MEg-7 Block-3 Raja Rao: Kanthapura Unit-1 Raja Rao: Career and Works
Block-3 Raja Rao: Kanthapura
Unit-1 Raja Rao: Career and Works
Raja Rao goes beyond common realism and dramatizes the national struggle as a mythic and symbolic event. The Kanth~pura village in h~s novel is a piece of mythic land containing within it the memory of the village community's traditions and 'wires.
The novelists writing after 1947 show a sense of disenchantment with the actual reality of freedom, and their anger finds expression through a sense of humanistic compassion for the suffering Indian masses.
Raja Rao deliberately writes in English for a Western audience and an exclusive English-knowing Indian reading public. In his short stones. he writes of the privations of family life, frustrations of the widow in Hindu society, place of myth in India, impact of Gandhi's message on the youth of his tmle and the sad reality of the Indian peasant's life in the context of the struggle for freedom.
Kanthapura was Raj Rao’s first novel.
Stream of consciousness form of narration
Raja is seeker of truth
The novel is projected as a sthala - purana, i.e., the mythic tale of a particular place.
the narrator’s habit of naming people according to their calling are some personal traits
All the three major novelists - Narayan, hand and Raja Rao - have attempted an experimental prose style which successfully conveys their appreciation of the Indian way of life that th-y express through the medium of English. Anand renders the Punjabi expressions in English and thereby enhances the authenticity of his fiction. The simplicity of Narayan's language and style presents the reality of Indian life and character. Raja Rao goes a step further in mingling the grace and tone of the speech rhythms of mother tongue, Kannada, with that of English, the foreign medium of his novel and short stones.
It is a significant coincidence thiq all the three of them started writing about the same time. While Anand is a reformer and Rao a philosopher, Narayan is a moral analyst.
Life-
Raja Rzro belongs to an ancient Brahmin family of Mysore, now part of the Karnataka state. After his birth in 1909, he was brought up in the neighboring state of Hyderabad, now part of Andhra Pradesh, where he was exposed to two other Indian languages, Telugu and Urdu. He was the only Hindu student in the Muslim Public School of Hyderabad where the only teachers to impress him were British. So, at a very young age, Raja Rao came under the influence of the West.
he went for higher education to Aligarh Muslim University, where one of his teachers was Eric Dickinstsn, poet and painter, who taught him the appreciation of European art and philosophy. After graduating with English and History, Raja Rao went in 1929. to study at Montpellier, France. Shortly afterwards, he named a French school teacher, Camillc: Mouly. She had a role in Rao's development as a writer since she advised him to explore the possibilities of writing in his own mother tongue. He complied by writing a long poem and a few short stories in Kannada. But the work that made people take note of him was his first novel in English, Kanthapura 1(1938), which is about the Gandhian Satyagraha Movement in a South Indian village. Meanwhile, Raja Rao's French marriage failed as it was regarded a?; an act of rebellion by his orthodox Hindu family. Back in India, he visited a number of spiritual ashrams including those of Ramana Maharishi and Sri Aurobindo. In 1941, he spent some time with Gandhi at Sevagram. in 1965, married Katherin: Jones, an American stage actress. Raja Rao's second marriage also broke up, and his third marriage was with another American woman.
Work- The Cow of the Barricades and Other Stories-1947, . The Serpent and the Roye-1965-[Sahitya Akademi Award], The Cat and Shakespeare : A Tale cgModern India.- 1965, Comrade Kirillov (1976), s. The Policeman and the Rose (1978), The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988) meant to be the first part of a trilogy, was awarded a prize by the 0klahoma University, USA., On The Ganga Ghat (1989)
INFLUENCES ON RAO'S PHILOSOPHICAL OUTLOOK
Most of Raja Rao's works have a philosophical content, and this is part of his literary art. He believes man to be 'a metaphysical entity'. he asserts the superiority of Indian philosophy over Western thought.
