Kanthapura

People throughout India picket toddy booths near their towns, and all day and night they sing songs about the evil of drinking and their allegiance to Gandhi, “our king.” Some educated “city boys” express this in rational argument, and others ask lower-caste villagers from Kanthapura to sneak out in the night and help them protest elsewhere.

After Potter Ramayya comes back from one such trip, he says that in “house after house” people pasted newspaper pictures of Moorthy on the walls and asked for stories about his campaign. The villagers become proud to “bear the lathi blows and the prisons” and every day there is a new mission.

One day, the villagers threw a homecoming welcome feast for Potter Chandrayya, who told of being beaten with canes dipped in hot oil and then with lathis when they refused to salute the Government flag. One protestor climbed the building and raised the national flag; the police put him in solitary confinement and he was never seen again.

Seetharamu has “the most terrible story” from prison. He came down with fever but the police forced him to continue working, beating him before binding him in a yoke, like a bull, and making him run around the mill until “nothing but blood” came from his mouth and they were forced to release him. Moorthy praises Seetharamu’s endurance and will, and this inspires the rest.

The villagers continue to picket toddy shops, and 24 of them close down in the area nearby, including Boranna’s. Some of the toddy sellers even join the Gandhians.

The new Patel tries to collect revenues, but the villagers refuse despite the government’s threats. The police go around town, finding reasons to beat up whomever they wish. Only the few remaining pro-government brahmins pay their dues; the rest hide their jewels, sacks of food and other valuables in the ground. The policemen do not come to their houses, but they barricade every road out of Kanthapura.

Later, the police march a beadle through Kanthapura, and he announces that everyone who did not pay owns a fine “as punitive tax” to pay for the new policemen who would come “to protect” the villagers from “the troublesome ones.” Moorthy comes to Achakka’s house in the night, saying that “the fight has really begun” and warning her to ring a bell if the police come into her house. With Rangamma and Ratna’s help, he managed to inform everyone in the village that night, and everyone stayed up in fear until dawn.