Religion and Nationalism in Raja Rao's Kanthapura

Abstract

The present paper is a modest attempt at exploring how the ideas of Religion and Nationalism form the warp and woof of a novel like Raja Rao's Kanthapura in a back-of-beyond village at a crucial moment in Indian history. That the launching of the National Movement under the leadership of Gandhi through the length and breadth of the country could not have been successful without the active participation of millions of anonymous people is a known fact, but how it is achieved is the theme of this unique novel which has many firsts to its credit. A oneman movement becomes a mass movement thanks to local heroes like Moorthy “our Gandhi” and a few other prominent men and women of
the village. How the national spirit percolates into the psyche of a whole village that represents a microcosmic picture of India on the whole is the novelist's concern here. This gripping tale told by a simple village woman in rustic idiom exemplifies a fine fusion of Religion and
Nationalism.