According to Raja Rao, the key to man's existence as a social being lies in the soul, not in the body. The characters in his fiction live both at the physical and spiritual planes. The only commitment that one should have in the world is to oneself. The quest of thc real self is the object of the heroes oCRaja Rao.
Raja Rao believes that a book has three constituents : the author, the word, and the reader. The word is in the middle and makes communication possible between the author and the reader.
Raja Kao, [a] Brahmin, felt a strong affinity with Gandhi. Kanthapura is the story of such a Brahmanic self-sacrifice. The village was destroyed; its men were beaten, arrested, or killed; its women raped, tortured and driven away.. . Yet there is no sense of despair, no feeling of failure, no bitterness at losing a battle. Rather it is just the opposite.'
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UNIT 2 KANTHAPURA: BACKGROUND
Raja Rao describes in kanthapura an archetypal South Indian village inspired by Gandhi's Satyagraha and crushed by the police force of the British rulers. The Skeffington Coffee states what goes on within its boundaries represents the pattern of British oppression In India.
Events of the plot are illusory; lift is symbolic; and the struggle of the men. and women of Kanthapura village is pax-t of the continuing Rnmayanil. Gandhi is an avatar (incarnation) of Rama sent :from heaven to rescue India (Sila) fromBritish (Ravana). The old and the new orders are mingled together. Non-violence of Satyagraha Is integrated with the ancient, violent tradition of the Indian epics, which repeats itself hundreds of times over in the course of Indian history .
.Ancient history, religion, characters from the epics, natural landscape:, and ordinary lift: of ahr: village community of.Kanthapura. ---- all these elements are synthesised to raise the rrlessage of the novel above mere nationalism.
the personal likes and dislikes of the narrator. No single view is allowed to c$ominatc the novel. Kanthapul*u symboliscs India, its capa~ity to absorb influences yet :remain essentially the same. Its historical action covers nearly ten years of indian struggle for freedom, including Gandhi's famous Dandi March during the Salt Satyagraha and the Civ~l Disobedience Movement.
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
The actual historical and political situation of India in the 1930's provides the background of the story that is narrated in Kanthapura. The Indian National Congress Committee was already a broad-based political organization that had spread its branches in the length and breadth of India. Mahatma Gandhi, after his return from South Africa, was already recognized as a leader of national stature who had launched his revolutionary campaign based on Ahimsa and Satyagraha against the British rule.
the Salt Satyagraha, the Dandi March of Mahatma Gandhi, the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Round Table Conference, and the Gandhi - Irwin Pact.
Characters like Moorthy, Rangamma, Ratna and Range Gowda are not only aware of what is happening all over India, but they also take an active part in the rebellion against the British rulers. They subscribe to newspapers, which are read in communal gatherings, and thus the villagers come to know about the great freedom struggle that was at its peak then in the length and breadth of the country. To defy the British symbol of oppression, the villagers go out on a protest march towards the Skeffington Coffee Estate to picket the country liquor shop (toddy shop) near it.
Whatever happened at Kanthapura was happening everywhere in India. This is equally true of the ruthless handling of the situation by the Red- Man’s police force. Bade Khan is the typical police officer who uses brutal measures to follow the orders of the britishers His men shower lathis on the gatherings of the villagers and trample them under their heavy boots. They do not let go of any opportunity to molest their women. To counter the police brutalities, Moorthy advises his followers to take recourse to passive resistance in response to a call from Gandhi, but it does not achieve the objective of putting the oppressors to shame. It is an unequal fight, and the main leaders of the village are arrested and jailed. The villagers wait in suspense for them to return and resume their leadership of the movement against the Red-man's rule.
