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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1128
Social realism in mulk raj anand’s untouchable & coolie
Dr. Dinesh Sharma
R.S.D. College
Ferozepur City
Abstract: Mulk Raj Anand is very well-known as an Indian novelist, distinguished writer, reformer, art critic,
editor, journalist, a short story writer and political activist. He opened another area as writers of fiction along
with Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan and produced a great deal of English literature and his mastery in the realistic
and sympathetic portrayal of the exploited class of Indian society marks his genius as a socially committed
novelist. That’s why he is known as India’s Charles Dickens as well as considered the messiah of the have-nots,
unloved, down trodden and unwanted. Painted with the colors of social realism Mulk Raj Anand‟s two novels
Untouchable and Coolie reflect the hard core reality of the Indian society of early decades of twentieth century.
Written with a purpose, both these novels condemn the modern capitalistic Indian society and feudal system for
the shameless and tragic exploitation of the poor and underdog as there is only a true, real and bitter reflection of
the society in both the novels dealing with a similar central theme of social exploitation, the exploitation of the
downtrodden and the under-privileged because of the curse of untouchability, poverty, hunger, child labor, social
governance, social set up of society, customs, religious belief, prejudices and the suffering of the Indian masses
by the forces of capitalism, industrialism and colonialism. The present paper demonstrates the true colors of
social realism in Untouchable and Coolie; the epic like novels of M. K. Anand, to strike a chord in the hearts of
the consciententious Indians through a beautiful and real to life portrayal of the exploited masses of Indian
society.
Mulk Raj Anand, born in 1905 in Peshawar in present day Pakistan, was a pioneer of Indian writing in English. He
gained an international following in his life. His novels Coolie and Untouchable set an entire generation of educated
Indians contemplating India's social evils that were perpetuated in the name of religion and tradition. These and
other early novels and short stories brought into sharp concentration the dehumanizing logical inconsistencies inside
colonized Indian society. Through his writings he revealed that notwithstanding the foreign colonialism of Britain
there existed layers of colonialism inside Indian society. This internal colonialism obstructed India's transition to a
modern common society. While exposing the overarching divide between the British and a colonized India, he
reveals an Indian society creating its own layers of colonizers and colonized thereby rendering the fledgling Indian
nationalism an extremely problematic concept. He was a founding member of Progressive Writers Association, a
national level association that wielded considerable influence amid India's freedom struggle and beyond. An
incredibly prolific writer, Anand's creative career traversing a period of more than seventy-five years has been
inextricably intertwined with the search for a simply, 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. He
kept in steady touch with literary giants from over the globe, among them E.M. Forster who wrote a foreword to his
novel, "Untouchable". 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 amid his
long literary career [1].
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ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
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The idea of untouchability as a social evil obsessed the minds of men in the 1930‟s. Gandhi called the untouchables
harijan ("men of God") and battled almost single handed for the eradication of the evil of untouchability. Through
this revolutionary novel Anand projects all untouchables in India and their everyday problems in real life. The
realistic description of what Anand himself has seen and presented all through the novel makes it a slice from a life
with no modification [2]. With precision Anand evoked the neighbourhood shade of the novel with the photographic
realism to describe the problem of untouchability -the social curse.
Untouchable is fundamentally an epic of misery of the individual trapped in the net of the age old caste system,
however at the same time, the novel has its very own tragic beauty. For Anand, filth and dirt is as much a part of life
as beauty, cleanliness and decency. It is not that he loves ugliness but rather realism demands it in the event that it is
that in real life. That is the reason he has not hesitated to introduce the neglected stratum of society in his novel. In
his preface to Untouchable E.M. Forster called Mulk Raj Anand’s first novel Untouchable, indescribably clean
however criticized by news-papers in London as a dirty work‟
Untouchable deals with different types of exploitations, for example, social, economic, political and sexual
exploitation, as exploitation is its major theme however social exploitation is at the base of every other exploitation
that refers to the class discrimination on the premise of birth, which gives some castes undue advantage over other
castes. It is an inner clash of an individual who is caught in the web of an age old caste system. P. K. Rajan in his
Studies in Mulk Raj Anand says, it is the individual’s quest for freedom in a social system of ruthless exploitation
[3].
