Voice of the Voiceless
Introduction: Mulk Raj Anand (1905- 2004) always spoke for the poor. Puja Goyal discusses some of his finest novels...
Article: Mulk Raj Anand 1905-2004
A pioneer of Indian writing in English, Mulk Raj Anand gained an international following early in his life and spanning a period of more than seventy-five years has been inextricably intertwined with the search for a just, equitable, and forward-looking India. He has written extensively in areas as variegated and diverse as art and sculpture, politics, Indian literature and history of ideas.
His novels Coolie and Untouchable set an entire generation of educated Indians thinking about India's social evils that were perpetuated in the name of religion and tradition.
Untouchable (1935): Anand's first novel; was published with a Preface by E. M. Forster. It is about one day in the life of 18-year-old Bakha; a sweeper who cleans the public latrines in the morning and by evening has begun to question the necessity of his caste exclusion after hearing a speech by Gandhi. Untouchable, was a chilling exposé of the day-to-day life of a member of India's Untouchable caste. It is the story Bakha who accidentally bumps into a member of a higher caste.
"Dirty dog! Son of a bitch! Offspring of a pig! ? I'll have to go? o? o? And get washed?d?d? I? I was going to business and now? Now, on account of you, I'll be late." (Excerpt Untouchable)
Bakha searches for a salve to the tragedy of the destiny into which he was born, talking first with a Christian missionary and then with a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, but by the end of the book he concludes that it is technology, in the form of the newly introduced flush toilet that will be his savior. While the toilet may deprive him and his family of the traditional livelihood they have had for centuries, it may also liberate them in the end by eliminating the need for a caste of toilet cleaners.
Coolie (1936): portrays the picaresque adventures of Munoo, a young boy who is forced to leave his hill village to fend for himself and discover the world. His journey takes him far from home to towns and cities, sweating as servant, factory-worker and rickshaw driver. It is a fight for the survival that illuminates, with raw immediacy, the grim fate of the masses in pre-Partition India.
Two Leaves and a Bud (1937): describes an exploited peasant, who is killed while trying to protect his daughter from being raped by a British colonial official. It, concretely represents Anand's socialist belief in the possibilities of collective action, ends with the defeat of a group of workers seeking better working conditions on a tea plantation and the murder of the novel's protagonist, Gangu, by the Assistant Planter, a vicious, drunken, power-hungry sexual predator who is absolved by the English of any wrongdoing.
Untouchable, Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud, earned him rave reviews establishing him as among this century's finest Indian novelists writing in English. They also earned him a reputation as the most revolutionary of India's writers working in English. His novels are exclusively about India and Indians, and are the first examples of Indo-Anglian fiction to adopt outcastes or social pariahs as their heroes, they use English in a new way to communicate Indian idiom, and they integrate the political speeches of the period's most prominent Indian political figures, Gandhi and Nehru.
Mulk Raj Anand received the International Peace Prize from World Peace Council. Sahitya Akademi Award, "Padma Bhushan" and Leverhulme Fellowship are some of the awards and accolades during his long literary career. The Library of Congress has more than one hundred and fifty publications by and on him in its collection.
© 2004 Puja Goyal
Article: Mulk Raj Anand 1905-2004
A pioneer of Indian writing in English, Mulk Raj Anand gained an international following early in his life and spanning a period of more than seventy-five years has been inextricably intertwined with the search for a just, equitable, and forward-looking India. He has written extensively in areas as variegated and diverse as art and sculpture, politics, Indian literature and history of ideas.
His novels Coolie and Untouchable set an entire generation of educated Indians thinking about India's social evils that were perpetuated in the name of religion and tradition.
Untouchable (1935): Anand's first novel; was published with a Preface by E. M. Forster. It is about one day in the life of 18-year-old Bakha; a sweeper who cleans the public latrines in the morning and by evening has begun to question the necessity of his caste exclusion after hearing a speech by Gandhi. Untouchable, was a chilling exposé of the day-to-day life of a member of India's Untouchable caste. It is the story Bakha who accidentally bumps into a member of a higher caste.
"Dirty dog! Son of a bitch! Offspring of a pig! ? I'll have to go? o? o? And get washed?d?d? I? I was going to business and now? Now, on account of you, I'll be late." (Excerpt Untouchable)
Bakha searches for a salve to the tragedy of the destiny into which he was born, talking first with a Christian missionary and then with a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, but by the end of the book he concludes that it is technology, in the form of the newly introduced flush toilet that will be his savior. While the toilet may deprive him and his family of the traditional livelihood they have had for centuries, it may also liberate them in the end by eliminating the need for a caste of toilet cleaners.
Coolie (1936): portrays the picaresque adventures of Munoo, a young boy who is forced to leave his hill village to fend for himself and discover the world. His journey takes him far from home to towns and cities, sweating as servant, factory-worker and rickshaw driver. It is a fight for the survival that illuminates, with raw immediacy, the grim fate of the masses in pre-Partition India.
Two Leaves and a Bud (1937): describes an exploited peasant, who is killed while trying to protect his daughter from being raped by a British colonial official. It, concretely represents Anand's socialist belief in the possibilities of collective action, ends with the defeat of a group of workers seeking better working conditions on a tea plantation and the murder of the novel's protagonist, Gangu, by the Assistant Planter, a vicious, drunken, power-hungry sexual predator who is absolved by the English of any wrongdoing.
Untouchable, Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud, earned him rave reviews establishing him as among this century's finest Indian novelists writing in English. They also earned him a reputation as the most revolutionary of India's writers working in English. His novels are exclusively about India and Indians, and are the first examples of Indo-Anglian fiction to adopt outcastes or social pariahs as their heroes, they use English in a new way to communicate Indian idiom, and they integrate the political speeches of the period's most prominent Indian political figures, Gandhi and Nehru.
Mulk Raj Anand received the International Peace Prize from World Peace Council. Sahitya Akademi Award, "Padma Bhushan" and Leverhulme Fellowship are some of the awards and accolades during his long literary career. The Library of Congress has more than one hundred and fifty publications by and on him in its collection.
© 2004 Puja Goyal
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