Social, Religious and political background in Kanthapura.
Respected sir,
To evaluate my assignment click here
Name:-Heerva Bhatt
Course:-M.A. (sem.1)
Paper no.:-4(Indian Writing in English)
Topic name:- Social,Religious and
political background in
Kanthapura.
Roll no.:-14
Email Id :-heervabhatt96@gmail.com
Submitted to :-Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, Bhavnagar.
Introduction :-
Raja Rao is one of the greatest of Indian novelists writing in the English language.Only two others -Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan-come any where near him.But Raja Rao is entirely different from them in his art as a novelist,and in his enchanting prose style.This pre-eminence is surprising when we remember that the bulk of his published work is small.
His works:-
□ The Cow of the Barricades and other stories (1947)
□ Kanthapura (1938)
□ The Serpent an the Rope (1960)
□ The Cat and Shakespeare (1965)
Raja Rao's work divides itself easily into two parts or categories. First,The Early Phase and second ,The Later Phase.
"Range of life as well as the levels of consciousness he has brought into the novel form,along with the creation of a suitable medium for his eoncerns which are at once timeless and temporal, metaphysical and social,immediately local but also international, so as to enlarge the frontiers of the fictional form itself and justify the name of an innovator.In modern Indian fiction which, thanks largely to him,more than any other single writer,has been ushered into the mainstream of twentieth century literature. "
Kanthapura :-
Kanthapura is his first novel ,it is a classic of the Gandhian movement,a work in which the Gandhian struggle for independence and its impact on the Indian masses finds;its best and fullest expression. It is also great village novel,a novel with,"the various facets of the village life,with its socioeconomic divisions, superstitions, religious and caste-prejudices, blind faith in Gods and Goddesses, Poverty ,petty ,jealousies,dirty lanes , shady gardens ,snake-infested forests, dirty pools, hills , rivers and changing seasons."Kanthapura is a microcosm of the macrocosm; it is Indian in miniature. The novelist's style of narration makes it a Gandhi Puran or a Gandhi epic.The novelist does not write ,"Babu English "but Indian English ,an English eminently suited for the expression of Indian (or presant)sensibility.He has tried to adapt his English style to the movement of a Sanskrit sentence.His style has the flavour of Kannada speech,and its rhythms are almost incantatory, the rhythms of Sanskrit, a language which is the source of Indian languages. This evolution of a suitable style for the expression of Indian Sensibility is Raja Rao's most significant contribution to the Indo-Anglian fiction.
Another of his important contributions is the fusion of a Western art form with an Indian theme and the Indian way of treating it.He has followed the oral Indian tradition of story-telling and so the narration is digressive and episodic. As the old narrator's stream of reminiscence proceeds, there is a free mingling of fact and fiction,poetry and reality, the perennial and the present, and "This makes 'Kanthapura ' a distinctive novel, almost a new species of fiction."The use of the Eliotian mythical -technique enables the novelist to exalt Gandhi as Rama,to see Bharat Mata as Sita and the Redman as Ratan. This mingling of Gods and men , of myth and legend with contemporary reality, is true to the Indian tradition of story-telling.This makes Kanthapura a Gandhian epic,"a veritable Grammar of the Gandhi myth-the myth that is but a translation of reality.It will always have a central place in Gandhian Literature. "(Iyengar )
Kanthapura is a major achievement, but Raja Rao himself considered it confused and immature.Kanthapura was published in 1938 , and after that there was a long silence till 1960 , when he come out with his Serpent and the Rope.The art of Raja Rao shows a steady progression from Kanthapura to The Cat and Shakespeare. He is constantly changing, growing and becoming different. There is constant evolution of his art and technique.
In Kanthapura the narrator is an old grandmother,and her stream of memory forms the narration of the novel .
Her narration is gossipy and chatty.She is garrulous and there are numerous digressions and episodes. There is much that is superfluous.It is in the traditional Indian style of oral story-telling.
♢♢ A Political As well as Social Background of novel:-
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 1930.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 didn't aim at 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 rigidites of caste system and removal of illiteracy and ignorance and superstition.At the end of the novel there is also a mention that Raja Rao through his hero Moorthy,doesn't regard Gandhism as the last word and that he believes that the basic ill in India was something more fundamental than conceived by Gandhiji.i.e.,inequality.
