feminism in kanthapura

Name: Jayshree Kunchala

Roll No: 15

Class: M.A. 1

Sem : 1

Submitted To: Dept.Of.English

M.K.Bhavnagar.Uni.

Assignment Topic: Feminism inKanthapura

Discuss major women characters in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura

I would say that any discussion of female characters in Raja Rao’s work has to start with Achakka. She representes the fundamental force of both social and cultural changes within Kanthapura and India in general she ends up baying in to Moorthy’s and by extention.Gandi’scall for self rule. Achakka if representative of how Indians at the time were turn between accepting reality as it was or rein visioning as it can or as it should be. She is also representative of how women despite being mired in traditional ways can embrace change and be an `active agent of reconstructing reality. Another example of this would be Rangamma, who takes it upon herself to lead others and take an active role in fighting the status quo in the name of change. Rangamma suffers greatly like Achakka for her beliefs being beaten and imprisoned for them. It is interesting to note that rao was radical in making the argument that if India was to embrace the concept of change it could only do so if all of its citizens men and women were joined in this quest. Rao also present that some women were more concerned with kipping the status quo so long as it could benefit their own status as seen with Kamalamma who is more concerned with seeking socially acceptable alliances and maintaining the caste system. The women shown in Rao’s work help to bring forth the idea that independence for India would only be accomplished in its purest sense if all forms of stratifition both externally provided by the British and internally initiated by Indians themselves reexamined and the role of women in novel help to illuminate this