is
drawing between secular history and sacred mythology.
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 the 1930’s. 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 swaraj
only, but also at social reform. In fact, mahatma Gandhi believed that swaraj itself
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 khadi made from it,
also eradication of untouchability and the rigidities of caste system and
removal of illiteracy and ignorance and superstition. However, at the end of
the novel there is also a mention that raja rao, through his hero moorthy, does
not regard gandhism as the last word and that he believes that the basic ill in
india was something more fundamental than conceived by gandhiji, inequality.
‘Kanthapura' as a
Gandhian Epic' :-
“An epic is a long narrative
poem and a great and serious subject related in an elevated style, and centered
on a heroic or quasidivine figure on whose action depend the fate of tribe a
nation or the human race.”
- M.H. Abram
Kanthapura
is the first novel of Raja Rao written in 1938 A.D. It describes the period in
which the struggle against the foreign government was dominating the political
scenario in India. At that time the Non-Cooperation Movement was in vogue.
Congress
under the leadership of Gandhi was leading the movement. Raja Rao supported the
ideas of Gandhi thus Kanthapura as a political novel is totally influenced by
the principles of Gandhi. In the beginning of the novel, we come to know about
the structure of village.
We find that the village of
Kanthapura is a caste-ridden village and the quarters of people are separated
on the basis of casteism. The casteism is so prevalent in Kanthapura that if a
Brahmin visits a Pariah’s house, he has to go to Kashi for purification.
Moorthy,
the protagonist of the novel, who is a Brahmin, gives up his studies after
being influenced by the Gandhian Philosophy by going through different
pamphlets and newspapers. Hence we don’t see Gandhi in actual but his ideology
and principles in the novel and Moorthy is the avatar of Gandhi.
Moorthy
after adopting the Gandhian Ideology gives up his studies in the city and
returns back to his village. He gives up foreign clothes and goods and wears
hand-woven
Khaddar. He encourages the people of his village to use native
things and become independent of foreign goods.
‘KANTHAPURA’ – Village :-
Kanthapura does not exist but it is a imagination of Raja Rao’s mind.
Kanthapura village is situated on the Western Ghats in the Valley of Himmavathi
River. There it lies ‘curled up like a child on its mother’s lap’. This single
image makes the village spirit into life. The reader is able to visualize it as
it as lies, sheltered and secluded like a child in its mother’s lap.
Village’s
Cotemporary Situation :-
(I) Social
Background
(II)
Religion Background
(III) Political
Background
(I) Social
Background:-
“I will not let
anyone walk through my mind with their Dirty feet”.
- Gandhiji….
The novel has a dormant pattern to the treatment of castes and communities
Kanthapura, a tiny village representative of any other village in south Indian.
There were four divisions in caste….
(1)
Brahmin
(2)
Parihar
(3) Potter
(4) Weaver
There were conflict between castisim
and other issues, but finally all get together and helped each other for the
struggle for independence.
(II)
Religion Background:-
“I like your Christ, I do not
like your Christians, and your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
- Gandhiji…
The village has a people who have strong rigid and orthodox background of
religious. The Brahmin is upper cast of society.
In the Kanthapura people are ignorant, poor and superstitious, but they are
also deeply religious. They were faith in Goodness ‘Kenchamma’. She is in the
centre of the village. Marriage, sickness, death, ploughing, harvesting,
arrest, release all are watched by Kenchamma. There may be small pox or
influence around but you make vow to the Goodness, the next morning, you walked
and you find the fever has left you. There is a also temple of
Kanthapurishwari.
Kenchamma, Kenchamma,
Goddess
benign, and bounteous,
Mother
of earth, blood off life,
Harvest
– queen – rain, crowned,
Kenchamma,
Kenchamma,
Goddess
benign and bounteous…..
(III) Political Background:-
Lift the flag high,
O. Lift the flag high,
Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Mother,
This is the flag of the revolution……
- Gandhiji…
In ‘Kanthapura’ – novel
political ideas also be found, Earlier, British ruled over India and then
slowly and steadily education got reformation and Gandhian ideas started to
apply by Moorthy.
First
they ignore you,
Then
they ridicule you,
Then
they fight you, and
Then you win……
- Gandhiji…
Kanthapura is one the earliest example of Gandhian Novel. Raja Rao’s novel is
the most powerful of Indo – Anglian novel, portraying the impact of the
Gandhian Movement on the Indian people. Kanthapura is long narrative novel
telling of heroic acts, the birth and death of a hero. So it is an Epic.
Kanthapura is telling of impact that Gandhi had on the nation. He concerted the
whole nation into an army of Freedom fighters. Gandhiji was no less than the
hero of an epic, the freedom struggle of India was an epic struggle. Thousands
of people sacrifice their lives. It was remaining in the background through the
novel; Gandhi is no doubt the hero of movement on a small village Kanthapura.
Here, in the Kanthapura Moorthy is the Gandhi and Hero of the village.
The main character of the novel is Moorthy. He is Brahmin boy who discovered a
half buried ‘Ligna’ from the village and installed it. It is Moorthy who
organize Gandhi work in the village, he is indeed life and spirit behind the
movement in Kanthapura just as a Gandhi was the life and spirit of freedom
struggle in India, but very soon the people of Kanthapura as a whole are
actively involved and the novel becomes an account of their suffering and their
heroic sacrifice. The people of Kanthapura has been enthused with spirit of
Gandhiji and they march ahead heroically despite all the suffering and the
hardship they have undergo.
- “Moorthy is not man of modern novel. He is a ‘very Prince’, ‘our Rama’ and ‘small mountain’…..
Like a thousand of young
men all over the country Moorthy gave up his studies and joined freedom
movement. He dedicated his life to the country after he followed the principal
of Gandhiji. He burnet his foreign clothes and started using Khadi. He did not
marry and devoted his life totally to the struggle for independence. He
sacrifices his personal life and happiness for the sake of freedom fighters in
the village Kanthapura.
Conclusion:-
At last we can say that, at first
Gandhian ideology spread as a music in every nook and corner of the village
Kanthapura and it directs people against British rulers. It is Kanthapura in
which Raja Rao’s music for Gandhi achieves its perfection. And truly made it
Gandhian novel or Gandhian Epic.
Thank you
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