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Kanthapura
1947, although Gandhi opposed the ultimate decision to
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION partition South Asia into Indian and Muslim states. He was
assassinated by a Hindu nationalist shortly after India won
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF RAJA RAO independence, in 1948, and over two million people attended
Raja Rao was born to a historically influential Brahmin family in his funeral.
the South Indian state of Mysore (now Karnataka), where
Kanthapura is also set. Rao’s father taught Kannada (the local RELATED LITERARY WORKS
language that the book’s characters presumably speak) and his
mother died when Rao was four years old. Rao was the only Although Kanthapura is Rao’s best-known work, his second
Hindu student at his Muslim public school before he went to novel, The Serpent and the Rope, is often considered his
study English at the University of Madras and graduated in masterpiece. This novel, published 22 years after Kanthapura,
1929, the same year he originally finished writing Kanthapura. explores philosophical encounters between West and East
He soon moved to France, where he studied French history and through a relationship between an Indian and a French student
literature, and spent the next thirty years living between there that models his own failed first marriage to Camille Mouly. The
and India. During the 1940s, he was active in the Indian short stories he wrote during the 1930s are collected in The
independence movement. Rao moved to the United States in Cow of the Barricades, and Other Stories (1947), and he went on
1966, where he taught philosophy at the University of Texas to publish three more novels, two more collections of stories,
until his retirement in 1986. He married three times: to the and numerous works of nonfiction, including a biography of
French teacher Camille Mouly in 1931, to the American actress Mahatma Gandhi. Rao is widely considered one of the three
Katherine Jones in 1965, and to the American Susan Vaught in earliest major “Indo-Anglian” writers, or English-language
1986. From the 1960s onward, he won a number of prominent writers from India. Another is R.K. Narayan, who wrote more
literary prizes, including the Indian Padma Bhushan in 1969 than a dozen novels, the most famous of which is Swami and
and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. Friends
riends. The third is Mulk Raj Anand, often called the Indian
Dickens, whose writings focused on the oppression of lower-
caste Indians. His novels include Untouchable, Coolie, and The
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Sword and the Sickle. Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj was the
Kanthapura is set during the early days of the Indian independence movement’s central text.
independence movement that ultimately liberated the nation
from British colonial rule in 1947. This movement arguably
KEY FACTS
lasted for the entire duration of British colonialism in South
Asia, but the campaign of organized nonviolent resistance • Full Title: Kanthapura
headed by Mohandas Gandhi and his Indian National Congress • When Written: 1929
began in the 1920s after a British general ordered his troops to
• Where Written: Chennai (Madras), India
shoot thousands of peaceful protestors in the northern city of
Amritsar. After deciding that it would be immoral to cooperate • When Published: 1938
with the British government, Gandhi launched the Non- • Literary Period: Modern Indian Literature, Colonial
Cooperation Movement in an attempt to achieve Swaraj (self- Literature
rule) for India by encouraging Indians to refuse foreign goods • Genre: Novel, Sthala-Purana (legendary history)
(especially British liquor and clothing), resign their posts in • Setting: Kanthapura, a small village in Southwest India circa
British schools and government jobs, and refuse to fight for the 1930
British in World War II. Gandhi famously served two years in
• Climax: The townspeople burn Kanthapura to the ground
prison, went on numerous hunger strikes (including one to and move to surrounding villages.
demand nonviolence among his own supporters after a group
• Antagonist: The British colonial government, as embodied
of Gandhists burned down a police station), and protested a
by the policeman Badè Khan, the Sahib at the Skeffington
new British tax on salt by marching nearly 400 kilometers to Estate, locals who defend the colonial system, and the
the ocean and making his own salt. He also gave women a military and police forces that crush Kanthapura’s rebellion
prominent role in the independence movement. Ultimately,
• Point of View: First-person oral history told by Achakka.
although the British imprisoned more than 100,000 Indians on
political grounds, Gandhi’s explicit demands for independence
in the 1940s (called the Quit India Movement) succeeded in
EXTRA CREDIT
Linga
Lingayya
yya – One of the potters and a trumpet player, Lingayya is Madanna – A coolie at the Skeffington Estate whose child dies
a dedicated Gandhian and follower of Moorthy who gets of fever when Madanna is too afraid to use the Sahib’s pills. He
arrested after jumping the fence to cut down trees at Boranna’s later leaves the Estate and joins the Kanthapura villagers’
toddy grove, and then is never seen again. rebellion.
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishnayya yya – A learned, elder brahmin in the village who Adv
Advocate
ocate Ranganna – A Karwar lawyer who tries to convince
explains ancient Hindu texts to the others and often serves as Moorthy to fight his first imprisonment and later helps lead in
the voice of reason during the conflict between Moorthy’s the rallies for Moorthy’s freedom.
Gandhians and the traditional brahmins who support the caste Temple Ranganna – A brahmin in the village.
system (including Bhatta, Venkamma, Rangappa, and Bor
Boranna
anna – Owner of the toddy grove that the Kanthapura
Lakshamma). villagers picket and eventually shut down.
Ja
Jayar
yaramachar
amachar – A famed Harikatha-man whom Moorthy pays Rama Chetty – A merchant and Subba Chetty’s brother.
to come to Kanthapura in the first chapter. He speaks about
Chinnamma – A village brahmin and Bhatta’s wife, Chinnamma
Indians’ oppression under colonialism and Gandhi’s promise to
debates the implications of Moorthy’s caste-mixing with the
liberate the people of India.
other brahmin women.
Nanjamma – A village woman who joins Rangamma’s group of
Vasude
asudevv – A brahmin clerk at the Skeffington Estate who helps
Volunteers. Achakka calls her “Nose-scratching Nanjamma” and
teach the coolies to read and becomes a prominent member of
seems to consider her clumsy and unintelligent at times.
the Gandhian movement.
Subba Chetty – A merchant in Kanthapura who takes
Sidda – A relatively well-off pariah who joins Moorthy’s
advantage of the constant flow of goods passing through the
Gandhian movement.
town and remains loyal to Bhatta and the other pro-
government brahmins. Chetty frames a man named Rahman Coffee-Planter Rama
Ramayyayya – A wealthy man who visits
Khan for attempted murder by paying a woman named Dasi to Kanthapura in his expensive car at the beginning of the book.
seduce and provoke him. He tries to marry his daughter to Moorthy, who refuses.
Satamma – A village woman and Suryanarayana’s wife, Potter Rama
Ramayyayya – One of Kanthapura’s Gandhian Volunteers,
Satamma at first fears caste mixture but eventually joins who at times sneaks out of the village to help protestors in
Rangamma’s group of Volunteer women to resist the colonial other cities.
government. (Not to be confused with the widowed Satamma Wea
eavver Rama
Ramayya
yya – The Elder weaver who agrees to join
mentioned by Achakka at the beginning of the book.) Moorthy’s Congress in Section 8.
Temple Rangappa – The village’s priest and effective religious Coolie Rama
Ramayya
yya – One of the coolies who is tasked with
leader, Rangappa leads prayers and ceremonies (such as the walking the maistri’s bicycle through the mountains back up to
procession in Section 12) and remains loyal to the colonial the Skeffington Estate.
government. His wife is Lakshamma, and he is loyal to Bhatta,
Postman Subba
Subbayya
yya – The postman who delivers Rangamma’s
who pays him to oppose the Gandhians.
Blue paper. Not to be confused with the potter also named
Patwari Nanjundia – A wealthy and prominent brahmin in the Subbayya.
village who supports Bhatta and the colonial government
Chandr
Chandraayya – A potter who is taken during a protest and
instead of joining the Gandhian movement.
beaten in jail by the government.
Section 3 Quotes
Every fellow with Matric or Inter asks, “What dowry do Explanation and Analysis
you offer? How far will you finance my studies?—I want to have Moorthy has a vision in which he fans the Mahatma and
this degree and that degree.” Degrees. Degrees. Nothing but hears these words; although Achakka does not outright
degrees or this Gandhi vagabondage. When there are boys like state that the Mahatma spoke them, she certainly implies it.
Moorthy, who should safely get married and settle down, they This ambiguity illustrates how, in this book, Gandhi operates
begin this Gandhi business. more as an idea developed by the villagers themselves (akin
to the goddess Kenchamma, for instance) than an active
political force. Despite the villagers’ willingness to die for
Related Characters: Bhatta (speaker), Mahatma Gandhi,
Gandhi, he never shows up in the book except for in this
Moorthy, Ramakrishnayya, Rangamma, Satamma
vision, and the “Truth” he ostensibly preaches here becomes
an empty concept for Moorthy. When he is imprisoned, he
Related Themes:
initially refuses to seek help from lawyers because of his
Page Number: 28 blind faith in the Truth. The notion of a “god of all”
foreshadows the villagers’ increasing allegiance to Siva
Explanation and Analysis before they burn down Kanthapura and leave their patron
Bhatta is Gandhi’s most powerful opponent in Kanthapura. goddess Kenchamma behind; Moorthy also comes to
In this passage, he complains to Satamma, Rangamma, and champion the “love of mankind,” including his enemies, until
Ramakrishnayya about the difficulty he has had in marrying he decides at the end of the book that this stance makes
off his daughters. He blames Gandhism’s intellectual bent Gandhi a pushover, unable to effectively negotiate with the
for encouraging potential brides to focus too much on their British. Although Gandhi inspires the villagers to action, the
studies and reject traditional caste divisions. Bhatta’s vague philosophy he expounds in this passage—which
concern demonstrates how Gandhism relies substantially becomes the basis for Moorthy’s own teachings in
on the colonial education system. For many of the more Kanthapura—illustrates the significant gap between the
traditional villagers like Bhatta, “this degree and that independence movement’s national and local
degree” seem like a waste of time and energy because they manifestations.
do not help people succeed in the economic activities on
which Kanthapura runs. This demonstrates how the written
word gives the villagers one of the tools they desperately Section 4 Quotes
need to effectively resist the British empire. But there is There was something deep and desperate that hurried her
also another dimension to Bhatta’s fears; although Moorthy on, and [Narsamma] passed by Rangamma’s sugarcane field and
and Bhatta are both brahmins, Bhatta’s other fear is that by the mango grove to the river, just where the whirlpool
lower castes will take over his caste’s traditional place at the gropes and gurgles, and she looked up at the moonlit sky, and
top of the hierarchy if they get too much education. He the winds of the night and the shadows of the night and the
wants brahmins (besides Gandhians like Moorthy) to use jackals of the night so pierced her breast that she shuddered
the knowledge they gain in the colonial education system to and sank unconscious upon the sands, and the cold so pierced
preserve their traditional power, but recognizes that this her that the next morning she was dead.
same power, in the hands of revolutionaries, could easily be
used oto dismantle the entire system.
Related Characters: Achakka (speaker), The Swami,
Moorthy, Narsamma
“There is but one force in life and that is Truth, and there is Related Themes:
but one love in life and that is the love of mankind, and
there is but one God in life and that is the god of all.” Page Number: 46
dead people and animals are considered polluting, so only successfully writes Kanthapura as a sthala-purana, or the
pariahs and untouchables are supposed to make physical “legendary history” of a particular place and its people.
contact with them (this is why the pariahs prepare the
funeral pyres throughout Kanthapura). Narsamma had
previously cooled her anger at the holy, purifying And they all rose up like one rock and fell on the ground
Himavathy river, but on this occasion she could not. As she
saying, “You are a dispenser of good, O Maharaja, we are
loses her role in Kanthapura’s social world, she also loses the lickers of your feet…”
her life, which demonstrates the caste system’s powerful,
foundational role in structuring the village’s social life and
the personal lives of its residents. Related Characters: Achakka (speaker), Maistri, Coolie
Chenna, Sahib
The Skeffington Coffee Estate rises beyond the Bebbur Page Number: 50
Mound over the Bear’s Hill, and hanging over Tippur and
Subbur and Kantur, it swings round the Elephant Valley, and Explanation and Analysis
rising to shoulder the Snow Mountains and the Beda Ghats, it After the maistri marches the group of coolies up the hill to
dips sheer into the Himavathy, and follows on from the Balepur the Skeffington Coffee Estate and the Sahib threatens
Toll-gate Corner to the Kenchamma Hill, where it turns again seven-year-old Chenna to explain his policies about
and skirts Bhatta Devil’s fields and Rangè Gowda’s coconut discipline and punishment, the coolies bow down to the
garden, and at the Tippur stream it rises again and is lost amidst Sahib and proclaim their loyalty to him. They do so because
the jungle growths of the Horse-head Hill. they are frightened, calling the Sahib by the traditional term
for a king or ruler (“Maharaja”). By conflating the Sahib’s
Related Characters: Achakka (speaker) power over the coolies’ lives as laborers with the traditional
role of an Indian ruler, this quote in turn illustrates how
Related Themes: political and economic power are conflated under
colonialism: the British colonial regime’s main motivations
Page Number: 48 and forms of power are economic, and the Gandhian
movement ultimately disrupts that power by refusing to
Explanation and Analysis participate in a labor system that diverts the fruits of their
Achakka’s description of the Skeffington Coffee Estate labor to the British.
exemplifies the way she narrates places in and around
Kanthapura. Her meandering speech always takes the
reader through territory in time, as though from the [Pariah Siddayya] tells you about the dasara havu that is so
perspective of a person traversing the landscape rather
clever that he got into the Sahib’s drawer and lay there
than from a bird’s-eye view. While most of the specific
curled up, and how, the other day, when the sahib goes to the
landmarks she mentions are essentially irrelevant to the
bathroom, a lamp in his hand, and opens the drawer to take out
book as a whole, their inclusion demonstrates Achakka’s
some soap, what does he see but our Maharaja, nice and clean
encyclopedic knowledge of Kanthapura’s surroundings and
and shining with his eyes glittering in the lamplight, and the
evokes a sense of continual motion through and across
Sahib, he closes the drawer as calmly as a prince; but by the
those surroundings. Crucially, the landmarks she uses are
time he is back with his pistol, our Maharaja has given him the
all relative to her village: she skirts the Estate’s boundaries,
slip. And the Sahib opens towel after towel to greet the
describing where Kanthapura’s people and places fade into
Maharaja, but the Maharaja has gone on his nuptial ceremony
the Estate, rather than describing the Estate from the
and he will never be found.
inside. Her descriptions, here as elsewhere, are
emplaced—grounded in and narrated from the particular
village that nobody will ever know better than she does. In Related Characters: Achakka (speaker), Sahib, Potter
this sense, Achakka’s description of the estate is really Siddayya
narrated from the perspective of her village itself; by
constantly rooting the story in the village’s perspective, Rao Related Themes:
Section 10 Quotes
Page Number: 52 “Brothers, in the name of the Mahatma, let there be peace
Explanation and Analysis and love and order. As long as there is a God in Heaven and
purity in our hearts evil cannot touch us. We hide nothing. We
Siddayya’s story about a “dasara havu” (a kind of snake) that
hurt none. And if these gentlemen want to arrest us, let them.
he calls the Maharaja inverts the coolies’ prostration before
Give yourself up to them. That is the true spirit of the
the Sahib as Maharaja just two pages before. Siddayya, who
Satyagrahi.”
has worked on the Skeffington Coffee Estate for longer
than anyone else, knows about every variety of snake that
lives nearby and argues that snakes only attack deserving Related Characters: Moorthy (speaker), Mahatma Gandhi
victims. His deep knowledge of the Estate’s local
environment naturally makes him a leader and an elder Related Themes:
figure among the coolies, and he passes down this local
knowledge orally, creating an tradition that is grounded in Page Number: 88
place, much like the one that ties Kanthapura’s villagers to Explanation and Analysis
the place where they live. Whereas the coolies call the Sahib
As the police arrest Moorthy for the first time in
“Maharaja” as a show of deference, Siddayya worships the
Rangamma’s house, he gives this speech to his followers,
snake who nearly attacked the Sahib as “our Maharaja”
encouraging them to endure the violence done to them and
because it promised to free them from their economic
maintain the purity of their methods, including submitting
servitude and then managed to escape the Sahib’s violence,
to arrest if necessary. The core of his Gandhian campaign is
as the coolies surely wish they could.
resistance through refusal: the villagers reject British goods
and government posts, offer exploited workers an
alternative livelihood based around community rather than
What is a policeman before a Gandhi’s man? Tell me, does profit, and refuse to sacrifice their moral principles for their
a boar stand before a lion or a jackal before an elephant? physical safety. Although this gets many of them arrested
and killed, it also allows them to maintain the moral high
Related Characters: Achakka (speaker), Rachanna, Sahib, ground, which ultimately leads the movement to spread
Vasudev, Badè Khan more effectively in the long run. In fact, Moorthy’s own
arrest turns him into a virtually mythological character in
Related Themes: the region; the rest of the Gandhians eagerly await his
return and begin thinking of him as “our Gandhi.” Nonviolent
Page Number: 60 methods allow Indians to grind the colonial system to a halt
by making colonial rule unprofitable for the British, rather
Explanation and Analysis than by taking back their land by force.