Mahatma Gandhi does not figure in Kanthapura as a character, but his invisible presence and the wide impact of his thought is felt throughout the book. Gandhian philosophy is introduced into the novel through Moorthy, the main protagonist, who comes under the influence of Gandhi at a young age. y regards Gandhi as a role model, and follows him in every way, in word and deed. He preaches to the villagers the chief tenets of Gandhian philosophy such as to practice ahimsa and speak the truth. He also persuades them to make cotton yarn on the spinning wheel and to wear cloth spun and woven by their own hands. British made foreign clothes are to be discarded and destroyed in bonfires. Moorthy tells his village followers that , Gandhi says, 'Spinning is as purifying as praying'. '
slogans are raised to the skies; 'Vande Mataram !' 'Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai !' and 'Inquilab Zindabad !'
But there is one thing about Gandhi's teachings that the people of Kanthapura do not understand. Why should he advise the upper caste Hindus to mingle with the lower caste Pariahs Some of them like Bhatta and Venkamma repeatedly belittle Moorthy in the eyes of the others for his association with the pariahs of the village. When Moorthy tells Renge Gowda, one of his ardent followers, that Gandhi wants people to pluck out hatred from their hearts and love even their enemies, Gowda replies, 'That's for the Mahatma and you Moorthappa -not for us poor folk !' The idea is that Gandhi and Moorthy have attained such an ideal height where they can practise whatever they preach but the lesser people cannot forget their simple enemities.
compares Gandh~ to Lord Siva when he says, Siva is the three - eyed, and Swaraj too is three - eyed : Self - purification, Hiildu - Muslim unity, Khaddar.' Mohan being one of the names of Krishna, Gandhi's full name, Mohandas Karamchand , gives Jayaramachar the idea of paralleling his achievement to that of Krishna. Just as the god as a young boy slays the serpent Kali, we are told that Gandhi goes from village to village slaying the serpent of foreign rule. Again, just as Krishna teaches Arjuna the wisdom of how to be a true man of action.
3 levels of action - political, social and religious - present a unified concept of India. The action belongs to the decade of the 1930's when the Indian National Congress Committee spread the Gandhian message of Satyagraha and ahimsa through the length and breadth of India
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UNIT 3 KANTHAPURA : THEMES
THE VILLAGE
Kanthapura, as described in Raja Rao's novel, is a village in the province of Kara in the former state ofMysore, which is now part of Karnataka. Far above the port city of Mangalore, it is high on the Western ghats, up the steep mountains that face the arabian Sea. In the lands around the village are grown coffee, cardamom, rice and sugarcane. While cmps of coffee and cardamom are shipped to England, rice and sugar are consumed at home. The nearby forests are full of teak, sal and svldal trees. Kanthapura is situated on the road that connects the sea-coast with the interior. Bay and night long caravans of bullock carts can be seen on the road carrying the produce of the land. The carts of two village traders, Rama Chew and Shubba Chetty are also seen.
There are two temples in the village. One is devoted to the worship of Kenchamma, the goddess of the hill of that name, and the other is dedicated to Goddess Manthapdrishwari, the deity of the village. There is a legend about Kenchamma that ages ago she sslayivkd a denon who came to ask for the young men of the village as food and the young women as wives. The blood of the demon soaked into the earth to make theKenchamma Hill red. The goddess is believed to protect the people of ot'Kanthuprra in times of famine, diseases, death and despair.
The village is divided into several quarters. In the Brahmin quarter there are 24 houses. The other part of the village covers several quarters : the Pariah quarter, the Potter's quarter, the weaver's quarter. and the Sudra quarter - ail together nearly one hundred hut;. There is no social interaction between the Brahmlns and the Pariahs.
The dlagers lead a calm afid placid life till Moorthy disturbs it by bnii?gng in the Gandhian Satyagraha Movement into their life. People are exhorted to give up their foreign clothes and dress in Swadeshi Khaddar. Free spinning wheels are distributed so that people can spin cotton yarn. Moorthy tells them that the Mahatma himself spins for twrr hours every morning, and regards it as purifying as praying. Moorthy leads the villagers in an attempt to picket the toddy shop near the Skeffington Coffee Estate to rent the coo!ies and other people from buying and consuming liquor. The po1.tce tries to foil their attempt and beats them mercilessly.
