Gandhian philosophy and Myths in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura

Dr.Dilip Patel

Assistant Professor, Government Arts and Commerce College, Kadoli, Gujarat.

Abstract:
After Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Rajmohan's Wife (1864) a new form of Indian English fiction was
given by the great trio of Indian Bloomsbury intellectuals - Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Raja Rao in the
1930s. Raj Rao is one of the leading authors whose works are set in Indo-English writing. Raja Rao’s
contemporaries’ metaphorically Indian sensibility in Westernised response in his socio-political investigations.
Raja Rao’s fictional world is more philosophical and metaphysical. His debut novel Kanthapura (1938) is an
admixture of history, myth, and folk tales with philosophy and fiction in which fiction has been alienated from
philosophy and philosophy has commendable achievement in life. This paper attempts to how in Kanthapura,
Raja Rao has a deep-rooted appeal to history and mythology in his artistic recapturing of beauty and
imagination.

Key words: socio-political, philosophy, myth and folk tales.

Introduction: description of its geo-political location is

almost Edwardian and Gandhian.
Raja Rao’s debut novel
Kanthapura is based on the political Achakka describes it as:
background of the freedom movement
gives the picture of the condition of rural ‘‘High on the ghats
India where the masses were oppressed by ..., high up the steep
the imperial power and Gandhi was mountains that face
mobilizing them to achieve their political the cool Arabian
end in the form of freedom. The novel seas, up the
appears as a literary impetus to India’s Malabar coast ...,
resistance against the foreign rule in the up Mangalore and
practice and demonstration of ahimsa and Puttur and many a
satyagraha. Raja Rao projects India under centre of cardamom
imperial rule and her non-violent and coffee, rice and
resistance to the imperial authority. In the sugarcane’’
narrative technique of Kanthapura, he The novel is set against the
focuses on the sway of Gandhian backdrop of political awareness and
philosophy in India during the freedom struggle, it incorporates a number of
movement. characteristics from traditional Indian life
and culture. Raja Rao presents the realistic
Gandhian philosophy in Raja Rao’s
image of life in an Indian village
Kanthapura:
community with its belief in old traditions,
The novel begins with a graphic customs, rituals, superstitions, caste
description of the village, Kanthapura. The system, heavy reliance on religion, and
local deities. The story narrated by

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Achchaka, an elderly widow of the village simple life, his

belongs to the past and present but it vegetarian diet, his
prognosticates the future. adherence to tuth
and his consequent
Describing the Gandhian fearlessness - all
revolution he has projected his vision into combined to give
an undefined future where the story of the him a halo of
present becomes a legendary history. In saintliness. His
Kanthapura, Raja Rao presents the social, loin-cloth was
political ,and cultural life of the Indians in reminiscent of
a historical moment. It evinces Rao’s keen Christ, while his
interest in a search for continuity of the sitting posture at
Indian tradition. the time of
As Srinivas says: lecturing was
reminiscent of
“He combines in Buddha” (Bose:
himself both the 125).
traits of historian
and philosopher; Various activities
while as a historian performed by Gandhi during
he is concerned the freedom movement are
with the ancient performed by Moorthy in the
tradition of India, novel. Moorthy is the local
as a philosopher he Gandhi for the villagers. He
tries to discern the almost in the image of Gandhi
underlying ideals tries to eradicate
and values” untouchability. He organizes a
(Srinivas: 106). series of religious activities like
the installation and
He connects the past and the consecration of Siva Linga and
present to suggest the continuity of the unites the Kanthapurans to
living Indian tradition in the demonstration expel the common enemy, the
of values through ahimsa and satyagraha in Britishers, and the caste
Gandhi’s behaviour and reasons. It is demons. He explains the
rightly observed: financial system of khadi and
the importance of charka to the
“Gandhi came to
villagers and persuades them to
be looked upon by
take to spinning in their spare
the mass of the
time.
people as a
Mahatma before he He says; “Spinning is as
became the purifying as praying”
undisputed political
leader of India ... The village Kanthapura is a micro
the asceticism of India where there is a revolutionary
Gandhiji, his consciousness among the masses under the