Achakka makes this remark after explaining that the Sahib
saw Badè Khan’s presence at the Skeffington Estate as a
means to prevent the coolies from rebelling, but the Section 11 Quotes
Gandhians decided to educate them nonetheless. Although
Changing he changes not,
Badè Khan has a monopoly on the use of physical force after
the Gandhians begin incorporating the coolies into their Ash-smeared, he’s Parvati’s sire,
movement, “a policeman” is nothing “before a Gandhi’s man” Moon on his head,
because a “Gandhi’s man” is unfazed by the policeman’s only And poison in his throat,
tool: violence. Achakka’s statement also attests to the
Chant, chant, chant the name of Eesh,
political power that literacy confers on Gandhians who,
through reading, suddenly gain the means to contextualize Chant the name of Siva Lord!
their local experience within the larger history and territory
of India, as well as understand the conditions of their Related Characters: Sankar, Kenchamma, Moorthy
economic exploitation.
Related Themes:
Section 17 Quotes
He’ll never come again, He’ll never come again, Related Themes:
He’ll never come again, Moorthappa.
Page Number: 156
The God of death has sent for him,
Explanation and Analysis
Buffalo and rope and all,
Throughout Achakka’s narration, the natural environment
They stole him from us, they lassoed him at night,
frequently mirrors human affairs, and animals cry out as the
He’s gone, He’s gone, He’s gone, Moorthappa. villagers are beaten by the police. In this passage, after the
police attack the elderly woman Seethamma, Achakka and
Related Characters: Moorthy the other Volunteer women hide out in the temple and hear
the forest in chaos. Beyond serving as a narrative technique
Related Themes: to suggest conflict, these consistent parallels between
human affairs and the natural world demonstrate the close
Page Number: 154 ties between Kanthapura’s villagers and the landscape
around their village. As the police attack the villagers,
Explanation and Analysis animals around the jungle feel their pain, as though the
After Moorthy is arrested for the second time during the whole forest were burning down. The imagery of Mother
night, the pariah women of Kanthapura chant these lines Earth welcoming the villagers into herself suggests their
while blocking the procession of coolies marched through state of harmony with the world, which the violence of
Kanthapura by colonial policemen. Whereas the villagers colonialism has disrupted.
eagerly anticipated Moorthy’s return after his first arrest,
this time they correctly predict that “he’ll never come again,”
and use his disappearance as evidence of the colonial Section 18 Quotes
regime’s injustice. Crucially, the pariah women are now
“Satyanarayan Maharaj ki jai!”
leading the chant and the resistance movement as a whole.
Soon after this quote, the other villagers discover that
Rangamma has disappeared, too, and Ratna, a widowed Related Characters: Mahatma Gandhi
pariah, becomes the Gandhian campaign’s de facto leader.
The replacement of a brahmin man, Moorthy, with a pariah Related Themes:
woman, Ratna, demonstrates the Satyagraha movement’s
success in overturning the caste hierarchy that previously Page Number: 172
dominated Kanthapura. But Moorthy’s disappearance and Explanation and Analysis
this chant about him also foreshadow the dissolution of the
village as a whole. The “God of death” referenced here is In lieu of their usual cries (“Vandé Mataram!,” “Inquilab
Yama, a Hindu god who rides a water buffalo and holds a Zindabad!,” and “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!”), the Kanthapura
rope. Traditionally, Yama is considered the first mortal to Gandhians open their final march against the police with a
have died, which mirrors Moorthy’s position as the first new cry of “Satyanarayan Maharaj ki jai!.” Instead of declaring
villager to disappear. victory for Gandhi, they declare victory for Satyanarayan, a
manifestation of the god Vishnu that effectively translates
to “truth as the highest being,” which is also their Maharaja
(or great ruler). They choose this cry because it is religious
The whole world seems a jungle in battle, trees rumbling, rather than political in content, and they correctly believe
lions roaring, jackals wailing, parrots piping, panthers that the police will be more reluctant to stop them during an
screeching, monkeys jabbering, jeering, chatter-chattering, ostensibly religious march than during an overtly political
black monkeys and white monkeys and the long-tailed ones, one. Although the Hindu underpinnings of their Gandhian
and the flame of forest angry around us, and if Mother Earth beliefs demonstrate that religion and politics are effectively
had opened herself and said, “Come in, children,” we should unified for the villagers, by strategically proclaiming their
have walked down the steps and the great rock would have march a religious ceremony, they take advantage of the
closed itself upon us—and yet the sun was frying-hot. British colonists’ preconceptions about the sharp division
between the political and religious spheres.
Related Characters: Achakka (speaker)
FOREWORD
Rao explains that every Indian village has a “sthala-purana, or By narrating Kanthapura as a sthala-purana, Rao translates a
legendary history, of its own.” Often, a god or hero has passed traditional genre of oral history grounded in the peculiarities of local
through the village and left their mark in the memories of its religion into the modern medium of the English-language novel. As a
inhabitants, so that in everyday life “the past mingles with the story of anticolonial resistance, it is worth noting that Rao is
present, and the gods mingle with men.” Kanthapura is one such appropriating the colonialists’ language to tell this story. It suggests
story about a village. that it was important to him that the British and other westerners
be able to read his words.
Rao notes that “the telling has not been easy,” chiefly because Rao justifies his decision to tell Kanthapura's history in Achakka's
translating Indian ways of thinking and constructing meaning distinctive style, which breaks most conventions of narrative voice
into an “alien” language like English is so difficult. But English is by following a meandering stream of consciousness rather than a
not truly alien to Indians—it forms their “intellectual make-up.” linear storyline. Thus, even though English is a colonial language, it
Indians can write in English, but they “cannot write like the still offers Indians a form of expression that subverts the colonial
English”—rather, Indian English must become a “distinctive and regime. Rao adapts a colonial tool to anticolonial purposes, writing
colourful” dialect of the language, which “time alone will justify.” in a style of English that is not the dry language of education and
Indian writing in English must express “the tempo of Indian life,” recordkeeping but rather the sort of vernacular language in which a
which is a process of “rush and tumble and move on.” sthala-purana would ordinarily be told.
Rao suggests that this distinctive tempo accounts for the Rao sees India as a way of thinking, layered and additive rather than
length of important Hindu epics like the Mahabharatha and linear and argumentative, and Achakka's oral style reflects that. He
Ramayana, which demonstrate the rambling, “ordinary style of makes explicit her role as a village elder and suggests that his story
our story-telling” that his narrator adopts. Rao imagines the of a village responding to colonialism can be read as the story of
story told by a grandmother, addressing a newcomer on her India's struggle against colonialism in miniature.
veranda at dusk, recounting her village’s “sad tale.”
SECTION 1
“Our village,” the narrator Achakka begins, “I don’t think you The distinctive style that Rao describes in the preface becomes
have ever heard about it—Kanthapura is its name.” The village is immediately apparent through Achakka's lengthy first sentence,
high in the Western Ghats, “the steep mountains that face the which situates her village in the broader context of India and the
cool Arabian seas” in India’s southwest. Past Kanthapura, British empire as a whole. She does this from the viewpoint
“cardamom and coffee, rice and sugarcane” are funneled down of someone traversing the landscape. The flood of place names she
rudimentary roads that wind through the mountains and provides demonstrates her deep familiarity with the place and
forests toward “the great granaries of trade” and then on establishes her as an authority on her village.
“across the seven oceans and into the countries where our
rulers live.”
“Great and bounteous” Kenchamma is the town’s goddess. The villagers' traditional religion is tied to the place where they live
Once, “ages, ages ago,” a demon came to take Kanthapura’s in the sense that the goddess they worship is embedded in the
children as food and wives, and the goddess fought him back all landscape and that landscape records the history of what has
night. The battle soaked her namesake Kenchamma Hill in happened in the village. The villagers do not need documents or
blood, and now the part above the Tippur stream is red, which scholars to record their history; rather, the physical landscape and
is proof that the battle happened. Kenchamma settled in the locals' memories are their history books.
town, and has never failed to answer the villagers’ prayers for
rain.
The goddess Kenchamma also cures disease. By walking Achakka quickly contradicts herself, establishing her unreliability as
through a holy fire, everyone has been cured of smallpox a narrator. She suggests that the fates of those who died from
(besides one child), and by offering Kenchamma “a sari and a disease are tied to those people's moral failings. The lack of smallpox
gold trinket,” the town has saved all from cholera except some and cholera in the village also suggests that it has had relatively
“old ones” who “would have died one way or the other anyway.” little direct contact with European colonizers. Kanthapura's
And yes, the narrator admits, one woman died of it too—but universe is saturated with religion: even disease is attributed to
“her child was born ten months and four days” after her Kenchamma.
husband died, and “such whores always die untimely.” Two
others who died of cholera in Kanthapura were not from the
town; they should have stayed in their own, the narrator claims,
and prayed to their own goddess.
The narrator prays that Kenchamma will protect the village Even during her story, Achakka carefully acknowledges the goddess
“through famine and disease, death and despair.” She promises and her continuing role in protecting Kanthapura's people. The fact
that the villagers “shall wake thinking of you, sleep prostrating that people from the plantations surrounding Kanthapura descend
before you,” and perform a ritual dance and song all through upon the village to pray to Kenchamma demonstrates both that the
harvest night. The next morning, people will come from the village is an important center within its immediate region and that it
plantation estates around Kanthapura with offerings and sing. is not completely isolated from the outside world or the effects of
colonialism.
Akkamma’s sister-in-law’s cousin, “Coffee-Planter Ramayya,” is Ramayya and Dorè represent the kind of city-people that the
staying with her on his way through town. He parks his Ford villagers disdain and see as tied to the colonial government.
across the river and an enormous crowd descends on Ramayya’s car contrasts with the villagers’ limited means of
Akkamma’s house to see him, including Dorè, whom everyone transportation, reflecting his power and ties to the city.
calls “the ‘University graduate.’”
Dorè’s parents died and sisters married when he was young, so Dorè is clearly a charlatan, using his brief sojourn in the city as an
he found himself “all alone with fifteen acres of wet land and excuse to proclaim his superiority to the others in his village. He also
twenty acres of dry land.” Actually, Dorè never made it to his gives Achakka a means to introduce Gandhi, whose movement later
second term at university but “had city-ways, read city-books, becomes the main focus of the characters in Kanthapura.
and even called himself a Gandhi-man.” When he came back to
town two years ago, he started wearing a dhoti and khadi, and
he even quit “his city habit of smoking.”
But honestly, the narrator remarks, “we never liked [Dorè]. He Moorthy embodies the ideal Gandhian and contrasts strongly with
had always been such a braggart,” unlike “Corner-House Dorè. Achakka finally reveals her name as an aside, underscoring
Moorthy,” who lived “like a noble cow, quiet, generous, serene, the wending nature of her narrative. The failure of Moorthy’s
deferent and brahmanic” and was loved by all. The narrator, marriage to Ramayya’s daughter illustrates both the dependence of
who reveals in passing that her name is Achakka, would even Kanthapura’s society on the institution of marriage and also the
have married her granddaughter to him if she had one. extent to which Indians of all stripes in this book—including
Moorthy and Achakka’s son Seenu are the same age and were Moorthy and Ramayya from the city—follow astrology to make
always close friends. Coffee-Planter Ramayya was there to important decisions.
offer his own daughter to Moorthy—however, “the horoscopes
did not agree. And we were all so satisfied…”
Achakka notes that, so far, she has only talked about the Recognizing the way caste divides Kanthapura, Achakka zooms out
village’s Brahmin Quarter—there are a number of others, and from the world in which she lives in and acknowledges her lack of
perhaps “ninety or a hundred” huts in total. Achakka explains insight into the lives of lower-caste villagers. Bhatta’s economic
that she would never go into the Pariah Quarter, but she power over Kanthapura is evident, as is the sharp division between
estimates that there are “fifteen or twenty” huts there. “Pock- the villagers’ traditional ways of life, organized around the religious
marked Sidda” has a huge house there, but he recently had to power of the brahmin caste, and the new social structures
take his wife to Poona for treatment because she “went mad,” introduced by colonialism, which revolves around money and
and he lost much of his land to clever Bhatta, who already property.
owned “half Kanthapura” and “was sure to become the
Zamindar [landowner] of the whole village” even though he
walked around in only a loincloth.
Patel Rangè Gowda, “a fat, sturdy fellow, a veritable tiger Rangè Gowda has immense power in Kanthapura despite being low
amongst us,” lives just past the Temple Square with his fortune caste, which demonstrates how wealth is increasingly displacing
in gold and bangles. He works his sons-in-law “like slaves” even caste as the dominant hierarchy in the village. He is both revered
though they also own land; “his words were law in our village.” and feared for his power as a revenue collector, since his willingness
Achakka considers him an “honest man” who has “helped many to use the same cruel tactics as the colonial government makes him
a poor peasant”—but he is also “a terror […] to the authorities!” Kanthapura’s best defense against the British.
He protects his fellow sudras, who “were always badly dressed”
and never paid their debts on time.
Across the Sudra Street is the Brahmin Street, where Achakka The temple is both the physical and religious center of Kanthapura,
herself lives, Subba Chetty has his shop, and the local temple and Achakka insinuates that “the trouble” that unraveled
stands. The street is the “centre of our life,” but only three years Kanthapura can be traced to the brahmin quarter.
old, and “that’s where all the trouble began.”
One day, Moorthy found a “half-sunk” linga (an idol that Moorthy initiates the events of the book by discovering an idol to
represents Lord Siva) in Achakka’s backyard and convinced the Siva, a prominent Hindu god who is worshipped across India. This
other brahmins to clean and build a small shrine for it. foreshadows the villagers’ gradual shift to prioritizing Siva over their
Postmaster Suryanarayana proposes a Sankara-jayantha—the local goddess Kenchamma. Ceremonies like the one Moorthy
Brahmins jump at the opportunity to participate and start later proposes are the centerpiece of public life in Kanthapura, for they
that day. Ramakrishnayya, the most “serene and deep-voiced” offer the villagers their main chance to assemble and make
of all the Brahmins, reads the Sankara-Vijaya day in and out important communal decisions.
with his “calm, bell-metal voice” while the brahmins watch and
weep. A series of boys served dinner “like veritable princes,”
then Lingayya plays a bhajan on his trumpet before the
brahmins go to bed “with the god’s face framed within our
eyes.”
Sometimes, the poet Sastri delivers Harikathas—he has been Sastri is an important figure in the village because of his oral
honored by the Maharaja of Mysore and, according to rumors, discourses, but as a powerful brahmin he also allies with the
even has a permanent role lined up in the court. Sastri makes maharaja (whose court is indirectly ruled by the British).
“the god-world” feel “true and near and brilliant” to the
brahmins and they can watch him perform for hours.
Altogether, Moorthy collects 147 rupees. Rangamma is Rangamma is one of three wealthy characters in Kanthapura,
generous—she does not know what to do with all her alongside Bhatta and Rangè Gowda, but unlike the other men, she
money—and the festival is extravagant. The famous rejects the colonial ideology that values hoarding money.
Harikatha-man Jayaramachar performs, telling a story Venkatalakshamma’s aversion to the story about Gandhi reflects
permeated with lessons about Swaraj. Then, he tells the story the villagers’ (and especially the brahmins’) deep commitment to
of Gandhi’s birth—Venkatalakshamma complains to her son the caste system and traditional Hindu scriptures.
Postmaster Suryanarayana that she wants to hear about Rama
and Krishna, not Gandhi, and weeps through the Harikatha.
Achakka summarizes Jayaramachar’s story. A sage approaches Jayaramachar presents the image of a unified Indian nation, which
the creator god Brahma in the Heavens and laments that contrasts sharply with the Kanthapura villagers’ distinctly local way
Brahma has forgotten Bharatha (the Sanskrit word for India), of life. Few think about the world outside their village, and unlike
his “chief daughter” and “the goddess of wisdom and well- Siva, their goddess does not reliably help them when they travel
being.” Now, Bharatha has been invaded by men who “trample beyond the hill that bears her name. However, for Jayaramachar,
on our wisdom” and “spit on virtue itself.” The sage asks Brahma India herself is a goddess who has been attacked from overseas, and
to incarnate a god on Earth to save “your enslaved daughter,” he calls Indians to act in their god’s name.
and Brahma promises that “Siva himself will forthwith go and
incarnate on the Earth and free my beloved daughter from her
enforced slavery.”
In Gujarat, Jayaramachar’s story continues, “a son such as the Jayaramachar presents Gandhi as divinely ordained from birth to
world has never beheld” is born. His room glows “like the end colonialism and introduces the key tenets of Gandhism that
Kingdom of the Sun” and he immediately “began to lisp the become the villagers’ core beliefs later in the book. His story offers a
language of wisdom.” Like the lord Krishna started fighting religious basis for following Mahatma Gandhi, whom he likens to
demons as a child, Gandhi began fighting India’s enemies, Siva. This implies that the villagers must choose between Gandhi’s
assembling villagers around the country “to slay the serpent of (true) stand of Hinduism and the (outmoded) caste system that
the foreign rule.” He preaches nonviolence, asceticism, and love supports the colonial government.
for all—he proclaims that wealth hides Truth, his only God, and
encourages people to spin and weave their own cloth so that
they can keep “the money that goes to the Red-man” within
India. Jayaramachar declares Mahatma Gandhi a saint who
converts his enemies to followers with love.
