GANDHI’S IDEOLOGY-RAJA RAO-MOORTHY IN KANTHAPURA

Kanthapura is considered the magnum opus of Raja Rao which portrays the considerable influence of Gandhi’s ideology on the sleepy and remote village. Raja Rao is very successful in carving out the real picture of Indian village in pre-independence era. Kanthapura is the microcosm of the Indian traditional society and what happened in Kanthapura was also happened in India during 1919-1930. It is not only a political novel, but also a novel which concerns with socio-religious and economic transformation during the struggle for independence. Though his novels stray far afield, his heart is clanged to his sublime ancient Hindu tradition. The novel can be considered Gandhi-epic. It depicts impact of Gandhi’s Ideology on the paralytic Indian masses. Gandhi’s influential personality and his ideology is felt everywhere in the novel. Indeed, Gandhi doesn’t appear in this novel personally, but the plot of the novels revolves around his ideology. This research article, ‘Gandhi’s IdeologyRaja Rao-Moorthy in Kanthapura,’ aims at how the Gandhi’s ideology influenced Raja Rao which resulted in the creation of the character of Moorthy. It also focuses on how Moorthy, under the influence Gandhi, tries to inspire the people towards the Freedom Struggle. Gandhi is the way, the truth, life to Raja Rao. Similarly, Gandhi’s ideology is the way, the truth, and the life to Moorthy in the novel Kanthapura.


INTRODUCTION
When verse was a dominant genre than fiction in India, the familiar poets like Derozio, Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, and Sri Arabindo were far outshone before the advent of the trio of novelists -Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Raja Rao. Raja Rao carved out a niche for himself in Indo-English fiction after publishing his magnum opus 'Kanthapura' His popularity mushroomed rampantly with the publication of his second novel, 'The Serpent and the Rope', which received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963, and which got appreciation of critics in India and abroad. He showed his passion and enthusiasm to rural India. Against the constant overgrowth of the cosmopolitan nihilistic attitude, Raja Rao attempts to glorify the rural India, as an idyllic location, and its ethos.
In sublimity of wisdom and adroit dexterity in the realm of art in portraying the Indian rural atmosphere, Raj Rao has no equal and superior in the whole Indo-Anglican fiction. Raja Rao is a child of the Gandhain age. He is very much influenced by the Gandhian ideology. Gandhiji is the respectable leader in India and abroad due to not only for his constant struggle for Indian independence, but also for his immaculate character. His age had experienced two dire world wars. Every effort to gain freedom proved to be futile. Indians were frustrated as they were unable to realize their hope of gaining independence. All the echelons woke up from the curled up situation by the call given by Gandhiji. Education, politics, economics, religion, social life, language and literature were, more or less, influenced by Gandhian philosophy and ideology. Gandhiji had very strongly influenced language and literature by his writings in English and by his revolutionary ideas, ideals, and practice in the freedom movement through his weapons of non-violence, passive resistance, non-cooperation, and truthfulness which had permeated deep into all the echelons and caused a sea change in the minds of Indians. Many writers got influenced by the ideology and philosophy of Gandhi, but Gandhiji's life, ideology, and philosophy got influence from the writings of Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy and a few others. Gandhi appealed strongly for decentralization and village is the safe unit of human association.
Broad social outlook, love, forgiveness, and cooperation are the Indians' ideals in day-to-day life. There are about a dozen Indian novels in English in which Gandhiji appears either as a character or as a pervasive influence on the social and political scene. Gandhiji's intention is to remove the social inequalities, untouchablility, caste arrogance, occupational prejudices. He also tried to give new life to language and literature. Satyagraha was to be the ultimate weapon that that would lead us to political freedom which again would lead us to other freedoms such as social, economical, religious freedoms as well. He supported the village industries which would avoid wicked forms of exploitation and misery inherent in large-scale industries.
Raja Rao's magnum opus Kanthapura is also one of them, which portray the dexterous tour de force of the novelist. It is his first major Indian novel in English, depicting in microcosm the Gandhiji's struggle for independence, which deals with Civil Disobedience under the influence of Gandiji. The novel helped acquire maturity to Raja Rao in his later novels such as The Serpent and the Rope, and The Cat and Shakespeare. Gandhian movement gave special force to some of the great novelists. Among the novelists, K.S. Venkatramani's Murugan the Tiller, followed by Kandan the Patriot, which was dedicated to anaonymous Indian freedom fighter, portray the ideal politics of the day. Later, Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable, and Coolie, and Raja Rao's Kanthapura were influenced by the theme of Gandhian philosophy. R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Ananda, and Raja Rao are considered 'Big Three'.
