LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:1 January 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.

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The Gandhian Era and Gandhian Ideology in Indo-Anglian Fiction
Kanthapura and Waiting for the Mahatma

Dr. S. Chelliah, M.A., Ph.D.


Abstract

This research paper analyses the emergence of the Independence movement not only as a political struggle but also an all pervasive emotional experience for all Indians in the nineteen twenties and thirties with a focus on the ideology of Gandhiji as the moving force behind the national upsurge, making it a point that the Gandhian ideology became not only a philosophy of life but a way of life that made the whole country acutely conscious of its present and its past out and out stirring it with new hopes for the future. It examines how Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is a tale showing Gandhi’s charismatic effect on a small obscure village, Kanthapura which responds wonderfully to Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation and non-violence.

Keywords: Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan, Kanthapura, Waiting for the Mahatma, Gandhian ideology, charismatic effect, idealized character, political consciousness, genuine nationalism, Truth, silent communion, permeating influence, Kanthapura, Waiting for the Mahatma

Not Merely a Political Struggle

What is universally understood and accepted is that the Independence movement in India “was not merely a political struggle, but an all pervasive emotional experience for all Indians in the nineteen twenties and thirties…. That was an experience that was national in nature” (Mukherjee 14). No Indian writer could avoid this national upsurge. The ideology of Gandhiji was the moving force behind the national upsurge and the Gandhian ideology no doubt, became not only a philosophy of life but a way of life that made the whole country acutely conscious of its present and its past out and out stirring it with new hopes for the future. A society undergoing resurrection and transformation provided a fertile soil for fiction. The dawn of self-awareness in a society long surpassed under the British rule provided variety of themes to the novelists and compelled them to think a new over the numerous social and national problems. It was in fact, that during this Gandhian Era that “Indian English novel discussed some of its most significant themes – freedom struggle, East-West relationship, quest of identity, the exploitation of the underdog, the search for justice and fair play, the treatment of the rural life etc.” (Kumar 25)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Dr. S. Chelliah, M.A., Ph.D.
Professor, Head & Chairperson
School of English & Foreign Languages and
Department of English & Comparative Literature
Madurai Kamaraj University
Madurai – 625 021
Tamilnadu
India
aschelliah@yahoo.com

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