Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Indian English literature is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English
language and whose native and co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of
The seed of Indian Writing in English was sown during the period of the British rule in India.
Now the seed has blossomed into an ever green tree, fragrant flowers and ripe fruits. The Fruits
are being tasted not only by the native people, but they are also being "chewed and digested"
by the foreigners. It happened only after constant caring, puring and feeding. Gardeners like
Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao. Indian English Literature is an honest
enterprise to demonstrate the ever rare germ of Indian Writing in English. English is not an
alien language to us. It is the language of our intellectual make-up-like Sanskrit or Persian was
Indian English Literature is an honest enterprise to demonstrate the ever rare gems of Indian
Writing in English. From being a singular and exceptional, rather gradual native flare – up of
geniuses, Indian Writing has turned out to be a new form of Indian culture and voice in which
India converses regularly. Indian Writers – poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists have
been making momentous and considerable contributions to world literature since pre-
Independence era.
While English prose for social and political purposes was written by Indians from earliest times
with rare force, eloquence and effectiveness, excellence in the writing of creative prose could
be achieved much later than in the writing of verse. It was only with the Gandhian struggle for
freedom that the Indo-Anglican novel really came its own. The Indian novel made such a late
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start because, in the beginning, it had to face a number of peculiar problem. One of the most
difficult problems which had to be faced was the problem of language. The Indian writer in
English must evolve a language flexible and varied enough to suit different factitious characters
drawn from the most varies professions and start a of society, as well as Indian enough to create
Mulk Raj Anand has tried to solve the problem of medium by Indianization of English words,
by literal translation into English of Indian expressions, proverbs’, etc., and result has not
always been a happy one. Raja Rao has more successfully solved this problem. He does not
write baboo English, but successfully transmutes into English, the idiom,
the rhythm and the tone of the natural speech of his characters.
Other Indian novelists in English have solved , and are trying to solve, this problem in their
own way, so that their language may become a suitable medium for the expression of the
emotional and intellectual life of Indians. Indian writings in English and their work is largely
imitative of British models. We may call this phase (from 1830-1880). The phase of imitation,
though even these early writers show considerable mastery over English language and
versification. The second stage is of Indianization, and it may be said to begin with the work
of Toru Dutt in the last quarter of the 19th century. The third phase may be said to begin with
the opening of the new century. It is the phase of increasing Indianization, when the Indians
writing in English acquire a national consciousness and write to interpret the mind and heart of
India to the west. Fourthly, experimentation and individual talent mark the works of writers in
post-independent India. Indian writers have acquired confidence and strike out along new lines
on their own. This growth and maturity of Indo-Anglican writing is clearly brought out, if we
briefly trace the History of Indo-Anglican poetry, novel and drama, from 1880 down to the
present day.
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Anand's contribution to Indian English Novel
A writer's views and attitude which condition his work are the resultant of a number of
influences that operate upon him from childhood onwards, and Mulk Raj Anand is no exception
in this respect. His heredity, his social milieu, his education, the books he has read and the
people he has meet, have all conditioned his art and gone into the making of Anand, novelist.
MulkRaj Anand was the master of storyteller of the downtrodden and of the touchable who
Mulk Raj Anand enjoys the reputation of being a pioneer novelist because of a corpus of
creative fiction of sufficient bulk and quality besides novels and short stories, he has written a
number of books on art paintings and literature. Anand became an exciting name with his early
novels untouchable, coolie and Two leaves and Bud in which he started the new trend of
realism and social protest in Indian English Novel. Mulk raj Anand was the only surviving
member of the great triumvirate of Indian wring in English. The other two are R.K.Narayana
of “ Malgudi days “and Raja Rao of “ Kanthapura “ . He was sophisticated and cosmopolitan
in his outlook and philosophy of life, but was impatient of transcendentalism and sceptical of
religion. His realistic novels angry at injustice, satirical yet warm reveal the great Indian
generosity of heart and great sympathy whit the unfortunate and anger against towards the
His later works, however, saw the focus more on personal dilemmas, struggles and the human
psyche. His prolific work spanning several decades included 'Seven Summers' (1951),
'Morning Face' (1968) and 'Confessions of a Lover'. His varied professional graph saw him
working as a scriptwriter and broadcaster in the film division of BBC in London during the
world War II, founding the magazine `Marg', becoming the director of Kutub publishers and
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teaching in India from 1948 to 1966.He was the chairman of the Lilith Kala Academy and the
president of the Lokayata Trust, for creating a cultural centre at Hauz Khans in New Delhi.
