Marxist criticism in Mulk Raj Anand’s novel

Coolie
P. Priyanka
M. Phil. English Literature, Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Trichy – 2
Abstract:

Coolie first published in 1936 by Mulk Raj Anand, who is one of the first India-based writers in
English to gain an international readership. He has authored other works like The Sword and the
Sickle(1942) and Untouchable(1935), Two Leaves and a Bud(1937) with themes related to
discrimination, orthodoxy, social disparity, untouchability and the highhandedness of the powerful and
the rich.This paper explores on the class system of India and the coolie characters presented in the Coolie
novel portray the life of indigents all over the world. The protagonist Munoo suffers of poverty and
exploitation by the upper class society. Munoo is self-dignified and has zeal for life but he fails to come
up in life because of the oppression. Munoo becomes the victim of social injustice. This paper has
discussed on the suppression and impoverishment imposed on the low class people. This paper deals
with societal statements necessary for the development of society. The paper focuses on social equality
and humanity.

Carl Marx( ) Marx did his economic and social analysis in his contemporary age of 19th century.
Marx was a reader of Dickens in particular. Marxist criticism underwent significant development in the
1920s and 1930s. Marxist criticism rely largely on the issue of realism. marxist critic Georg Lukacs
analysed novel with its ability to reflect the historical and material conditions of society as these were the
criteria for assessing its realism. Ralph Fox wrote "The Novel and the People" in 1937.

Marxist critics examine characters by exploring the wider social and historical forces of which
they are seen as products.

From the time immemorial Class Conflict has been one of the major themes of literature. Mulk
Raj Anand was much appreciated and recognized for this novel Coolie and he was one of those people
who were highly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. And this influence is clearly seen in all his works
including Coolie. True to his Marxist spirit, he always portrayed the real India, and more specifically the
poor India. Though the novel is historically located in 1930s, it continues to enjoy the same
contemporaneity in the present century India.

Coolie is a novel about the lowest class showing the tragic situation of millions of coolies who are
without land and has run away from hunger and starvation. It is because of their poor condition that they
become coolies and labourers and fall prey to forces of oppression in society. This novel revolves around
the migration of Munoo from his home in the hills of Kangra to the towns, the city finally, embracing the
end of his life in Simla. The destitute die somewhere in a corner, unknown and unwept. Coolie means
unskilled workers.Coolie’s appeal is so much innate and translated into more than 38 languages of the
world. It brings to light the inevitable and hidden evils of the Raj, right from exploitation, caste ridden
society and communal riots. Anand has used Capitalism, Imperialism, Industrialism and Communalism to
show their influence on the dispossessed and socially oppressed.

Mulk Raj Anand is a novelist of urgent social concerns and preoccupations, and
the social impulse is at the heart of his writings. He is considered the Messiah of the downtrodden, the
unwanted and the unloved. He is known as India’s Charles Dickens. In Coolie, Anand shows the state of
coolies on a big scale. Mulk Raj Anand's novel depicted a realistic and sympathetic portrait of the poor in
India. Anand feels“Man is the measure of all things his works are nothing if not humanistic in their
vision” (49).Even in a random reading of Anand’s novels, the reader becomes immediately aware of such
issues as the tyranny of the caste system, its injustice, and its social, moral and economic consequences,
classconflicts, exploitation of various kinds of the poor by the rich, quest for identity, search for freedom,
etc. Undercolonial rule, a number of social and economic changes took place and as a result a feudal
society was gradually transformed into a capitalistic one.

The society is divided by class system and categorised as haves and have-nots. The rich exploit the poor
in several ways since they are meek, fatalists and at the same time satisfied with their living conditions.
The class system does not give chance for the poor to come up.The bourgeoisie expand their class
through institutions and ideology. But the reality of the working class in Coolie is that it itself is without
demarcations. Thus the coolies can move in and out of this class. There is no ideological barrier that
brackets the working class. The rich not only suppressed men and women but also their children. Jimmie
Thomas is an example of one of the suppressers who utilized the Indian workers like anything. He
harassed the poor natives. Munoo realises economic status has a strong hold on society and the caste
system no longer relevant.

“I am Munoo, Babu Nathoo Ram’s servant,”(46), Munoo identifies himself based on the role assigned to
him. He accepts it without questioning the exhausting work, the abuse or the cruel treatment. To him
there are only two kinds of people in the world, “…the rich and the poor.”(69)As a servant, he is of the
lower class, as a factory and a mill worker he is of the working class; in each he has a productive role
whether as a servant or a worker. But as a Coolie his identity is reduced to nothing. Munoo suffers
because of society and not because of fate. Munoo meets his tragic end because the society leads him to
it. The coolies as a class belong nowhere as Anand points out even the lower caste rejects and casts away
the Coolies.

