Topic: Women characters in Kanthapura

Name: Jinal Parmar B.

Roll no: 16

Paper no: 4- Indian Writing in English

Sem.:1 M.A.

 Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi

                          Department of English

                          M.K. Bhavnagar University

Introduction of Raja Rao:--

              Raja Rao was born on November 8, 1908 in Hassan, British India. Rao was an Indian writer of English language novel and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in Hinduism. Rao’s involvement in the nationalist movement is reflection in his first two books. The novel Kanthapura was an account of the impact of Gandhi’s teaching on non-violent resistance against the British. The story is seen from the perspective of a small village in south India. Rao borrows then style and structure from Indian vernacular tales and folk-epic. Rao returned to the theme of Gandhian in the short-story collection ‘The cow of the Barricades’.

Kanthapura:--

              Kanthapura is one of the book of Raja Rao. Kanthapura was published in 1938. Kanthapura is the first major Indian novel in English was written in the colonial India. This novel deals with the civil Disobedience Movement. Mahatma Gandhi on the participation of a small village of South India in the national struggle calls for the story’s central concern. But this novel of colonial India is Post-Colonial in spirit for various reasons. To deify Gandhi is a part of the process of decolonizing the Indian mind. In the novel there are at least three strands of experience in the novel: the political, the religious and the social, and all are woven inextricably into the complex story of Kanthapura.

                  This novel is narrated in the form of a ‘Sthalpurana’ by an old woman of the village, Achakka. Kanthapura is a traditional caste ridden Indian village which is away from all modern ways of living. Dominent castes like Brahmins are privileged to get the best region of the village whereas Sudras, Pariahs are marginalized. The village is believed to have projected by a local deity called Kenchamma. Though casteist, the village has got a long nourished traditions of festivals in which all castes interact and the villagers are united. As Rao explains in his original foreword, there is no village in India, however mean, that has not a rich legendary history of its own, in which some famous figure of myth or history has made an appearance. In this way, the story-teller, who commemorate the past, keeps a native audience in touch with its lore and thereby allows the past to mingle with the present, the gods and heroes with ordinary mortals.

Women Characters in Kanthapura:--

               In Kanthapura there  are many major and minor characters. Raja Rao has present some women characters. Rao has very well portrayed women characters in the novel.

Achakka:--

                 Achakka is one of the main character of the novel. Who is telling a story to his grandson in fleshback. She is the open-minded Brahmin female narrator, who recounts the rise of Gandhian resistance to British colonial rule. Weaving Kanthapura legends and Hindu myths into her story, she documents the wisdom and daily routines of village life while recalling her own conversion to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi philosophy. Although she is a grandmother who survives by subsistence farming, she seems age less in her strength and charity. As Achakka becomes increasingly involved in the resistance. She studies Vedic texts and yoga with Rangamma and participates in boy cotts of foreign cloth and in picketing against tobacco and liquor shops, during which she is beaten, along with other Gandhians. When her house, with much of Kanthapura, is burned, she goes to live in the nearby village of Kashipura.

Rangamma:--

                  Rangamma is also one of the main character of the novel Kanthapura. Raja Rao has portrayed her character as a wealthy young Brahmin. Rangamma is converted by Moorthy to Gandhi’s views. Widely respected but lonely, she reads frequently and nurtures curiosity about other countries. As the resistance movement grows, she publishes a weekly political pamphlet and sponsors daily discussion on the nationalist movement, turning her home into Kanthapura’s center for Congress party activities. Bold in a traditionalist context, she refutes Bhatta’s self-serving religious and inspires many villagers to follow Gandhi’s teachings. When Moorthy is imprisoned and her father, a vedantic teacher, dies, she continues both as organizer for the Gandhians and as Vedic interpreter and yoga teacher. Eventually, she organizes the women of Kanthapura as the sevis, who lead nonviolent resistance marches, a role that results in her being beaten and imprisoned.

Kenchamma:--

                In Kanthapura, Kenchamma leads main role in the novel. Kenchamma is the Goddess for the villagers. Kenchamma is the mother of Himavathy. Kenchamma came from the Heavens, it was the sage Tripura who had made penances to bring her down- and she wages such a battle and she fought so many a night that the blood soaked and soaked into the earth, and that is why the Kenchamma Hill is all red. Kenchamma is Goddess for the people of Kanthapura. Right is the centre of the village is a temple dedicated to Kenchamma, Great Goddess, Being one. A river, a hill and a temple with the presiding deity of the village complete the picture. There is a folk song which evokes in us image and attitude as to what Kenchamma means to the people of Kanthapura:

“Kenchamma, Kenchamma,

Goddess benign and bounteous,

Mother of Earth, Blood of life,

Harvest queen, rain crowned,

Kenchamma, Kenchamma,

Goddess benign and bounteous.”

               Kenchamma is the centre of the village and makes every-thing meaningful. A marriage, a funeral, sickness, death, plaguing, harvesting, arrests, and release – all are watched over by Kenchamma. So, this is the character of Kenchamma, who is the Goddess for the people of Kanthapura.

Kamalamma:--

                Kamalamma, Rangamma’s thirty- year’s old traditionalist sister. A strict adherent to the Vedic caste system, she rejects Rangamma’s conversion to Gandhi’s teaching and her own daughter Ratna’s modern behavior and attitude. Kamalamma embodies the larger conflict with in the village through her divisive stance within the family, being for more concerned with Ratna’s eligibility for remarriage than with her daughter’s role in the swaraj movement.

Ratna:--

               Ratna is one of the character of the novel. Ratna, the fifteen years old widowed daughter of Kamalamma. Throughly modern in her behavior of speaking her mind and walking alone in the village, the educated, attractive niece of Rangamma follows her aunt’s example by joining the resistance movement. She breaks tradition by assisting Rangamma in the teaching of the Vedic texts as justification for Gandhi’s views, suffers beatings in the protest marches, and is nearly raped by a policeman. When Rangamma is imprisoned, Ratna assumes leadership of the sevis and, eventually, also suffers imprisonment to continue her activism in Bombay.

               Kanthapura reflects the elements of Human and Feminism in the novel here is quote about:

“The British rule in India gave dalits and women an opportunity to display their anger and power which in a subtle ways foretells that they are capable of fighting any type of opperession. They can both be admired for their role in the freedom struggle and feared for the potential they respected which can subvert and transform the status.”

Conclusion:--

                 In this novel there is also main character namely Moorthy who played a vital role in the novel. But there are also many women characters in the novel some are the played major role and some are the played minor role for example, Waterfall venkamma, Range Gowda, Shankara these are the minor characters in the novel.

                 So, these are the women characters in the novel Kanthapura.