It is remarkable how the social life of Kanthapura revolves around an endless cycle of fairs, festivals, and religious gatherings.The secular message of Gandhi is transformed into folk-song, prayer and Harikatha.
THE SKEFFINGTON COFFEE ESTATE
The village stands for the Indian values, traditions, myths, faith and influence of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The coffee estate, on the other hand, is a citadel of the British supremacy, colonialism, and enslavement of the people of India. It is a vast estate.
More and more coolies came from below the Ghats. They talked Tamil or Telugu, and brought their families along. Half-naked, starving armies of coolies marched past the Kenchamma Temple and up to the Skeffington Estate. They carried bundles of their belongings in their arms or over heads and shoulders. The Sahib's maistri had gone to far flung villages to spread the news of availability of work in the Estate. He offered one-fourth of a rupee to a man and one-eighth to a woman for a day's labour. Still they came eagerly as there had been a drought in their province , and the maistri enticed then1 with the advance of a rupee to each and the promise of plenty of food in the Estate. .He told them that the British master of the Estate was a kind and generous man who would be good to them. So the coolies left their homes, travelled part of the way in a tram, and marched the rest of the distance on foot. When all of them passed through the entrance of the Estate, the maistri closed the gates behind them. He led them to the master, and told them that they would be treated well if they worked hard, but beaten up if they worked badly. Little did they realize that they had become virtual prisoners in the Estate, and slaves of the British Sahib. The coolies were taken to the foot of a hill where they erected their thatched huts. They all said, 'This will be a fine place to live in,' and they slept like princes. The next morning they rose with the sun and were put to work. Then they realized what lay in store for them. The work was heavy and the wages inadequate; the Estate was crawling with snakes; the rainy season brought with it bouts of fever. The Sahib prescribed them pills as medicine, but there was no respite from hard labour. Some of them perished, but there was no escape from the Skeffington Coffee Estate. Years passed, the old Sahib died, and his nephew was the new Sahib. He was not harsh or cruel, but he wanted the young women of the coolies for his pleasure. When one man resisted this exploitation, the Sahib shot him dead. The case was taken to the British court where the Sahib was forgiven. Two Brahmin clerks from the city, working at the Estate, took a few of the coolies to Moorthy in Kanthapura, asking him to do something for them. Consequently, Moorthy came to the Estate, but was prevented by Bade Khan, the policemen, from I entering. There was a scuffle at the gates in which two coolies hit Bade Khan with his own lathi. The next day the family of one of them was expelled from the Estate, but they were prowded shelter by Moorthy. The other coolies rallied together to rebel against the harsh treatment they received from their master. The villagers of Kanthapura went on a march towards the Estate to demonstrate their solidarity with the coolies. That is how the Gandhian Movement reached even the Skeffington Coffee Estate, and created a turmoil within its boundaries. It was only after this incident that Moorthy began his 'Don't-touch-the Government campaign', in other words, Gandhi's Non-cooperation Movement.
CONSIDERATIONS OF CASTE
Achakka, the narrator of Kanthapura, is an upper caste Brahmin, belonging to the family of Veda Sastra Pravina Krishna Sastri. The only member of the lower castes that she speaks well of is Patel Range Gowda, who is well off and wields considerable authority in Kanthapura.
Moorthy is a prominent Brahimn youth of the village, but swayed by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he learns to care for the lower castes and the untouchables. When he gets free spinning - wheels from the Congress Committee, he distributes them among the villagers of all castes. He even goes to the Pariah quarter, and the people there are so happy to have a Brahmin visiting them that they say 'Yes, yes, learned one.' They were going to spin, and if that Brahmin boy was to be believed they would have clothes to wear, blankets and shirts and loin-cloths. Later, when they are told about Russia, where pariahs and Brahmins are the same, they find it hard to believe in such talk.
