Mulk Raj Anand’s Social Realism in Untouchable and Coolie-A Study
Author : Dr. Honnegowda CS
Abstract :
Mulk Raj Anand, a well-known novelist India has ever produced. As a young man, Anand had suffered at the hands of the police during Civil Disobedience Campaign of 1921. Indeed, His writings reflect his urgent social concern, preoccupations and the social impulse and made the reader to be aware of the exploitation faced by the downtrodden through the heart-touching description of the wretched state. Mulk Raj Anand’s two novels Untouchable and Coolie reflect the hard core reality of the Indian Society of early decades of twentieth century. Here, it is a notable thing to say that he was aware of sufferings of the poor at a large extent. Religious hypocrisy, East-West encounter, the place of woman in the society, superstitions, poverty, hunger and exploitation are found as the major themes in the novels of Mulk Raj Anand. He produces a tragic vision of life but also finds resolutions to the problems it presents. In his novels he envisions a world permeated with love and good will. As for as the novel “ Untouchable” is concerned, it has social concern which focuses on the social consciousness and some of the worst customs and traditions which authorise the caste Hindus to exploit the outcastes for their selfish interests.
Keywords :
Industrialism, colonisation, curse of untouchability, poverty, religious belief, prejudices, etc.