By reading the novel Kanthapura, we can find the parallels between the protagonist Moorthy and the novelist Raja Rao. It can be assumed that Moorthy is the replica of Raja Rao. Delving deep  Raja Rao's Kanthapura is the offshoot of Gandhian ideology, and the novel Kanthapura considered Gnahdi and our Village, but the narrative technique makes the novel more a Gandhi Purana than a piece of mere fiction. Gandhiji's influence is seen as God, friend, and mentor, guide, and philosopher, and Moorthy as Avatar. He is considered the village Gandhi. He is the replica of thousands of Indian young men who got inspiration from Gandhi, and gave up their studies for the right cause; to free their motherland from the brutal shackles of British. It is resistance of the Satyagrahis against the rulers. Meenakshi Mukerjee opiines, "The characteristically concrete imagination of the uneducated mind pictures the Mahatma as large and blue like the Sahyadri Mountain on whose slopes the pilgrims climb to the top, while Moorthy is seen as Small Mountain. To her the Satyagraha becomes a religious ceremony to which she devotes her sacred ardour." 1 There are other divisions also. Orthodoxy is pitted against reforms, exploitation against sufferance, and the planter against the coolies. The corrupt officials confront the self-respecting villages.
Kanthapura, situated in a providence of Kara, gives a clear picture of struggle of Indians for independence in a remote village of India wherein the inhabitants are very poor, illiterate, backward, and caste-ridden. Kenchamma is the deity of the village. Raja Rao begins the novel with the portrayal of the social situation which is divided between the two predominant castes; the Brahmins and the Pariahs. As Kanthapura is an Indian traditional village, it is the symbol of the rural situation throughout India. With the division of castes, the narrow and dusty roads, and with crops like cardamom, coffee, rice, and sugarcane, with ghats, and with the surroundings which face the cool Arabian seas, Kanthapura is a microcosm of rural India and what happened there was happening everywhere in India in those days of freedom struggle. Raja Rao has taken every detail into consideration in depicting the imaginary traditional Indian village, which consists of Brahmin quarters, pariah quarters, potter's street with their own ethos and psyche.
On the one hand, Kanthapura deals with Gandhian movement in India, but on the other hand, Raja Rao achieves a focus by treating the great political upheaval as a phase of sthalapurana. Therefore, the village symbolizes the whole country. Touching on the artistic validity of sthalapurana, Raja Rao points out in his foreword to Kanthapura: "There is no village in India, however mean, that has not a rich Sthala-purana or legendary history of its own. Some God or God-like hero has passed the village. Ram Moorthy, who inspires the villages and wins the respect of the villages, has an immeasurable influence of Gandhiji. He is elevated from a common boy to a young boy with leadership qualifies by the Gandhi's personality. Like Gandhi who dedicated himself to the progress of the nation, he also has self-sacrificial nature and he is also dedicated himself to the progress of the village. Of course, he never met Gandhi. Feeling the impact of Gandhi, he leaves the college for noble cause of nation. He is one among the thousands of young men who give up their studies and get arrested. Inspired by the vision of Gandhi, Moorthy addresses a public.
Gandhi is the way, the truth, and life to Raja Rao. Like Raja Rao, Moorthy also gets inspiration by Gandhi's charismatic personality. Therefore, Raja Rao sees himself in Moorthy and gifts him with a many number of good qualities of head and heart. Gandhi inspired the people with admirable personality. Like Gandhi, Moorthy also worked for the progress of outcaste people. The novel can be considered a Gandhi-epic. It portrays Gandhi's influence on the minds of Indians. Gandhi's fascinating personality, though Gandhi did not appear in the novel, is felt. He remains in the background. Raja Rao tried to present Gandhian ideology and Movement very impartially. There is no idealization. Kanthapura is the magnum opus of Raja Rao which proved his art and which presents the impact of the Gandhian movement on the rusty minded Indians. It is a great classic during the period of the India's Freedom Struggle. It is very clear that it is a book which depicted the Gandhi's ideology and Gandhian period. Gandhi says satyagraha is for the sake of all (sarvodaya).
"As Gandhi states in his autobiography: To see the universal all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet with all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means." 7 . Moorthy in Kanthapura is the embodiment of the spirit of Gandhi and his constant moderate freedom struggle, and his truth and non-violence as well. This is a quintessence wherein we can see Gandhinan ideology in Moorthy.
And when Moorthyheard of all this, he said, 'That is not for me. Between Truth and me one shall come,' and Advocate Ranganna went and saw him and said, 'Moorthy! The Red-man's judges, they are not your uncle's grandsons,' and Moorthy simply said, 'If Truth is one, all men are one before It,' and Ranganna said, 'Judges are not for brown skin but for the white, and the Governemetnt is not with the people but with the police'.
And Moorthy listened to all this and said, 'If that is so, it will have to change. Truth will have to change it. I shall speak that which Truth prompteth, and Truth needeth no defence,' and Ranganna, spoke this of corruption and that about prejudice but Truth, Truth, and Truth was all that Moorthy said, and old Ranganna, who had grown grey with law on his tongue, got so wild that he banged the prison door behind him and muttered to himself,,' To the mire with you!' P. 90 Gandhi's influence on the mind of Raja Rao is very much in 1930s which determined his writings. Therefore, Raja Rao carved out his own replica in the form of Moorthy in Kanthapura under the influence of Gandhi's ideology.