Jayaramachar tells other stories, but afterwards a policeman The colonial government and the Indian police who enforce its will
talks to him and he is never seen again in Kanthapura. Moorthy immediately see Jayaramachar’s discourse as a threat to their
becomes “sorrowful and calm” thereafter, but he soon starts control over Kanthapura and take measures to demonstrate their
converting the villagers to Gandhi’s cause. After two days, power in the village.
Policeman Badè Khan moves into the village.
SECTION 2
Badè Khan was a Muslim, and nobody in Kanthapura wanted Although Badè Khan works for the police, he is still subject to Rangè
him to live with them. Patwari Nanjundia sends Khan to Patel Gowda’s local authority and the caste system that views him as a
Rangè Gowda’s house, where he waits in frustration—Rangè pariah because of his religion.
Gowda is busy ordering his sons-in-law around and tells Khan
he has no house for him.
But Rangè Gowda is the Government Representative in town, Rangè Gowda and Badè Khan argue about whether Rangè Gowda’s
Badè Khan remarks, so finding Khan a house is Gowda’s role as Patel (revenue collector) means he works for the
responsibility. The Patel responds that he just collects taxes government. He sees himself as representing the people to the
and has no such responsibility. Khan accuses the Patel of being government, but Badè Khan sees him as representing the
a traitor, requests a house again to no avail, and threatens that government to the people. Again, Rangè Gowda’s local authority
“the first time I corner you, I shall squash you like a bug.” The beats out Badè Khan’s authority from the national government.
Patel says “enough!”
The Khan sulks away, kicking the town’s one-eared dog on his Although Mr. Skeffington does not work for the government, he is
way to the Skeffington Coffee Estate. When Khan arrives, Mr. allied with the government, as he has an economic interest in
Skeffington offers him a hut and the butler guides him there. stopping a Gandhian movement and the government has a political
Khan moves in with one of the pariah women, whom he chose interest in keeping the estate economically successful. This
from “among the lonely ones.” demonstrates how economic exploitation serves as the core of
colonial politics.
Nobody in the village sees Badè Khan for the next few days, The rumors’ spread demonstrates how quickly information moves
and rumors spread about his motives for coming to throughout Kanthapura’s tight social networks. This becomes an
Kanthapura. Some villagers think he has come to bring the asset in the villagers’ later campaign against the colonial regime.
Police Inspector; others think he is just a “passing policeman.” Moorthy’s rejection of Venkamma’s daughter shows his stern
Waterfall Venkamma thinks Khan has come “because of this rejection of the caste system and the expectations it places on
Moorthy and all this Gandhi affair.” Venkamma hates young adults to marry as soon as possible.
Moorthy—he rejected her second daughter for marriage and
has started assembling Gandhians in Rangamma’s house,
bringing books and spinning-wheels from the local Gandhian
Karwar Congress Committee.
Moorthy and his boys visit every corner of Kanthapura, The wheels offer Moorthy a means to give Gandhi’s ideas an
recruiting people from all castes to use the free spinning- audience among even initially skeptical villagers. Nanjamma
wheels. Nose-scratching Nanjamma cannot believe that they expects that the wheels could not possibly be free, reflecting the
are truly free—Moorthy explains that “millions and millions of extent to which unequal and exploitative economic relations have
yards of foreign cloth come to this country, and everything become the norm in Kanthapura. She also worries that spinning
foreign makes us poor and pollutes us.” Gandhi thinks wearing would break the rules of caste, again staging a conflict between
one’s own cloth is sacred; the spinning-wheels give work and Gandhi’s version of Hinduism and the traditional one that
cloth to those who need it. “Brahmins do not spin,” Nanjamma maintains the brahmins’ power.
protests—that is the weavers’ job.
“I am no learned person,” declares Nanjamma, who then asks If spinning is a spiritual ritual, then the Mahatma opens religious
whether the Mahatma himself spins. Of course, replies practices to people of all castes equally rather than restricting them
Moorthy—“he says spinning is as purifying as praying” and does to brahmins. Moorthy mentions that Gandhi himself spins because
it for two hours every morning. Nanjamma finally agrees, but this offers the villagers a much more relatable political role model
still does not believe that the spinning-wheel truly costs than the distant colonial government that is unlike and indifferent
nothing until Moorthy explains the process again. toward them.
Moorthy visits the other brahmins and then the pariahs, As Moorthy’s Gandhian politics spreads, Kanthapura becomes more
convincing all the people he meets to start spinning. A crowd and more of a threat to the colonial system that relies on caste and
follows him to the village gate, where Badè Khan is smoking a economic inequality to perpetuate its power.
cigarette on the village train platform in plain clothes. After
they pass, he jumps down and walks over to the brahmin street.
SECTION 3
Bhatta, unlike the rest of Kanthapura, wants “nothing to do Bhatta exerts his power in Kanthapura through written documents
with these Gandhi-bhajans.” He used to sympathize with sent to and from the city. Whereas most of the villagers are illiterate,
Moorthy’s cause but gave up after visiting the city to register Bhatta takes advantage of the written basis of the colonial
some business papers and allegedly lend some money. He government.
helped buy an election, managed a widow’s lands, and was
“always smiling, always ready, always friendly” whenever he
saw an opportunity to profit. Achakka swears that “he would
one day own the whole village […] had not the stream run the
way it did.”
In his youth, Bhatta was poor and astrologically adept. He is Achakka’s narration again suddenly shifts from general statements
always the “First Brahmin” at the Pandit’s house for the holy to specific episodes. Although Bhatta’s devoutness and business
obsequial dinner, which he eats slowly and heavily. When he savvy might seem contradictory, in fact they are consistent—and
returns home, he runs through his daily transactions. One day, both work to the benefit of the colonial government.
his first wife falls into a well and dies, but Bhatta soon
remarries a new girl in an extravagant ceremony.
Now, Bhatta owns more than 100 acres of land and everyone in Bhatta uses his reputation for religiosity and knowledge of the
Kanthapura owes him something, but nobody much minded colonial system to help the other villagers, but his true underlying
because he was “so smiling and so good” (and charged more motive is always profit first (and reputation second). He therefore
reasonable interest than Rama and Subba Chetty, “the ruin of helps the villagers only when he can act as a middleman between
our village”). He even sent a distant relative to study in the city, them and the colonial government—but not when their interests
asking only that he “bring a name to Kanthapura” (or send back conflict with his financial prospects.
money if he strikes it rich). Achakka declares that, given
Bhatta’s reputation, his disdain for Gandhi was a
surprise—although not really, since “after all there was no
money in it.”
One day, Bhatta stops by Rangamma’s Kannayya House. Bhatta talks about his business when Satamma asks about his
Satamma greets him and asks about his family, and Bhatta family, and then only mentions his family insofar as he cannot find
replies by explaining that his business is terrible. Rangamma suitably wealthy and traditional husbands for his daughters. These
and meditating Ramakrishnayya join, and Bhatta complains statements show that his mind is entirely oriented toward wealth
about how hard it is to marry off his daughters with the focus and status.
on “nothing but degrees or this Gandhi vagabondage.”
Bhatta complains that pariahs are mixing with brahmins, Despite his disdain for “modern” schooling and women, in many
perhaps to one day usurp their place. Rangamma says not to ways Bhatta is ironically one of the most modern villagers, with his
worry, for elsewhere pariahs can even enter the temple once a profitable business run on English contracts. Achakka suggests that
year, but Bhatta claims that he is the one who truly knows the he disdains “modern” ways because they get in the way of his high
city and, actually, a temple there is welcoming pariahs. He status in Kanthapura. Educated villagers and the dissolution of
laments the “strange age” Indians are living in, “what with their caste could lead others to reject or overtake him as the village’s
modern education and their modern women” who increasingly financial cornerstone.
pick school over marriage, and sometimes even marry Muslims.
Satamma blames recent floods for the “confusion of castes” and Bhatta reveals his underlying motivations for visiting Rangamma
Rangamma worries that “the Mahatma is not for all this and Satamma: he wants to recruit them to his anti-Gandhian party.
pollution,” but Bhatta complains that Gandhi has himself He appears to visit in his capacity as a devout brahmin, rather than
“adopted a pariah girl as a daughter.” Bhatta says that he as a businessperson, and invokes the authority of a higher religious
recently visited the Swami in Mysore and saw his “wife’s elder leader, the Swami. But it is clear to Achakka that he is truly
brother’s wife’s brother-in-law” Seetharamu, who told him that motivated by his business interests.
the Swami “wants to crush” the Gandhian pariah movement “in
its seed.” Seetharamu asked Bhatta to start a brahmin party in
Kanthapura before Gandhi convinces villagers to accept even
Mohomedans and Europeans. The Swami plans to “outcast
every brahmin who has touched a pariah,” Seetharamu
explained, and Bhatta returned to Kanthapura as a “pontifical
brahmin” to convince others of his caste to drop Gandhism.
But Achakka explains that there was one thing Rangamma Rangamma, like Moorthy, yearns deeply for a more equal world.
never stopped talking about—the day after a Northern sandal This ideological commitment is far more important than her
merchant stopped in town and told her about the distant land material interests as a wealthy brahmin woman. The land of
“of the hammer and sickle and electricity,” where women “hammer and sickle and electricity” is probably the Soviet Union. By
worked the same as men and families could take holiday in mentioning it, Rao foreshadows the debate between prioritizing
palaces when they were tired or having children, and where the freedom from British rule and prioritizing the equal distribution of
Government fed and educated children, gave them jobs and wealth and property, which becomes important at the very end of
homes and wives “and they lived on happily ever after.” the book. The pariah’s inability to conceive such an equal society
Rangamma said that in that land “all men were equal—every demonstrates that even the people most oppressed within the caste
one equal to every other—and there were neither the rich nor system cannot imagine an alternative to it.
the poor.” One village pariah thinks this must be a “strange
country” without castes or rice or farmers, although
Rangamma replies that her paper “says nothing about that.”
So Rangamma was knowledgeable and “could hold a word-for- Moorthy, Ramakrishnayya, and Rangamma exemplify the
word fight with Bhatta,” but chose instead to simply say she brahmanic ideal of spiritual wisdom much more than the furious
would see what Gandhi’s book and Moorthy say about the Bhatta, who nevertheless claims to speak for their caste. The threat
pariahs. Seething, Bhatta threatens to have Moorthy ostracized of excommunication, which would turn Moorthy into a pariah
if he visits the pariahs, but Ramakrishnayya convinces him to himself by ejecting him from the caste system, only matters insofar
calm down—Moorthy was an idealistic “nice brahmanic boy” as the other villagers continue to closely follow that system.
not worth harming, and Bhatta calms down and says he hopes
that Moorthy will marry soon.
Kamalamma, Rangamma’s sister, stops by with her daughter Widows are often ostracized in traditional Hindu societies, even
Ratna. Ratna is a widow but “still kept her bangles and her when their marriages were arranged at such a young age that they
nose-rings and ear-rings,” dressing and acting like her husband had little understanding of the matter, let alone choice. Ratna is at
hadn’t died. Kamalamma silenced and denounced her daughter, the absolute bottom of the caste system even though she was born
and Ratna would do laundry in the river alone as other women a brahmin, as proven by her own mother’s disdain for her. Oddly,
“would spit behind her and make this face and that, and Rangamma is also a widow, but she is nevertheless respected in
throwing a handful of dust in her direction, pray for the Kanthapura.
destruction of the house.”
On his way home, as he passes Rama Chetty’s shop, Bhatta Badè Khan’s reverence for Bhatta is initially puzzling, since he has
sees “a figure moving with slow, heavy steps” and slowly so far treated the rest of the villagers with condescension. Moreover,
approaches. “Who’s there, brother?” he asks, and he hears “a Badè Khan is a Muslim, and Bhatta decried the notion that Hindus
cough and a sneeze and the beating of a stick,” and then the would accept Muslims into their villages just a few pages before.
figure says, “what does that matter to you?” Bhatta follows the However, they are natural allies, for both have a strong interest in
figure into the courtyard and he turns out to be Badè Khan, preserving the caste system, and Bhatta’s knowledge about
who prostrates himself before Bhatta. Kanthapura and his economic power lead Badè Khan to view him
as a superior.
Waterfall Venkamma, Temple Lakshamma, Timmamamma, and Since Moorthy is the only male child in his family, its continuation
Chinnamma debate whether Moorthy truly wants the mixing of depends on him—traditionally, women move into their husbands’
castes. Moorthy’s pious old mother, Narsamma, married his five households upon marriage in Hindu culture.
sisters to large, well-to-do families, but Moorthy was her
youngest and favorite even though he wanted nothing to do
with marriage.
One day, Moorthy has a vision of Gandhi giving a discourse to a Moorthy’s reverence for Gandhi comes from his experience of the
large crowd; he feels a “mellowed force and love” emanating Mahatma as an idea rather than a real man, which reflects Gandhi’s
from the Mahatma’s body. Moorthy takes over for a weary entirely symbolic role in this book. He never appears again except
fanner and fans Gandhi as he preaches Truth, love of mankind, for in this imagined scene, but this discourse introduces the ideals of
and “the God of all.” Moorthy feels called to stay and weeps Truth and love that become the center of Moorthy’s movement.
before jumping onto the platform and prostrating himself at
the Mahatma’s feet, saying “I am your slave.” The Mahatma asks
what he can do for Moorthy, who asks for a command—the
Mahatma’s only command is to seek Truth, but Moorthy is
ignorant, wearing foreign cloth and educated at a foreign
university. The Mahatma tells him to work “among the dumb
millions of the villages” and Moorthy throws out his foreign
clothes and books later that evening.
Post-Office-House Chinnamma knows that this is a lie and Chinnamma finds it unlikely that the Swami would punish the
suggests that only people who mix with pariahs will be whole village for one inhabitant’s opposition to caste, but
excommunicated. Narsamma is unsure whether to believe her Venkamma’s fear that Moorthy will derail the entire village’s way of
or Venkamma, since each claims to have heard the news from life is well-founded, for she knows that he is spreading Gandhism
Bhatta earliest, and “burst[s] out sobbing” as she considers the among Kanthapura’s inhabitants.
dishonor Moorthy will bring his family. Chinnamma and
Venkamma try to comfort her, “but Narsamma would have
nothing of it” and weeps all the way home.
SECTION 4
The sun rises in the Ghats and the carts start up for the day, Moorthy carries two crucial symbols of Gandhism: books that are
carrying their goods in every direction. With “a bundle of khadi intended to bring the Mahatma’s ideas to a wide audience across
on his back and a bundle of books in his arms,” Moorthy heads India, and the khadi cloth that symbolizes Gandhian nationalism’s
to Kanthapura, where his mother Narsamma asks him to “never insistence on economic independence. Narsamma demands that
show himself again until he had sought prayaschitta [penance] Moorthy recommit to the caste system; her loyalty to caste
from the Swami himself.” She laments that her son has become continues to supersede her loyalty to family.
a pariah and runs off, spitting and shouting at a pariah she
encounters on the way before resolving to “go to Benares and
die there a holy death lest the evil follow her.”
When she arrives, Narsamma starts washing her clothes on the Narsamma purifies her conscience by washing her clothes in the
Himavathy river’s stones with the other villagers and begins to holy Himavathy River and then meditating. She manages to briefly
calm down, so she goes home and starts cooking like her usual find spiritual solace from the terror she feels at Moorthy’s rejection
self. But Moorthy is not there, so she begins to rage again and of caste, but only because she comes to hope he will change (rather
tries to calm herself with meditation and prayer. than coming to accept him).
Narsamma cannot see Moorthy on Rangamma’s veranda, and Moorthy believes that the Swami lacks “thinking power” because he
tells the passing Seenu to search for him there. Bhatta visits is controlled by a broader, more powerful ideology—the rigid
and tells Narsamma that he has spoken to Moorthy, whom the adherence to caste that the colonial regime uses to keep lower-caste
Swami has not yet excommunicated. But, “if he continued with Indians subjugated. But Narsamma and Bhatta see Moorthy’s blind
this pariah business,” Moorthy will be excommunicated, since adherence to the Mahatma’s ideas as analogous.
he has no intention of stopping and even called the Swami a
heartless, “self-chosen fool” without “thinking power.”
