Untouchable mulk raj anand wikipedia

He uses Bakha and the people populating the young man's world to craft his argument. Bakha's day starts with his father yelling at him to get out of bed and clean the latrines. The relationship between the father and son is strained, in part due to Bakha's obsession with the British, in part because of Bakha's laziness. Bakha ignores his father but eventually gets up to answer the demands of a high-caste man that wants to use the bathroom.

This man is Charat Singh, a famous hockey player. At first, Singh also yells at Bakha for neglecting his cleaning duties. However, the man has a changeable personality. An overjoyed Bakha agrees. High on his good fortune he quickly finishes his morning shift and hurries home, dying of thirst. Unfortunately, there is no water in the house.

His sister Sohini offers to go fill the water bucket. At the well, Sohini must wait behind several other outcasts also queued up. Also waiting for water is Gulabo, mother of one of Bakha's friends and a jealous woman. She hates Sohini and is just barely stopped from striking the young woman. A priest from the town temple named Pundit Kali Nath comes along and helps Sohini get water.

Untouchable mulk raj anand wikipedia: Pages in category "Novels

He instructs her to come to clean the temple later in the day. Sohini agrees and hurries home with the water. Back at home Lakha fakes an illness and instructs Bakha to clean the town square and the temple courtyard in his stead. Bakha is wise to the wily ways of his father but cannot protest. He takes up his cleaning supplies and goes into town.

Untouchable mulk raj anand wikipedia: He became known for

His sweeping duties usually keep him too busy to go into town, and so he takes advantage of the situation by buying cigarettes and candies. As Bakha eats his candies, a high-caste man brushes up against him. The touched man did not see Bakha because the sweeper forgot to give the untouchable's call. The man is furious. His yelling attracts a large crowd that joins in on Bakha's public shaming.

A traveling Muslim vendor in a horse and buggy comes along and disperses the crowd. Before the touched man leaves he slaps Bakha across the face for his impudence and scurries away. A shocked Bakha cries in the streets before gathering his things and hurrying off to the temple. This time, he did not forget the untouchable's call. At the temple, a service is in full swing.

It intrigues Bakha, who eventually musters up the courage to climb up the stairs to the temple door and peer inside. He's only standing there for a few moments before a loud commotion comes from behind him. As a crowd gathers around, Bakha pulls his sister away. Crying, she tells him that the priest sexually assaulted her. A furious Bakha tries to go back to confront the priest, but an embarrassed and ashamed Sohini forces him to leave.

This has resulted in the passage of numerous anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action initiatives along caste lines in contemporary India. Furthermore, the appearance of one Mahatma Gandhi in the novel explicitly places the book in a distinctive historical context.

Untouchable mulk raj anand wikipedia: Untouchable is a novel

Finally, from a literary standpoint, Untouchable stands out because of its inclusion of Punjabi and Hindu idioms in English. The Question and Answer section for Untouchable is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Bakha as ideal brother and worthy son. I'm not sure he is the ideal son. Fancy and romanticism never yield any solutions to the burning problem of society.

So Anand makes an instrument of his humanism to realize the making of an utopia on earth. Untouchable is no exception in this context. Anand is touched with pity at the deplorable plight of the untouchables. The untouchables are segregated and discriminated against the rest of society. The colony does have several outcastes including washermen and leather workers but the scavengers hold the lowest rank in the hierarchy of castes.

They deserve least human love and sympathy as ordained by the age old Vedic tradition. They have been subjected to sub-human status. In some respects animals are better than untouchables because they are at large to use their surroundings without polluting them. Anand never harps on theme of romantic love affairs. The very choice of the theme was an intrepid step towards discouraging untouchability.

He sailed against the current by making a sweeper the hero of his novel and it earned him the wrath of orthodox and fanatic caste Hindus. Anand portrays this predicament vividly. Nor were they allowed access to the nearby brook as their use of it would contaminate the stream. They had no well of their own. Anand is not quixotic about his principles and ideology.

He is very pragmatic and realistic in his approach to the problem of untouchability. The theme of the novel is based on his childhood experiences. Columbia University Press. JSTOR The Journal of Asian Studies. ISSN S2CID The Guardian. The Wire. Retrieved 3 November Greatest Short Stories. Jaico Publishing House. Introduction to Indian art. Kama Kala.

Homage to Khajuraho. The Golden Breath.

Untouchable mulk raj anand wikipedia: In , as India's independence

External links [ edit ]. Wikiquote has quotations related to Mulk Raj Anand. Works of Mulk Raj Anand. Padma Bhushan award recipients — Raghavan Dukhan Ram T. Ramachandran Khushwant Lal Wig. Padmavati D. Pavate Datto Vaman Potdar B. Posthumous conferral — — — — — — — — Sahitya Akademi Award for English. The Guide by R. Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar Sahitya Akademi Fellowship.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan D. Trivedi T. RaghavanMahadevi Varma Umashankar JoshiK. Srinivasa IyengarK. NarasimhacharR.