He also penned short notes on books in T S Eliot's magazine `Criterion' and wrote on varied
But the real test of a novelist as Mulk Raj Anand himself once said -- "It may lie in the
transformation of words into prophesy, because what is a writer if he is not the fiery voice of
the people, who through his own torments, urges and exaltations by realising the pains,
frustrations and aspirations of others, and by cultivating his incipient powers of expression,
transmutes in art all feeling, all thought, all experiences, thus becoming the seer of a new vision
in any situation".
What is a Novel ?
The term Novel is applied to a great variety of writings that have in common only the attribute
of being extended works of fiction written in prose. As an extended narrative, the novel
distinguished from the short story and from the work of middle length called the novelette, its
magnitude permits a greater variety of characters, greater complication of plot, and more
sustained exploration of character and motives than do the shorter, more concentrated modes.
As a narrative written in prose the novel is distinguished from the long narratives in verse of
Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton which beginning with the 18th
century, the novel has increasingly supplanted. The term for the novel in most European
languages is roman, which is derived from the medieval term, the Romance. . The English
name for the form on the other hand, is derived from the Italian”novella”, which was a short
tale in prose. Currently the term “Novella” is often used as an equivalent for Novelette, a prose
fiction of middle length, such as Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” or Thomas Mann’s
“Death of Venice”.
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Another important predecessor of the novel was the “ Picaresque narrative” which emerged
in sixteenth-century Spain. The Novel is a genre of fiction, and fiction may be defined as the
art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of human life that instruct
or divert or both.
A novel like a play, has a plot, and to a great extent its characters revel themselves and their
intensions in dialogue. The dramatist, however, must depend on what he can make us see and
hear for ourselves, whereas the novelist can describe what could never be presented on any
stage. The Novels has in fact no rigid framework, and English authors have taken full advantage
of the freedom this affords them. Foreign critics have remarked that the English novel, with all
its unrivalled richness and variety, is apt to be lacking in one important element of the highest
The novel can, of course, have its “setting” or background in any part of the world and any
time, past, present, or future. For almost every period of English history a novel could be found
in the works of Scott, Lord Lytton, Charles Kingsley, Thackeray and writers of marked
ability lesser stature, such as Harison, Ainsworth, G.P.R. James, C.M.Yonge, Conan Doyle,
and Stanley weyman, to name no living authors. As regard the local or regional setting certain
authors have almost marked out a territory of their own. The novel has firmly established itself
as the most effective medium for social criticism and diagnosis. Several of the Elizabethans
wrote prose works of fiction in a form related to that of the Novel. The 18th century novel
though firmly established by Richardson was further developed by Henry Fielding, Tobias
Smollett, and Laurence it as a form. Among the later novelists Oliver Goldsmith deserves
special mention for his brilliant studies in character and also for the essay intimate style which
became a model for domestic fiction. The 19th century saw the process of refinement carried a
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step further Jane Austen affected the characters of the novel by discarding a sensationalism
which had come in during the last half of the 18th century. The novel took many new directions
during the 19th century. During the last fifty years the scope of the novel has widened to include
every subject.
Elements of a Novel
Plot :
Plot is essentially the story or the events that make up what the book is about. Plot, of
course is defined by conflict either internal or external, and the best plots are both
original and interesting. In plot there are suspense, flashback, surprise ending. The plot
in a dramatic or narrative work is the structure of its actions, as there are ordered and
rended toward achieving particular emotional and artistic effects. There is great variety
of plot forms. For example, some plots are designed to achieve the effects of comedy,
romance, or satire.
Theme:
Theme is the central message “moral of the story” and underlying meaning of a
fictional piece may be the author’s thoughts on the topic or view of human nature.
Story’s title usually emphasizes what the author is saying various figures of speech such
Setting:
Setting is where the novel takes place. The setting might be a room, a forest, a battle
field. A setting can create atmosphere to the fiction, that help the reader imagine the
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scenes. The setting of a narrative or dramatic work is the general local and the historical
time in which its action occurs within a work is the particular physical location in which
it takes place.