In Untouchable, he conveyed fictional life to his boyhood companion, the untouchable sweeper kid – Bakha his hero
during his time observation as though he has spent a day with Bakha to make it very much real and true and works
round him a spiritual crisis expansive enough to embrace the whole of India in a single days' action and captures
Bakha's pride in his work of cleaning latrines. As indicated by Premila Paul, Bakha serves as a mirror to the pathetic
correlation of the untouchables and represents each one of those sweepers who are doomed to live life worse than
the slaves.
Every aspect of the novel reflects a very true picture of social realism. Anand creates sympathy for the low caste
who clean dirt and are treated like dirt by the high castes. The novel begins with a brutal realistic picture of the
outcastes colony and makes the theme of the novel – untouchability itself very realistic. The description of the
outcaste colony in the beginning of the novel reveals poverty as well as the subhuman level of their existence
There lived the scavengers, the leather-workers, the washer men, the barbers, the water carriers, the grass cutters and
other out castes from Hi the smell of the hides and skins of dead carcasses left to dry on its banks society[4].
The castes which look after the cleanliness of the high castes are destined to live in dirt.
Anand has used real Indian words to narrate the humiliation and his pan picture has great quality to make the novel
real. Indian tone makes Anand’s use of words very realistic
“Men came one after another, towards the latrines. Most of them were Hindus, naked, except for the loin- cloth, brass jugs in hand and with the sacred thread twisted round their left ears.”
His utilization of literal translation of Punjabi exclamations and swear-words demonstrates his real portrayal of
Punjabi characters and realistic presentation of Punjabi life with great minuteness and present the persuading and
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European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
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ISSN: 2235-767X
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May 2019
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sound accounts of the social manners, customs, ideas and beliefs of Punjab. There is a continuous utilization of the
articulations like "Rapemother", "Rape-sister", "Wha Guru", "Ri daughter of a Pig" in the novel. The abusive words
" low-caste vermin", "Swine", "Cock eyed son of a bow-legged Scorpion", "dog", "brute", "dirty dog", "Son of a
bitch", "Son of a dog", "Offspring of a pig" and so on tossed on forlorn and helpless Bakha by the general
population who gather around him, reveal their polluted personality [5].
Outcastes are treated as subhuman species amongst humans and dogs .Even the high caste ladies treat the outcastes
more terrible than animals. As, they don't allow them to touch them however they touch even the stinking animals
like cows and bulls:
“Vay Bakhiya, take this. Here’s your bread coming down.’ And she flung it at him.”
Indeed, even Anand' narration of Bakha's want to look like Britishers is especially real to the colonial personality of
Indian untouchable. The hypocrisy of the high caste retailers who manipulates the scales to cheat the outcastes
realizing that they won't challenge and accept the cash paid by the outcaste by splashing water on it and toss at them
the things they buy [6]. When Bakha failed to announce himself as usual and pollutes‟ a caste Hindu unwittingly
consequently gets the downpour of abuses;
“Why don’t you call, you swine, and announce your approach!”
In any case, the heart compassionate final upheaval from Bakha makes us feel as if Anand was waiting for that;
“They think we are mere dirt because we clean their dirt......... I won’t go down to the town again. I have done
with this job”.
Anand also throw light on the hypocrisy and lustfulness of the self important alleged priest through the character of
Pt Kalinath who has a solid sexual desire with Sohini, an untouchable however accepts to be polluted by the touch of
untouchable. This age old tyranny and foul play done to untouchable in India can be seen when Pt. Kalinath fails to
attack Sohini and raises an alarm of:
“Polluted, Polluted, Polluted!’
The helplessness of a brother who curses himself to have such a beautiful sister exhibits a genuine and real picture
of the society in a beautifully intertwined piece of narrative art [7]:
“So beautiful! So beautiful and so accursed! I wish she had been the ugliest woman in the world. Then no one
would have teased her!”
Anand communicates his anger, agony and despair of the exploitation of the outcastes in the name of religion and
considered Hindu religion itself in charge of this social discrimination. Brahmin priests and Mahants who are the
supposed custodians of religion keep themselves away from the shadows of the outcastes yet don't hesitate to molest
their young ladies. The molestation of the untouchables by the high caste is extremely basic all through the wide
open of India. They take a gander at the low caste ladies as objects of sexual satisfaction. As, both the superiority
and the inferiority complex are too profoundly rooted in the high caste and the low caste individually. That’s why
the foul aggression of the priest towards the untouchable young lady is tolerated by them.
