Kanthapura

Kanthapura` is the first major Indian novel in English by Raja Rao. The novel deals with the Civil disobedience movement of 1030`s. Mahatma Gandhi on the participation of a small village of South India in the National struggle calls for the story`s central concern. The villagers sacrifice all their material possessions in a triumph of the spirit. It shows how the people of country united at the time of movement and joined at the non-violence movement to bring independence from the British. `Kanthapura` was first published in English and then in France. Achakka narrates the whole story. She is an old village woman and the story revolves around in a village Kanthapura in South India. In this village there are clear discrimination between Brahman, Sudra and Pariah quarters still the mutual bonding between the villagers are very strong and they live happily with equal social and economical bonding. To maintain social harmony they live like one single family. Kanthapura may be isolated and deprived of modern civilization but it is compensated by an ever-enriching cycle of ceremonies, rituals and festivals. Rao depicts beautifully the partication of the villagers in different festivals like Dussera, Sankara-jayanti, Kartik Purnima, Ganesh Jayanti, Styanarayana Puja, etc. the common picture of village has always come up in many of Rao`s story and that can be called as Raja Rao`s speciality.