□ The Freedom movement
□ British Rule
□ The Caste system
□ Social Awakening
The Freedom Movement :-
In Kanthapura, we have more than a glimpses of the Freedom movement in India under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. No other book of this scope and size on this theme pictures so vividly,truthfully and touchingly the story of the resurgence of India under Gandhi's leadership. We see how the name of Gandhi acts like a charm in every part of India,and how the people in remote and far-away Kanthapura wait with baited breath and observe a fast in order to show their solidarity with Mahatma Gandhi as he sets out on his historic Dandi March.In cities as well as villages there are volunteers group which organise the people, distribute charkhas and yarn, and even form an ambulance corps to take care of those who are wounded in the firing and lathi charges on satyagrahis. Moorthy is a typical example of the thousands of young man who were fired with patriotic zeal by Gandhi's inspiration and who,under his programme, laft schools, colleges, universities or resigned from their jobs and made a bonfire of their costly imporated clothes.Rangamma and Ratna represent the women's side of the movement, while Range Gowda and Rachanna show how even the people of the lower castes picked up courage, or curbed their natural instinct for realisation and accepted the voluntary restraint of non-violence. Peasants refused to pay revenue and other taxes to the Government, with the result that many of them were evicted from their lands and lost all means of earning a livelihood. There are injured and wounded in large numbers. Women, like Ratna, are beaten up and dishonoured, but thier spirit isn't crushed. Shouts of Gandhiji ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad resound in the air and boost the morale of the people.Large numbers are arrested his place is taken by Ratna,and so the movement continues.
The ideals of patriotism and national integration are depicted through one of the minor characters, Advocate Sankar. He is a Khadi-clad advocate who has been named as 'Walking advocate'because of his simple ways.His professional attitude reflects that of Mahatma Gandhi of the days when he worked as a lawyer in South Africa. Sankar never took up a false case,and would either give up a case,or make the client confess his crime, if he later found out that his case was false.He didn't charge a fee from the poor and even paid their court fees and stamp charges himself.Inspiteof this, he got many cases and soon became very rich.But still he kept up his austere ways .In his spare time he went to a school where Hindi was taught and helped the teacher with the work.In spite of being a south Indian, Sankar had a firm belief that Hindi would one day become the national language of India. It was not just a theoretical belief with him but something that he actually practised, for he used the North Indian way of greeting when he met anyone, spoke in Hindi to his old mother who couldn't understand a word of it, and spoke nothing but Hindi when he talked to his daughter. He didn't like people to use English words in conversation, and when anyone did so inadvertently he had to drop a small coin into a box kept for this purpose, the collections from which were contributed to the Congress funds.
In the case of Khadi, he was a fanatic. He would never attend a wedding party if anyone didn't exclusively wear Khadi. He wouldn't even make an exception in the case of the bride, telling them that the showy sarees they wore only enriched Italian yarn-makers and German dye manufacturers. Sankar was no doubt a fanatic, but he admitted this fact and claimed that a few fanatics were necessary in every field.His fanaticism was revealed in the matter of fasting, for he observed a fast, and made the members of his family also observe a fast, on most of the days connected with Mahatma Gandhi or other patriotic leaders, or days of national importance, e.g.the anniversary of the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh. Such people may be eccentric and extremists but their example doesn't fail to impress and inspire others.
British Rule :-
British Government in India,it's laws and ways are also depicted vividly in the novel.The white man who owns the Skeffington Coffee Estate is a symbol of the imperialist rulers of India who exploited Indians in various ways.They employed paid agents like Bhatta and the Swami to oppose the freedom movement. They send policemen like Bade Khan to harass the patriots and cook up false cases against them.Their treatment of peaceful satyagrahis is extremely inhuman.They don't spare even women and children. Inside the jails people are treated with great cruelty and forced to salute the Union Jack.Even such movements as prohibition are opposed because these would loosen the hold of the foreigners upon the poor masses.Many of their laws,for example, those relating to the ban on the making of salt, are extremely discriminatory against the poor people.Moreover, there are references to the atrocities committed by the authorities in other parts of India, e.g.,the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar.The British policy of divide and rule is also seen in operation, for the loyal Swami is given a gift of twelve hundred acres of land, so that there is no chance of his joining the patriotic movement.
