FIRST HE GOES to see Rangè Gowda. Nothing can Fbe done without, Range Gowda. When Range Gowda says 'Yes,' you will have elephants and how- dahs and music processions. If Range Gowda says 'No,' you can eat the bitter neem leaves and lie by the city gates, licked by the curs. That's how it is with our Range Gowda.
'Range Gowda, Rangè Gowda,' says Moorthy, 'there's something I want of you.'
'Come in, learned one, and, seated like a son, explain to me what you need. If there's anything this fool can do, do but open your mouth and it shall be done.'
And seated on the veranda, Moorthy explains to Range Gowda his programme. Things are getting bad in the village. The brahmins who were with him for the bhajans are now getting fewer and fewer. Some people have gone about threatening the community with the Swami's excommunication, and people are afraid. There is Waterfall Venkamma and Temple Rangappa and Patwari Nanjundia and Schoolmaster Devarayya -and then, of course, there's Bhatta. And when Bhatta's name is mentioned, Rangè Gowda's neck stiffens and spitting across the veranda to the gutter, he says, 'Yes, he had come to see me too'
'To you, Rangè Gowda?'
'Yes, learned Moorthappa. He had, of course, come to see me. He wanted me to be his dog's tail. But I said to him, the Mahatma is a holy man, and I was not with the jackals but with the deer. At which Bhatta grew so furious that he cried out that this holy man was a tiger in a deer's skin, and said this about pollution and that about corruption, and I said to him, "So it may be, but the Red-Man's Government is no swan in a Himalayan lake". Bhatta grew fierce again and said, "We shall cat mud and nothing but mud". "Yes," says I, "if every bloke cats mud, I, too, shall eat mud. The laws of God are not made one for Range Gowda and one for Puttè Gowda. Mud shall I eat, if mud I should eat "." And Range Gowda chuckles and spits, and munches on.
Then Moorthy says, 'This is what is to be done. We shall start a Congress group in Kanthapura, and the Congress group of Kanthapura will join the Congress of All India. You just pay four annas or two thousand yards of yarn per year, and that is all you have to do, and then you become a Congress member. And you must vow to speak Truth, and wear no cloth but the khadi cloth.'
'Oh yes, Moorthappa! If you think there is no danger in it, I see no objection to joining it. Tell me only one thing: Will it bring us into trouble with the Government?'
This Moorthy thinks over and then he says, 'This is how it is, Rangè Gowda. Today it will bring us into no trouble with the Government. But tomorrow when we shall be against the Red-Man's Government it will bring us into trouble. You see Badè Khan is already there. . . .
'Ah!' says Rangè Gowda. And I shall not close my eyes till that dog has eaten filth,' but Moorthy interrupts him and says such things are not to be said, and that hatred should be plucked out of our hearts, and that the Mahatma says you must love even your enemies.
'That's for the Mahatma and you, Moorthappa- not for us poor folk! When that cur Puttayya slipped through the night and plastered up the drain and let all the canal water into his fields and let mine get baked up in the sun, do you think kind words would go with him? Two slaps and he spits and he grunts, but he will never do that again.'
That must not be done, Rangè Gowda. Every enemy you create is like pulling out a lantana bush in your back yard. The more you pull out, the wider you spread the seeds, and the thicker becomes the lantana growth. But every friend you create is like a jasmine hedge. You plant it, and it is there and bears flowers and you offer them to the gods, and the gods give them back to you and your women put them into their hair. Now, you see, you hit Puttayya and Puttayya goes and speaks of it to Madanna, and Madanna to Timmanna, and Puttayya and Timmanna and Madanna will hold vengefulness against you and some day this vengefulness will hold forth in fire. But had. you reasoned it out with Puttayya, maybe you would have come to an agreement, and your canal water would go to your fields, and his canal water to his fields.'
'Learned master, at this rate I should have to go and bow down to every pariah and butcher and, instead of giving them a nice licking with my lantana switch, I should offer flowers and coconuts and betel leaves in respect and say, "Pray plough this field this-wise, Maharaja! Pray plough this field that-wise, Maha- raja!" And I should not howl at my wife and let my son-in-law go fooling with Concubine Siddi's daughter Mohini who's just come of age. No, learned master, that is not just.'