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sway of Gandhian ideology. Kanthapura He is a saint, the

has a metaphorical change under Mahatma, a wise
Moorthy’s transformative leadership. The man and a soft
villagers have accepted him as a committed man, and a saint”
Gandhian for his devotion to Gandhi and (22).
his conceptual dimension of protest to the
imperial authority. His superhuman Though the people vary on castes
qualities are quite Gandhian for his and socio-economic divisions they live
dedication to selfless service. He is under the impact of Gandhian ideology
regarded as a local Mahatma for whom and undergo a gradual transformation.
Satyagraha is not a policy but a philosophy They stand united in response to the call of
and ahimsha, a method of self-estimation Gandhi. The village is a backward village
to achieve his political goal and personal where socio-economic divisions are more
happiness in life. on the caste categories of people like
brahmins, pariahs, potters, weavers, and
Secular spirit and spiritual passion have a Sudras. They are backward but united
spontaneous flow on Kanthapura’s under Gandhian ideology. Gandhi’s Non-
sociology. There are, cooperation Movement provides a kind of
incentiveness to the people. Moorthy is
“Hindu, converted to a Gandhian incidentally as he
Mohammedan, has touched Gandhi’s hand in a dream.
Christian or Pariah There are historical references like the
... all equal before freedom struggle, the Non-cooperation
God. Don’t be Movement and the Dandi March, etc.
attached to riches ... There is also the historical references in
for riches create Gandhi’s idea of women empowerment,
passions, and Ratna’s reading of the Vedantic texts, her
passions create urging the village women to fight against
attachment and the cruelty of the Britishers, narrating the
attachment hides tales of Rani Laxmi Bai, and the Rajput
the face of Truth ... women who had fought along with their
for Truth is God, ... husbands. Like men volunteers the women
it is the only God ... volunteers of Kanthapura form ‘Sevika
for our mother is in Sangha’ and initiate them in the mantra of
fattered weeds and ‘ahimsha’ as ‘services’, and prepare
a poor mother themselves physically, mentally, and
needs clothes to morally to face the ‘lathi’ of the British
cover her sores. If rulers.
...the money that
goes to the Red- Gandhi’s method of non-
man will stay cooperation and process of civil
within your country disobedience was appealing to the
and the mother can common people. The villagers of
feed the foodless, Kanthapura had accepted Gandhi’s ideals
and the milkless and path of ahimsa which was reiterated
and the clothless. by Moorthy who considered them not as

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warriors but as soldier saints. Moorthy’s assimilated into the

idea of nation is that of Gandhi’s imagined racial heritage as
nation in a macro sense for which the myth and legend’’
villagers acknowledge him as a ‘Small (390).
Mountain’ and Gandhi, a ‘Big Mountain’
(127). The Kanthapurans believe in By weaving the mythical
Gandhian principles of universal love, personages and situations from the
fasting, the practice of brahmacharya, non- Ramayana in the novel he draws mythical
violence, and accepting the protest of parallelism and extends our understanding
enemies and opponents with love. of India’s pre-independence situation in its
historicity. With the fusion of history and
Myths in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura: myth in contemporaneity, the novelist
makes us aware of our past in order to
“Myths can't be translated as, undertake the responsibility for our future.
they did in their ancient soil. He has fused myth and history artistically
We can only find our own in the novel and narrates the epic struggle
meaning in our time.” of Indians for their freedom.

-Margaret Atwood The myth of Kenchamma has been

Myths are integrated into the used to explain the conflict between good
religious doctrines of a particular culture in and evil. The Kanthapurans believe that
which the people of a community consider Kenchamma saves people from cholera
it sacred and factual. Myths contain and smallpox. People suffering from these
supernatural and divine elements, diseases get well only because of the
folktales, and legends which often appear blessings of the goddess. There is a close
to be light-hearted, entertaining, and association between goddess Kenchamma
fictive. In fact, mythologies are historically and her daughter, the river Himavathy
pre-historic and characteristically pre- which acts as a life-giving force with its
scientific but the scientific world imbibes immense power.Rao writes in the
its characteristics in modern time and ‘Foreward’ of Kanthapura:
perpetuates a mythic tradition. Myths are
based on the conceptual facts in man’s “There is no village
anthropological and psychological in India, however
perspectives. mean, that has not a
rich Sthala-purana
Raja Rao in his novel Kanthapura or legendary history
uses myth as a technique to focus on the of its own. Some
archetypal situations of the freedom god or god-like
movement. He uses it in the novel hero has passed by
mythologising the Gandhian freedom the village-Rama
movement. might have rested
under this pipal
K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar rightly remarks: tree, Sita might
‘‘The political have dried her
revolution is thus clothes, after her
transcended and bath, on this yellow