The Caste system :-
One of the most important evils in Hinduism is the caste system. In Kanthapura there is much implied criticism of it.It is described through Bhatta, and later through Swami.Both are conservative, orthodox Brahmins, are the agents of British government and work together to frustrate and defeat the Gandhi -movement. Since the Swami's power rests on the superiority of the Brahmins over other castes, he takes the view that the caste system is the very foundation of Hinduism.He maintains that no Brahmin should have contact with the pariahs, and threatens to excommunicate Moorthy because he does so.Later this threat is actually carried out.People of the lower castes aren't admitted inside temples but must have darshna of the God from outside.Though the pariahs don't seem to mind this much, there is a movement that the doors of the temples should be thrown open to all classes. One of the followers of Gandhi in Karwar has already done that.He is Advocate Ranganna who describes his meeting with the Swami.The Swami had sent a message to the advocate that he described to see him.The Swami told him that for some time there had been too much of this pariah business. According to him it was polluting for a Brahmin to mingle with a pariah. He maintained that the pariahs couldn't be uplifted through the efforts of others.
Social Awakening :-
The boycott of foreign goods was meant to cripple the efforts of foreign manufacturers to exploit and impoverish India,and the insistence on spinning taught people the dignity of labour as well as self reliance. In a poor country like India simple living must be practised.Moreover, spinning could provide a regular income to the common masses, especially to women who have no other means of earning available to them.Gandhi 's emphasis on education and avoiding alchoholic drinks had both a moral and an economic aim.If the poor coolies who are grossly exploited by the owners of plantations learn to read and write, they would become better acquainted with their rights and wouldn't be cheated so easily. Drink is the greatest enemy of the poor because it never allows a person to spend his income on essential items or make a saving for a rainy day.The picketing of the toddy grove and the toddy both has the immediate effect of making the coolies realise how evil toddy-drinking is ,so that some of them even take a pledge that they would never touch the poisonous drink again.
♢♢Religious Background of novel:-
Indian masses are deeply religious and so religion was freely exploited by Indian patriots all through the freedom struggle.The religious sentiments of the rural folk were fully exploited by B.G.Tilak, by introducing the Ganapati festival in Maharashtra and instilling in them courage, patriotism, discipline and unity.Students were also persuaded to take part in these celebrations. The festival was used as a suitable instrument for educating the masses and making them politically conscious.Tilak also started the Shivaji festival in 1895 to encourage the Marathas to emulate their beloved leader .A new longing for liberty and a firm resolution for a united national Government were fostered by festivals like these. Athletic performances, patriotic and religious songs, Kathas and ballads were recited on a large scale, resulting in a sense of pride in the glorious and worthy past of India. It may be mentioned that religionis used in this very way in the novel.There are recitals of Kathas, and holding of Harikathas and festivals. It is under the guise of a procession of Ganpati that the people of Kanthapura try to make good their escape.Religion played an important part in Indian struggle for independence, and so it does in the novel.
The people are ignorant, poor and superstitious. But they are also deeply religious.They have full faith in goodess Kenchamma, the presiding diety of the village. Right in the centre of the village is a temple dedicated to Kenchamma , "Great Goddess,Benign one."There is a folk song which evokes in us images and attitudes 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 in the centre of the village, forms the still-centre of their lives and makes everything meaningful. Marriage, funeral, sickness, death,ploughing, harvesting, arrests, release -all are watched over by Kenchamma. "There may be small-pox or influenza around but you make a vow to the goddess, the next morning, you wake up and you find the fever has left you.Didn't she kill the demon who killed their children and molested their wives? And so she will continue to protect them, come wind , come rain, come any distress."
Conclusion :-
Literature is a medium of political, social and religious awakening in a country and it is natural that during India's own part.Most of the creative writing which influenced India's national movement had taken into account the personality and achievements of Mahatma Gandhi who dominated the Indian political scene from 1916 till his death in 1948.For thousands of India’s illiterate peasants Gandhi came to stand for a religious avatar or incarnation of a god, and even many of the more sophisticated city-dwellers looked upon him as a prophet as well as saviour.