“From that day on,” Achakka laments, “they never spoke to each Moorthy becomes something of a pariah even before he is
other, Narsamma and Moorthy.” They continued to eat excommunicated, as his relationships with brahmins, including his
separately and Narsamma grew “thin as a bamboo and mother, begin to fall apart and he begins to associate primarily with
shriveled like banana bark” as Moorthy spent more and more under-caste villagers. Touching any dead person or animal is
time with the pariahs. He even openly carries the corpse of a considered incredibly taboo for anyone but pariahs in Hinduism,
dead woman during her funeral procession, and everybody which is why it seems to cross a line—even to Achakka—and justify
who saw shouted “oh, he’s lost!” Bhatta runs to the city and, the excommunication of Moorthy and all of his descendants.
two days later, reports that the Swami has officially
excommunicated Moorthy, plus his family “and all the
generations to come.”
Narsamma is distraught, and that night she runs to the village The mysterious force that compels Narsamma toward the river
gate, where she spits in all four cardinal directions and then at seems to be the force of her caste ideology, and as she loses her
the pariah huts, shivers thinking of “ghosts and the spirits and position in the caste system (and that of her entire bloodline), she
the evil ones of flame” and carries on because of “something also loses her life. She dies in the holy river, as though trying to
deep and desperate.” She runs to the river Himavathy and purify herself of Moorthy’s pollution, sacrificing herself in an
looks at the sky, shudders and falls unconscious at the attempt to do so.
riverbanks, and is dead by the next morning. The townspeople
cremate her on the spot and throw her ashes in the river.
Rangamma wants to hold Narsamma’s funeral ceremonies at Moorthy seems to embrace his newfound position as a pariah, as
her house, but Bhatta refuses to officiate and “sell [his] soul to a though his excommunication demonstrates his willingness to put
pariah.” That night, Moorthy leaves. Achakka explains that the abstract love for all humans above the particular caste
nobody knows where he went, or even talks about his commitments into which he was born. Although his own family
departure anymore, but when he comes back he moves into home is empty after Narsamma’s death, Moorthy nevertheless
Rangamma’s house. He still eats “by the kitchen door” and goes chooses the Gandhian headquarters (at Rangamma’s house) over
with the pariahs, brings them cotton and yarn, and teaches the property that he would ordinarily inherit. Although she is
“alphabets and grammar and arithmetic and Hindi.” Regretfully, nowhere near as extreme as Narsamma, Achakka is clearly worried
Achakka notes that Seenu, too, is going with him, and they even that her own son has joined Moorthy’s movement, which suggests
start teaching the pariahs at the Skeffington Coffee Estate. that (at this point in the narrative) she sides with the other
brahmins who worry about caste “pollution.”
SECTION 5
Achakka describes the vast Skeffington Coffee Estate, which Achakka cuts to an entirely different setting in this chapter: the
snakes through the Western Ghats’ landscape and is steeped in Skeffington Coffee Estate near Kanthapura, which exemplifies the
local rumor; “nobody knows how large it is or when it was exploitative economic relations that form the basis of British
founded,” but there are tales about both, and it has continued colonialism. She describes the Estate in much the same narrative
to grow for years as “more and more coolies” came to farm mode as she described Kanthapura in the book’s opening lines: she
there, “till it touched all the hills around our village.” Decrepit, adopts the viewpoint of an individual traversing the landscape,
miserable, starving coolies were regularly marched through remarking on the Estate’s vastness and the unknowable nature of its
Kanthapura, past the Kenchamma Temple to the Estate, by the limits.
maistri who recruited them from their dried-up, foodless
villages.
At the estate, the maistri “banged the gate behind them” and The Sahib embodies an archetype of British colonial cruelty: he
brought them to the Sahib, “a tall, fat man with golden hair.” The laughs at a small child’s pain because his desire to profit off the
Sahib touched seven-year-old Chenna “with the butt of his coolies’ labor has made him heartless. The Indian maistri in turn
whip” and started laughing at the crying child, who cried harder represents the numerous Indians who collaborated with the colonial
and harder as the Sahib laughed harder and harder—until he regime and turned against their countrymen for the sake of personal
suddenly brought Chenna a peppermint and explained that gain. Together, the maistri and sahib govern through terror, treating
“everybody would get a beating when they deserved one and coolies who voluntarily chose to come to the Estate (albeit under
sweets when they worked well,” which the maistri repeated in misleading pretenses) as slaves. There is no concept of the coolies’
their native language. The coolies begin worshipping the Sahib right to fair treatment, but only of the Sahib’s absolute right to treat
as a Maharaja, and the maistri spits in one worker’s face when them however he wishes because he has financial power over them.
she asks for pay. The maistri orders them to their huts and the
Sahib offers the children candy. The women follow their
children, and the maistri beats the men when they follow, too,
instead driving them down to their huts at the bottom of the
hill.
The coolies spend the night repairing their huts and begin The coolies, like the Kanthapura villagers, congregate around
cleaning their environs in the morning, but the maistri runs traditional stories. Siddayya’s deep knowledge of the estate’s ways
down and shouts at them to work. One coolie named Papamma and snakes recalls Achakka’s deep knowledge of Kanthapura; both
begins to read from the Ramayana but hears a “crunch of feet;” characters are elders where they live and sustain the history of their
the coolies return to work and another coolie yells that there is places through memory.
a snake, and the rest rush to look. Pariah Siddayya says not to
worry about cobras, who are harmless unless attacked, and sits
to tell the story of a snake he calls the Maharaja, which hid in
the Sahib’s drawer and slithered away when the Sahib fetched
his pistol.
Water snakes are harmless, Pariah Siddayya explains, but green The snakes who only attack evildoers represent a certain kind of
snakes often blend in with bamboo leaves. A coolie named poetic justice enforced by the land and its animals. The fact that
Sankamma once reached out and grabbed one while collecting Ramayya is forced to walk rather than ride the maistri’s bicycle
cow-dung, but luckily it slithered away and “left a palm’s-width demonstrates how access to transportation across the land mirrors
of poison on the ground.” The flying snakes are “another different characters’ social status in this book.
monster,” although they prefer cardamom to coffee and have
killed many a “cardamom-garden coolie.” Just the other day,
coolie Ramayya was delivering the maistri’s bicycle via a
mountain road and ran over a cobra by mistake—he fled, and so
did the cobra. “Never,” Siddayya assures the coolies, “has a
cobra bitten an innocent man.”
The coolies perspire endlessly in the heavy afternoon sun, and The monsoon rains offer a break in both the narrative’s structure
suddenly “a gurgle and grunt” emanates from the trees, and the coolies’ endless, backbreaking labor. They also demonstrate
growing to “swallow up the whole sky” and startle animals that natural forces can still overwhelm human ones.
throughout the valley. “The earth itself seems to heave up and
cheep in the monsoon rains,” soaking the coolies and surprising
those who are new to the mountains.
“Three nights and four days” later, when the rain stops, The Sahib’s pills are intended to help the coolies recover, but only for
everyone returns to work beside three children and two the sake of getting them to return to work. The pills represent the
women who get a high fever that goes down the next morning, intervention of colonial technology in India, and the coolies’ are
but they still feel dizzy and nauseated. Siddayya remarks that accordingly reluctant to use them; “[their] country” is governed by
this fever is common, and people can even work with it—but nature and gods rather than rulers and technology.
they could not, and the Sahib gives them pills that Siddayya
says not to take, for they work in the Sahib’s country “but he
does not know our country, does he?”
One of the ill asks who the local goddess is and then makes a Kenchamma clearly protects all the land around Kanthapura, and
small charm to Kenchamma; she wakes up without fever, but not just the villagers whose families have lived there for generations.
one of the children gets worse and worse despite the offering. When the coolies are forced to choose between colonial technology
Madanna, the child’s father, worries that if he uses the pills and local traditions, they side with the people they trust: other
then “Kenchamma would not forgive him.” The child becomes Indians, rather than their employer. The pills then become a means
delirious, the coolies call the Sahib, and the child dies in the of punishment, coming to symbolize the colonial coercion that the
Sahib’s arms. The Sahib whips Madanna and makes everyone coolies initially feared they constituted.
take six pills a day. Some agree, but others throw them away.
The southwest rain goes and the northeast wind comes, “whilst
the fevers still came and went” and many more coolies,
including Madanna’s second child, pass away.
Pariah Rangayya wants them to make off with their money and Siddayya reveals the Estate’s most sinister secret: everything is
start their own farms down the valley, but Siddayya laughs him designed to keep the coolies indentured there for as long as possible.
off, for “he knew that when one came to the Blue Mountain one By making sure that the coolies only ever incur further debt, the
never left it.” In part, this is because they drink much of their Sahib effectively transforms them into slaves.
money away with the “white frothy toddy” and spend the rest
on “marriages and deaths and festivals and caste-dinners” and
finer food and fuel and livestock.
When Badè Khan came to the Estate, the new Sahib figured he The new Sahib sees Badè Khan as an enforcer to help him prevent
would be useful. In fact, the brahmin clerks Gangadhar and the coolies from rebelling, but the Kanthapura villagers see the
Vasudev ignore the policeman and the rest of the coolies follow coolies as a great asset in the fight against colonialism. Achakka’s
suit—they decide to help the pariahs learn to read and write, final line suggests that the ideology of nonviolence is likely to beat
and there is nothing Badè Khan can do about it, for “what is a out physical strength in the fight for independence.
policeman before a Gandhi’s man?”
SECTION 6
“Moorthy is coming up tonight,” and the coolies put out their Just as Kanthapura often assembles for religious discourses, in this
lights and gather around the courtyard, excitedly awaiting his scene the Skeffington Estate’s coolies assemble to hear Moorthy
arrival and watching a lantern in the distance. The coolie speak about Gandhi. His movement has begun to take on a religious
Rachanna thinks he hears Moorthy in Vasudev’s shed, but the character and spread beyond the bounds of his own village.
noise is actually Badè Khan and Achakka warns that “Moorthy
will not come tonight.” Rachanna and Madanna head down to
Vasudev’s shed, where they run into Badè Khan and Moorthy.
Badè Khan orders Moorthy to leave—even if he is a free man, Badè Khan invokes the Skeffington Estate’s property rights over the
says Khan, Moorthy is not free to speak at the Skeffington land where the coolies live in order to keep Moorthy out. While
Estate. Vasudev and Gangadhar arrive and Badè Khan Moorthy keeps in line with Gandhian principles by refusing to fight
exchanges insults with the rest before attacking Moorthy with back, the coolies break the most important rule: nonviolence.
his lathi, but Rachanna and Madanna wrest it from Khan and hit
him on the head with it. The maistri breaks them away but the
coolie women attack him and begin tearing off Khan’s beard,
even as Moorthy shouts “no beatings, in the name of the
Mahatma.” Khan threatens to arrest the whole lot, and Vasudev
and Moorthy head back down to Kanthapura.
The morning after the fight, the maistri kicks Rachanna off the Rachanna has no means to win his wages back, but by getting
Estate and drives his family out by force when he asks for his kicked off the Skeffington Estate he ironically becomes one of the
76 rupees in unpaid wages. The family before goddess first coolies who is able to leave it and gains a new home in
Kenchamma’s grove and heads to Kanthapura, where Moorthy Kanthapura after praying to Kenchamma as a rite of passage. By
brings them to Patel Rangè Gowda, who orders Beadle firing Rachanna, the maistri actually strengthens the Gandhian
Timmayya to give them “shelter and water and fire.” Rachanna movement fighting the Skeffington Estate’s owners.
and his family moved to Kanthapura for good and Moorthy
“began his ‘Don’t-touch-the-Government campaign.’”
SECTION 7
Moorthy tells Rangamma that he blames himself for the As the movement’s leader, Moorthy takes full responsibility for
evening’s violence and plans to fast for three days in attacks by coolie women who had not even heard him speak about
Kanthapura’s temple. He heads directly there over Gandhi yet. His decision to fast mirrors Gandhi’s own tactics and
Rangamma’s protests and begins to meditate. Later, Rangamma his sole choice of sustenance, salt water, foreshadows the salt
and Seenu bring bananas but Moorthy rejects them, saying that march that Gandhi leads in 1930. Ramakrishnayya is one of the
he will only drink “three cups of salted water” per day. only powerful brahmin leaders who supports Moorthy’s efforts,
Rangamma begins to cry and Seenu tells Moorthy that “this is which is unsurprising since he is known as the village’s wisest elder.
all very well for the Mahatma, but not for us poor creatures,”
but Moorthy still wants to try. Ramakrishnayya comes and
brings Rangamma back home.
Moorthy says the gayathri mantra “thrice a thousand and eight In coping with his followers’ violence, Moorthy finds himself
times” before drifting slowly into a deep sleep. He meditates embodying the Gandhian ideal of responding to violence with love.
through the next day as people come and go in the temple, until The “great blue radiance” he sees refers to Siva’s traditional
Waterfall Venkamma rouses him by laughing and accusing him depiction in blue. Siva is the transformer of the world; meanwhile,
of polluting the village. “I shall love even my enemies,” Moorthy Gandhi and Moorthy seek to transform the world, as well.
tells himself before returning to meditation. He “sends out rays
of love” and sings a poem by the 15th century poet Kabir until
he begins to weep and sees “a great blue radiance” filling the
earth. He “falls prostrate before the god” and chants, “Sivoham,
Sivoham. I am Siva. I am Siva. Siva am I.”
Moorthy returns to meditate by the temple’s central pillar and Moorthy feels something very similar to the energy he felt emanate
wonders why he can “meditate so deeply,” release his thoughts from Gandhi in his earlier vision, extending the parallel between
so easily. He feels a “vital softness” he has not felt since himself and the Mahatma. The river Moorthy recalls is the same one
childhood, praying as he sat in the Himavathy river while his where his mother died after he was excommunicated. While it
mother washed clothes, trying to see Hari everywhere. At that signified caste purity for his mother, it signifies the unity of all
time he felt himself sink into the earth “and then there was a preached by Gandhi for Moorthy.
dark burning light in the heart of the sanctum,” and he went in
the temple “like a sparrow,” flooded by light and fear of “the
Holy.” He opened his eyes and saw “nothing but light and that
cool, blue-spreading light had entered his limbs.” His last such
experience was his vision of the Mahatma.
This morning, Moorthy feels like he could fly and fall back to Moorthy sees his meditation as a common good—something that he
earth, catching “a little of that primordial radiance” and feeling can share with the other villagers and a means to right wrongs that
love “pour out of him” with every breath. Ratna visits him and are not his own. Just as his own family ties dissolved when his
he feels differently toward her, no longer seeming “so feminine mother died and he moved into Rangamma’s house, Moorthy’s
and soft and distant” like a sister. She prays with him—although previously familial relationship with Ratna transforms into a
she seems too young to truly understand Moorthy’s idea “that Gandhian camaraderie.
the sins of others may be purified with our prayers”—and
returns home.
Rangamma brings salt for Moorthy’s water. He drinks and Moorthy’s physical weakness belies his mental strength, which
shivers at “the coolness in his empty stomach” but then feels a parallels his belief that Gandhi’s movement will win through its
surge of strength, even though he is still too weak to speak resilience and commitment to values rather than through physical
back to Rangamma and rejects her offer of food. strength.
The second day, Bhatta visits a weaker-still Moorthy, who In these lines, it is unclear whether Moorthy is growing stronger or
simply smiles back, “for love was growing in him.” On the third weaker, gaining insight or losing his mind, discovering or
day Moorthy feels “such exaltation” that “he could touch the hallucinating divine powers in himself. His unwavering faith in
stones and they would hang to his hands, he felt he could touch Gandhi and grueling meditation regimen begin to seem extreme and
a snake and it would spread its sheltering hood above him.” uncritical.
Standing, he finds himself too dizzy to walk. He lies down and
falls unconscious.
When Moorthy awakens, Rangamma, Seenu, and Ratna are Achakka shows which major characters have joined Moorthy’s
watching him and Pariah Rachanna and Lingayya stand nearby. movement by this stage in the book. His followers worry about his
Moorthy feels that “something was the matter,” looks around health, but he refuses to subjugate mind to matter and continues his
Kanthapura, and suddenly breaks into tears, “for somewhere fast.
behind the dizzy blare [of the sunshine in the valley] was a
shadow that seemed to wail like an ominous crow.” Rangamma
offers him an orange, but he says that he cannot eat it and asks
for salted water. He drinks and returns to sleep.
Rangamma asks Ratna to watch when Moorthy wakes, and she Ratna prays to a unitary God, as opposed to the village’s local
prays to God for him. When he awakes, Moorthy feels stronger goddess, which suggests that the Gandhian god of all has begun to
and leads a bhajan attended by people from throughout supplant Kenchamma as the villagers’ focus in worship (but also
Kanthapura, including even Badè Khan—but very few of the recalls colonial Christianity). Badè Khan’s attendance at the bhajan
brahmins. Moorthy vows yet again to “send out love where could signal either that Moorthy successfully convinced him to
there was hatred and compassion where there was misery.” He consider Gandhism or that he is simply continuing to keep tabs on
is overcome with a vital peace, and the next morning, he breaks the Gandhians.
his fast and begins preaching his “Don’t-touch-the-
Government campaign.”
