LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:11 November 2016
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.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Authoritarianism of Caste and Class System in
Mulk Raj Anand’s Novels Untouchable and Coolie

Ms. V. StellaMeri., M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.

Abstract

Anand’s determination to rid Indian society of the evils of caste and class conflict led him to write Untouchable and Coolie. The central theme of untouchable is the age old injustice met out by the traditional Hindu society upon certain people with its denomination on the pretext of some incongruous ideologies. In Untouchable, Anand is on sure ground as he is denouncing an aspect of traditional Hindu society which deserve absolute condemnation.

The central theme of the novel Coolie is the tragic denial to a simple, landless peasant of the fundamental right to happiness. Munoo, the character introduced by Mulk Raj Anand in Coolie is an effective instance of being a victim of exploitation. Coolie has epical sweep if not epical significance. The four tragic episodes which make up Munoo’s tragic life as servant in a Bank clerk’s household, as a worker in a pickle factory in a feudal city, as a factory worker in an industry in Bombay and lastly as a servant of a woman in Simla presents a sequence of events suggestive of the abject condition of a helpless, illiterate Indian. His very journey across the country affording of a vivid panoramic view of the variegated facets of India is not a journey a self-discovery or self-definition but towards a kind of tragic death.

Keywords: Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable, Coolie, caste system

Novels of Reality

In Untouchable, Anand is on sure ground as he is denouncing an aspect of traditional Hindu society which deserve absolute condemnation. This shameful practice prevalent in India since time immemorial, has been seriously viewed by Anand in this novel. E.M. Forster in his preface to Untouchable comments that the Indians,

[…] have evolved a hideous nightmare unknown to the west; the belief that the products are ritually unclean as well as physically unpleasant, and those who carry them away or otherwise help to dispose of them are outcastes from society. Really it takes the human mind to evolve anything so devilish. No animal could have hit on it. (9)

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

Ms. V. StellaMeri., M.A., B.Ed., M. Phil.
Assistant Professor of English
Sri Kaliswari College (Autonomous)
Virudhunagar Main Road
Sivakasi 626123
Tamil Nadu
India
stellameri87@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.