Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper No: 4 the Indian writing in English pre- independent.

Topic: Art of Characterization.

Sem-1,

M.A. -2

Roll No: 17,

Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept. of. English,

M.K.Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

†ä ART OF CHARACTERIZATION ä…

..1.† Moorthy, the village Gandhi:-

Moorthy or Moorthappa is an educated young man of Kanthapura  It is he who organizes the work of congress in the village, and hence he is the central figure in the novel. Moorthy was prince in Kanthapura  He has nothing heroic about him, nor can he be called the Hero of the novel. He is an ordinary young man, with common human weaknesses. He is one of those thousands of young man who were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi to give up their studies, risk the wrath of the government, and become fighters for the cause of their motherland. That he is considerate and respectful is obvious from the affectionate way in which he is referred to by the people of Kanthapura.  He is called “Corner-House”, Moorthy who has gone through life “Like a noble cow, Quiet, Generous, Deferent, Brahminic a very prince”. He is considered to be honest like an elephant and is spoken of “Our Gandhi, the same of our village”. He is the “small mountain”, while Gandhi is the “big mountain”. Throughout he is shows as inspiring love and respect and winning the confidence of the village folk.

It seems that impact of Gandhi’s personality has transformed him form a common village lad, into a Young man capable of leadership, and the self sacrifice and devotion which leadership entails. He has never come into personal contact with Gandhi. Moorthy was in college when he felt the full force of Gandhi and he walked out of it, a Gandhi man. In those days, hundreds and thousands of young man throughout the country gave up their studies and courted arrest and he is one of them. But the manner in which Moorthy walked out of the college is unique. He is said to have had not an actual, first hand experience of Gandhi by personal contact  but a vision of Gandhi, addressing a public meeting and he himself pushing his way through the crowd and joining the band of volunteers and receiving inspiration by a touch of Gandhi’s hand. And that very evening Moorthy went out alone and come back to college and walked out of it, for good. Say Narsimhaiah, now here is a perilous subject for a young author. He was just past 25 himself deeply involved to the extent of being obsessed with gandhism as well as he search for a guru. Indeed the author own self is projected, so largely projected in the character of the Moorthy; and considering the circumstances and the temptation the identification of the young author with the young Moorthy appears to be in escapable inevitable. Actually there is a good deal of idealization of the character he so much admires.

From the time we meet him in the beginning of the novel to the very end of the book. Moorthy is perched at the top in this ascetic strength and his capacity for action comes as a surprise in a visionary like Moorthy when Rama in the serpent and the rope cries out in agony “Sivoham Sivoham”. It doesn't sound sentimental because it comes at the end of the long exploration as a something inevitable. But here when Moorthy says Sivoham before he is halfway through his life’s journey. There is no doubt the novelist has endowed him with numbers good qualities of head and heart. He has extra ordinary capacity for inspiring the people. On his returned from the city he had once proceeds to organize the Gandhi work in the village.“ The Gandhian struggle for independence had three strands- Political, Religious, and Social. All three strands meet in Moorthy .He works on all three levels. Religion is the most potent force in Kanthapura and so its action begins with religion before there is any mention of Gandhi or Swaraj, there is tremendous religious activity. Starting from and invocation to kenchamma, Goddess”. To the end of the novel, religion seems to sustain the spirited of the people of Kanthapura. The boys of the village had a grand feast to celebrate the occasion and one thing led to another. Soon they observed Sankara jayanthi, Sankara vijaya etc. when Moorthy threw out a hint that “ Somebody will offer the Dinner for each day the month, there was spontaneous response from every one and this is not stated by the novelist but comes home to us through the characters themselves”. Let the first be mine, said Bhatt; “the second mind”, said Agent nanjundiah; “Third must be mine”, insisted pundit venkateshiah. Jayaramchar the harikatha man is then invited to the village. Harikatha are had every evening and this harikatha serve as a clock for Gandhi propaganda. The harikatha an is arrested and taken away and so the Gandhi movement comes to the village. 

It is Moorthy who organizes the Gandhi work in the village. He goes from door to door carrying the message of the Mahatma. It is he who explain the economy of the khaddi and importance of the charkha to the ignorant and superstition- ridden women of the village. The women to must be enthused and so Moorthy sets about organizing them. A women volunteer crop is thus formed with ratna as the head of this organization of swayam sevikas or sevis. Here we find Moorthy a Gandhi man who has preacher Brotherhood and equality and classlessness and abolition of untouchabilities.

ä † Conclusion:-

         

Moorthy is a creature and flesh and blood with ordinary human weaknesses. He is no hero, but an average young man who like thousands others in those days, where enthused by Gandhi to come out of there shells and do there best for their mother land.

..2..† Ratna, The Progressive Widow:-

Ratna is young widow. She become a widow when hardly 15 years of an age. She is charming as is clear from the attention which Moorthy pays to her. There is just a hint of love affair between the two. However there love and liking for each other has not been properly developed and hence Kanthapura lacks in that love interest which is considered essential for a novel. We felt that the novelist has committed a serious error of judgment is not exploiting the love theme and thus missing an opportunity of adding to the charm and interest of his work. Ratna is young educated women of progressive views. Though she is a widow she does not dress and live in the conventional style of a widow. She wears bangles, colored saris uses kumkum mark on her forehead and parts her heir like a concubine, and water fall venkamma puts it. She is also bold and witty in conversation and can hold her own against heavy odds. She doesn’t care for such criticism.  She chooses her own path and sticks to it with firmness and determination. She takes keen interest in the Gandhian movement and is source of inspiration and help to Moorthy when Jayaramchar The harikatha man is arrested. She conducts the harikatha. After rangamma’s death she reads out the newspaper and other publicity materials of the benefit of the Khachaturian  When Moorthy is arrested she carries on his work and serves as the leader. She organizes the women volunteer crop and imparts to the sevikas the necessary training. She displays great courage and resourcefulness in the face of government repression and police action. She is dishonored, beaten up and send to jail to as a consequence but she suffers all patiently and unflinchingly. As the narrator of the story tales us she comes out of jail a change person more humble and more courteous to her elders. But more mature and determined. When Gandhi goes to England for the round table conferences reaches a settlement with the red mans government and the movement is withdrawn. Ratna is disappoinmented like countless other freedom fighter in India. She goes over to Bombay and through her letters we learn of her great admiration for Nehru “the equal distributions”.

         

In the Kanthapura  there is a number of women character and each one of them expresses one aspect or the others of Shakti. Rama addresses the women in each of them all of them are one and the same the incarnation of the feminine principle.