Conflict:
Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces main character must fight against some
Character:
Characters are the imaginary people that write about in the fiction or Drama. The
characters are literary genre a short and usually witty, sketch in a prose of a distinctive
type of person. The genre was inaugurated by Theophrastus, a Greek author of second
century B.C. Characters are the persons, in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed with
moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say- the dialogue, and
Point of view Point of view signifies the way a story gets told the perspective or
the characters, actions, setting, and events which constitute the narrative in a work
of fiction.
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Introduction to the writer
Life
Mulk Raj Anand, India's most controversial novelist, was born in 1905 in Peshawar, now in
Pakistan, but then in the North-West Frontier Province of India. His father was a Coppersmith
who matriculated and rose to the position of the Head clerk in Dogra Regiment of the British
Army. His mother came from a peasant family. They had five sons of whom four survived, the
novelist himself being third. Indian author with hundreds of novels, short stories, and critical
essays in English and is also considered as a founder of the English-language Indian novel. He
is best remembered for his realistic depiction of the poorer classes of people in India. He was
One of the first Indian writers in the English language to make a mark on the international
scenario, Mulk Raj Anand was an author with hundreds of novels, short stories and essays
to his name. Considered a pioneer of the Anglo-Indian fiction, he is best remembered for
his depiction of the poorer classes of people in India and their plight. His writings are rich
with the realistic and touching portrayal of the problems of the common man, often written
with heart wrenching clarity. Mulk Raj Anand was much too familiar with the problems
of the poorer sections himself. The son of a coppersmith, he had witnessed cruelties of
unimaginable horrors unfold before his own eyes all that stemmed from the caste system
that loomed over India like a malignant curse. He was an avid learner and went to
Cambridge for higher education where he became actively involved in politics. He later
returned to India to campaign for the cause of India’s independence. A bold and outspoken
writer, he exposed several of India’s evil practices through his writings. He was a prolific
writer and authored a great number of works, most of them were a commentary on the
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Anand's life and career can conveniently be divided into three parts " the early years in India
until his departure for England, 1905-1925, the abroad 1925-1945 and the later year in India,
from 1946 to the present day. This division is not merely based on the his principal periods of
residence, but corresponds with the different stages of his literally career. The first period
reveals the various strands that go into the shaping of his mind and the influences that later
bear upon his writing. The second period is the most important it is concerned with Anand's
hard struggle to become a novelist, and the eventual success that led him to be rated as the
foremost Indian novelist. The third disappointing. Apart from Private Life of an Indian Prince
He was studied at Khalsa College, Amritsar participated in the non-violent campaign and
suffered brief imprisonment and Graduated from Punjab University .Then moved to England
where he attended University college London as an undergraduate and after that PhD in
philosophy from Cambridge University in 1929. Anand developed friendships with members
of the Bloomsbury Group all this while. During his while away to Geneva, he used to lecture
at the League of Nation's school of Intellectual Cooperation. Anand produced various forms of
literary art and creative writing such as novels and short stories which proved to be the classic
works of Modern Indian English literature marked for the appreciative perception into the lives
of the oppressed.
Career
He became a writer in English language as English language publishers were more open to publish
the kind of themes he wrote on. His writing career began in England where he used to publish short
reviews in T. S. Eliot’s magazine, ‘Criterion’. During the 1930s and 1940s he was very active in
politics and spoke regularly at the meetings of India League which was founded by Krishna Menon.
Over this period he became acquainted with the likes of intellectuals, such as, Bertrand Russell and
Michael Foot, and authors like Henry Miller and George Orwell. He was deeply influenced by
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M.K. Gandhi. His first novel, ‘Untouchable’ was published by the British firm, Wishart in 1935.
The story was about a day in the life of Bakha, a boy who has to become a toilet cleaner just because
he belongs to the untouchable caste. The novel was seen as a poignant reminder of the atrocities of
the caste system in India. In 1935, he played an important role in the founding of the Progressive
Writers’ Association in London along with the writers Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali. His heart
wrenching novel ‘Two Leaves and a Bud’ (1937) again dealt with the way the lower caste people
are exploited in India. It was the story of a poor peasant who is brutally killed by a British officer
who tries to rape his daughter. He joined the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war in 1937.
As a socialist, he wrote numerous articles and essays on Marxism, Fascism, Indian independence
After returning to India in 1946 Anand continued with his enormous literary output like poetry
and essays on a wide range of subjects, as well as autobiographies, novels and short stories.
