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Badè Khan
The original head of the Skeffington Coffee Estate, the Sahib is a cruel and violent profiteer who exemplifies colonial greed in India. He employs the maistri to terrorize the coolies, preventing them from resisting or leaving the Estate, and takes pleasure in threatening the seven-year-old Chenna on the child’s first day at the Estate.
Sahib Quotes in Kanthapura
The Kanthapura quotes below are all either spoken by Sahib or refer to Sahib. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Section 5
Quotes
And they all rose up like one rock and fell on the ground saying, “You are a dispenser of good, O Maharaja, we are the lickers of your feet…”
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[Pariah Siddayya] tells you about the dasara havu that is so clever that he got into the Sahib’s drawer and lay there curled up, and how, the other day, when the sahib goes to the bathroom, a lamp in his hand, and opens the drawer to take out some soap, what does he see but our Maharaja, nice and clean and shining with his eyes glittering in the lamplight, and the Sahib, he closes the drawer as calmly as a prince; but by the time he is back with his pistol, our Maharaja has given him the slip. And the Sahib opens towel after towel to greet the Maharaja, but the Maharaja has gone on his nuptial ceremony and he will never be found.
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What is a policeman before a Gandhi’s man? Tell me, does a boar stand before a lion or a jackal before an elephant?
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Sahib Quotes in Kanthapura
The Kanthapura quotes below are all either spoken by Sahib or refer to Sahib. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Section 5
Quotes
And they all rose up like one rock and fell on the ground saying, “You are a dispenser of good, O Maharaja, we are the lickers of your feet…”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[Pariah Siddayya] tells you about the dasara havu that is so clever that he got into the Sahib’s drawer and lay there curled up, and how, the other day, when the sahib goes to the bathroom, a lamp in his hand, and opens the drawer to take out some soap, what does he see but our Maharaja, nice and clean and shining with his eyes glittering in the lamplight, and the Sahib, he closes the drawer as calmly as a prince; but by the time he is back with his pistol, our Maharaja has given him the slip. And the Sahib opens towel after towel to greet the Maharaja, but the Maharaja has gone on his nuptial ceremony and he will never be found.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
What is a policeman before a Gandhi’s man? Tell me, does a boar stand before a lion or a jackal before an elephant?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
