Kanthapura is a fine work of art. It also aims at rousing the conscience of the country at the ills and injustices which plagued Indian life in the 1930s. Though the novel depicts the freedom movement led by Gandhi as the main theme, it also aims at social reform. It is so because the Gandhian movement did not aim at Swaraj only but also at social reform.
Gandhi believed that
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 the eradication of untouchability and the rigidities of the
caste system and removal of illiteracy, ignorance and superstition.
Moorthy is a typical
example of the thousands of young men who were fired with patriotic zeal by
Mahatma Gandhi's inspiration and who, under his programme, left schools,
colleges and universities, or resigned from their jobs and made a bonfire of
their costly imported clothes.
Rangamma and Ratna
represent the women's side of the movement, while Range Gowda and Rachanna show
people picked up the courage. 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 Dharnas, Picketings
and Satyagrahas. Kanthapurians, even children and old men are injured and
wounded in large numbers. Women, like Ratna, are beaten up and dishonoured but
their spirit is not crushed.
Shouts of 'Gandhiji ki
Jai' and 'Inquilab Zindabad' resound in the air and boost the morale of the
people. Large numbers are arrested and sent to jail. When Moorthy is arrested
his place is taken by Ratna, who zealously leads the movement and the movement
continues.
British Government in
India, its 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 do not spare even
women and children.
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. One of the most important evils in Hinduism is the caste
system. In the novel, Kanthapura there is much-implied criticism of it. It is
described through Bhatta and later through Swami. Since 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.
Drinking is the greatest
enemy of the poor because it never allows a person to spend his income on
essential items or make saving for a rainy day. The Picketing of the toddy
grove and the toddy booth has the immediate effect of making the coolies
realize how evil toddy-drinking is so that some of them even take a pledge
that they would never touch the poisonous drink again in their lives.
Thus the political
movement of Swaraj is closely linked with religious reforms and social
upliftment in Kanthapura.
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