Capitalistic Suppression:
The disadvantaged world-wide are exploited by the capitalists. Their poverty is because of the presence
of capitalism in the world. They have to remain silent in harassment. They are not in a position to speak
aloud angrily. The obstacles created on poor people is to protect the advanced position of the rich. Hari
was asked to live in a cottage that was not enough even for animals. Hari had to pay commission to the
white man. The whistle sound of the factory heard before dawn gave them no time to sleep or to have
food. Through Munoo, the author Anand, clearly explains the labour rules of the whites and the poor
treatment there. The poor Indian labourers were to work without rest from dawn to dusk.

The colonizers troubled the people both mentally and physically. Hari’s family represents millions
of toiling coolies in India who are ill-treated and insufficiently nourished till the end. The colonizers saw
the ill-fated Indians just as animals. The trouble-makers gradually led people to death. Munoo was
employed as a domestic servant by Babu Nathoo Ram at rupees three per month which amount is paid
Coolie to him.The novelist shows that both feudal and usurious system of capitalism combine to exploit
Munoo’s father. A landlord gained the land of munoo’s father as he couldn’t return the landlords money
on account of bad harvests. The landlord showed them no mercy and left them destitute.

“Landlord had seized his father’s five acres of land because the interest on the
mortgage covering the unpaid rent had not been forthcoming when the rains had
been scantly and the harvests bad. And he knew how his father had died a slow
death of bitterness and disappointment and left his mother a penniless beggar, to
support a young brother-in-law and a child in arms.”(33)

Munoo, the protagonist of Coolie,is born poor and for the rest of his life is unable to get away from his
poverty that leaves him broken. Indebtedness and unemployment forces Munoo to go to town in search of
work. He tries to avail chances of progress but his ill fate produces obstacles in his way. Munoo wishes to
belong to the world of the upper strata of society. Munoo’s experiences of humiliation started in the
house of BabuNathoo Ram, Uttam Kaur calls him as:‘Vay, you eater of your masters! Vay, you shameless
brute! You pig! You dog!’ (p.17)Munoo is denied happiness. Munoo is humiliated for relieving outside
the wall. Munoo suffers physical and mental tortureBibiji angrily reminds him of his place:“Your place is
here in the kitchen! You must not enter the sports of the chotaBabuand the children.

You must get on quickly with work in the house! There is no time to lose.”(p.23)

Munoo belongs to high caste and he is treated untouchable. Society did not consider him as a human
being because of his poor living conditions.

Munoo has no economic freedom and this makes him yield himself to be oppressed.He doesn’t
harm anybody but is himself harmed, maltreated and exploited. Bibiji always kept Munoo engaged. He
stealthily runs away from Baboo’s house. He escapes this and seeks temporary refuge in a train. He is
discovered by apassenger, Seth PrabhDyal, who takes him to Daulatpur. PrabhDyal and his wife are kind
to Munoo. But herehe is ill-treated by Ganpat, Prabh’s partner in Pickle Factory. Thomas hardly
says:Happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain. In the course of time Munoo’s
happiness is gone when PrabhDyal is reduced to beggarybecause of the villainy of Ganpat.Out on the
streets again Munoo becomes a Coolie, facing desperate competition from otherCoolies for a chance to
serve. Munoo goes for Bombay with the help of an elephant-driver and he wants Munoo:‘The bigger the
city is, the more cruel it is to the sons of Adam,’ (p.152)When Munoo arrives in Bombay and goes for a
refreshing drink,for which he pays, the moment he introduces himself as a Coolie the proprietor tells him
to sit on the floor and not on the chairs, he is treated like a leper. At George White Cotton Mills in
Bombay, Munoo finds that these giantmills have created the monsters of capitalists who virtually suck
the blood of the workers.The exploitation of the workers is compounded by the corrupt colonial rule
which sparesnone. Munoo feels like a trapped animal, weak and helpless. Even the trade union
leaderRatan fails to ignite his ego. Exploitation and suffering have killed his natural instincts toreact to
fight and to claim his right as a human being. They toil with theirsweat and blood while the oppressors
discuss the weather over a cup of tea. His only prayer is, “I want to live, I want to know, I want to work”
(Coolie: 183). Mrs. Main Waring’s car dashed Munoo and she took him as servant to Simla. She employs
him as richshaw puller and her boy servant. He is also sexually exploited by her sometimes. Munoo,
worn out by heavywork, got weaker, caught T.B and died at the age of sixteen.