To evaluate my assignment click here
Name:-Heerva Bhatt
Course:-M.A. (sem.1)
Paper no.:-4(Indian Writing in English)
Topic name:- Social,Religious and
political background in
Kanthapura.
Roll no.:-14
Email Id :-heervabhatt96@gmail.com
Submitted to :-Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, Bhavnagar.
Introduction :-
Raja Rao is one of the greatest of Indian novelists writing in the English language.Only two others -Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan-come any where near him.But Raja Rao is entirely different from them in his art as a novelist,and in his enchanting prose style.This pre-eminence is surprising when we remember that the bulk of his published work is small.
His works:-
□ The Cow of the Barricades and other stories (1947)
□ Kanthapura (1938)
□ The Serpent an the Rope (1960)
□ The Cat and Shakespeare (1965)
Raja Rao's work divides itself easily into two parts or categories. First,The Early Phase and second ,The Later Phase.
"Range of life as well as the levels of consciousness he has brought into the novel form,along with the creation of a suitable medium for his eoncerns which are at once timeless and temporal, metaphysical and social,immediately local but also international, so as to enlarge the frontiers of the fictional form itself and justify the name of an innovator.In modern Indian fiction which, thanks largely to him,more than any other single writer,has been ushered into the mainstream of twentieth century literature. "
Kanthapura :-
Kanthapura is his first novel ,it is a classic of the Gandhian movement,a work in which the Gandhian struggle for independence and its impact on the Indian masses finds;its best and fullest expression. It is also great village novel,a novel with,"the various facets of the village life,with its socioeconomic divisions, superstitions, religious and caste-prejudices, blind faith in Gods and Goddesses, Poverty ,petty ,jealousies,dirty lanes , shady gardens ,snake-infested forests, dirty pools, hills , rivers and changing seasons."Kanthapura is a microcosm of the macrocosm; it is Indian in miniature. The novelist's style of narration makes it a Gandhi Puran or a Gandhi epic.The novelist does not write ,"Babu English "but Indian English ,an English eminently suited for the expression of Indian (or presant)sensibility.He has tried to adapt his English style to the movement of a Sanskrit sentence.His style has the flavour of Kannada speech,and its rhythms are almost incantatory, the rhythms of Sanskrit, a language which is the source of Indian languages. This evolution of a suitable style for the expression of Indian Sensibility is Raja Rao's most significant contribution to the Indo-Anglian fiction.
Another of his important contributions is the fusion of a Western art form with an Indian theme and the Indian way of treating it.He has followed the oral Indian tradition of story-telling and so the narration is digressive and episodic. As the old narrator's stream of reminiscence proceeds, there is a free mingling of fact and fiction,poetry and reality, the perennial and the present, and "This makes 'Kanthapura ' a distinctive novel, almost a new species of fiction."The use of the Eliotian mythical -technique enables the novelist to exalt Gandhi as Rama,to see Bharat Mata as Sita and the Redman as Ratan. This mingling of Gods and men , of myth and legend with contemporary reality, is true to the Indian tradition of story-telling.This makes Kanthapura a Gandhian epic,"a veritable Grammar of the Gandhi myth-the myth that is but a translation of reality.It will always have a central place in Gandhian Literature. "(Iyengar )
Kanthapura is a major achievement, but Raja Rao himself considered it confused and immature.Kanthapura was published in 1938 , and after that there was a long silence till 1960 , when he come out with his Serpent and the Rope.The art of Raja Rao shows a steady progression from Kanthapura to The Cat and Shakespeare. He is constantly changing, growing and becoming different. There is constant evolution of his art and technique.
Her narration is gossipy and chatty.She is garrulous and there are numerous digressions and episodes. There is much that is superfluous.It is in the traditional Indian style of oral story-telling.
♢♢ A Political As well as Social Background of novel:-
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 1930.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 didn't aim at 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 rigidites of caste system and removal of illiteracy and ignorance and superstition.At the end of the novel there is also a mention that Raja Rao through his hero Moorthy,doesn't regard Gandhism as the last word and that he believes that the basic ill in India was something more fundamental than conceived by Gandhiji.i.e.,inequality.
