INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH
Early classics
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`Writing in the 1930s, Mulk Raj Anand focused his gaze on social practices like untouchability ...'
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MULK RAJ ANAND, who died in September 2004, was one of the select band who pioneered Indian writing in English. Writing in the 1930s, he focused his gaze on social practices like untouchability and issues like poverty. Untouchable (published in 1935) and Coolie (published in 1936) brought social injustices to the forefront. Penguin Viking has brought out a special commemorative edition — The Mulk Raj Anand Omnibus — comprising Untouchable, Coolie and Private Life of an Indian Prince with an introduction by Saros Cowajee.
Untouchable covers just one day in the life of Bakha, a sweeper boy. But 24 hours are enough for Anand to portray the boy's dreams to be like the sahibs, his wrestling with his social position, which his father seems content with, his rage and powerlessness at being unable to protect his sister from the priest's advances... Yet Bakha's life is not wholly devoid of joy. The end, however, seems unsatisfactory. Bakha cannot lead a life of dignity unless someone leads him to it, whether it is Gandhi, the missionaries or western industrialists with their flush toilets. Why cannot Bakha find his own liberation? Or is that the reaction of a generation brought up on the concept of human rights for all? Bakha's story is not unknown today. Untouchability still exists despite all the attempts to eradicate it. The novel is not a fire-breathing revolutionary one. Rather, its detached and precise tone leaves you with a feeling of discomfort long after you put it down.
Coolie is another novel in the same category as Untouchable. It focuses Munoo's journey from his native hills to a small town, big town and finally back to the hills to die. Munoo is an orphan who survives by working as first a servant, then a factory worker and finally as a rickshaw puller. In the process, the reader is made aware of police brutality, caste and communal strife and exploitation of the poor. In a world where sweat shops and forced labour still exist, where police brutality, caste and communal strife and exploitation of the poor continue to dog the lives of people, Munoo strikes a chord even with the modern reader. This is not something new, it's something that we still see around us.
Though it did seem contrived, Bakha in Untouchable seemed to have a way out even if he had to be led to it. Munoo is given no such reprieve. He falls prey to tuberculosis (again this has echoes in today's India) and heads back to his beloved hills to finish his life.
A different proposition
The third novel in this collection is different from the other two. Private Life of an Indian Prince is, for starters, more emotional than the other two. Cowasjee's Introduction indicates that Anand was in emotional turmoil while writing this novel. Prince Ashok Kumar may be charming but he is wilful, thoroughly spoilt and a washout in politics. His nymphomaniac mistress, Ganga, drives him up the wall with her manipulations and hysterics but he cannot do without her. Outside his palace, he has driven his subjects to revolt, the newly formed Indian state wants to absorb his Sham Pur but he continues to believe that the British will not abandon the Indian princes. Finally he loses all — his state, his love and his sanity. Written with insight and humour, this novel raises some sympathy for the prince. In a way it's an oblique comment on the plight of the princes who believed that their rights would be protected in independent India.
R. KRITHIKA
The Mulk Raj Anand Omnibus, edited with an introduction by Saros Cowajee, Penguin Viking, Rs. 695.
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