After the war, there was great interest in India — and especially in Gandhism. A Swedish publisher, who I think was connected with left-wing organizations, brought out a very large edition of Kanthapura in translation. That the book was backed by a left-wing press, seemed significant. But the most interesting translation after that was a Spanish one from Barcelona, still under the terror of Franco. And the one after that, the most significant one, was from Hungary, under Communist rule.
Thus was the magic of Mahatma Gandhi, the Pied Piper of non-violence and love, drawn to wheresoever it was burgeoning. It was all a part of Gandhi Purana. Never forget Gandhiji begging the British government to go and talk to Hitler, and later the Allies to go and talk to Hirohito of Japan. But Churchill would hear none of it. For Churchill, Gandhiji was only the naked Fakir. Who knows, the Gandhi Purana might ask, who knows what might have happened if Churchill had accepted Gandhiji’s challenge. History is full of miracles. Remember Ashoka of India or Saint Louis of France. Truth is more historic than the sword. India herself has to relearn it.
Introduction
1 Raja Rao, The Policeman and the Rose: Stories. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978, p. xiv.
2 Raja Rao, The Chessmaster and His Moves. New Delhi: Vision Books, 1988, p. 1.
3 R. Parthasarathy, ‘The Future World Is Being Made in America: An Interview with Raja Rao’, Span (September 1977): 30.
4 Braj B. Kachru, The Indianization of English: The English Language in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
5 Raja Rao, Kanthapura. London: Allen and Unwin, 1938. Reprinted 1963, New York: New Directions. Subsequent citations from the American edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
6 Raja Rao, The Serpent and the Rope. London: John Murray, 1960. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
7 I have not been able to trace the source of this quotation.
8 Chāndogya Upaniṣad, VI.8.7, in The Principal Upaniṣads, ed. & trans. S. Radhakrishnan. London: Allen and Unwin, 1953, p. 458.
9 Raja Rao, ‘The Writer and the Word’, The Literary Criterion 7.1 (Winter 1965): 231.
10 Robert Redfield, Peasant Society and Culture: An Anthropological Approach to Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956, pp. 67–104.
11 Janet Powers Gemmill, ‘The Transcreation of Spoken Kannada in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura’, Literature East and West 18.2–4 (1974): 191–202.
12 Gemmill, ‘The Transcreation of Spoken Kannada in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura’, p. 194.
13 C.D. Narasimhaiah, ‘Indian Writing in English: An Introduction,’ The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 5 (1968): 14.
14 Quoted in M.K. Naik, Raja Rao. Twayne World Authors Series. New York: Twayne, 1972, p. 106.
15 Louis Dumont and David Pocock, ‘On the Different Aspects or Levels in Hinduism,’ Contributions to Indian Sociology 3 (July 1959): 45.
16 Bhavabhuti, Rama’s Later History (Uttararāmacarita), part 1: Introduction and Translation by Shripad Krishna Belvalkar. Harvard Oriental Series, 21. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1915, p. 39.
17 Raja Rao, The Cat and Shakespeare. New York: Macmillan, 1965, pp. 8–10. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
18 Arthur Avalon, ed. Kulacūdāmani Nigama, with an introduction and translation by A.K. Maitra. Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1956, ch. 1, verses 25–26.
19 Raja Rao, The Policeman and the Rose: Stories. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 88. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
20 Rabindranath Tagore, Stories from Tagore. New York: Macmillan, 1918, p. 122. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
21 Integral Yoga Institute, ed. Dictionary of Sanskrit Names. Yogaville, Buckingham, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1989, p. 57.
22 Sushil Kumar De, ed., and Rev. V. Raghavan, The Meghadūta of Kālidāsa, 3rd ed. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1982, verse 11.
23 Raja Rao, On the Ganga Ghat. Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1993, p. 112. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
24 Sankara, Ātmabodhaḥ.: Self-Knowledge, trans. Swami Nikhilananda. Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1967, p. 261, verse 11.