□ The Freedom movement
□ British Rule
□ The Caste system
□ Social Awakening
The Freedom Movement :-
In Kanthapura, we have more than a glimpses of the Freedom movement in India under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. No other book of this scope and size on this theme pictures so vividly,truthfully and touchingly the story of the resurgence of India under Gandhi's leadership. We see how the name of Gandhi acts like a charm in every part of India,and how the people in remote and far-away Kanthapura wait with baited breath and observe a fast in order to show their solidarity with Mahatma Gandhi as he sets out on his historic Dandi March.In cities as well as villages there are volunteers group which organise the people, distribute charkhas and yarn, and even form an ambulance corps to take care of those who are wounded in the firing and lathi charges on satyagrahis. Moorthy is a typical example of the thousands of young man who were fired with patriotic zeal by Gandhi's inspiration and who,under his programme, laft schools, colleges, universities or resigned from their jobs and made a bonfire of their costly imporated clothes.Rangamma and Ratna represent the women's side of the movement, while Range Gowda and Rachanna show how even the people of the lower castes picked up courage, or curbed their natural instinct for realisation and accepted the voluntary restraint of non-violence. Peasants refused to pay revenue and other taxes to the Government, with the result that many of them were evicted from their lands and lost all means of earning a livelihood. There are injured and wounded in large numbers. Women, like Ratna, are beaten up and dishonoured, but thier spirit isn't crushed. Shouts of Gandhiji ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad resound in the air and boost the morale of the people.Large numbers are arrested his place is taken by Ratna,and so the movement continues.
The ideals of patriotism and national integration are depicted through one of the minor characters, Advocate Sankar. He is a Khadi-clad advocate who has been named as 'Walking advocate'because of his simple ways.His professional attitude reflects that of Mahatma Gandhi of the days when he worked as a lawyer in South Africa. Sankar never took up a false case,and would either give up a case,or make the client confess his crime, if he later found out that his case was false.He didn't charge a fee from the poor and even paid their court fees and stamp charges himself.Inspiteof this, he got many cases and soon became very rich.But still he kept up his austere ways .In his spare time he went to a school where Hindi was taught and helped the teacher with the work.In spite of being a south Indian, Sankar had a firm belief that Hindi would one day become the national language of India. It was not just a theoretical belief with him but something that he actually practised, for he used the North Indian way of greeting when he met anyone, spoke in Hindi to his old mother who couldn't understand a word of it, and spoke nothing but Hindi when he talked to his daughter. He didn't like people to use English words in conversation, and when anyone did so inadvertently he had to drop a small coin into a box kept for this purpose, the collections from which were contributed to the Congress funds.
In the case of Khadi, he was a fanatic. He would never attend a wedding party if anyone didn't exclusively wear Khadi. He wouldn't even make an exception in the case of the bride, telling them that the showy sarees they wore only enriched Italian yarn-makers and German dye manufacturers. Sankar was no doubt a fanatic, but he admitted this fact and claimed that a few fanatics were necessary in every field.His fanaticism was revealed in the matter of fasting, for he observed a fast, and made the members of his family also observe a fast, on most of the days connected with Mahatma Gandhi or other patriotic leaders, or days of national importance, e.g.the anniversary of the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh. Such people may be eccentric and extremists but their example doesn't fail to impress and inspire others.
British Rule :-
British Government in India,it's laws and ways are also depicted vividly in the novel.The white man who owns the Skeffington Coffee Estate is a symbol of the imperialist rulers of India who exploited Indians in various ways.They employed paid agents like Bhatta and the Swami to oppose the freedom movement. They send policemen like Bade Khan to harass the patriots and cook up false cases against them.Their treatment of peaceful satyagrahis is extremely inhuman.They don't spare even women and children. Inside the jails people are treated with great cruelty and forced to salute the Union Jack.Even such movements as prohibition are opposed because these would loosen the hold of the foreigners upon the poor masses.Many of their laws,for example, those relating to the ban on the making of salt, are extremely discriminatory against the poor people.Moreover, there are references to the atrocities committed by the authorities in other parts of India, e.g.,the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar.The British policy of divide and rule is also seen in operation, for the loyal Swami is given a gift of twelve hundred acres of land, so that there is no chance of his joining the patriotic movement.
