...*About the Novel Raja Rae’s novel Kanthapura (1938) is the first major Indian novel in English. It is text of the Civil Disobedience movement of the 1930s that takes for its central concern the participation of a small village of South India in the national struggle called for by Mahatma Gandhi. Imbued with nationalism, the villagers sacrifice all their material possessions in a triumph of the spirit, showing how in the Gandhian movement people shed their narrow prejudices and united in the common cause of the non-violent civil resistance to the British Raj. Paradoxically, given its concerns, Kanthapura was first published in London in 1938 and was written when Rao was in France: “I wrote Kanthapura in a thirteenth century castle in the French Alps belonging to the Dauphins of France and I slept and worked on the novel in the room of the Queen”. Narrated by Achakka., an old village woman, the plot centres on Kanthapura, a village in South India. This village is a microcosm of the traditional Indian society with its entrenched caste hierarchy. In Kanthapura there are Brahmin quarters, Sudra quarters and Pariah quarters. Despite stratification into castes, however, the villagers are mutually bound in various economic and social functions which maintain social harmony. The enduring quality of the Indian village is represented as ensuring an internal tenacity that resists external crises, its relationship to past contributing a sense of unity and continuity between the present...
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...Rao’s Kanthapura Raja Rao’s first published work in English, the Kanthapura had a rather controversial and revolutionary plot in accordance with women being participants of nationalist movements. The third world countries, at that time, were opposed to the idea of women in the socio-political realms. Kanthapura drove through barriers of male dominance and female regression that prevailed in India at that time and Raja Rao was much criticized for the idea of female liberation. In kanthapura, the fact that the narrator is an old woman, acchaka, who comments on the actions of characters with a sharp eyed wisdom makes evident the fact that the author was of view of freedom of speech for women. The novel, which is predominantly based on Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha women, as satyagrahis, demonstrated fearlessness in their struggle for independence. Inspite of the lathi blows, they persevere their nonviolent march exhibiting a conscious knowledge of their strength and power , and endure pain in the face of brutality, inhumanity and cruelty of the police. Raja rao, in kanthapura portrays the role of women in the nationalist movement inspired by gandhian ideals. It is an extreme shift from the position of women in the patriarchal Indian society to that in a strong movement against colonialism. This without doubt also reflects the Gandhian ideal to encourage emancipation of women and support women encouragement. However, Senath Perera in his study of Kanthapura argues...
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...Kanthapuara as Gandhian Epic Name: Joshi Deepti M Roll no: 05 Paper: Indian Writing in English Topic: Kanthapura as Gandhian Epic Submitted to: Heenaba Zala Department of English M.K.University, Bhavnagar Kanthapura as Gandhian Epic Introduction: “Gandhi was like a powerful current of fresh air……Like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the scales from our eyes; like a whirlwind that upset many things, but most of all the working of people’s minds” Mahatma Gandhi during freedom struggle time wielded a great influence on the Indian masses. And his struggle for freedom introduced some new trends in Anglo-Indian fiction, and some great writers of all the Indian language produced some masterpiece in novel, poetry, drama and other forms of creative writing. Raja Rao was most celebrated novelist of India in 1930s and 1940s. He had depicted his novels through the usage of Gandhian theme. Kanthapura is best example of how Gandhian ideologies influenced in Indian writing in English. An Epic is a long narrative poem telling of heroic acts, the birth and death of a hero or of nation’s etc.Kanthapura is also an epic. Kanthapura is a tell of the impact that Gandhi had on the nation. He converted the whole nation into an army of freedom fighters. Gandhi was no less than the hero of an epic. The freedom struggle of India was an epic struggle. Thousands of people sacrificed their lives...
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...www.galaxyimrj.com Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal ISSN 2278-9529 Gandhian Ideals in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura P. Prayer Elmo Raj Assistant Professor, Department of English Karunya University, Coimbatore Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is one of the finest depictions of the Freedom Movement commenced in the early twentieth century by Mahatma Gandhi to lead India towards freedom from the colonial British rule. India’s freedom struggle which exerted considerable influence on the demeanor of Indian population is the central thrust of the novel. Kanthapura illustrates how Gandhian ideals and struggle for freedom against the British arrived to a characteristic South Indian village Kanthapura. The novel is a striking example of the impact of Gandhian leadership and value that affected even the distant Indian villages. Kanthapura, the “dynamo” of the Gandhian ideals communicates the fresh impetus that propelled the freedom struggle against the British. Iyengar identifies, in Kanthapura, the“veritable grammar of the Gandhian myth.” The novel illustrates two faces of Gandhian vision: the political and the social. This paper is an attempt to critically elucidate the manner in which Raja Rao appropriates Gandhian vision through his creative imagination in Kanthapura. There is no village in India, however mean, that does not have a rich sthala-purana, or legendary history, of its own. Some god or godlike hero has passed by the village – Rama might have rested under this papal-tree...
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...Employment News 31 May - 6 June 2014 www.employmentnews.gov.in 21 UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION EXAMINATION NOTICE NO. 09/2014-CSP (LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS : 30/06/2014) DATE :31.05.2014 CIVIL SERVICES EXAMINATION, 2014 (Commission’s website-http://upsc.gov.in) F. No. 1/5/2013-E.I(B) : Preliminary Examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned below will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on 24th Aug., 2014 in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 31st May, 2014. (i) Indian Administrative Service. (ii) Indian Foreign Service. (iii) Indian Police Service. (iv) Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’. (v) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (vi) Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’. (vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (viii) Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’. (ix) Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager, Administration). (x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’. (xi) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (xii) Indian Railway Traffic Service, Group ‘A’. (xiii) Indian Railway Accounts Service, Group 'A'. (xiv) Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’. (xv) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force, Group ‘A’ (xvi) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group...
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...Employment News 11 - 17 February 2012 www.employmentnews.gov.in 21 Union Public Service Commission EXAMINATION NOTICE NO. 04/2012-CSP DATED 11.02.2012 (LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS : 05.03.2012) CIVIL SERVICES EXAMINATION, 2012 (Commission's website - http://www.upsc.gov.in) F. No. 1/4/2011-E.I(B) : Preliminary Examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts mentioned below will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on 20th May, 2012 in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 4th February, 2012. (i) Indian Administrative Service. (ii) Indian Foreign Service. (iii) Indian Police Service. (iv) Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Group ‘A’. (v) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (vi) Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Group ‘A’. (vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (viii) Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Group ‘A’. (ix) Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Group ‘A’ (Assistant Works Manager, Administration). (x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’. (xi) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’. (xii) Indian Railway Traffic Service, Group ‘A’. (xiii) Indian Railway Accounts Service, Group 'A'. (xiv) Indian Railway Personnel Service, Group ‘A’. (xv) Post of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force, Group ‘A’ (xvi) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’. (xvii) Indian Information...
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