Realism, Idealism and Progressive Outlook of U. R. Anathamurthy’s Bharthipura: A Critical Study

Abstract

R. Ananthamurthy is a progressive writer of the twentieth century India, who was a prominent south India during the Nehru period, depicted the caste ridden society of India who believes on more on God than themselves. The writer has shown that to rule over human they made the caste system. They have made the God to create fear in the human minds. The protagonist of the novel has rightly said, “Unless we destroy God, We will never be creative. We are all like embryo in the womb of God. We remain unborn” (Bharthipura p.11). The people are so conservative that they can’t do a single work without the name of God. Jagannatha, the protagonist of the novel, who has studied in England and whose girlfriend has gone with someone else, has returned to Bharthipura village with a progressive outlook and when he sees the different kinds of sanskar of the village, he became surprised. Observing the condition of the Holeyaru, dalits, he decided to reform their condition but due to the ideology of the society that they think that they are born for cleaning toilets not for education. The reality is that our country is backward because most of dalits are illiterate due to this caste system. Jagannatha realized that their condition can be reformed after removing fear of god from their minds. He decided that he would motivate the dalits to enter in the temples and touch the god.