As a humanist, he is sure that man’s problem can be answered by universal brotherhood, love and
pitiable feeling.Socialism alone can provide the right climate for man’s total development. His obligation
to his fellow men lies in changing the world, making it a better place for each one of us. Anand suggests
that a little more sympathy and a little more tenderness on the part of the society could have turned
Munoo into a happy individual, and also averted his tragic end. Thus, the haves and have-nots both can
enjoy happilyThey have to remain silent in harassment. the bliss of human life on the same footings of
fraternity peace, love and justice.

It was the most sumptuous meal he had eaten since the feast on the death anniversary of his father and
mother, which his aunt had given three months before he left the hills. That clearly appears when Daya Ram,
Munoo’s uncle, said to his master Babu Nathoo Mal: 173 I bow my forehead to you, Babuji, he said, joining his
hands and dusting his feet as he entered. He also ordered to Munoo; ‘Join your hands to the Babuji, you rustic’.
30 This relationship is degrading for the servant as it makes the rulers proud and arrogant, and the ruled lose all
sense of self-respect and degenerate into cringing sycophants Dr. Premchand (the younger brother of Babu
Natthu Ram) who has a sympathetic dealing with Munoo, the waif who becomes scapegoat after the China tray
falls from his hold: How is he responsible for that monkey faced man’s bad taste ? asked Premchand, and how is
he to blame for all this junk in your house which apparently annoyed Sahib ?” – ‘come here, you fool’, shouted
the Doctor, laughing. ‘The wound will become septic with those filthy 174 ashes. Come and show in to me’.
Munno submitted to the diagnosis. The doctor found that it was a dangerous out, reaching almost to the skull. 31
Sheila, the innocent girl chWilliam Walsh observers that, It is a quality working right through Coolie, where Anand
shows himself one of the first Indian writers to look on the savagely neglected, despised and maltreated power
with an angry lack of resignation. The novel combines an acrid indignation at the condition of the poor together
with a Dickensian vivacity in physical registration and a delicate sense of the psychology of Munoo, the walf-hero,
in particular of the rhythms of his growth from boy to adolescent.33At last Munoo realizes that the root cause of
his tragedy is poverty as he feels: I am a Kshatriya and I am poor, and Verma, a Brahmin, is a servant boy, a
menial, because he is poor. No, caste does not matter. The Babus are like the Sahiblogs, and all servants look
alike: There must only be two kinds of people in the world; the rich and the poor.34 In thisThe picture of the dirt
and squalor in which the factory workers live, is unsparing in its detail. Perhaps the ‘finest touch is the scene
where Munoo and Hari with his family are seeking a night’s shelter on the crowded pavements of Bombay. The
mystery is explained by a half-naked woman who sits mourning there and tells them: My husband died there last
night. Hari responded typically of the situation. He has attained the release, he tells her, we will rest in her place.
We are not afraid of ghosts.39 ‘I see in these simple sentences’, says C. D. Narasimhaiah, ‘the wisdom of an old
living culture which has sustained our peasantry through centuries of misery and manifesting itself now in an
uprooted peasant in search of factory job. Death has ceased to frighten the poor, they are past all fright, it is life
that is a threat, and death released as Hari put it. Anand’s rustics, like those of Wordsworth and Hardy, reveal a
solemn dignity born out of unending suffering. Their stoical acceptance of fate is not fatalism but wisdom
acquired through long experienceAnand describes the real situation in the novel. The scene dealing with Munoo’s
life in the industrial slums of Bombay offer a graphic account of the working of the capitalist system. The factory
is an intolerable inferno with unbearable heat radiating from the tin sheets, the continuous wild hum of the
machine, the monotony of the work, the threat of impending danger and above all the inhuman attitude of the
employer. The coolies working under such conditions degenerate into moving corpses with fear fixed on their
brows. Munoo, Hari and other coolies continue to work in the factory suffering patiently all the exploitations and
atrocities committed by their employers. But the crowded dwellings, dirty latrines, regular cuttings made from
the low pay given to them on one pretext or anther and the dismissal of Ratan, who has been a member of the
trade union, compel the Trade Union leaders to be active in the cause of labourers. Soon Munoo hears the
speeches made by the leaders of Red Flag Union. Particularly Munoo is impressed by Suada’s speech: There are
only two kinds of people in the world; the rich and the poor, and between the two there is no connection. The
rich and the powerful, the magnificent and the glorious, whose opulence is built on robbery and theft 181 and
open warfare, are honoured and admired by the whole world and by themselves. You, the meek and the gentle,
wretches that you are, swindled out of your rights, and broken in body and soul, you are respected by no one,
and you do not respect yourselves.40 Sauda’s speech reminds Munoo that long ago at Sham Nagar, he too has
had similar thought about the rich and the poor. With the fiery speeches of the leaders of Red Flag Union, the
situation turns dangerous for the factory owners.