From then on Moorthy sits by the kitchen threshold and eats his feed served by his mother like a servant. It breaks the heart of his mother, but she feels helpless caught in the awkward web of casteism. Moorthy contracts to visit the Pariahs, to give them cotton.to spin and yarn to weave, and to teach them alphabets, grammar. anthetic and Hindi. But he remains conscious of the fact that he is a Brahmin the spirits of his ancestors are watching from above. On one occasion; Moorthy visits Pariah Racharma's hut. Racharula's wife 1s overwhelmed, and invites him in. It is with a trembling heart that Moorthy crosses the threshold. &;when she offers him milk to drink, he finds excuses to avoid doing so.
Quite a few of them remain unaffected by his teachings and the personal example that he provides them. Waterfall Venkamma and Bhatta lose no opportunity of using their poisonous tongues against him. While struggling against the British oppression, Moorthy and his disciples have 28 to fight the conservative forces entrenched within their own community. It takes time for the villagers to understand the true significance of the freedom movement.
Moorthy is encouraged by the enthusiasm of his followers like Rangamma, Ratna and hnge Gowda. They realize th~t the villagers can be won o-;CT only through a religious approach. Hence, they project Gandhi as a Mahatma, a superior soul of great faith and tremendous spiritual powers. They arrange B'najans and Harikathas at the temple and other places to subtly plant political ideas in the minds of the people in the form of religious preaching. Range Gowda is elected President of the local Congress Committee. The national spirit is further strengthened when Rangamma subscribes to some papers that carry news about the activities of Gandhi and the Congress. She reads out choice items of news to those who care to listen to her.
While Moorthy is in prison, Rangamma organizes the 'Sevika Sangha,' a voluntary group of women to continue the passive resistance against the British rule. The police force does not spare them, and uses brutal measures against them, but they remain staunch in their resolve. When Rangamma too is arrested, Ratna takes over the leadership of the group. After some time, Moorthy is released and he is welcomed by the people of Kanthapura. It gives them a renewed hope in the success of their unequal fight against the police. Moorthy tells them to contribute to Gandhi's Civil Disobedience Movement against the British by pursuing 'Don't - touch - the Government campaign' and the 'no tax campaign.' These campaigns coincide with the famous Dandi March of Mahatma Gandhi, which formed part of his Salt Satyagraha. The protesters in the village are mercilessly beaten up by the police, but they do not yield, nor do they give up the struggle. Ultimately, Kanthapura is destroyed but not defeated.
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Unit-4 Kanthapura: Structure and Technique
kishna descends from heaven to destroy the serpent of foreign rule, and the village-s cai! him Big Mountain, one of their names for Lord Siva. In the same breath, Moitrthy is called the Smz31 Mountain, and they hope the two mountains will protect them, AchakKa, ihe narrator of Kanthapura, in a flowing, breathless style, tells the story not as history of events, but as the Puranic tale of a village, which, even as it is nearly destrr>yed. acquires the permanence of a legend.
The events of the novel belong to the 5rst half of the twentieth century, but the manner in which they are described !eld them the flavour of an ancient epic, where gods and mortals ccme together in sublime action. Raja Rao's attempt at writing a sthala purana is not a failure, but a unique success.
It is also found in the extended space that is allocated to the considerations of caste and how it divides the community into distinct groups. Moorthy is singled out for special treatment in this regard on account of his voluntary mixing with the untouchables. It affects his prospects of marriage though he is not keen on it. Since he is the unchallenged leader of the village, social and political strands of the action mingle in him. But when he follows the Gandhian method of rallying the common people for a political purpose in the name of prayer and religion, the three levels of action are unified to form the triple-pillared structure of the novel.
Since Kanthapura is a novel of memory, Raja Rao freely uses reflection, dream, flash-back, reminiscence and narration of inter-connected episodes. Rejecting the 'stream of consciousness' technique, he employs the local form of narration, which is a kind of non-stop, breathless style of story-telling.