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stone, or the his vow, and the

Mahatma himself, Britishers will leave
on one of his India, and we shall
pilgrimages be free, and we
through the shall pay less taxes,
country, might have and there will be no
slept in this hut, the policemen” (172).
low one, by the
village gate. In this The novel as a mythical text
way the past demonstrates the Gandhian freedom
mingles with the struggle in India’s Pre-Independence socio-
present, and gods political context with a reference to Rama’s
mingle with men to (Gandhi’s) attempt to liberate Sita
make the repertory (Bharatmata India) and kill Ravana (the
of our village imperial power). The Harikatha-man leads
grandmother the Kanthapurans into the complex
always bright. One tradition of India where they actively
such story from the participate in the freedom struggle. He
contemporary reminds them how Valmiki had gone to
annals of my Brahma and requested him to send
village I have tried somebody to this earth in order to free his
to tell” (Rao: daughter from the foreign yoke.
1971:5). Raja Rao also envisions ‘the mother
Raja Rao has essentially derived image’ and ‘mother-principle’ in the
the mythical concept from the Ramayana supreme quality of women in his
and the Gita and has practiced it in the application of myth in the novel. He thinks
socio-political sphere of his own. Gandhi of women in the mother principle, the
like Shiva has his third eye to destroy the center of the family, and the goddess of
enemies. As Shiva’s Kailash Mountain is tolerance. He applies the ancient Vedic
beyond corruption, Gandhi visions a image of woman in animals and in nature
nation to be free from the corrupting who stands for infinite patience, and
influences of the imperial authority. His symbolic purity with love, patience, and
idea of ‘Swaraj’ has been compared to the tolerance.
three eyes of Shiva: ‘‘self-purification, KRS Iyenger rightly remarks:
Hindu-Moslem unity, Khaddar’’’ (20)
“It is thus with
Drawing the parallel sure racial insight
between Harish Chandra and that the Raja Rao
Gandhi, Rao narrates: has made the
“Like Harish Cow’s mother-gait
Chandra before he and silent tears
finished his vow, symbolic of India’s,
the gods will come the mother’s,
down and dissolve travail and the
cow’s infinite
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patience and veiled Moves Journal IJELLH, vol.8. 162-

power as symbolic 172.
of the mother’s 6. Khatun, Najma (2021), ‘Gandhi
genius for surviving Myth in Kanthapura: Co-Mingling
her sorrows and of Fact and Fiction’, IJELS, 6(5).
transmuting them 7. Srinivas, V., Myth and Experiment
into great joy to in Kanthapura, Indian Fiction in
come” (390). English, eds. P.
Mallikarjuna Rao and M. Rajeshwar,
Conclusion: New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 1999.
In conclusion we may say that 8. Bose, Subhas Chandra, The Indian
Gandhian philosophy influenced Raja Rao Struggle 1920-1942, ed., Sisir Kumar
so much and the present novel, Kanthapura Bose and
shows an authentic picture gallery with Sujata Bose, Delhi: OUP, 1997.
living human beings. The weaving of
ancient myths into the structure of the
novel gives it the quality of timelessness
that all great works of art have. By mythic
sing the heroic- struggle and self-sacrifice
of the people of the south Indian village,
he has created a new sthala-purana,a new
local leged. Raja Rao deals with the theme
of patriotism to make us aware of the
nation’s history, myths, culture, religion
particularly on the basis of Gandhian
philosophy in Kanthapura.

References:

1. Rao, Raja. "Kanthapura". Orient

Paperbacks, New Delhi, 1971.
2. Iyengar, KR Srinivasa. Indian
writing in English(Revised Ed.).
Sterling Publishers, New Delhi,
2005.
3. Gandhi, Mahatma. Autobiography:
The story of my experiments with
truth. Courier Corporation, 1983.
4. Mukherjee, Meenakshi. The Twice
Born Fiction: themes and
techniques of the Indian novel in
English. Arnold Heinemann, 1974.
5. Yadav, Chesta.(2020), ‘Making
and Breaking of Mythos in
Kanthapura by Raja Rao’, Smart

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