'It's a long story, Range Gowda, and we shall speak of it another time. But you are a father of many children and an esteemed Elder of your community and of the whole village, and if you should take to the ways of the Congress, then others will follow you.' 'But, learned master, there's nothing in common between what you were saying and this.'
'Most certainly, Rangè Gowda. One cannot become a member of the Congress if one will not promise to practice ahimsa, and to speak Truth and to spin at least two thousand yards of yarn per year.' At which Range Gowda bursts out laughing again and says, Then I too will have one day to sit and meditate, taking three cups of salted water per day!' and Moorthy laughs with him, and once they have talked over rents and law-courts and the sloth of the peasants, Range Gowda turns back to the subject and says, ' Do what you like, learned master. You know things better than I do, and I, I know you are not a man to spit on our confidence in you. If you think I should become a member of the Congress, let me be a member of the Congress. If you want me to be a slave, I shall be your slave. All I know is that what you told me about the Mahatma is very fine, and the Mahatma is a holy man, and if the Mahatma says what you say, let the Mahatma's word be the word of God. And if this buffalo will trample on it, may my limbs get paralysed and my tongue dumb and my progeny for ever destroyed!' Then Moorthy stands up and says it is no light matter to be a member of the Congress and that every promise before the Congress is a promise before the Mahatma and God, and Range Gowda interrupts him, saying, 'Of course, of course. And this Range Gowda has a golden tongue and a leather tongue, and what is uttered by the golden tongue is golden and sure, and what is uttered by the leather one is for the thief and concubine,' and Moorthy says, 'May the Mahatma's blessings be with us,' and hurrying down the steps, he slips round to the Weavers' Street, goes straight to the Weavers' Elder Ramayya, and he says, Ramayya, will you be a member of the Panchayat of all India?'; and Ramayya asks, 'And what's that, learned one?' and Moorthy sits down and explains it, and Ramayya says, 'Oh, if the Patel is with you, the Panchayat is with him,' and Moorthy says, 'Then, I'll go. I've still to see Potters' Elder Siddayya'. And Potters' Elder Siddayya, when he hears of the Mahatma and the Patel, says, 'Of course, I'm with the Patel and the Panchayat,' and then Moorthy thinks, 'Now, this is going to be well,' and rushes down the Pariah quarter to see Rachanna. But Rachanna is out mowing at the River-eaten field, and Rachanna's wife is pounding rice, and she says, 'Come and sit inside, learned one, since you are one of us, for the sun is hot outside,' and Moorthy, who had never entered a pariah house-he had always spoken to the pariahs from the gutter-slab-Moorthy thinks this is something new, and with one foot to the back and one foot to the fore, he stands trembling and undecided, and then suddenly hurries up the steps and crosses the threshold and squats on the earthen floor. But Rachanna's wife quickly sweeps a corner, and spreads for him a wattle mat, but Moorthy, confused, blurts out, No, no, no, no,' and he looks this side and that and thinks surely there is a carcass in the back yard, and it's surely being skinned, and he smells the stench of hide and the stench of pickled pigs, and the roof seems to shake, and all the gods and all the manes of heaven seem to cry out against him, and his hands steal mechanically to the holy thread, and holding it, he feels he would like to say, Hari-Om, Hari-Om'. But Rachanna's wife has come back with a little milk in a shining brass tumbler, and placing it on the floor with stretched hands, she says, Accept this from this poor hussy!' and slips back behind the corn-bins; and Moorthy says, 'I've just taken coffee, Lingamma but she interrupts him and says, 'Touch it, Moorthappa, touch it only as though it were offered to the gods, and we shall be sanctified'; and Moorthy, with many a trembling prayer, touches the tumbler and brings it to his lips, and taking one sip, lays it aside.