ACHAKKA, THE NARRATOR
The name of Achakka, the narrator of Kanthapura, appears only once in the novel, but it is through her eyes and from her point of view that we see everything that happens in it. She belongs to the upper caste Brahmin family of Veda Sastra Pravina Krishna Sastri, and is proud of that fact. Her grandson, Seenu, and Moorthy are of the same age and inseparable like Rama and Lakshamana in the Ramayana. Therefore, she has a high regard for Moorthy and great faith in the Satyagraha Movement that he launches in the village. Being an elderly grandmother, Achakka has seen life in Kanthapura for a long time, and has a good deal to say about it. Being a devout Hindu who knows the Puranas, she has a good collection of stories from legends and epics, which she refers to again and again while narrating the story of her village. She tells the story of Goddess Kenchamma at the very beginning, and it is apparent that she has great faith in the goddess and her power of protecting the village community from all calamities. That is why she invokes her name repeatedly in the course of the narrative. Achakka is a garrulous old woman, who herself participates in the satyagraha led by Moorthy. No wonder, she narrates the events of the struggle with a sense of pride and a sense of achievement. Gifted with a sense of the past, she is a wonderful story-teller who, at once, grips the attention of the reader, and holds him captive as a listener to the end. Apart from her remarkable memory, she has a vivid imagination to be able to visualize what must have happened at the Skeffington Coffee Estate where she was not present. That is possible because Raja Rao employs her as his mouth-piece, and grants her the author's privilege of omniscience.
She does not divulge all the details about the characters but tells us only the essentials which are necessary for the development of the story. There is definitely a method in the plotless grandmother's tale.
THE HARIKATHA ELEMENT
Harikatha is a religious ritual that a devout Hindu is expected to organize or attend I from time to time. It may equally well be held at home or at a temple. As the term itself suggests, it is the telling of the story of an incarnation of Vishnu (also known as Hari) or any other god to the accompaniment of singing and dancing. Entire villages Kanthapura or communities participate in a Harikutha.
Jayaramachar is the famousHarikatha-man. He had a special way of doing Harikatha. Somehow or other, he brings in elements of Garldhian teaching into the stories that he narrates. While telling the storgi of Siva md Parva,ti, he s:ry:+ that Sirra is three eyed and Swaraj too is three-cyed, ref'cn-inp to the Gatldhian mersage of selfpurification, Hindu-Muslim unity and Khaddar.
MYTH AND SYMBOLISM
Myth is defined as an ancient traditional story of gods or offering an explanation of some fact or phenomenon Symbol is.an image which suggests or evokes an idea or conception. It is a manner of representation in which what is given (usually material or concrete) suggests, through association, something more or beyond (usually something immaterial or abstract).
Kanthapura is a novel in which myth and symbolism mingle to lend an exclusive colour to the narrative. The main reason for this is that the novel is conceived and structured as a sthalapuranam, and myth and sy.~1nt)ol are unavoidable elements of the Puranic tradition. The second reason is the author's preference for using these elements as aids to his narrative technique.
Siva's three eyes, Gandhi's political programme is three-pronged. And, again
like Krislana, he goes from village to village, slaying the serpent of foreign rule. The
relationship existing between Arjuna, the Pandava prince in the Mahabharata, and
Krishnn is duplicated by Moorthy disciple, Mahatma Gandhi, thTowards the end Raja Kao draws a parallel between the Katnarajya myth and Gandhi's call for Swaraj. Gandhi (in London) is
Kama gone into exile to rescue India (Sita) from the tyranny of the British (Ravana),
while Jawahar La! (Brother Hharata) awaits the realm of his leader from the Second
Round Table Conference.