SECTION 8
Moorthy approaches Rangè Gowda first, for “nothing can be Rangè Gowda has significant power in Kanthapura, especially
done without Rangè Gowda.” Rangè Gowda tells Moorthy “if among the lower castes: beyond his significant landholdings, he is
there’s anything this fool can do, do but open your mouth and it responsible as Patel for collecting taxes from the other villagers. He
shall be done.” Moorthy explains his program. Fewer brahmins both represents the government in this capacity and becomes a
are coming to the bhajans, and some—like Waterfall crucial figure in resisting it. The village brahmins, whose power
Venkamma, Temple Rangappa, Patwari Nanjundia, depends on their caste supremacy over other groups, continue to
Schoolmaster Devarayya, and especially Bhatta—are staunchly favor the traditional caste system.
opposed to Moorthy’s ideas. Rangè Gowda admits that Bhatta
had come to visit him, asking him to become “his dog’s tail,” but
Rangè Gowda admits he is on the Mahatma’s side and they
argue about pollution.
When Rangè Gowda mentions his fury at Badè Khan, Moorthy While Rangè Gowda is justifiably angry at the policeman who has
explains that “the Mahatma says you must love even your come to silence the villagers’ demands for freedom, Moorthy insists
enemies” but Rangè Gowda insists that this love is “not for us that every Gandhian mirror Gandhi’s personal character and love
poor folk!” Moorthy suggests that hate just spreads more hate, their enemies. Whereas Moorthy seems to see a world of equals
whereas love creates compromise. Rangè Gowda argues that capable of compromise through love, Rangè Gowda seems unable
he cannot convince farmers to till their lands through love and to shake a fundamental belief in hierarchy. Indeed, he worries about
respect, but Moorthy argues that, as a village Elder, Rangè how he can persuade farmers to work and only follows the
Gowda must model the Congress’s values—in fact, to even join Mahatma because he sees Gandhi as relaying a divine command.
the Congress in the first place he must practice ahimsa
(nonviolence), speak Truth and spin yarn. Rangè Gowda
concludes that he shall do whatever Moorthy wishes, for the
Mahatma’s word is the word of God and he will suffer anything
to fulfill it. Before heading away, Moorthy reminds Rangè
Gowda that the Congress’s word is also the Mahatma’s and
therefore God’s.
Moorthy visits Ramayya, the Weavers’ Elder, and then Despite his Gandhism, Moorthy still cannot shake his residual fear
Siddayya, the Potters’ Elder, and both agree to join the of caste pollution: the stench he believes he smells references the
Panchayat (village council or Congress). He goes to visit the prohibition against touching dead people or animals for everyone
pariah Rachanna, but he is out and his wife, Rachi, invites but pariahs (even though he has become a pariah and was
Moorthy inside. For the first time, Moorthy enters a pariah’s excommunicated precisely for carrying a dead body). This illustrates
house—previously, he always met them outside—and panics, both the caste system’s incredible power in the minds of
smelling “the stench of hide and the stench of pickled pigs” and Kanthapura’s people and the partial nature of Moorthy’s belief in
hearing “all the gods and all the manes of heaven” crying his equality across castes.
sinfulness. Rachi offers Moorthy milk, but he is afraid to take it
and claims he just had coffee. She asks him to simply touch it,
and “with many a trembling prayer,” he slowly takes a sip.
Rachanna’s grandchildren enter, and then Madanna’s and his Moorthy assembles the pariahs, the villagers most oppressed by
wife, and then “all the children of the pariah quarter” come and caste divisions and those who stand to gain the most from
stare at Moorthy “as though the sacred eagle had suddenly Gandhism’s anti-caste position. But the women’s laughter indicates
appeared in the heavens.” Moorthy tells the group that “there is that they understand that they will never meet or answer directly to
a huge Panchayat of all India called the Congress” that belongs the Mahatma, while they do still believe in Kenchamma’s direct
to the Mahatma. He explains that they need to spin yarn, and providence over them. In other words, even the pariahs initially
the women laugh in agreement, joking that they want to meet choose their traditional religion over the Gandhian movement,
the Mahatma and show him their cloth. Frustrated, Moorthy whose promise of freedom seems far-fetched.
asks if they can truly spin a hundred yards of yarn per day, and
he asks them to take an oath before the goddess
Kenchamma—but they refuse, saying they cannot handle her
anger.
On his way to Rangamma’s house, Moorthy remembers the Like Moorthy, Rangamma continues to fear caste pollution despite
milk at Rachanna’s house and asks if he is permitted to enter. her overt opposition to the caste system. Holy water, this time from
Rangamma asks him to enter through the rear and bathe first. the Ganges, again figures as a purifying force in contrast to the
He does, but he cannot change his holy thread every day if he is pollution of caste-mixing.
planning to keep visiting the pariahs. He takes a spoonful of
Ganges water instead. He meditates by the river after dinner
and then heads to the Pariah Night School in the Panchayat
Hall and informs Seenu about the Congress Committee, to his
delight.
Moorthy heads back to see Rachanna, who sits with Siddanna, Although Moorthy successfully wins much of the village to the
Madanna, and Lingayya on the veranda. He tells them about Gandhian cause, they do not believe the Mahatma’s teachings in
the Congress Committee; they agree to join and bring their the same fundamental way as Moorthy—rather, they follow Rangè
women. He returns to the potters and weavers, who affirm Gowda out of conformity and fear, which are the same forces that
their commitment (for their Elder, Patel Rangè Gowda, and the keep them economically subjugated to the British.
Panchayat all said yes), and tells Rangè Gowda about
everyone’s agreement in the morning.
That evening, Moorthy convenes a procession and gives a Rangè Gowda intimidates skeptical villagers into swearing loyalty to
bhajan. Rangè Gowda begins to explain the Congress but the Mahatma, again using methods contrary to Gandhi’s movement
everyone stands when Moorthy enters, which he finds in order to win adherents to it. Similarly, the pariahs remain in the
presumptuous—Rangè Gowda calls him “our Gandhi” and the courtyard rather than entering the temple due to their caste at the
crowd roars in agreement as Moorthy cries a tear in “quiet precise moment when the villagers commit themselves to an
exaltation.” He speaks to the crowd and then asks their loyalty ideology whose core is the rejection of caste. There is a consistent
to the Congress and, although some worry they may not be gulf between Moorthy’s values and everyone’s practices, and Rao
able to produce the requisite yarn, Rangè Gowda shouts that seems to be questioning whether actual Gandhian congresses used
they must keep their promise and they agree out of fear. The (or even could have used) true Gandhian methods to win support.
pariahs ask to take their vows in the courtyard, and a confused
Moorthy agrees as Rangè Gowda encourages them to go
ahead.
Rangè Gowda declares Moorthy “our president” and Seenu The villagers pick five members to form a council analogous to a
jokingly declares Rangè Gowda “our Super-President and traditional panchayat (which roughly translates to “five-person
Protector” before asking Rangamma to be “the third member,” assembly”). Moorthy is careful to have the village’s most oppressed
but she declines. Moorthy says they need a woman and groups—women and pariahs—represented on the council, and
Rangamma reluctantly agrees. Moorthy calls for a pariah to join Achakka’s personal stake in the narrative increases as her son Seenu
the committee, “and then there is such a silence that a moving is chosen to be the panchayat’s fifth member.
ant could be heard.” He appoints Rachanna as the fourth
member and Seenu the fifth.
SECTION 9
Bhatta hears about the Congress Committee, which he True to his reputation as a profiteer, Bhatta’s main complaint with
considers “bad business,” and plots on his veranda as the carts’ the Congress Committee is that it might affect his business. After he
noise dies down in the evening. “There must be an end to this sees that the other villagers are more willing to reject the caste
chatter,” he thinks, for “if not, the very walls of Kanthapura will system than Moorthy, he decides to try making his own “bad
crackle and fall before the year is out.” Even after his business” for the Gandhians because he wrongly thinks that they,
excommunication, Moorthy was succeeding in persuading the like the colonial government, want primarily to protect their
other villagers. Bhatta decides to charge every Gandhian extra economic interests. While he wants to take advantage of
interest and stop offering them credit. But he recalls that a few Venkamma’s sardonic and belligerent character, it is possible that
of the brahmins—Temple Rangappa, Patwari Nanjundia, the other Gandhians—like Moorthy during his fast in the
Schoolmaster Devarayya, Rama and Subba Chetty, and temple—will brush off rather than escalate the conflict.
Venkamma—are still on his side, and that Venkamma “will set
fire where we want” if he can find her daughter a husband.
Bhatta decides that Advocate Seenappa is the best candidate When Bhatta finally does marry off a daughter, as he hoped to do in
to marry Venkamma’s daughter, even though it would be his the book’s fourth section, it is not even his own. Indeed, the
second marriage, and he is so thrilled that he wakes his wife up marriage is his calculated attempt to preserve the brahmins’ wealth
and “she said he had never loved her as on that night.” He meets in Kanthapura.
Venkamma in the morning and says that he has found a
horoscope compatible with her daughter Ranga’s. She is so
delighted that she weeps and thanks Kenchamma. Word
spreads around the village; the other brahmins congratulate
Venkamma and Ranga on their luck.
On the wedding day, it turns out that Seenappa is middle-aged Bhatta briefly wins back a limited favor among the villagers with the
and missing teeth, while Venkamma had promised her daughter large wedding party, which illustrates how easily the villagers’ public
he was 25. He is, however, wealthy, and the marriage party is opinion is swayed and continues to suggest that most of the
extravagant, “and every pariah and cur in Kanthapura was Kanthapura Village Congress members chose Gandhism on a whim
satisfied.” The villagers praise Bhatta and Venkamma, finding rather than by reflecting on their options and vision of the Indian
them “not so wicked after all.” Moorthy, however, did not future.
attend, and begins to wonder “how, how is one an outcaste?”
SECTION 10
During the holy month Kartik, lights of all colors illuminate The festival’s lights help manifest the gods’ presence in the physical
every corner of Kanthapura, and the village’s residents see world, offering the villagers proof that their prayers are answered
gods pass by in the flickering lights. At night, children keep the and Kanthapura is under watchful eyes.
lamps alight and, one morning, there is a commotion in the
courtyard outside Suryanarayana’s house.
They go to the villager Sami’s house for a better vantage point Although the police are clearly after Moorthy, he treats them with
and see Moorthy talking with the Police Inspector while an attitude of either Gandhian love toward his enemies or utter
policemen rummage through his boxes of books and cloth. They naivety, smiling as the police threaten his role in the village’s
cannot hear anything yet but see that Moorthy “nods and nods Congress.
and seems to smile at nothing.”
Suddenly, the Police Inspector shouts to Badè Khan: “bind this The villagers view Moorthy as “our master,” validating the police’s
man!” Rangè Gowda stands at Rangamma’s door with “Pariah understanding that he is responsible for the village’s turn to
Rachanna and Madanna and Lingayya and Lingayya’s woman” Gandhism and extending the parallel between Moorthy and
and shouts at the policemen, “what are you doing with our Gandhi. Although Rachanna does not attack the police, he seems to
master?” A policeman tells them to shut up, but they insist that want to prove his loyalty to Moorthy and Gandhi by provoking a
they will not stay silent and Rachanna even dares the confrontation.
policemen to “beat me if you have the courage.” Rangamma tells
him to stop, but he insists.
When she sees Moorthy, Rachanna shouts “Mahatma Gandhi ki Rachanna’s chant introduces one of the book’s most important
jai!” More and more policemen rush in and beat the group with nationalist slogans, which translates to “victory for Mahatma
lathis, and even local animals start crying out at the scene’s Gandhi.” The police clearly have no moral qualms about beating
chaos. Rachanna continues to shout “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” nonviolent protestors (and even children), which confirms that the
and the Police Inspector orders his underlings to arrest colonial regime considers Indians to be of little value.
Moorthy and “give [the rest] a good licking.” They attack the
crowd, including women and children.
With the Police Inspector's permission, Moorthy stands on the By mentioning the Mahatma and turning his injunction to the
veranda and demands that “in the name of the Mahatma, let villagers into part of the Gandhian movement, Moorthy subverts
there be peace and love and order.” The spirit of Satyagrahi, he the Police Inspector’s intentions and manages to continue leading
argues, requires letting themselves be arrested, just as the the Gandhians even while under arrest.
Mahatma has done. But, when he mentions the Mahatma, the
Inspector drags him back toward the doorway and then slaps
him in the face.
Rachanna again shouts “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” and “in sinister The lights that illuminate the gods’ presence in the world suddenly
omen” the Kartik lights suddenly go out. The officers arrest him extinguish at the precise moment when the police begin
and the two people standing behind him, spitting on them and indiscriminately beating the Gandhians. The scene suddenly shifts
tying them with rope, then kicking their heads and stomachs. from holy to vulgar, and the violence of the colonial state obscures
Rangè Gowda rushes across over and knocks out a policeman the gods who are powerless to save the villagers in this instance.
with “one bang on the head.” The Inspector demands that the Rangè Gowda demonstrates that he follows Gandhi only in name
policemen “disperse the crowd,” which they instead simply when he attacks a policeman, violating his oath of nonviolence.
continue to beat down.
The village prays and fasts, hoping that the gods will bring The villagers still turn to the gods for help, seeing the Gandhian
Moorthy home, and “the gods indeed did hear our feeble lawyers who try to defend Moorthy as evidence of divine
voices”—since a flood of lawyers starts stopping by and offering providence. Moorthy’s insistence on Truth proves to be empty talk,
to defend Moorthy. He rejects the help, saying repeatedly that as he neither explains what constitutes this Truth nor recognizes
Truth will vindicate him, but Ranganna reminds him that the that the colonial legal system pays no mind to it.
government is designed to protect the British and their police,
not Indians and their Truth. Moorthy does not budge, and the
frustrated Ranganna slams Moorthy’s cell door.
Sadhu Narayan, who was living a life of meditation on the Even a wise Hindu sage who spends his time contemplating Truth
riverbank, comes to tell Moorthy that his imprisonment is and the divine cannot convince Moorthy to speak out against
unjust and he has to speak out—otherwise, all his religious injustice, for Moorthy irrationally believes that justice will naturally
practice is for naught. But Moorthy rejects him, too, saying that come about if he waits long enough.
he wants “no soul to come between me and Truth.”
Finally, Sankar, the Secretary of the Congress Committee in Sankar is the only person capable of convincing Moorthy to fight
the nearby city of Karwar, comes to visit Moorthy and explains back against his imprisonment because he works for the city
that he supports his decision because “a Satyagrahi needs no Congress and occupies a higher position in the national Gandhian
advocates,” even though he himself is an advocate (or lawyer). movement’s power structure than Moorthy, not because he has any
Moorthy falls at Sankar’s feet, asking for his blessings as “my personal credibility or wisdom. This demonstrates that, despite his
elder and a householder,” and he agrees to let Sankar hold belief in equality and love, Moorthy still reveres hierarchy within the
meetings for his cause. Gandhian movement.
Sankar enlists Advocate Ranganna, Khadi-shop Dasappa, and a The city Gandhians immediately mobilize their resources to help
number of other volunteers to bring in a crowd for the meeting Moorthy, and again public meetings offer Gandhians a natural
about Moorthy. At this meeting, Sankar, Ranganna, and forum for consolidating their support base. They idolize Moorthy
Dasappa give speeches praising Moorthy and lampooning the because he has sacrificed his physical security for his principles and
government, reminding the crowd of Gandhi’s principles and hold him as a role model for the Gandhian movement.
affirming the Mahatma’s support for Untouchables. A man
from the crowd announces that “our religion is going to be
desecrated by you youngsters,” and Sankar offers him the
stage.
As the man steps down, someone asks if he follows the The government’s alliance with the region’s brahmins is undeniable
Swami—which he affirms he does—and then announces that once it is revealed that the Swami has also been paid off. The entire
the Government has just given the Swami 1200 acres of land. caste system is emptied of its original religious basis, and instead
“The Swami is a Government man?” asks the young heckler, and Hinduism becomes a scheme for profit.
the old man claims that the Swami simply defends “all who
respect the ancient ways of our race.”
After the old man steps down, “youngster after youngster” The Gandhians are proud to have been excommunicated because it
comes to defend Moorthy against the Swami, who demonstrates that the brahmin-government alliance views them as
excommunicated him. Ranganna stands and declares that he, a legitimate threat. Within their parallel anti-caste form of
too, has been excommunicated. He receives a “violent ovation” Hinduism, which follows Gandhi’s egalitarian interpretation of the
and recounts his recent meeting with the Swami, who dharma sastras, the Swami never had any legitimacy to begin with.
proclaimed his desire to fight “pollution” by stopping “this The debate over interpreting the ancient dharma sastras illustrates
pariah business.” The Swami said that Gandhi met with him and how texts, far removed from their original contexts, nevertheless
suggested that he misinterpreted the dharma sastras, but he determine the structure of society and government in Hindu and
insisted that he obviously knows better. Ranganna asked how colonial contexts alike.
the Swami could accept foreign rule, since foreigners are
Untouchables according to the dharma sastras, but the Swami
argued that “governments are sent by the Divine Will and we
may not question it.” Ranganna walked out and “took the vow to
open our temple to the pariahs,” which he did shortly
thereafter.