Meanwhile Rachanna's two grandchildren come in, and gazing at Moorthy, they run into the back yard, and then Madanna's children come, and then Madanna's wife, pestle in hand, and Madanna's wife's sister and her two-months-old brat in her arms, and then all the women and all the children of the pariah quarter come and sit in Rachanna's central veranda and they all gaze silently at Moorthy, as though the sacred eagle had suddenly appeared in the heavens. Then Moorthy feels this is the right moment to talk, and straightening his back, he raises his head and says, Sisters, from today onwards I want your help. There is a huge Panchayat of all India called the Congress, and that Congress belongs to the Mahatma, and the Mahatma says every village in this country must have a Panchayat like that, and everybody who will become a member of that Panchayat will spin and practice ahimsa and speak the truth.' At this Rachanna's wife says, 'And what will it give us, learned one?' and Moorthy says something about the foreign Government and the heavy taxations and the poverty of the peasants, and they all say, 'Of course, of course,' and then he says, I ask you: will you spin a hundred yards of yarn per day?' But Madanna's wife says, 'I'm going to have a child,' and Satanna's wife says, 'I'm going for my brother's marriage,' and her sister says, 'I'll spin if it will bring money. I don't want cloth like Timmayya and Madayya get with all their turning of the wheel,' and Chennayya's daughter says, 'I shall spin, learned master, I shall spin. But I shall offer my cloth to the Mahatma when he comes here,' at which all the women laugh and say, 'Yes, the Mahatma will come here to see your pretty face,' and the children who had climbed on the rice-sacks cry out, I too will turn the rattle, Master, I too'. And Moorthy feels this is awful, and nothing could be done with these women; so, standing up, he asks, 'Is there no one among you who can spin a hundred yards of yarn per day?' And from this corner and that voices rise and Moorthy says, 'Then come forward and tell me if you can take an oath before the goddess that you will spin at least a hundred yards of yarn per day,' and they all cry out, 'No oath before the goddess! if we don't keep it, who will bear her anger?' Then Moorthy feels so desperate that he says to Rachanna's wife, And you, Rachanna's wife?' and Rachanna's wife says, 'If my husband says "Spin ", I shall spin, learned one'. And Moorthy says he will come back again in the evening, and mopping his fore- head, he goes down the steps and along the Pariah Street, and going up the Promontory, enters the temple, bangs the bell and, performing a circumambulation, asks blessings of the gods, and hurries back home to speak about it all to Rangamma. But as he goes up the steps something in him says 'Nay,' and his hair stands on end as he remembers the tumbler of milk and the pariah home, and so he calls out, Rangamma, Rangamma!' and Rangamma says, 'I'm coming,' and when she is at the threshold, he says he has for the first time entered a pariah house and asks if he is permitted to enter; and Rangamma says, 'Just come the other way round, Moorthy, and there's still hot water in the cauldron and fresh clothes for the meal. So Moorthy goes by the back yard, and when he has taken his bath and clothed himself, Rangamma says, 'Maybe you'd better change your holy thread,' but Moorthy says, 'Now that I must go there every day, I cannot change my holy thread every day, can I?' and Rangamma says only, 'I shall at least give you a little Ganges water, and you can take a spoonful of it each time you've touched them, can't you?' So Moorthy says, 'As you will,' and taking the Ganges water he feels a fresher breath flowing through him, and lest anyone should ask about his new adventure, he goes to the riverside after dinner to sit and think and pray. After all a brahmin is a brahmin, sister! And when dusk fell over the river, Moorthy hastily finished his ablutions, and after he had sat at his evening meditations, he rushed back home, and after taking only a banana and a cup of milk, he rushed off again to the Pariah Night School that Seenu held in the Panchayat Hall every evening. And when Seenu heard of the Congress Committee to be founded, his mouth touched his cars in joy, and he said he would wake up Kittu and Subbu and Post-Office-House Ramu from their inactivity. Moorthy said that would be fine and he went out to see Rachanna, who was sitting by the veranda, sharpening his sickle in the moonlight, and with him were Siddanna and Madanna and Lingayya, and when they heard about the Congress Committee, they all said, 'As you please, learned master'. And your women?' asked Moorthy.-They will do as we do,' said Rachanna, and Moorthy went again to the Potters' Street and the Weavers' Street, and they all said, 'If the Elder says "Yes", and the Patel says "Yes", and the Panchayat says "Yes", what else have we to say?' And then he went home and told the whole thing to Rangamma and she too said, 'Of course, of course'. And Seethamma and Ratna said, 'Splendid -a Congress Committee here,' and Moorthy said, We shall begin work straight off'.
