LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:8 August 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Critical Analysis of the Novel Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

G. Krishna Prasad, M.A., M.Phil.
M. Yalamanda Rao, M.A.
Dr. P. Sreenivasulu, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.


Abstract

Having been firmly planted in Indian society for thousands of years, untouchability has been one of the worst dehumanizing forms of social discrimination practiced in it. As a result, vast sections of humanity are inhumanly segregated as outcastes, suppressed and condemned to live in poverty, squalor and degradation, all their potentialities for growth neutralized.

Expressing his faith in ‘humanism’ which does not depend on any divine sanction, and at which he had arrived after much thought and deliberation, Anand says that as a writer he became conscious of the need to help raise the untouchables, the peasants, the serfs, the coolies and the other suppressed members of society, to human dignity and self-awareness in lieu of the abjectness, apathy and despair to which they have been condemned. This paper attempts to look at the unique way in which the characters and situations are handled by the author, Mulk Raj Ananad.

Keywords: Untouchability, Dehumanizing, Social Discrimination, Suppressed Members, Human Dignity, Self-awareness

Bakha, the Protagonist

Bakha, the protagonist, is introduced as a resident of the foul-smelling sweeper colony, as well as the sweeper officially in charge of the three rows of public latrines of the colony. He occupies the center of the stage throughout the novel. While Anand presents him with great sympathy, with real insight into his nature responding to every little change in his mind, he does not idealize him or turn him into a martyr. Bakha is presented as being at once a type and an individual. While he is one of these millions of suffering and exploited untouchables who have been living for thousands of years, anonymously, condemned to a sub-human existence, he is also seen to be an individual, combining in himself qualities which his creator both approves and disapproves.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

G. Krishna Prasad, M.A., M.Phil.
Lecturer in English
Government Degree College
Naidupeta 524001
S.P.S.R Nellore District
Andhra Pradesh
India
gkprasad009@yahoo.in

M. Yalamanda Rao, M.A.
Lecturer in English
VR College
Nellore 524001
Andhra Pradesh
India
matchayallamandarao@gmail.com

Dr. P. Sreenivasulu Reddy, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
GITAM University
Visakhapatnam-530041
Andhra Pradesh
India
sreenupydala@gmail.com

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