Mulk Raj Anand

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 Mulkraj Anand 
(1905-2004) 

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English literature notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society.

  • He is notable for incorporating Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English.
  • His first main novel “Untouchable” (1935) was a chilling expose of the day-to-day life of a member of Indian’s untouchable caste.
  •  For introducing Hindi and Punjabi idioms, Anand is regarded as India’s Charles Dickens.
  •  He is one of the pioneers of indo Indo-American fiction together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmed Ali and Raja Rao.
  •  His first prose essay was a response to the suicide of an aunt in his family who had been ex-communicated by his family for sharing a meal with a Muslim woman.
  • The introduction of untouchable is written by E. M. Forster. Forster wrote: “Avoiding rhetoric and circumlocution, it has gone straight to the heart of its subjects and purified it”.
  •  He spent half of his life in London and half in India.
  •  George Orwell penned a favorable review of Anand’s 1942 novel, The Sword and the Sickle.
  •  He returned to India in 1946.
  •  He founded a literary magazine “Marg” 1946.
  •  In 1950, he embarked on a project to write a seven part autobiography. One part Morning Face, won him Sahitya Akademi Award.
  •  In 1952, he was awarded The International Peace for World Peace.
  •  He called himself ‘bogus professor’.
  •  He is called Zola or Balzac of India.
  •  He is also known as “Founding Fathers of Indian English novels”.
  • He met Forster, while he was working on T. S. Eliot’s magazine “Criterian”.
  • He combines anthropology, history and fiction.

Important novels of Anand 

 

  1.  Untouchable (1935)
  2.  Coolie (1936)
  3.  Two Leaves and a Bud (1937), Protagonist- Gangu.
  4.  Lal Singh Trilogy:
  5.  The Village (1937) –Protagonist: Lal Singh
  6.  Across the Black Water (1939)
  7.  The Sword and the Sickle (1942); (the title is given by George Orwell)
  8. The Big Heart (1945) Protagonist: Ananta
  9. The Private Life of an Indian Prince (It is autobiographical in nature and deals with the abolition of princely states system in India).

Autobiographies 

  1. Seven Summers (1951) (It is in 7 volumes. When compiled it was titled The Seven Ages of Man).
  2. The Morning Face (1968)
  3.  Conversations of Bloomsbury (1981).  It is about his life in London during the heyday of Bloomsbury group.

Untouchable (1935) 

  •  This novel was inspired by his aunt’s experience when she had a meal with a Muslim women and was treated as an outcast by his family.
  •  It depicts a day in the life of ‘Bakha’, a young sweeper, who is untouchable due to his work of cleaning latrines.
  •  The entire plot gives us the account of events happening in a single day in the life of Bakha. He doesn’t like to do toilet cleaning but wants to do study and be a learned man. Lakha is the father of Bakha, who is a bit of antagonist in the novel, his profession is sweeper. 
  •  The outcasts were not allowed to draw water from wells, enter temples or basically touch anything, as it would make anything impure and corrupt.
  •  In the end of the novel, Anand presents three answers to the malpractice of untouchability.
  •  Bakha in offered to accept Christianity that has no caste system and so he will be no longer an outcaste. But Bakha fears changing his religion.
  •  Sohini is the sister of Bakha.
  • Mahatma Gandhi comes to the village and educates everyone on untouchability.
  •  In the concluding paragraph, a person randomly comes into the scene and informs everyone about a machine (perhaps toilet flush) that will clean faecal matters automatically
  •  Bakha thinks that this will be a solution to all his problems.

Coolie (1936) 

  •  The book is highly critical of British rule in India and India’s caste system.
  •  The plot revolves around a 14-year old boy Munoo and his plight due to poverty and exploitation aided by social and political structure in place.
  •  Munoo who at his early stage gets into obscurity of his own existence.

 

Main Characters 

 

  • Daya (Munoo’s aunt)
  •  Gujari (Munoo’s uncle)
  • H.K.Forster criticized this novel for defective plot construction.

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