The Caste system :-
One of the most important evils in Hinduism is the caste system. In Kanthapura there is much implied criticism of it.It is described through Bhatta, and later through Swami.Both are conservative, orthodox Brahmins, are the agents of British government and work together to frustrate and defeat the Gandhi -movement. Since the Swami's power rests on the superiority of the Brahmins over other castes, he takes the view that the caste system is the very foundation of Hinduism.He maintains that no Brahmin should have contact with the pariahs, and threatens to excommunicate Moorthy because he does so.Later this threat is actually carried out.People of the lower castes aren't admitted inside temples but must have darshna of the God from outside.Though the pariahs don't seem to mind this much, there is a movement that the doors of the temples should be thrown open to all classes. One of the followers of Gandhi in Karwar has already done that.He is Advocate Ranganna who describes his meeting with the Swami.The Swami had sent a message to the advocate that he described to see him.The Swami told him that for some time there had been too much of this pariah business. According to him it was polluting for a Brahmin to mingle with a pariah. He maintained that the pariahs couldn't be uplifted through the efforts of others.
Social Awakening :-
The boycott of foreign goods was meant to cripple the efforts of foreign manufacturers to exploit and impoverish India,and the insistence on spinning taught people the dignity of labour as well as self reliance. In a poor country like India simple living must be practised.Moreover, spinning could provide a regular income to the common masses, especially to women who have no other means of earning available to them.Gandhi 's emphasis on education and avoiding alchoholic drinks had both a moral and an economic aim.If the poor coolies who are grossly exploited by the owners of plantations learn to read and write, they would become better acquainted with their rights and wouldn't be cheated so easily. Drink is the greatest enemy of the poor because it never allows a person to spend his income on essential items or make a saving for a rainy day.The picketing of the toddy grove and the toddy both has the immediate effect of making the coolies realise how evil toddy-drinking is ,so that some of them even take a pledge that they would never touch the poisonous drink again.
♢♢Religious Background of novel:-
Indian masses are deeply religious and so religion was freely exploited by Indian patriots all through the freedom struggle.The religious sentiments of the rural folk were fully exploited by B.G.Tilak, by introducing the Ganapati festival in Maharashtra and instilling in them courage, patriotism, discipline and unity.Students were also persuaded to take part in these celebrations. The festival was used as a suitable instrument for educating the masses and making them politically conscious.Tilak also started the Shivaji festival in 1895 to encourage the Marathas to emulate their beloved leader .A new longing for liberty and a firm resolution for a united national Government were fostered by festivals like these. Athletic performances, patriotic and religious songs, Kathas and ballads were recited on a large scale, resulting in a sense of pride in the glorious and worthy past of India. It may be mentioned that religionis used in this very way in the novel.There are recitals of Kathas, and holding of Harikathas and festivals. It is under the guise of a procession of Ganpati that the people of Kanthapura try to make good their escape.Religion played an important part in Indian struggle for independence, and so it does in the novel.
The people are ignorant, poor and superstitious. But they are also deeply religious.They have full faith in goodess Kenchamma, the presiding diety of the village. Right in the centre of the village is a temple dedicated to Kenchamma , "Great Goddess,Benign one."There is a folk song which evokes in us images and attitudes 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 in the centre of the village, forms the still-centre of their lives and makes everything meaningful. Marriage, funeral, sickness, death,ploughing, harvesting, arrests, release -all are watched over by Kenchamma. "There may be small-pox or influenza around but you make a vow to the goddess, the next morning, you wake up and you find the fever has left you.Didn't she kill the demon who killed their children and molested their wives? And so she will continue to protect them, come wind , come rain, come any distress."
Conclusion :-
Literature is a medium of political, social and religious awakening in a country and it is natural that during India's own part.Most of the creative writing which influenced India's national movement had taken into account the personality and achievements of Mahatma Gandhi who dominated the Indian political scene from 1916 till his death in 1948.For thousands of India’s illiterate peasants Gandhi came to stand for a religious avatar or incarnation of a god, and even many of the more sophisticated city-dwellers looked upon him as a prophet as well as saviour.
awesome Heerva, you had very well described the points Social, Political and religious background of the novel as per your topic. it was very useful for further reading
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
DeleteNot
DeleteDear Heerva, thank you so much for your note. it helps me a lot. perfect according to my searched question.
ReplyDeletevery nice
ReplyDelete