Famous Indian English Novel Kanthapura by Raja Rao | Indian English Literature Series

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:07]Welcome to the first video of the series of books from Indian English literature.

[00:00:17]Indian English literature is literature which is written originally in English by authors who are Indianborn.

[00:00:27]The first three very important authors who started writing initially and they wrote novels which are very important for the history of Indian English literature are Raja Rao whose novel Kapura we are going to do today. Then we have Ark Narayan and we have Mul Raj Anand. These were the called the big three because they started this tradition of writing novels in English. Although the novels are based in India and they also talk about Indian life, Indian society and culture they are Indianborn authors.

[00:01:17]Kapura is a very interesting book because this was written much before independence. [snorts] It was written in the 1930s and the main theme of this novel is Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagra.

[00:01:36]the kind of influence Gandhi G had on the freedom struggle not only in big places but in a small village in South India that is what is indicated here Kapura is the name of this village it's a very small village and it is typical of the village of 1930s how life was in those days so we have a lot of history here for literature students. This is historicity.

[00:02:13]For students who are learning English language also these are interesting books. Many of you asked me what books to read. This series will help you to choose the books you want to read.

[00:02:29]In the live class recently, one of you told me that you have all the books of Aran Naray. That's a wonderful way to begin. So you can also read Kandapura.

[00:02:43]Kandapura is in the western parts. And they have a village deity, a goddess who protects the village. Again I'm not giving you many names but the name of the protagonist is Morty. Morty is a person who brings the Gandhian philosophy to this village. Others also are there who know a little but the central figure in the entire story is Morty and we find that he's a very good person although he belongs to the top layer of society but he tries to integrate these social divisions he says that the lowest and the highest in society are only so-called terms which is what Gandhi G was trying to Hey, men and women can both participate. Bring the women out of their uh you know home private sphere into the public sphere.

[00:03:50]Give them freedom.

[00:03:53]Therefore, the entire story is narrated by a woman, a story is not told by the author. It is told by one of the characters and she is the one who tells the story because she is an elderly woman and she knows the history of this village.

[00:04:16]In Indian systems we have the term stalapurana.

[00:04:22]So that is the place and its sanctity.

[00:04:27]This is best told by the narrator because she knows she also knows the background of all the families starting from the most powerful families which don't belong only to the Brahman cast. It belongs also to other cast. They are very powerful. So she says that there is a balance in society and this balance is made better when you follow the ideas which Morty brings from the city and those ideas are the philosophy of Gandhi G. We find that the not only are the people in the village described but their characters also are described. Some people are very negative. Some people are positive, willing to accept whatever good ideas come.

[00:05:23]But the British police force is very cruel.

[00:05:30]They also do not allow other religions.

[00:05:34]So this religion concept, the concept of uh you know the colonizer and the colonized all these aspects are important.

[00:05:47]But as you remember one of the most important characteristics of the freedom struggle which got India its independence was sacrifice.

[00:06:01]You have to give up everything which you have. You have to sacrifice your life, your happiness, everything, your physical and mental comfort, health, everything has to be sacrificed. This we find because many times the police come and beat them. As soon as they beat them, they start chanting slogans for freedom. And once they chant these slogans, the police arrest them. Of course after some time they are left but Morti is not left because he's the leader and he's put in jail. He has to suffer in the jail. We have Bar Khan who comes here and he's a police officer but he has to go and live in the colonizers's place and that is in the estate the estate of the white man but he has to live not as a police person he has to live as a worker. So there is a lot of discrimination between the ruler and the ruled. All these create in the minds of people in Kapura the desire that freedom is essential. You must remember that if this this was published in 1938 another 9 years are left of this kind of suffering before India got its independence.

[00:07:32]Rajaro is portraying every aspect of this. He gives some very important characters like a person who speaks too much.

[00:07:45]She's a lady and she's called as waterfall wanka. Waterfall. You know if you go to the western gods you find during ladies season there are so many waterfalls. It is continuous. It never stops like that. This person is constantly talking. You have such local color and such language because in style Rajaro uses what is called as the Indian idom. Many Indianisms many descriptions which are typical of an Indian village.

[00:08:25]The way they worship Mortis you know they find a small shivalinga. It's a small stone you know there Morti starts fasting and he starts meditating and praying. These are all typical attitudes which we find in India in Indian villages. this uh you know the gathering around the temple. Then one lady gives her house by saying you can use my house when you want to have meetings and talk about how freedom should be got using satyagraha. Satiyagraha was a very important term nonviolence.

[00:09:07]When there is a little violence in the village, people try to raise their uh you know stones and sticks against people who are attacking them. Morty feels very upset. He says this is not nonviolence.

[00:09:23]Nonviolence implying that you accept suffering that you accept violence but you don't return it. You don't give a slap when somebody slaps you. you accept it with a smile and saying that I'm doing it for the good of my own motherland.

[00:09:45]Unfortunately, there is so much torture till the end of the story that this small village Kapura is totally decimated. It has to be they have to relocate. They have to go elsewhere.

[00:10:01]That story tells us how difficult it was for India when it was not ruled by its own people.

[00:10:11]A very important term which you can apply to this novel is historioggraphy.

[00:10:16]Historioggraphy is this fictionalization of real history. The history is very close to us. that is just you know not even a 100 years old because the freedom struggle I told you this is in the 30s we are still in the 20s now another 10 years later this will be the centinery of you know 12 years later centinery of this novel a great novel a very simple and a short novel it's not very long and very enjoyable because it is something which you can participate in. For learners of English, you can read this book. That will be interesting for you.

[00:11:00]For literature students, you read it with a literary sensibility. Look at the character of various people. Look at the social structure of the village. Look at the geographic region of the village because this is all familiar to you if you are Indian. And then you analyze the style. Rajar's style is very beautiful.

[00:11:26]You can read the novel only to understand how the style is. There are many benefits for you. Whether you're learning language or literature in this series, you will have many others. We will follow by first by the big three and then by other writers who have written. I hope you will tell me in the comments how it is helping you, whether you think this is a good series or not.

[00:11:55]Thank you and all the best.

[00:11:59]I hope you have liked the video.

[00:12:02]Please subscribe if you haven't done it.

[00:12:06]Press the bell icon so that you get notifications.

[00:12:10]Like and hype the video and share it as widely as you can.

[00:12:17]Join the channel as a member to attend all the live classes I conduct and also to get other benefits.

[00:12:28]Thank you and all the best.