The Police Inspector arrives and arrests Advocate Ranganna, As with the previous protest in Kanthapura, the police’s violent
showing him an order from a magistrate, and the crowd response to the assembly for Moorthy is initially effective, but only
immediately begins marching before the police break it up with strengthens the Gandhians’ cause in the long run. When they find
violence. Rangamma’s paper brings news of these events to out that Bhatta has been paid off by the Swami, who has in turn
Kanthapura the following morning, and the villagers realize been paid off by the government, the villagers realize that all their
that Bhatta, too, is being paid off by the government. Looking worries about purity and pollution were essentially an ideology
up at the stars, Ramakrishnayya assures the rest that there are imposed on them to preserve the colonial system and its control
still good people in the world, and the villagers chant “the Holy over India’s wealth.
Name” until they leave “with the light in our souls.” “Somewhere
beyond the Bebbur Mound and the Kenchamma Hill,” Achakka
assures the reader, Moorthy “had grown even more sorrowful
and calm.”
Seetharamu brings Rangamma and Nanjamma to Sankar, and Although the Gandhians are well-organized, they ultimately cannot
they agree that Moorthy is saintly and capable of “holy deeds.” find remedy with the colonial legal system that views them as
Sankar explains that the police blamed Moorthy for “the assault enemies and exists primarily to preserve British colonists’ property
of the pariahs on the Police,” and that there is nothing they can rights.
do to get him out.
Just after the harvest, various people from Kanthapura ask Rangè Gowda is fired from his position as Kanthapura’s revenue
Rangamma about Moorthy and continue to talk against the collector, which incenses the villagers because it means that the
government. Rangè Gowda loses his “Patel-ship,” which means government no longer respects their choice of village headman. His
the government has broken “the ancient laws,” and the villagers dismissal shows the villagers that they have been formally
pray that Kenchamma will destroy the government. disenfranchised. Although Kenchamma is a local goddess, the
villagers still believe she has the power to destroy the national
government.
Rangamma returns to Karwar, where she stays with Sankar to The strategies Rangamma learns from Sankar in the city ultimately
help manage his Congress papers. Waterfall Venkamma help her better organize Kanthapura’s Gandhians on a larger scale,
claimed that Rangamma was breaking her religious obligations and although Sankar is a lawyer trained in the colonial education
as a widow by moving in with another man, but actually Sankar system, he also embodies the ideal of the noble Gandhian ascetic.
refused to remarry after losing his own wife, a “god-like
woman” named Usha, at age 26. His family pushed him to
remarry but soon realized that Usha was irreplaceable and
gave up.
Sankar’s father helped Dasappa run the khadi shop, where he Dasappa’s business shows how Indians can operate a fair economy
sold cloth from around India and distributed political leaflets to parallel to and independent from the British colonial one. Sankar
aspiring Gandhians. His mother hoped he would make more insists on using Truth for justice, which contrasts with Moorthy’s
money, to his chagrin, but Satamma cited Sankar’s reputation insistence that Truth will liberate him by itself, without anyone’s
as the “Ascetic Advocate” who refused to take a false case. He interference or support.
threatens to withdraw from any case in which he finds out his
client is lying, and he has done this a number of times before.
Since the Subba Chetty case, Sankar has become the most Sankar’s moral purity pays off, leading him to social prominence and
popular lawyer in Karwar—people know he never takes a false stable work. Even so, he sees his purity itself as valuable, rather than
case, he only takes minimal fees, and, unlike other lawyers, he merely valuing the benefits it brings him.
neither dresses extravagantly nor spends his after-work hours
drinking at the Bar Club.
Rather, Sankar takes Hindi classes above the khadi shop, since Sankar’s commitment to the idea of India as a nation verges on
Hindi will be India’s national language. He does not greet absurdity: the ostensibly common national language of Hindi, which
people in Kannada, but says “Ram-Ram” in Hindi, and even talks is indigenous to the north of India, is incomprehensible to most of
to his own mother in Hindi even though she “understood not a the people in his part of southwestern India. This anecdote helps
word of it.” Anytime he speaks a word of English, he drops a explain Rao’s decision to write this book in English, which (despite
coin in a jar that he donates to the Congress—and he makes his being a colonial language) is equally accessible to all Indians.
friends do it, too. He only wears khadi and refuses to go to any
event or wedding whose attendees do otherwise; he makes his
family fast on days of his choosing and spins 300 yards of yarn
every morning.
According to Rangamma, nobody was happier or healthier than Much like Moorthy wished for himself during his fast, Sankar’s love
Sankar, and after staying with him she felt the same. She even and positivity benefit those around him, helping Rangamma
spoke about Moorthy at some Congress meetings, and two transform herself into a better satyagrahi and more effective public
days after she returned to Kanthapura the villagers discovered flag-bearer for the Gandhian movement.
that Moorthy had been sentenced to three months in prison.
They decided to fast.
It rained the next day, and Ramakrishnayya stumbled into a As when children fell sick with fever after rains on the Skeffington
pillar and fell unconscious, never to wake up. The villagers Estate, here the rains again predict injury and death. Although the
worry how they might cremate him during the rains, but the villagers fail to cremate Ramakrishnayya as planned, the holy
pariahs diligently wash his corpse and set up the funeral pyre Himavathy river seems to honor him by washing away his corpse
the next morning. As they light the flame, the Himavathy river and Achakka understandably wishes that the other villagers will be
swells up and washes away Ramakrishnayya’s body. All night, it similarly reintegrated into their precious natural environment.
rained hard and no cow would yield milk—Achakka exclaims,
“Lord, may such be the path of our outgoing soul!”
SECTION 11
After Ramakrishnayya’s passing, the villagers wonder who can By picking Rangamma to explicate the Vedantas instead of the
explain philosophy and the Vedantic scriptures to them. highest brahmin priest, Temple Rangappa, the villagers signal their
Nanjamma suggests Temple Ranganna, but the rest agree that definitive shift to Gandhism and its casteless form of Hinduism.
he knows little and follows Bhatta’s lead. Instead, Nanjamma Ratna, who was doubly ostracized as a widowed woman under the
suggests, someone should read out the books and Rangamma traditional Hindu caste system in Kanthapura, becomes essential to
lead the discussion, and she agrees. The group decides that, the Gandhian movement. The movement’s commitment to equality
even though “never was a girl born in Kanthapura that had less has concretely changed the village’s social dynamics by giving
interest in philosophy,” Ratna would be the one to read. Rangamma such an important role.
So each afternoon, Ratna read the texts and Rangamma Rangamma has learned enough about national politics and
interpreted them, “bring[ing] the British Government into Gandhi’s movement from Sankar to become the new intellectual
every page and line.” Achakka thinks “it must have been all due leader of the Village Congress, but knows that she must hide the
to her stay with Sankaru” and the villagers ask if Rangamma’s fact that her methods came from the city, which represents colonial
newfound knowledge is truly from the city, but she denies it, power and modernity.
saying she learned to practice meditation from Sadhu Narayan
and teaching the others in turn.
After a few days of meditation, the others feel stronger in mind Rangamma insists that Gandhian equality includes equality for
and spirit, and Rangamma suggests that the other women learn women, so she offers them a central role in Kanthapura’s campaign.
to resist like the Mahatma when the time comes. “Nay, nay, we Indeed, India itself is an “enslaved Mother” and now the Gandhian
are not men,” protest the other women, but Rangamma assures movement’s two leaders, Rangamma and Ratna, are both widowed
them that they need not be men to fight, for in the city women women who would have been socially invisible under the caste
can be Gandhian “Volunteers,” too. She tells them the story of system.
Rani Lakshmi Bai, who led a revolt against the British during
the early days of colonialism before dying in battle, “fighting for
her enslaved Mother.”
Rangamma determines that the women should form a Although the women want to honor Moorthy by wearing expensive
Volunteer corps that can meet Moorthy upon his return. saris, this violates the Gandhian injunction to only wear Indian
Everyone plans their outfits, and most want to wear expensive, khadi cloth. By equating wealth and honor, as well as envisioning
foreign Darmawar saris, greeting Moorthy “like a Bridegroom’s Moorthy’s return through the metaphor of marriage, the women
Welcome ceremony.” Rangamma decides to call their group show that they retain their previous focus on family and property
“Sevika Sangha” (which translates roughly to “women’s above moral purity.
association.”)
The village’s men recoil at the new development, and they beat The men feel threatened by their wives’ independence because they
and ignore their wives because they fear that the women will fear that it means they will no longer have them as reliable servants
stop looking after them and cooking because of Sevika Sangha. in the domestic sphere. As when the brahmins oppose Gandhism
The women determine to maintain their wifely duties, as well as because it threatens their dominance, those in power oppose
boycotting foreign cloth and picketing cigarette and toddy equality because they put themselves above the ideal of equality.
shops. They roleplay war with their children, casting them in But the women resolve to work twice as hard, maintaining their
the role of Rani Lakshmi Bai. traditional roles while also protesting for the Mahatma.
Seenu and Vasudev join some of the exercises and propose that The village’s original social hierarchy has been inverted: the women
the villagers organize a corps for the pariahs. Rangamma says lead the protest movement, fighting for their principles while the
that boys must come, but Seenu explains that they are all too men are afraid to join them.
afraid of going to jail since Moorthy’s arrest. The men support
the Mahatma but worry that their lands will lay empty and their
families become destitute. They have no choice, say the
women, but the boys do not budge.
The women approach Rangè Gowda, who promises to force the Although the women first tried to convert the men on principle,
pariah boys to follow Gandhi after the harvests. He worries once this fails they make recourse to Rangè Gowda’s social and
that Badè Khan will attack the men, and Vasudev agrees, citing coercive power. The pariah woman whom Badè Khan took to the
his violence at the Skeffington Estate. But Badè Khan is also Skeffington Estate also plays a crucial role in helping the Gandhians.
sick, and “his woman” gives Vasudev a signal when he is
sleeping.
Vasudev, Rangamma and Seenu decide to restart the bhajans Although Moorthy worried about the villagers’ ability to sustain a
that Moorthy used to perform, although in prison Moorthy Gandhian movement without him and felt responsible for their
warned Sankar not to let them have processions or bhajans, abuse at the hands of the police, the women successfully start
“lest the police fall on them!” The bhajans start again that holding the same meetings and performances that Moorthy used to
Saturday, and the villagers sing a song to Lord Siva. preach the Mahatma’s beliefs.
SECTION 12
The rains come, and Achakka follows them from the mountains Achakka again describes the landscape through a series of places,
through the valleys and into Kanthapura, where its residents and perspectives, as a local would experience it, rather than from
thank the goddess Kenchamma. Rangè Gowda, who no longer the bird’s-eye view of colonial landowners, surveyors, or
runs Kanthapura, asks the villagers about their preparations for administrators who view land through the lenses of property and
the auspicious rohini star’s appearance the next day, and the profit.
pariah Timmayya grumbles as he walks out into the street,
watching the wealthier villagers drive their well-adorned bulls
to the temple courtyard.
It begins pouring rain again, and the villagers take refuge under The villagers again invoke Kenchamma to intervene in natural and
the tamarind trees, yelling for the “prostitute of a wind” to die human affairs alike, and Moorthy’s release seems to answer their
down. They ask for rain and Moorthy’s return, in exchange for prayers, proving that they retain Kenchamma’s favor. They now see
which they make various offerings to Kenchamma. That Moorthy, in addition to Gandhi, as a reincarnation of the “blue-god”
afternoon, Postman Subbayya runs to Rangamma’s house town and transformer, Siva. Rangè Gowda, whose laziness and greed
with the Blue paper and announces that Moorthy has been Achakka frequently notes, even sacrifices some of his possessions to
released, and the villagers sing, “the Blue-god he comes, honor Moorthy.
prancing and playing” as they plan his return on Tuesday. Rangè
Gowda even donates two banana trees from his garden, with
which the people make an offering of leaves.
Venkamma laments this celebration by the “polluted ones” and Again, Venkamma stirs up trouble by testing the others’ loyalties to
asks Rangappa to move her daughter’s wedding to Tuesday, the Gandhism and the caste system while striving to push them toward
same day as Moorthy’s arrival, so that she can force the the latter. It is unclear whether the cornets are playing for Moorthy
villagers to “choose between a brahmanic feast and a feast for a or the wedding.
polluted pig.” Lakshamma, Priest Rangappa’s wife, brings
wedding invitations to the villagers, who know they cannot
refuse lest their own children’s weddings be polluted. On
Tuesday, the villagers prepare for both Moorthy’s return and
Venkamma’s son-in-law’s family, and Badè Khan arrives as “the
cornets are already piping the Song of Welcome on
Venkamma’s veranda.”
The villagers, “even lazy Rangè Gowda,” all assemble in the Although most of the villagers choose to go and see Moorthy rather
courtyard, debating when Moorthy will arrive. They hear “a than attending the wedding, they are sorely disappointed and worry
screech and a hoot” and expect a “firm and softeyed and that the government has deceived them yet again.
pilgrim-looking” Moorthy to arrive—but he does not, and they
are so anxious that the bus has not arrived that Rangamma
sends Pariah Lingayya and Ratna, then Chenna and Sidda, to
check around town for him.
Seenu calls out to say that Moorthy has arrived at Rangamma’s The police have intentionally prevented the villagers from greeting
house, silently and escorted by police. The villagers shout Moorthy in order to stop them from assembling. Rangamma sees
“Vandè Mataram!” and “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!,” but Rangamma that a protest in this moment would risk disrupting Moorthy’s
insists that they keep quiet and disperse “in the name of return and asks the Gandhians to put their long-term interests over
Moorthy.” From afar, they watch the policemen congregated on their short-term desire to decry the police.
Rangamma’s veranda and depart at night. Another policeman
joins Badè Khan at the Skeffington Estate, and in the morning
the villagers see Moorthy by the river.
SECTION 13
Moorthy spurs the rest to action, likening their collective Achakka opens this section with another discourse by Moorthy,
resistance to building the “thousand-pillared temple” that shall reemphasizing the centrality of such meetings in the village’s
become the nation of India. He tells his followers that they will collective and political life. Moorthy reminds the villagers that their
follow the news of Gandhi’s final pilgrimage to manufacture efforts are both deeply meaningful and insufficient to effect change
salt in the ocean, and he reminds them that as Congress on a national level. He orients them toward this national struggle by
members they must swear to speak Truth, spin wool and “put following the salt march.
aside the idea of the holy brahmin and the untouchable pariah.”
Moorthy explains that they sit in the “temple of the One,” and The metaphor of a temple again positions Gandhism as a religious
they are all one no matter their caste, charged to do the same imperative, drawing a distinction between caste-based Hinduism
work and pray for the Mahatma. They sit for a moment in silent and the Hinduism of “the One” that unites all Indians. The others
prayer to “be united in the One,” and “strength flowed from the see that Moorthy remains naïve, like a child, and question their
wide heavens into the hearts of all men.” The others wonder motives for believing him.
what “binds our heart” to Moorthy, whom they still see “as a
child.”
Moorthy gets daily information from the Congress Committee The Congress Committee sends orders in private documents for
and frequent visitors from the city. Seenu rings the gong to call Moorthy, who reveals the national movement’s mysterious
the Gandhians for bhajans, during which Moorthy tells them commands to the rest of the village. He is powerful in large part
stories about activists across India, like the 170 Patels that because of this role mediating written messages, which allows him
resigned and the thousands who came to watch the Mahatma’s to offer the villagers a perspective on their role in the broader
pilgrimage. Rangamma thinks the gods will evict the British movement.
from India before Gandhi completes his march, but Dorè
laughs that “this is all Ramayana and Mahabharata; such things
never happen in our times.”
On a Monday evening, the Gandhians cannot sleep, for they Although the salt march occurs halfway across India and the
know that the Mahatma is about to arrive at the sea, and early villagers have no personal knowledge of it, they nevertheless feel
the next morning they go to bathe in the Himavathy river, deeply connected to the Mahatma’s pilgrimage and perform their
believing it to be the precise minute the Mahatma reaches the own pilgrimage to the holy Himavathy in order to feel a part of the
sea. Temple Rangappa meets them and claims surprise at their national movement.
early arrival, but the Gandhians know that Bhatta has paid him
off, and “another one is lost for us!”
The Gandhians wash their clothes, meditate, and feel The idea of Gandhi’s pilgrimage nourishes the villagers from afar,
“something new within our hearts.” The next morning, they before they even learn about the circumstances of the salt march
learn from the papers that “everybody” followed the Mahatma and the police’s response to it from Rangamma’s paper. The mass
to the sea and made “cartloads” of salt, but the police began arrests demonstrate the escalating stakes of the independence
arresting them en masse, beating the nonviolent protestors movement.
and dragging them to prison day after day as they go to make
salt in the ocean, and in turn emptying out villages whose
people grew fond of the Mahatma.
