Nationalism in a Kanthapura by Raja Rao

Name: Trivedi Hezal K.

Roll No: 39

PG Reg. No. PG15101040

M.A. – English Regular, Semester-1

Year: 2015

Course No. 4-A: Indian Writing in English – Pre Independence:

Unit-3 - Kanthapura – Raja Rao (1938)

Assignments opic- Nationalism in a Kanthapura by Raja Rao

Submitted to: S.B. Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

(Gujarat – India)

To evaluate my assignment click here 

Kanthapura is the first major Indian novel in English by Raja Rao. Raja Rao, the famous Indian English writer, was born on 8th November 1908 in Hassan, Karnataka. Nationalism was a theme of many of his novels. His novel Kanthapura is an account of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. It is the story of national struggle through the view point of a villager in Karnataka.

Nationalism:

Nationalism is the desire for political independence of people who feel they are historically or culturally a separate group within country. 

Nationalism in Kanthapura:

Raja Rao's novel Kanthapura (1938) is the first major Indian novel in English. It is a fictional but realistic account of how the great majority of people in India lived their lives under British rule and how they responded to the ideas and ideals of Indian Nationalism.

The problematising potential of the novel extends to anti-colonial nationalism too. The novel’s role in enabling the notion of nation-state to take shape is an important one. The novels written in 19^th century and even beyond in India may be used to support this claim.

In Kanthapura, religion an integral part of culture    has been used for a secular and political purpose such as attaining Independence.  Here religion has got a very significant role to play in defining the identity of people and also of the nation. Raja Rao exquisitely appropriates the Indian religious tradition of Harikatha to promote the cause of nation and also to accord this cause a sacred dimension. In fact the novel makes use of two kinds of appropriates

1) It appropriates the religious tradition    of the country, such as Harikatha to further the contemporary issues such as Swaraj and Nation.

2) It also appropriates    the contemporary history such as Indian National Movement and brings it to the fold of the religious tradition of India.  

In this novel Raja Rao also talks about the freedom struggle experiments. He strongly displays deep & firmly roofed passion nationalistic zeal and spiritual concerns begin with his first novel Kanthapura. It is believed as an epic and the creative construction of a work of fiction through nationalism and spirituality.

The grand events that form the focal points of the novel take place in response to events elsewhere – Lahore, Bengal, Gujarat, etc. The village community moves from an insulated identity towards a national identity. In one sense, Kanthapura chronicles the formation of a national identity within a remote village. This thematic is also supported by the manner in which the village becomes a kind of a microcosm of the nation. The narrative tends towards mythicizing. For example Moorthy’s fast, Ramakrishnayya’s death, the receding of the flood, and nationalist struggle itself are mythicized. The narrative takes recourse to Vedantic texts and Puranas and inserts nationalist struggle into them. For example, in a harikatha, Jayaramachar brings in an allegory between Siva, Parvati and the nation. The three eyed Siva stands for Swaraj. Later Rangamma standing in as the commentator of Vedanta after the death of her father reads the Puranas allegorically, interpreting hell as the foreign rule, soul as India and so on.

A nation is a community of people who have a common language etc. Thus in Kanthapura, Congressmen including Moorthy follow the same model of the nation-state. Sankaru epitomises this: his insistence on speaking Hindi even to his mother instead of the local language; his fanatic resistance to the use of English and so on. Thus, the very conception of ‘Nation’, which is conceived after the European model of the nation-state, undermines the ‘Swadeshi’ spirit of nationalism. Any pure form of nationhood untouched by colonialism is seriously questioned.

The novel highlights with no subtlety the collusion between colonialism and Brahmanism. The manner in which Moorthy becomes an outcaste in the Brahmin quarters with his campaign against untouchability indicates the tension between Brahmanism and nationalism. For Brahmanism, the colonial ruler is not the enemy but Gandhi’s anti-untouchable movement is. The collusion between Brahmanism and colonialism is suggested through the alliance between Bhatta, Bade Khan the policeman and the Sahib of the Estate. Swami, who is waging a war against ‘caste pollution’ due to this pariah business, sees British rulers as protectors of the ancient ways of Dharma. Swami receives a large amount from the govt as Rajadakshina and is promised that he would receive moral and material support in his war against caste pollution.

Moorthy’s politics in the village mobilises people of all castes for the struggle against colonisers. In so doing Moorthy radicalises his sociality by visiting the untouchable quarters, and even having milk offered by one of them. Interestingly after this he is troubled by his action and takes a bath. Though he does not change his sacred thread as then he would have to do it daily, he does take a little Ganga water and we are promised that he would do that every time he visits the pariahs. His politics aims at assimilating the lower castes into the nationalist movement. This may also operate as a move towards containment. For example, the discourse of nationalism meets the discourse of religion at different levels in the novel. While Bhatta, Swami and their followers (who have often material motives such as Venkamma) resist Gandhism in the name of religion, in Kanthapura, the nationalists increasingly employ the religious discourse and customs and symbols for nationalist purposes. Religious resources are mobilised for the politicisation of the people. But the customs, rituals and symbols that become tools of nationalist mobilisation are primarily Brahminic: aarthi, puja, conches, bells, Vedanta, bhajan etc. They do not include the cultural practices of the lower castes though their participation is prominent.

The remote village is caught in the maelstrom of the freedom struggle of the 1930s and is transformed into living symbol of Gandhism in regard of nationalism and spirituality.

Kanthapura & Nationalism Video Part-I

Kanthapura & Nationalism Video Part-II

Conclusion:

In short, Kanthapura is great work of art by Raja Rao and the novel is that it is an immensely clever novel that very ably reflects much of the nationalistic themes including the patronising attitude towards the lower caste society.

To evaluate my assignment click here 

================================