Question- What are the important themes one can find in Kanthapura?

Answer - 

Kanthapura by Raja Rao is a novel written during the time of India's struggle for freedom in 1938. It is the story of a village in India (South) named Kanthapura. The story is narrated by an old woman (Achakka) of the village in the form of a 'Sthalapurana'. Its important themes are :-

(i) Gandhian Novel : It is purely a Gandhian novel. Though, we can't find Gandhi himself in the novel but his ideals, principles and presence is felt throughout. Moorthy takes part in the struggle for freedom of the people of his village seeking inspiration from Gandhian ideals. Following the footsteps of Gandhi, the police arrested him. Then the leadership gets shifted to the hands of the women in the village. Dandi March, picketing of Boranna's toddy grove were all led by Moorthy after he came back from the prison. Many Satyagrahi were arrested and it became a normal routine.

(ii) The Evils of Colonial Rule in India : In the novel, Rao explains vividly the evils of the Red Man's administration in India. The exploitation of India by the colonialists led to the formation of Gandhi's freedom movement. Similarly, Moorthy, the youngman of Kanthapura fights for the rights of his people though resorting to peaceful and non-violent means. When villagers demonstrate against the oppression of their masters in the coffee plantation, the government sends its police officers to terrorize the protesters. Moorthy is arrested alongside other freedom fightérs. Throughout the novel, the readers witness the hardship of the Indians that they go through to gain independence. Thus, the evils of colonial rule in India are based open.

(iii) Women's Roles : Women's roles in Kanthapura center on their significance in the nationalist struggle. They march, protest, passively resist, boycott, read newspapers and more and how that significance is undermined by the traditional, domestic, inferior role they were supposed to occupy. While the widows attain a sense of power and meaning in the movement, their own issues are ignored and they are valued more if they play their gendered role. Ultimately, they adhere to traditional patriarchal gender norms even while they demonstrate their importance to the struggle.

(iv) Anti-Muslim Sentiment : This is a more subtle theme but Rao emphasises Hindu's belief of the inferiority of Muslims multiple times in the text. There is a conflict between Subba Chetty, the shopkeeper and a Muslim character named Rahman Khan, the latter of whom is innocent of a perceived crime which is mentioned in the story to underline the anxiety in the novel with regard to Muslims.

(v) Caste  :  Caste was (and still is, to an extent) a nearly immutable part of Indian society but its rigidity and legitimacy begins to crack and falter under the teachings of Gandhi and, by extension, those of Moorthy in the novel. There is a clear demarcation between the houses of the upper caste and lower caste. Moorthy tries to make the people understand that there has to be unity or else the layer nationalist struggle would not succeed and that is something Moorthy advocates to his skeptical fellow villagers.

(vi) Economic Exploitation : The story of the coolies at the Skeffington Coffee Estate is a perfect microcosm of the story of India itself under colonialism. The coolies are exploited in numerous ways: They are lied to; denied fair wages; beaten; forced to; work long hours; forced to spend their money on the master's toddy, forbidden from political activism and more. Their labour is what brings profit to the Estate but they're treated like slaves. Through Moorthy's teachings, the Brahmins realize that though their lives are obviously much better than those of the coolies, they still sufferunder the colonial economy.

(vii) Education as a Powerful Tool to Fight Colonialism : Colonialists often took advantage of the ignorance of Indians to rule them, and at the beginning of the novel the people of Kanthapura are portrayed as ignorant. However, when Moorthy moves back into the village, things take a drastic turn. Moorthy is an educated youth from the city who understands how the evils of the Red Man's administration can be fought. He educates the villagers on the evils of the colonialists and organizes a Congress in the village. He and his compatriots circulate free materials to educate the people what is at stake and what to do about it.

(viii) The Collective Experience : Achakka's narration is the first clue that this novel isn't going to be about just one individual and her experience with Gandhism, rather it seeks to explore multiple voices and multiple experiences. It wants to look at a whole village's grappling with the changes sweeping the nation because the villages are the soul of the nation, a microcosm of the nation. The only way change will happen is if people bond and see themselves collectively, one person cannot change much, but dozens, thousands, millions can.

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