Kanthapura – Raja Rao

Penguin, 2014          

Now this is a tricky one - a modern classic which was first published in February 1938 by a young philosophical-minded educated Gandhian - this book has a list of divergent threads that ensures its iconic status. Let me try a state a bit of each.

Raja Rao, in the famous foreword to this book remarks of the difficulty in conveying in English , a sensibility that is very Indian. Since Indian English writing was at a nascent stage at this time, and having no precedent the early crafters of the Indian Literary Tradition molded out of the alien language, a narrative style which was very much their own (which was fused with the social upheavals prevalent around them).

In ‘Kanthapura’, his first novel, which doesn’t get much literary recognition till 1960s, this Indian literary voice is crafted through two means – language and narrative style.  Innovative in its method, Raja Rao uses the framework of ‘sthala purana’ (legend of a place) as his chosen narrative framework. An old widow Achakka is the one telling her audience(can be the readers too) the story of her village, Kanthapura. The stylistics of the narration follows the pattern of Indian storytelling – of combining the past & present, myth & reality, facts & exaggeration – thereby ensuring a circular time (not linear time i.e.) – one thing leads to the next and it goes on never-ending, as it would happen if you would sit in  front of a seasoned storyteller.   

The book cradles the tradition of Indian storytelling along with its depiction of the influence of Gandhi’s teachings of ahimsa, non-violence, non-cooperation as it pans out in the caste-ridden Indian village before Independence (pre-1947). Moorthy, the central protagonist is the village Gandhi, a young idealistic Brahmin who brings the Ghandian wave to his village.

At the end of her story, we realize that the villagers had to leave Kanthapura (“there’s neither man nor mosquito in Kanthapura”) eventually because of the violent outcome of their protests and fight for freedom. However, Achakka says,

“You will say we have lost this,

You will say we have lost that.

Kenchamma forgive us, but there is

Something that has entered our hearts

An abundance…..”

This story of a village and its people cried out to be heard in those days especially in Europe according to Raja Rao in his afterword. He had been in France for his studies where he wrote this book however he had returned just when fascist regimes were overpowering parts of mainland Europe. He recalls how several writers, Dutch, Spanish, Czech had all asked him for translation rights to his book, which he gave readily. He notes how it was the Gandhian message which they wanted to hear amidst the rising intolerance and loss of individual freedom.

It’s this rendition of a Gandhian tale in a distinctive Indian voice which paved the way for Raja Rao to be recognized as one of the foremost literary stylist and philosophic writer that India had ever seen.