Kanthapura

Kanthapura: Raja Rao
Q.) Write a critical note on women characters in ‘Kanthapura’.
Ans.) As the purpose of the novel of Raja Rao’s Kanthapura was to depict a mass-movement and its
impact, a high individualized characterization would have deflected (= turned aside) attention from such
a depiction. Thus, the characters in the novel are not sharply and distinctly individualized. The emphasis
is more on themes and ideas rather than on people. Characterization takes a secondary place in
Kanthapura, yet it is not without significant and fine characterization.
The women characters have been skillfully delineated by Raja Rao. There is a great variety of them
in the novel. At the foremost we have Rangamma. She is one of the few educated women in the village.
She reads the newspapers herself and thus keeps herself and others acquainted with the day-to-day
developments elsewhere. She knows many things of general interest ……” Of the plants that weep, of
the monkeys that were the men we have become, of the worms, thin as dust, worms that get into our
blood and give you dysentery and plague and cholera”.
Rangamma is a lady who is “deferent (= obliging), soft-voiced, gentle-gestured”. She is never be

fooled by Bhatta. She helps Moorthy literally, although she does not seem to share his belief that pariah
and Brahmins are equal. After meeting Sankar, Rangamma develops into a fine leader and speaker. She
is able to fill the void created by the death of her father who used to expound (= explain) the Vedantic
text at Harikatha meetings. She plays a major part in organizing the women of Kanthapura into a Sevika
Sangh. She is practical-minded, for when she comes to know that some husbands are complaining that
they are not receiving proper attention at home because their wives are away to participate in drill, she
at once takes proper measures and explains to the Sevikas that they must not neglect their household
duties.
Next comes Ratna. She is a child widow, who has been powerfully influenced by modern ideas and
who does not regard being a woman as a matter of shame and inferiority. She is much criticized for her
unconventional ways, but she does not care for such criticism. She chooses her own path, and sticks to it
with firmness and determination. She takes keen interest in the Gandhian movement, and is a source of
inspiration and help to Moorthy. When Jayaramachar, the Harikatha-man, is arrested, she conducts the
Harikatha. After Rangamma’s death, she reads newspapers and other publicity material of the Congress
for the benefit of the Kanthapurians. When Moorthy is arrested, she carries on his work and serves as
the leader.
Ratna displays great courage and resourcefulness in the face of government repression and police
action. She is dishonoured, beaten up and sent to jail as a consequence; but she suffers all patiently and
unflinchingly. When Gandhi goes to England for the Round Table Conference, reaches a settlement with
the Red-man’s government and the movement is withdrawn, Ratna is disappointed like countless others
freedom fighters in India; and she left Kanthapura for Bombay.
Achakka, the narrator, though she is never sharply individualized, is revealed by her manner of
narration and her comments on persons and events. In the novel, her function is representative and her
(2)
strength lies in being anonymous. She is just one of many women of Kanthapura who responded to call
of the Mahatma, conveyed through Moorthy. Her faith in the Goddess Kenchamma, her respect for the
scholar Rangamma, her unquestioned affection for Moorthy and her trust in him, all these feelings, she
shares with other women of the village.
One of the simplest women in the village is poor Narsamma, mother of Moorthy. She cannot
understand the ideals dear to her son, but who only knows that she did nothing to deserve the calamity
of excommunication (= expel from society) that befalls her family. She is the most pathetic character in
the novel.
Through the character of Waterfall Venkamma, Raja Rao brings out the pettiness, the jealousy,
the triviality and orthodoxy of women. Venkamma is a woman of a petty, jealous nature. She cannot
bear to see others’ success. The sight of the happiness of others arouses her wrath and she rails and rails
against them. She is jealous of Rangamma because she has a much larger house and constantly rails
against her. She would put lizard poison into her food and thus causes her death. She is also against
Moorthy because he is refused to marry her second daughter. She has also no sympathy with the
Gandhi-movement. She, therefore, sides with Bhatta and the Swami. She rails and rails against
everybody and thus justifies the nick-name (Waterfall) the novelist has given to her.
In Kanthapura, Raja Rao presents women as various forms of ‘shakti’. A typical Indian woman is
coy, delicate (= weak) and submissive (= obedient / passive), she is also firm as rock, great in suffering.
Shakti rises in them, and each of them is enthused at the proper time. It is to be noted that in the last
phase of the peaceful resistance it is Ratna, a woman, who takes over from Moorthy and leads the
Satyagrahis. In A Study of Representative Indo-English Novelists, Uma Parameswaran rightly remarks
that “……. Shakti rises in every woman at certain pivotal (= crucial) points of life”. Different forms of
‘Shakti’ are manifested through women characters in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura.
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Kanthapura: Raja Rao

Q.) Write a critical note on women characters in ‘Kanthapura’.

Rangamma is a lady who is “deferent (= obliging), soft-voiced, gentle-gestured”. She is never be

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