The next morning he went and recounted the whole thing to Range Gowda, and Rangè Gowda said, 'I am your slave'. Then Moorthy said, 'We shall hold a meeting today and Range Gowda said, 'Of course'.' Then this evening,' said Moorthy. As you please, learned one,' answered Range Gowda-- and Moorthy then said, 'We shall hold a gods' procession and then a bhajan, and then we shall elect the Com- mittee'. And as evening came, Moorthy and Scenu and Ramu and Kittu were all busy washing the gods and knitting the flowers and oiling the wicks and fixing the crowns, and as night fell the procession moved on and people came out with camphor and coconuts, and Seenu took them and offered them to the gods, and Ramu shouted out, This evening there's bhajan', and everybody was so happy that before the procession was back in the temple, Rangè Gowda was already seated in the mandap explaining to Elder Ramayya and to Elder Siddayya and to others around them about weaving and ahimsa and the great, great Congress. And they all listened to him with respect. When Moorthy entered they all stood up, but Moorthy said, 'Oh, not this for me!' and Rangè Gowda said, 'You are our Gandhi,' and when everybody laughed he went on: There is nothing to laugh at, brothers. He is our Gandhi. The state of Mysore has a Maharaja, but that Maharaja has another Maharaja who is in London, and that one has another one in Heaven, and so everybody has his own Mahatma, and this Moorthy, who has been caught in our knees playing as a child, is now grown-up and great, and he has wisdom in him and he will be our Mahatma,' and they all said, 'So he is!' And Moorthy felt such a quiet exaltation rise to his throat that a tear escaped and ran down his cheek. Then he looked back towards the bright god in the sanctum, and closed his eyes and sent up a prayer, and, whispering to himself, Mahatma Gandhi ki jai! he rang the bell and spoke to them of spinning and ahimsa and Truth. And then he asked, 'Who among you will join the Panchayat?' and voices came from the sudra corner and the pariah corner and the brahmincorner and the weavers' corner, and to each one of them he said, 'Stand before the god and vow you will never break the law,' and some said they asked nothing of the gods, and others said, 'We don't know whether we have the strength to keep it up,' and then Rangè Gowda grew wild and shouted, 'If you are the sons of your fathers, stand up and do what this learned boy says,' and Rangè Gowda's words were such a terror to them that one here and one there went up before the sanctum, rang the bell and said, 'My Master, I shall spin a hundred yards of yarn per day, and I shall practise ahimsa, and I shall seck Truth,' and they fell prostrate and asked for the blessings of the Mahatma and the gods, and they rose and crawled back to their seats. But when it comes to the pariahs, Rachanna says, 'We shall stand out here and take the vows,' and at this Moorthy is so confused that he does not know what to do, but Rangè Gowda says, 'Here in the temple or there in the courtyard, it is the same god you vow before, so go along!' And Rachanna and Rachanna's wife, and Madanna and Madanna's wife swear before the god from the courtyard steps.
And when it is all over, Rangè Gowda says, 'Moorthappa will be our president,' and everybody says, Of course, of course'. Then Seenu turns towards Range Gowda and says, And Range Gowda our Super-President and Protector,' and everybody laughs, and Range Gowda says, 'Protector! yes, Protector of the village fowl!' Then Seenu says, 'Rangamma will be the third member,' but Rangamma says, 'No, no,' and Moorthy says, ' We need a woman in the Committee for the Congress is for the weak and the lowly '; and then everybody says, 'Rangamma, say yes!' and Ran- gamma says 'Yes'. And Moorthy then turns towards the pariahs and says, 'One among you!' and then there is such a silence that a moving ant could be heard, and then Moorthy says, 'Come, Rachanna, you have suffered much, and you shall be a member,' and Rachanna says, 'As you will, learned master!' And then Moorthy says, 'Seenu is our fifth member,' and Range Gowda says, Every Rama needs an Anjanayya, and he's your fire-tailed Hanuman,' and they all laugh, and so Moorthy and Rangè Gowda and Rangamma and Rachanna and Seenu become the Congress Pan- chayat Committee of Kanthapura.