SECTION 14
Unfortunately, “the call of the Big Mountain never came,” as the Gandhi’s arrest, like Moorthy’s, spurs the villagers to action. Seenu
villagers learn that Gandhi has been arrested and decide to announces it from the temple, the center of power in Kanthapura.
begin marching the next week. Everyone gathers around the Although Achakka is not privy to the orders delivered by bicycle, the
temple, and Seenu rings the bell to announce the Mahatma’s sheer volume of documents and information demonstrates to her
arrest. The town spends all afternoon on edge, and “bicycle that the Congress has reached a critical moment for action.
after bicycle” comes delivering orders for Moorthy from the
city.
The Village Congress assembles, feeling as though “they were Moorthy’s campaign aims to grind the colonial government to a halt
of one caste, one breath.” Moorthy arrives and tells them it is by simply refusing to recognize its legitimacy and starting an Indian
time to start the “Don’t-touch-the-Government campaign.” government to which the people actually consent. Yet this parallel
They will not pay taxes; they will protest toddy booths, which government must naturally fulfill the same roles that the colonial
“are there to exploit the poor and the unhappy;” and they will one already does.
“establish a parallel Government” with Rangè Gowda back in
charge as Patel.
Moorthy continues: they will refuse to engage the government The Gandhians’ worst possible approach would be to respond to the
but “never be harsh to them nor wicked” and remember that colonial government in kind, with physical violence. Beyond eroding
they are all responsible for one another, and that if any of them their moral purity, this would compromise the Gandhians’ public
commits any act of violence they must stop the movement for image by allowing the British to paint the protestors as violent
six months to pray for redemption. They do not fight “the white revolutionaries. Loving their enemies means viewing the colonial
man” himself, Moorthy emphasizes, but rather “the demoniac police as the unwitting agents of an even greater evil.
corruption that has entered their hearts.” They must be ready
to “obey your chief and love your enemy” by following “the path
of the spirit,” whose greatest values are truth, non-violence, and
love.
Rangamma begins to “unknowingly” strike the gong, and Although the congress has received numerous documents with
everyone “felt there was something in the air.” They all proclaim instructions from the city, the ultimate decision about planning their
their allegiance to the movement and opposition to violence, protests lies in group deliberation.
plan a start date, and weep together to music.
The Police Inspector approaches them on a bridge and warns True to his campaign, Moorthy rejects the Inspector’s orders as
them that they may not go to the toddy grove. Moorthy thanks illegitimate. But his claim that he would die for the Congress reveals
the Inspector and continues, claiming that “he would follow that he nevertheless realizes that he is a pawn for the national
[the Congress’s instructions] unto death if need be.” Moorthy Gandhian movement.
and Rangè Gowda try to open the toddy grove’s gate as Pariah
Rachanna leads the other marchers in cries of “Mahatma
Gandhi ki jai!”
As the policemen try to push back the marchers, Rachanna runs Rachanna, consistently the most enthusiastic of the protestors, tries
and jumps the fence, climbing a toddy tree. The policemen rush to tear down the tree, which symbolizes the Skeffington Estate’s
to attack him and quickly drag him down as the rest sing and exploitative treatment of its workers. The police intervene as soon
march forward. The Inspector orders them to attack and they as he crosses into the toddy grove, for the protestors are not
beat the Gandhians with their lathis as the villagers yell breaking the law until they enter private property, and the police’s
“Mataram Vandè!” louder and louder. Lingayya crosses the primary role in India is to protect British property rights.
fence and Moorthy yells “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” as the
policemen surround and beat him. Finally, the women charge,
led by Rangamma, reminding themselves as they are beaten
that “after all it is not so bad.”
The women break down the gate to the toddy grove and begin Rangamma’s female Volunteers drive the action, breaking down the
to tear branches and leaves from the trees. Atop a tree, one gate that keeps the protestors from destroying the trees. The
protestor cuts “branch after branch” and the crowd cheers, Gandhians enjoy a brief moment of triumph while the police cannot
laughing as the man spits on the policemen who tear him down. reach them up in the trees.
The policemen take the women outside the grove, and Achakka The women see their wounds as marks of pride, evidence that they
and her sisters feel their fresh wounds but also a sense of have threatened the colonial regime enough to warrant a violent
accomplishment and purpose. The police arrest pariah response. The Britisih punish the protestors by displacing them,
Rachanna and the potters Lingayya and Siddayya, separating dropping them in unfamiliar territory far from their own land.
the other men, young women, and old women into trucks that
head away in different directions and drop each group on the
side of a different road.
The villagers get off the carts in the village of Santhapura, near In fact, the villagers’ displacement has helped them grow their
Kanthapura, where Rangamma’s cousin lives and his wife offers movement by recruiting people in Santhapura. Again, the
them food and milk. The Gandhians tell the Santhapura government’s use of force undermines its own position by
villagers about the Mahatma and their campaign, and the inadvertently strengthening the Gandhian movement.
people in Santhapura follow them to Kanthapura shortly
thereafter.
Upon returning, the villagers felt “as though the whole air was Although the police broke them up, the villagers consider their
filled with some pouring presence,” perhaps that of the gods protest a resounding success. The violence has broken neither their
watching out for them. At the temple the morning after, they beliefs nor their resilience.
line up their “trophies”: five twigs from the toddy trees and a
toddy-pot.
SECTION 15
The next Tuesday, the villagers gather in the temple and again Kanthapura’s villagers continue to spread Gandhi’s ideas as they
march to picket the toddy shops. Along their way, various march through the Western Ghats, much like Moorthy saw
people ask about their purposes; at the Skeffington Estate, they meditation as a means to spread positive energy. However,
encounter Betel Lakshamma, who asks if Moorthy and his Moorthy’s encounter with Betel Lakshamma again shows the limits
“soldiers of the Mahatma” will free her from the Revenue of his politics: despite her faith in him, he realizes that he can do
Collector. “We are against all tyrants,” declares Moorthy, who little about individual cases like her own, and that his own
simply says that “we shall see” about helping Lakshamma with nonviolent resistance likely cannot relieve her of her debts.
the Revenue Collector. She calls him “my Lord” and believes
that he will “bring a good name to the Himavathy.”
Down the Karwar Road, vendors of every sort offer the Like Betel Lakshamma, the people whom the villagers encounter
Gandhians free goods and shout the names of the colonial initially want Gandhism to solve their own personal problems but
agents and sympathizers who are oppressing them. The crowd soon decide to join the movement. The villagers anxiously wait for
grows as they approach the toddy booth, where the police are the police to attack them, for they know that this is the
waiting for them. Although they had not gone to the Coffee government’s only available tactic.
Estate Road, they feared that each passing cart was the Sahib;
this day, they were afraid and surprised to see Moorthy
standing calmly at the gate, waiting for the coolies to come out
for the toddy booth.
The shops in Kanthapura close up (it is market day), and the By ridiculing the Gandhians, the shopkeepers reveal that they both
shopkeepers’ stop by the Gandhians in their carts and meet see immediate pleasure as naturally preferable to principled action,
them on the road. The shopkeepers laugh, suggesting that the and do not understand how drinking keeps the coolies economically
protestors “will never stop a man drinking!” enslaved to the Sahib.
Moorthy tells the Gandhians to squat in front of the toddy By “beat[ing] the coolies forward,” the policemen make it clear that
booth, and as the rain begins to pick up the policemen begin to they are there to enforce the Sahib’s will on the coolies by forcing
beat the protestors down and “beat the coolies forward” with them to the toddy stand, rather than protecting the coolies who
their lathis. From his toddy booth, Boranna shouts that he will decide to drink from the protestors. Therefore, the coolies’ decision
give all the brahmins free drinks, and the shopkeepers join the to join the protestors is a way of opposing the Sahib, replacing the
policemen in rushing at the protestors. The protestors lay toddy as a coping mechanism. In offering brahmins special
down and the coolies stop moving before deciding to lie down treatment, Boranna reflects how the colonial government rewards
as well, all the while shouting “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” brahmins for keeping lower-caste Indians far from power.
The police and the Gandhians fight for the coolies’ loyalty with The police become more violent than during the last protest, and
whips and shouts, respectively. The police try to lift up the they begin to attack with means besides their lathis. Moorthy’s
protestors by their hair—one kicks Rangamma so hard that she continuous chants remind the group of their goals as well as his
passes out, and another slaps Ratna until her mouth is physical position at the head of the march, so his silence frightens
bloodied. When Moorthy’s calls of “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” stop the villagers who think their movement has suddenly lost its leader.
because a policeman has hit him in the mouth, the villagers
believe he is dead.
The police keep beating the protestors, who continue to lay on The police throw water on the protestors while it is already raining.
the ground and tell the coolies “do not drink, in the name of the They literally force the Gandhians to drink when the coolies refuse
Mahatma.” The coolies agree not to drink, and the Police to do so. The imagery here foreshadows the sexual violence during
Inspector orders his men to throw pots of water at the the book’s final protest.
protestors. They pour it in their mouths and up their dresses as
the rain continues to pour down.
Sixty-seven of the villagers wake up to the police kicking them The police have beaten the villagers so hard that they have gone
out of yet another truck, and they march back to Kanthapura. unconscious. Their punishment is the same as before, and so is their
When they arrive, they discover that a few dozen of the coolies reward; despite their injuries, their nonviolent methods and
have moved into their village’s Pariah Street, and people from dedication to Gandhi’s cause have inspired others (this time, the
all around are converging to meet Moorthy and join the “army coolies) to join their cause. The Gandhians literally liberate the
of Mahatma.” coolies from the Skeffington Estate by offering them a place to live
and do meaningful work (spinning cloth and working for the
Congress).
SECTION 16
People throughout India picket toddy booths near their towns, The Kanthapura villagers’ protests are representative of similar
and all day and night they sing songs about the evil of drinking events across India. Achakka portrays the village as a center of such
and their allegiance to Gandhi, “our king.” Some educated “city resistance. People of different caste and educational backgrounds
boys” express this in rational argument, and others ask lower- all help with the movement in ways suited to their character and
caste villagers from Kanthapura to sneak out in the night and experience, from protesting on the ground to helping theorize Indian
help them protest elsewhere. independence.
After Potter Ramayya comes back from one such trip, he says The pictures of Moorthy reveal how a colonial means of
that in “house after house” people pasted newspaper pictures documenting and distributing information—newspapers—can be
of Moorthy on the walls and asked for stories about his turned against the government by serving to venerate anticolonial
campaign. The villagers become proud to “bear the lathi blows leaders.
and the prisons” and every day there is a new mission.
One day, the villagers threw a homecoming welcome feast for Again, the brutality of state violence is both a badge of honor for
Potter Chandrayya, who told of being beaten with canes dedicated Gandhians and evidence that the colonial regime must be
dipped in hot oil and then with lathis when they refused to overthrown. Directly claiming independence by raising the national
salute the Government flag. One protestor climbed the flag is the most dangerous challenge a Gandhian can make to the
building and raised the national flag; the police put him in government.
solitary confinement and he was never seen again.
Seetharamu has “the most terrible story” from prison. He came By forcing Seetharamu to work like an animal, the colonial
down with fever but the police forced him to continue working, government took the everyday exploitation of Indian laborers to its
beating him before binding him in a yoke, like a bull, and making logical extreme, nearly killing a man whose life loses value to them
him run around the mill until “nothing but blood” came from his when he cannot work.
mouth and they were forced to release him. Moorthy praises
Seetharamu’s endurance and will, and this inspires the rest.
The villagers continue to picket toddy shops, and 24 of them The protests finally begin to concretely effect change by shutting
close down in the area nearby, including Boranna’s. Some of the down businesses that oppress Indians and even converting some of
toddy sellers even join the Gandhians. Gandhi’s enemies.
The new Patel tries to collect revenues, but the villagers refuse The villagers do not acknowledge the false Patel named by the
despite the government’s threats. The police go around town, British; this officially brings the entire village outside the law,
finding reasons to beat up whomever they wish. Only the few depriving the villagers of any legal rights at all.
remaining pro-government brahmins pay their dues; the rest
hide their jewels, sacks of food and other valuables in the
ground. The policemen do not come to their houses, but they
barricade every road out of Kanthapura.
SECTION 17
The next morning, the villagers see a “slow-moving procession Moorthy’s final disappearance happens in secret, just like his reentry
of coolies” tied together at the hands, marched through into the village after his first arrest. While his second arrest is
Kanthapura by policemen “to show who our true masters invisible, the coolies, marched through Kanthapura like slaves, are
were.” The villagers know they must find Moorthy but cannot, hyper-visible. The fact that the pariahs shout from the temple
and suddenly they hear a shout from the temple. They rush (which they were never allowed to enter) demonstrates the
there and see all the pariah women and children trying to stop complete inversion of caste in Kanthapura that has occurred.
the coolies’ march with their bodies, singing that Moorthy has
been taken away in the night and shall never return.
As the adults clap and cry, the children throw stones at the One child breaks the Gandhian prohibition on violence, which leads
police—one hits its mark, and the police start to round up the the police to justify punishing all of the children with the severest
children. They beat Rachanna’s grandson “on the buttocks and forms of violence and cruelty they can muster.
head and spine and knee” and throw him down on the grass,
and the women rush to him, but he does not speak.
The Gandhians call the police “butchers, butchers, dung-eating By raping Puttamma, the police continue to escalate their cruelty
curs!” The police begin to chase the villagers, who cannot run against the villagers, moving from mere beatings that the
fast enough—one beats a woman named Puttamma and tells Gandhians can stand to more terrifying and egregious crimes that
her, “you know what I would do with you.” The others run away could never be justified as a means of breaking up a protest.
but think of her and feel they have to return, and when they do
they see the policeman on top of her and yell for help. But
nobody comes and all they can see in Kanthapura are
policemen everywhere.
Another policeman threatens a village woman who goes to visit Even innocent villagers become guilty by association, and for the
her elderly neighbor and knocks her down just as Achakka and first time in the book Achakka herself becomes a significant part of
a few of the other women arrive. He then chases them all out of the narrative.
the house.
Achakka and the others hear shrieks from every corner of the The animals around Kanthapura mirror its residents’ sense of terror,
village, and “the whole world seems a jungle in battle” as every which suggests that the land remains deeply tied to the village’s
imaginable animal screeches from the forest. They run from people, as the natural world continues to feel their pain.
house to house seeking a place to hide, but in each “man after Rangamma’s disappearance leaves the Gandhian movement
man had been taken away during the night, while we had slept without a clear leader of any sort, making it truly equal for the first
the sleep of asses,” and their women were gagged and tied to time.
pillars. Rangamma has also gone missing.
They decide to go to the house of a sick (actually pregnant) Radhamma’s child is born suddenly and prematurely, as though
woman named Radhamma, but on the way see her running torn from her by the terror imposed by the colonial police.
through town from the police. Radhamma sees them and Nevertheless, the women save her baby as they hide from the
rushes over; they decide to go to Nanjamma’s back yard, but on police, recalling their insistence on balancing their traditional
the way Radhamma falls to the ground and begins to scream. obligations as mothers and wives with their dedication to the
“It’s only seven months,” another older village woman named Gandhian campaign.
Timmamma assures her, but Radhamma’s baby comes out and
Timmamma cuts its umbilical cord with the fringe of her sari.
They hear a yell in the post office and find Ratna laying on the Achakka feels Ratna expressing the same energy as Kanthapura’s
ground there as a police officer runs off. Ratna tells the women wise Gandhian leaders, who have already been arrested the
how she fought off the policemen, and it turns out that they previous night. Ratna quickly begins to take charge among the
came just in time to stop him. They rest in the post office women Volunteers, stepping in as the leader of the entire movement
kitchen and Ratna washes up. Ratna tells them that “this is no even though she started out as a widowed pariah girl. There is some
safe place” and they must find refuge elsewhere, and Achakka poetic justice in the fact that Bhatta’s house burns first, since he
hears “the voice of Rangamma in her speech, the voice of was Kanthapura’s main representative of the colonial viewpoint and
Moorthy.” Before they head to the temple, Ratna looks outside resistance to Gandhism. The women pray to Siva, who is associated
and brings the others to watch Bhatta’s house burning down. with Gandhi and India as a whole, rather than their local goddess
They hear the pariah women’s shouts grow louder and shriller, Kenchamma. This reflects their shift from an identity based on their
and they run toward the temple. They hear Bhatta’s roof fall village to one based on the nation for whose independence they
and Satamma worries that her own house will burn down, but struggle.
Ratna encourages her to be patient and they take refuge in the
temple, where they call Siva to protect them and make
offerings to the god.
They hear “another crash from Bhatta’s burning house” and The police try to save the loyalist Bhatta’s house, but the elephant
then the elephant spraying water onto it. But then the manages to escape, extending the metaphorical relationship
elephant runs for the town gates and the fire rises, bringing between it and the protestors. Bhatta’s sizable house represents the
down the buildings where rice, cattle, and hay are kept. The wealth he squeezed out of the other villagers while pretending to
women cheer, for “it is not for nothing Bhatta lent us money at defend their interests; thus, when it burns down, the villagers see
18 per cent and 20 per cent interest, and made us bleed.” the main symbol of their economic oppression fall.
