Kanthapura: Section 14 Summary & Analysis

Unfortunately, “the call of the Big Mountain never came,” as the villagers learn that Gandhi has been arrested and decide to begin marching the next week. Everyone gathers around the temple, and Seenu rings the bell to announce the Mahatma’s arrest. The town spends all afternoon on edge, and “bicycle after bicycle” comes delivering orders for Moorthy from the city.

The Village Congress assembles, feeling as though “they were of one caste, one breath.” Moorthy arrives and tells them it is time to start the “Don’t-touch-the-Government campaign.” They will not pay taxes; they will protest toddy booths, which “are there to exploit the poor and the unhappy;” and they will “establish a parallel Government” with Rangè Gowda back in charge as Patel.

Moorthy continues: they will refuse to engage the government but “never be harsh to them nor wicked” and remember that they are all responsible for one another, and that if any of them commits any act of violence they must stop the movement for six months to pray for redemption. They do not fight “the white man” himself, Moorthy emphasizes, but rather “the demoniac 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 everyone “felt there was something in the air.” They all proclaim their allegiance to the movement and opposition to violence, plan a start date, and weep together to music.

Two days later, 139 villagers begin marching to Boranna’s toddy grove, led by Moorthy, Rangamma, Rangè Gowda, and Pariah Rachanna in a cart. They announce their intentions in song and stop for prayers along the way. “Hardly at the Main Road Corner,” they encounter the Police Inspector and the four leaders get out of their cart and begin to walking.  As they approach the toddy grove, they see more and more policemen holding lathis.

The Police Inspector approaches them on a bridge and warns them that they may not go to the toddy grove. Moorthy thanks the Inspector and continues, claiming that “he would follow [the Congress’s instructions] unto death if need be.” Moorthy 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 and jumps the fence, climbing a toddy tree. The policemen rush to attack him and quickly drag him down as the rest sing and march forward. The Inspector orders them to attack and they beat the Gandhians with their lathis as the villagers yell “Mataram Vandè!” louder and louder. Lingayya crosses the 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 to tear branches and leaves from the trees. Atop a tree, one protestor cuts “branch after branch” and the crowd cheers, laughing as the man spits on the policemen who tear him down.

The policemen take the women outside the grove, and Achakka and her sisters feel their fresh wounds but also a sense of accomplishment and purpose. The police arrest pariah Rachanna and the potters Lingayya and Siddayya, separating 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.

As they reunite with the other groups on the highway and march deep into the jungle, Rangamma tells the other old women to form a line and start singing. The longer and louder they sing, the more the women forget their injuries and fears. They meet a cart-man, who offers them food, and more carts come and offer to take them back to Kanthapura. They try to negotiate a price, but the cart men fear the Mahatma’s ire and agree to take the women back to Kanthapura for free.

The villagers get off the carts in the village of Santhapura, near Kanthapura, where Rangamma’s cousin lives and his wife offers them food and milk. The Gandhians tell the Santhapura villagers about the Mahatma and their campaign, and the people in Santhapura follow them to Kanthapura shortly thereafter.

Upon returning, the villagers felt “as though the whole air was filled with some pouring presence,” perhaps that of the gods watching out for them. At the temple the morning after, they line up their “trophies”: five twigs from the toddy trees and a toddy-pot.