And two days later Moorthy made a list of members and twenty-three were named, and five rupees and twelve annas were sent to the Provincial Congress Committee. And one morning everybody was told that in Rangamma's blue paper was a picture of Moorthy. And everybody went to Rangamma and said, 'Show it to me!' and when Rangamma gave them the paper, they looked this side and that, and when they came to the picture, they all exclaimed, 'Oh, here he is-- and so much like him too!" And then they all said, 'Our Moorthy is a great man, and they speak of him in the city and we shall work for him,' and from then onwards we all began to spin more and more, and more and more, and Moorthy sent bundles and bundles of yarn, and we got saris and bodice cloths and dhotis, and Moorthy said the Mahatma was very pleased. Maybe he would remember us!
THEN BHATTA heard of the Congress Committee, W he said to himself, Now this is bad business,' and seated on the veranda, he began to think and think, and the fair carts rolled by and the dust settled down, and the noise of the snoring cattle comes from the byre, and the bats began to screech and screech, and from the Bebbur Mound rose the wailings of the jackals, and even the moon plumped up above the Kenchamma Hill, and still Bhatta sat on the veranda thinking. There must be an end to this chatter. If not, the very walls of Kanthapura will crackle and fall before the year is out. What with his fastings and his looks, Moorthy was holding sway over the hearts of the people. And even the Swami's excommunication did nothing to stop it. Well, well, he said to himself, every squirrel has his day, and now for every Congress member the interest will go up to 18 and 20 per cent. And no kind words either-ah, my sons! and no getting away from law courts. Pariah Lingayya has his Big-bund field in mortgage, and if he does not pay up this harvest-time, he will have not a rag-wide left. And there will be no accepting, Just a week, master. Just a week more, say ten days, and this gold-flower in guarantee.. None of this any more. Then there is Madanna's coconut-garden, and Pandit Venkateshia's Bebbur-field, though with the brahmins it's not such easy business.
'Well, well, every squirrel will have his day,' repeated Bhatta to himself. But Temple Rangappa is still with me, and Patwari Nanjundia and Schoolmaster Devarayya, and, of course, Rama Chetty and Subba Chetty. And they are all with me and the Swami, and against all this pariah business. And there is Venkamma too.' And at the thought of Venkamma an idea came into his head like a cart-light in the dark, an auspicious, happy idea, and he said, I shall find a bridegroom for her daughter, and she will be always with us, and what with her tongue and her tail, she will set fire where we want'. And at this Bhatta felt so happy that he began to search in his mind for this bridegroom and that bridegroom, and he said, there was Shanbhog Ramanna of Channèhalli, and Astrologer Seetha- ramiah of Rampur, and then of course there was Advocate Secnappa.
'Scenappa,' he repeated to himself, 'he's just lost his wife. And very soon, when I have to go and speak about the new harvests, he will speak about marriage, and I shall say there is a fine girl in Kanthapura, and he will say, "Is she ripe for 'marriage?" and I shall say, "She will come home in a few weeks' time," and that will do it, and Venkamma will be so happy to have an advocate for a son-in-law. "After all, Venkamma, what does it matter whether it is first marriage or a second marriage? What we ask is that your daughter will have enough to eat, and be blessed with many children, and perform all the rites, isn't it? Secnappa is thirty-four, but you would say he is twenty- one if you saw him, and he has only three children, and one of them is soon to be married and will go away to her mother-in-law's, and your daughter will have the two god-like children to live with. What do you say to that, Venkamma?" And Venkamma will answer, "Of course! Of course! Bhattarè, whatever you say will be done," and Secnappa will be so happy; after all a mother-in-law in Kanthapura, and so near his wet lands too... and this Bhatta will himself perform the marriage, and the Swami will bless them.'
'That is a fine idea,' concluded Bhatta, and as he went in and groped for his bed, he felt such joy rise to his heart that he woke up his wife and said, 'Come, don't sleep!', and when she muttered, 'Oh, let me sleep,' he said, 'Oh, be a wife!' and she said she was tired; but Bhatta said he was happy and Venkamma's daughter would be married to Advocate Seenappa, and she said, 'And what does that matter to me?' Mean- while the child woke up, and when she had rocked it to sleep again, she slipped into his bed, and chattering fool that she was, she said he had never loved her as on that night.