Raja Rso also makes wide use of symbols. When the leaders are arrested by the police, the women form 'Sevika Sangha' or women's group to fight the forces of oppression. At that time, they are not ordinary helpless women, but manifestations of Durga or' Kalil, the destroyer of demons.. Moorthy is Gandhi's man or the symbol of Satyagraha; Bade Khan the policeman is thc symbol of oppression; Bhatta is the symbol of false oilhodoxv; and Waterfall Venkainma symbolises superstition and blind tradition.
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UNIT 5 KANTHAPURA : CHARACTERS
The characters in Kanthapura are villagers who have little experience of city life. They are shown to be not highly educated, not very cunning, but mostly innocent, simple and truthful people. Prayer, worship, and religious practices sum up the way of life for them. That is the reason how their leaders find it easy to take them towards politics by the path of religion. While !heir blind faith is a positive point, it has a . negative side in making them superstitious and reluctant to give up tradition
To contrast the goodness and nobility of Moorthy, Rangamma, Ratna and others, there are evil characters like Bhatta and Waterfall Venkamma. The latter, in particular; has a vicious tongue, which is capable of turning against its victims like a waterfall of malicious words. But, in the ultimate analysis, she is not all that bad as for the policeman, Bade Khan, he is evil incarnate.
Raja Rao's villagers are practical men and women. When the repercussSons of the satyagraha hurt them, they blame it on Gandhi, Moorthy's mother does not hesitate to curse Gandhi for influencing her son to mingle with the Pariahs.
MOORTHY, THE CENTRAL FIGURE
Kanthapura is really a novel about a village rather than about a single individual; nevertheless, Moorthy, the Brahmin protagonist of the villagers' struggle against the government, is a prototypal hero.
Moorthy proves to be a weak Gandhian when his nationalism is transformed into Jawahar La1 Nehru's socialism. But he is a genuine son of the soil who retains his simplicity and sincerity even after all the experience that he goes through. The state of his mind may be compared to that of the common Indian before freedom.
THE WOMEN -
Though Moorthy is the central figure of Kanahapui.{l, among the other characters, women have an equal role to play with their male counterparts. Again, since the narrator is Achakka, we get to know t!~ story of the various happenings in and around Kanthapura, more from the point of view of women than from that of men. The women take a prominent part in all the rc:igious gatherings and prayer rneet~ngs, and also in the political activities, They take care of the households, feed the men. and look after the children. At the same time, they are the ones \who are interested it1 maintaining the rituals and traditions.
Waterfall Venkamma. Nobler women- Rangamma and Ratna
' During all the encounters with the police, the women of Kanthapuram do not stay at home. but join the men in their defiant protest marches. They get beaten up with lathis and suffer broken bones, yet they do not give up the struggle. Ultimately, most of the houses in Kanthapura are destroyed and the village is reduced to rubble. Some of the men perish and others leave their homes to find shelter elsewhere the women too leave
SOME OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS
Range Gowda, Bhatta and Bade khan.
Patel Range Gowda is a Sudra, and has a prosperous nine - beamed house in the Sudra quarter of the village. Range Gowda is an honest man, and he helps poor peasants. ?le villagers respect him all the more since he is a terror to the authorities.
Bhatta is a scholarly Brahmin, well-versed in the religious lore of Hinduism. Wealthy and possessing vast lands, he does not know what it is to be hnd and charitable toward others, He rs a money - lender, and when some poor wretch fails to repay his debt, Bhatta quietly acquires his fields to add to his own blg estate. Bhatta conspires against Moorthy and has him excommunicated from the Brahmin community for his Pariah leanings. The villagers fear him but do not respect him as they respect Patel Range Gowda. Towards the end, Bhatta sells his lands in the village and goes to live his last days at Kashi.
Bade Khan, a typical policeman under the British regime, is evil incarnate. Corrupt, cruel and ruthless, he has no human qualities.Bade Khan is a symbol of the British tyranny over the helpless masses.of India. The British colonisers willingly made use of the services of native people like him to enslave the Indians.
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