They hear another “long cry” across town, this time from the The coolies come to the Volunteers’ rescue, fully recognizing their
Skeffington Estate coolies, who “raised a clamour to receive the shared interests with the villagers who were similarly (although less
coolies that were being dragged in” and seem to be coming to directly) impoverished by the colonial economic structure.
help the people of Kanthapura, too.
When the women can sing no more, Ratna tells the rest stories Ratna takes over the previous Congress leaders’ most distinctive
about women who marched for Gandhi in cities around India. job: telling stories to motivate the others and contextualize their
They turned back to chanting and “forgot the pariahs and the struggles within the broader movement for independence. By
policemen and Moorthy and the Mahatma” before dozing off to focusing on the role of women in Gandhian politics, she
sleep, but started to see Siva and suddenly awake in terror, demonstrates how women’s struggle for independence has also
waking one another up and banging on the temple door until given them a freedom from their former social subservience in
the morning, when Rachi, Pariah Rachanna’s wife, finally opens societies across India. Indeed, it is Rachi—a pariah woman at the
it and lets them back out into Kanthapura. bottom of the formal caste system—who liberates them from their
imprisonment in the temple.
Puttamma, who Achakka and the other women saw the Puttamma fears that she was sexually polluted, as it were, when the
policeman assault in the bushes the previous day, is crying to policeman raped her. Although the women find strength and
her child in bed and lamenting that she has sinned. She thinks freedom among themselves, they recognize that they remain
her husband will throw her into a well, but in fact he has been embedded in a patriarchal society that objectifies and evaluates
arrested. Pariah Siddayya had found the policeman with her them based on factors they can’t control.
and brought her to his backyard.
That night, the women do not sleep, “for we knew our men In addition to staying vigilant, the women stay awake to remember,
were not far and their eyelids did not shut.” honor, and empathize with their disappeared loved ones. This
parallels the way Achakka preserves and honors the story of her
disappeared village by remembering the stories recorded in this
book.
SECTION 18
After three days spent repairing and cleaning the village, as the Ratna officially becomes the leader of the Gandhian movement,
men begin to return home, the villagers see cars heading up the which has shifted from following a brahmin man to a pariah
Bebbur Mound “like a marriage procession.” They see woman. But caste still exists elsewhere under colonialism, as
Europeans marching “pariah-looking people” out, but evidenced by the villagers’ immediate sense that Europeans are
something seems wrong, and Rachi brings the other women to marching “pariah-looking people” into town.
Ratna, “for she is our chief now.”
They go to Sami’s house, where Ratna is staying, and find about Fortunately, Gandhians from the city have come to stop the colonial
a dozen other villagers looking at a door behind which “the government. The villagers’ power lies in their newfound network of
Mahatma’s boys” are speaking. The women feel relieved, since relations with independence fighters throughout the subcontinent.
Moorthy promised that “city people” would come help them,
and more people come to join them at Sami’s house.
The door opens, and Ratna is behind it along with many of the Elsewhere, the city men promise, the independence movement has
men who had been arrested and a number of city boys, one of succeeded in blocking the colonial government by withdrawing
whom addresses the audience and explains that hundreds of Indians’ participation in it. The Gandhian movement seems to be
Volunteers will come from the city to save the village’s lands, succeeding on a national scale, as police violence, murders, and the
“for the Government is afraid of us.” In Karwar, he explains, all threat of arrest do little to deter Indians who have found freedom in
public services have stopped and “every white man” has a their shared commitment to independence. But the Congress still
policeman for personal protection as Gandhians have taken collects taxes and issues national policies, like the colonial
over and refuse to stop even when millions are beaten and government, which suggests that it is impossible to truly devolve
thrown in jail. They only buy khadi cloth and the money in such power once it has been centralized.
circulation ends up with the Congress, not the government.
Gandhians conquered the northern city of Peshawar, he
continues, even though hundreds were shot, and eventually the
soldiers stopped shooting them altogether because they came
to understand their purpose. He believes that Gandhians’ love
will even convert these soldiers, and the whole group takes a
moment for silent prayer.
During the prayers, the women see more and more cars drive The women suddenly lose trust in the national Gandhian
through town and suddenly they blurt out, “no, no—this will not movement, which (exactly like the colonial government) seems to
do, this will not do.” Ratna assures them that the Congress will void their land of the particular meaning it holds for its particular
take care of them, but the women cannot bring themselves to people.
abandon their lands and homes “and the sacred banks of the
Himavathy.”
Ratna had already left, and everyone returns home in Achakka suddenly experiences a conflict between the traditional
frustration as Achakka wonders whether Gandhism has helped and Gandhian sides of herself. After she spends months fighting
them at all. She declares that they were “mad to follow Gandhi’s battles, Achakka suddenly wishes she had rejected the
Moorthy.” The goddess Kenchamma and river Himavathy Mahatma’s nationalistic ideology and sustained the local religion
never refused their prayers, she laments. But suddenly she that bestowed her with her particular identity, even if the colonial
feels “some strange fever” inside her and has a change of heart. government strategically exploited that identity in order to keep
Achakka begs forgiveness from Moorthy, Gandhi, and Indians economically oppressed. But then she reverts because of a
Kenchamma, and declares that the women will do their feeling that she cannot shake (like the feelings that moved Moorthy
pilgrimage “to the end.” follow to Gandhi throughout the book).
The police and protestors continue to clash in town, and the Although Sankar professes his support for the villagers, Achakka
Gandhians see Sankar come to the door with a number of city feels as though he is hiding information from them, coopting their
boys in tow. He asks if everything is ready but reveals neither struggle to save their own lands for his broader cause. To the
his motives nor who will blow the conch to start their protest. villagers’ horror, their lands have been turned into a plantation like
That evening, they hear more commotion in the town and look the Skeffington Estate, and the gas lights show that city technology
out to see “pariah-looking men” spread to all the village’s fields has come to transform the village’s landscape.
and the Europeans’ cars drive off. They bring out “big, strong
gas-lights of the city” and illuminate the fields around the
village; when he sees them, Sankar shouts at Ratna to blow the
conch.
The Gandhians immediately begin to march, chanting and The Gandhians’ religious chant gives them plausible deniability,
singing as the policemen file into town with their lathis raised. since the colonial government views politics and religion as separate
But they are singing a religious song and chanting spheres (whereas they are intimately intertwined in Kanthapura).
“Satyanarayan Maharaj ki jai!” They tell the police officers they Crucially, they praise Satyanarayan, or “truth as the highest being,”
do not know where they are going, but soon the villagers’ cries which suggests that they have recommitted to Gandhi’s cause and
turn back to “Vandè Mataram!” and “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!” as emphasis on Truth.
the city boys come out to join them in the streets and march
with them in the direction of the barricades outside the
Skeffington Estate.
The police beat the marchers once again with their lathis, but at By raising the flag, the villagers claim Kanthapura for the Congress
the village gate one Gandhian raises “the flag of the of All India’s parallel government, and the previous chapter’s image
Revolution,” singing it and passing it around the protestors as of children throwing rocks at the police is inverted as the police
the police try to seize it. The police begin throwing stones at throw rocks at the mass of protestors.
the crowd but are outnumbered by protestors.
The protestors approach the Skeffington Estate’s guarded The villagers see distinct signs that this confrontation will be still
barricades and see the city coolies continue their labor. The more violent than the last. While the city Gandhians initially helped
police throw one woman on a cactus and run the others down the villagers outnumber the police, the government quickly calls in
to the canal and then into its waters. From afar, the village reinforcements and signals its willingness to shoot protestors.
women see dozens of new soldiers approaching with rifles and
bayonets. They hide amidst the season’s harvests as one soldier
fires a warning shot and then a deafening silence falls.
Ratna drives the protestors forward and they all hear a volley Bhatta used to oppress the villagers with his predatory
of shots and close their eyes, only to quickly realize that these moneylending, amassing land at their expense; now, the people of
were more warning shots. Afraid, the villagers hide in Bhatta’s Kanthapura have occupied his fields. Similarly, the Skeffington
sugarcane fields. They see the city coolies begin to cut their coolies have raised the national flag over the estate where they are
harvest as the crowd approaches them, chanting. They see the indentured, seemingly claiming the land for themselves.
Skeffington coolies marching a flag down from the Estate to the
barricades.
Suddenly, the city coolies in Kanthapura shut off all the lights. Just as the Kartik lights go out before the police arrest Rachanna in
The villagers see the police start to beat the Skeffington coolies section 10 of the book, the gas lights go out here just before the
at the barricade, then fire warning shots and finally shoot one police kill the first protestor. But, as in all the book’s protests,
of the coolies. Astonished, the other three thousand coolies physical violence initially motivates the Gandhians to fight harder
leap over the barricades and rush towards the top of the hill rather than scaring them away.
where the police stand and begin to open fire.
After “a long tilting silence,” the women decide to join the The police have no qualms about massacring nonviolent, unarmed
coolies, and Nanjamma stays to watch the children. Achakka protestors who have already rejected their government’s legitimacy.
goes and sees bullets flying every which way, until one strikes As she frequently does throughout the book, Achakka narrates this
one of the Volunteers with her. A protestor from the city chaotic conflict between the police and Gandhians through the
bandages the injured woman and carries her to the Congress competing sounds she hears: the noise of gunshots and the song of
ambulance. The others hear the yells of the wounded and, from the Revolution.
the front of the march, a song—“O, lift the flag high, / Lift the
flag high, / This is the flag of the Revolution.”
The city coolies give up the harvest and join in the protests, Like the Skeffington Coolies and villagers throughout the Western
telling the women “Gandhi Mahatma ki jai!” even though they Ghats in previous protests, the city coolies who have been brought
otherwise do not understand one another. They look for the to work the newly bought-out fields join the Gandhians who share
Skeffington coolies but do not see them, although an enormous their political interest in ending colonial rule. The soldiers’ gruesome
crowd of coolies and women comes from the river bend. The violence continues to escalate.
soldiers fire and charge at the protestors, trampling them,
waving around their bayonets, and hitting them with their rifle
butts.
The attack starts “not from their side but ours,” since one of the The protestor’s attack on the city technology of the gas light is
Gandhians broke open one of the city lights and it made a noise interpreted by the soldiers as a violent physical attack, even though
so loud that the soldiers mistook it for a gunshot. The soldiers they know the Gandhians are unarmed. Attacking colonial objects,
charge at the protestors, shooting and thrusting their like invading colonial property, amounts to an attack on colonialism
bayonets, and the Gandhians flee with the coolies as someone itself and leads the soldiers to feel that further violence is justified.
hoists the flag of India. The soldiers begin massacring the
protestors.
One of the protestors tells a soldier “do not fire on innocent The soldiers define disloyalty to the British Empire as a form of
men.” The soldiers laugh and ask if the Gandhians are loyal to criminal guilt, promising safety in exchange for allegiance to the
the British Government, but they say they “know only one symbol of colonial rule. Again, the Gandhians’ principled rejection of
Government and that is the Government of the Mahatma.” The the British government supersedes their concern for their physical
soldiers plant a Government flag and demand that the safety, even though they appear to be leading themselves into a
protestors march by it, but again the Gandhians start singing massacre.
about “the flag of the Revolution.”
Boys rush at the flag and the soldiers stab them with bayonets, Like Moorthy’s refusal to accept legal help or Sankar’s insistence on
starting another chaotic massacre. Someone strikes one of the speaking Hindi, the protestors’ suicidal proclamation of loyalty to
officers and Achakka hears Ratna’s voice saying, “no violence, in Gandhi seems to cross the line of principled resistance and look like
the name of the Mahatma” but cannot find her anywhere. “Men an absurd, blind adherence to the party line in a context that does
grip men and men crush men and men bite men and men tear not justify it.
men” in the confusion. Protestor after protestor falls dead, and
the villagers cry out for them.
Achakka and the women “creep back through the village lane,” Kanthapura’s sanctity for its inhabitants seems to be violated. As
watching the police slaughter countless men beneath the Gandhians are massacred on the Kenchamma Hill, Achakka implies,
Gandhian flag. To their relief, many of the villagers are standing she begins to lose her deep affinity for the land and her faith in its
at the town gate, but they wonder “who will ever set foot again goddess. Similarly, as the national flag flies over a massacre of
in this village?” More wounded men return from the hill, Gandhians, Rao seems to imply that their faith in the Mahatma
bleeding and wailing. goes too far and undermines the purity of Gandhi’s message.
In Maddur, more policemen immediately attack the Gandhians, The further the villagers go from Kanthapura, the more locals
but locals quickly rush to their rescue and tend to their around the Ghats support their cause; in abandoning their village,
wounded. The able-bodied continue over the Ghats and into the Gandhians unite with others under the banner of the nation for
the jungle, across into Mysore state, where people come and which they have fought.
“hung garlands on our necks and called us the pilgrims of the
Mahatma.” The people of this town, Kashipura, invite the
Gandhians to stay, and they move there permanently.
SECTION 19
Achakka explains that a year and two months have passed since Achakka zooms back out from her narrative to the present, where,
the events at Kanthapura. The villagers have moved in with although the massacres have ended, unfortunately little has
others in Kashipura, and life continues as usual, with the changed in people’s everyday lives. Women have returned to their
women cooking and arranging marriages for their sons and previous role in the domestic sphere and Kashipura, like
daughters. The village’s children consider them relations of the Kanthapura, is organized around storytelling gatherings—although
Mahatma and listen fondly to their stories. A local student even the most popular story is precisely the one Achakka has told here.
holds readings of Hindu scripture (but “it can never be like
Ramakrishnayya’s”).
Rangamma and Seenu will supposedly be released from prison The Gandhians continue to suffer from the government’s response
soon, and Ratna has already gotten out. When she visited, to their protests. This includes Achakka, who has been separated
Ratna told them about “the beatings and the tortures and the from her son for over a year.
‘Salute the Union Jack’ in the prison.”
But the Mahatma and the Viceroy have come to an agreement, In contrast to the Gandhians’ unflinching demand for independence
compromising many of the pilgrims’ initial conditions: and rejection of the colonial government, Gandhi himself has
Gandhians have to pay revenues and stop boycotting toddy acquiesced to British demands. It seems that the villagers’ efforts
shops, and “everything they say, will be as before.” Yet “nothing were all for naught, although Achakka retains a deep faith that the
an ever be the same again,” for while they certainly lost Mahatma will save India and his disciples from Kanthapura will
something with Kanthapura’s destruction, they also gained “an spread his message in their new homes. Achakka’s ambivalence
abundance like the Himavathy on Gauri’s night” when the about the independence movement also reflects the book’s
lights of their village scattered “down the Ghats to the morning circumstances of publication, for Rao wrote Kanthapura early in
of the sea,” where “the Mahatma will gather it all” and bless the Indian independence movement and published it ten years later,
everyone. but ten years before India was freed from the British.
Ratna went to Bombay the week after her visit, but Achakka is Like Moorthy, Ratna abandons the other villagers and takes up a
hopeful about Rangamma’s upcoming release, for she still modern form of independence politics in the city. But Achakka still
supports Gandhi and “we are all for the Mahatma.” Around believes in Gandhi as a mythical hero, ordained by the gods to save
India, there are people for the Mahatma, and “they say the India even through the nonsensical method of going to Britain and
Mahatma will go to the Red-man’s country and he will get us “get[ting] us Swaraj.” As throughout the legendary history she
Swaraj. He will bring us Swaraj, the Mahatma. And we shall all narrates, Achakka continues to see a world saturated with magic
be happy.” She likens this to the Mahabharata, in which the lord and morality.
Rama returns from exile to be with his love Sita and defeat the
evil demon Ravana.
Rangè Gowda was the only villager to return to Kanthapura. Rangè Gowda used to have political control over Kanthapura, and
His wife and daughter went to stay with the Patel in Kishipura the fact that he is the only villager to return there suggests that its
and waited for his return. He told them he “couldn’t leave” existence has come to be defined by its political and economic
Kanthapura until he had “three handfuls of Himavathy water.” relationships to the rest of India, rather than its local inhabitants
In reality, Achakka admits, Rangè Gowda went to dig up the and landscape. While he professes to have been motivated by
jewels that he hid underground. religion, Achakka knows that Rangè Gowda really wanted to
retrieve the wealth he hid there.
Rangè Gowda reports that most of the houses are destroyed Ultimately, as with much of India during the 20th century,
and men from Bombay have taken over the land and built Kanthapura’s history is erased and the village is converted from a
houses for coolies on the hill where the massacre took place. locality with deep significance for its inhabitants into mere property
Even Bhatta sold his land to the Bombay men, and even to be exploited for the sake of profit. Rangè Gowda’s final prayer to
Waterfall Venkamma left town. Rangè Gowda prayed for Siva cements the villagers’ shift from a local to national basis for
blessings from Mother Kenchamma and Father Siva before their collective identity.
leaving town, but admits that “my heart it beat like a drum.”