And when the morning came, he rushed to the river and back, and then to Venkamma's house; but there was no Venkamma yet, and he said he would come back, and he went home and was hardly scated for meditation than Venkamma arrives important as a buffalo, and she says, 'What's it, Bhattarè, that you honour us with your visit?' and Bhatta says, 'Oh, nothing at all. It is only about a horoscope I've in hand, and maybe it would go with Ranga's'. And Venkamma cries out, Oh, Bhattarè, you will save my honour and the honour of my family, if you manage it,' and Bhatta says, 'Oh, never mind, Venkamma, after all every pious member of the community has duties towards every other, and if your daughter was not married in time, maybe, nobody will marry my daughter either,' and Venkamma is so happy that she begins to weep, and Bhatta's wife comes and says, 'Oh, don't weep, aunt. The will of the gods shall be done,' and Venkamma rises up and says, May Kenchamma bless you!'
And on her way back home she meets Rangamma, and looking away she spits behind her, and then she sees Temple Rangappa's wife Lakshamma, and she says the marriage is for Sravan, and Lakshamma says Then we shall have laddu this year?' and Venkamma says, 'Laddu and pheni,' and by the evening everybody in the village says, 'Venkamma's daughter, Ranga, has at last found a husband, sister!'-'Where does he come from?' asks Nose-scratching Nanjamma of Satamma. --Oh, it seems he is from a well-to-do family. May the goddess bless the girl. If not, what should we have seen before we closed our eyes?'--And people say, 'Well, Venkamma is going to have a rich son-in-law,' --and Postmaster Suryanarayana's wife Akkamma says, My Putta will sing: "For what deed in my past life have you sought me in this, my lord?"-and Satamma says, 'Your Putta sings it so well, sister '-- and Putta feels so pleased that she begins to hum the song to herself, twisting the wet sari, and everybody says, Go on, Putta, go on!' and she begins it, and they all leave the clothes on the stones and follow her, and when she stops, Ratna, who never could sing these songs, says as though only to her mother, 'I shall sing them an English song,' at which Satamma says, Enough of this. Let our marriages at least be according to the ancient ways,' and Subbamma and Chinnamma say they will put on the blue and broad-filigree Benares sari, and young Kamalamma says she will wear the Dharmawar sari in peacock blue, and Venkamma feels such esteem around her that she says to herself, 'Ah, you widows, you will not even lick the remnant leaves in the dust-bin, you polluted widows. . . .'
But when the marriage-day draws near, she sends her elder daughter to every house, saying, 'Tell them you shall not light your kitchen fires for one whole week, and, if you like, for ten whole days. I am not marrying my daughter to Advocate Seenappa for nothing. And everybody asks, I think it's an advocate your sister is marrying?' and Venkamma's elder daughter says, 'Yes, our Ranga is the most fortunate of us all; his father owns three villages and a coconut- garden, and a small coffee plantation in Mysore, and their family is called the Bell-people, as his grandfather distributed holy bells to every guest that stayed with them.' And Satamma says, 'My daughter had not that luck,' and Nanjamma says, 'My daughter hadn't that luck either.' But on the first day, as the bride- groom's procession came along, and we all stood by the village gate, with coconuts and kumkum water to welcome him, what should we see but a middle-aged man, with two fallen teeth and a big twisted moustache. But Venkamma said he was only twenty-five, and he had married at seventeen, and his elder daughter was only seven years old, but we all knew that it came out of Venkamma's head. But Bhatta said he was only about thirty, and that he earned at least three hundred rupees a month; that he had sixty acres of wet land and two hundred acres of dry land, and that his sisters wore half-seer gold belts and diamond car-rings and Dharmawar saris, and that they gave the bride a full seer gold belt; and it was said they would give us a French sovereign each, and indeed every woman of Kanthapura was given a French sovereign. And what a party the marriage was, with jokes and feasts and festive lights, and we all said, 'This Bhatta and Venkamma are not so wicked after all,' and Bhatta said to Venkamma, Let everybody be well satisfied,' and Venkamma said, 'So they shall be!' and every pariah and cur in Kanthapura was satisfied. Only Moorthy wandered by the river all day long, and when dusk fell and evening came he stole back home, hurried over the meal that Rangamma served, spread his bedding and laid himself down, thinking. How, how is one an outcaste?