“Coolie” (1936)
“Untouchable” (1935)
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“The Road” (1963)
Short Stories:
He painted himself on a memoir named Seven Summers (1951), which contained seven parts
and for one part Mulk Raj Anand won the Sahitya Academy Award called "Morning
face"(1965). A literary magazine, Marg was founded by him Anand taught in many
Universities.
He worked with International Progress Organization (IPO) on the issues of cultural self-
comprehension of nations in the 1970s. He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, India's
highest civilian Award in 1967 for his vast contributions towards the field of Literature and
Education. He met actress Kathleen van Gelder in London and the couple married in 1938. Their
union produced a daughter. The marriage however unravelled and the couple divorced in 1948.In
1950, he married Shirin Vajibdar, a classical dancer Mulk Raj Anand, the pioneer of the Anglo-
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Anand’s Style
Anand’s style of writing fiction is just a vernacularised style. He has used many vernacular
words and phrases in producting the crude and ludicrous effect. He has translated into English
many Punjabi swear words and phrases and obscene abuses he has also translated Indian
proverbs and smiles, his narrative prose is equally good, compact and effective. He has a
versality of stole his style has touches of irony and satire, and the ornateness of poetry. He has
Mulk Raj Anand’s narrative prose is brilliant and effective and compact, he has versality of
style, he has translated Hindi and Punjabi Idioms, introduced Hindi words, changed spelling of
English and has used vulgar language of the rustics. Mulk Raj Anand does not recognise pure
act for Art’s sake and elives in the social values, he is the spokes man of ar of the people. Mulk
Raj Anand is a realistic; he has exposed the social evils in a realistic way. He had seen sad
condition of the poor people in India, he shared their sorrows, and coloured his imagination
with the blood of the oppresses, the downtrodden and the poor people.
Pathos
Since most of the novels of Mulk Raj Anand portray the suffering and misery of the Indian
people due to factors like religion, social and cultural imbalance, poverty, politics etc., of
the people we find pathetic scenes abundantly. In novels like 'Untouchable' and ‘Coolie’,
human pathos receives a dominant role. The novel “Coolie” reveals human misery; in
particular it exposes a heart-rending account of the suffering and misery of the poor character
like Munoo. In the novel 'Untouchable' the suffering of the downtrodden is brought out
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In the novel 'Coolie', there appears an account of the suffering and misery of Munoo,
indifferent phases of his career. The life of the poor and the way in which the poor are exploited
and ill treated appears in several places in the novel. The author's style of evoking pathos by
way of using appropriate expressions and his ability to move the hearts of his readers are
apparent in many places in the novel. In one instance, Munoo, the hero of the novel first
wanders alone and then in the company of Hari and his family, trying to find a spot where they
could rest for the night. Here the author, with soft and laconic
Strokes, recreates scenes with due accuracy. The careful selection of phrases by the author
The novels of Mulk Raj Anand within their complex of thematic structure and techniques invite
immense possibilities of explorations and insights. Apart from the countless number of studies
undertaken on Mulk Raj Anand, the thematic aspects of his novels, even in their traditional
classification offer multiple interpretations and insights. Man and society form a variegated
fabric of life. Within the complicated structure of society lie the joys and sorrows of man. Mulk
Raj Anand with his exposure to various social theories and philosophies has incessantly
His novels deal with socio-economic aspects of life. The thematic design of a novel depends
largely on the author's concerns of life. The human concerns which engaged Mulk Raj Anand
and the highhandedness of the powerful and the rich. The themes of his novels depict these
concerns in an intensely artistic and realistic manner. Mulk Raj Anand weaves the plots of his
novels to reveal the stark reality of life and also generates a positive view point. To Mulk Raj
Anand, the world in general and India in particular, was fraught with social injustice. He
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focused acutely on the wide and deep divide between the rich and the poor, the haves and the
have-nots.
His themes dwell upon the subtle aspects of discriminations which underline his strong
preference for humanism. It is this enlargement of feelings, heart and mind which govern his
thematic pattern..In his novels “Untouchable”, “Coolie”, “The Road”, Two Leaves and A
Bud” and “ The Big Heart” Mulk Raj Anand emerges as the champion of the underdogs and
a crusader against social distinctions and man-made barriers which divide humanity. He
vehemently condemns the insensibility, self centeredness and lack of human sympathy and
understanding in the upper strata of society for the poor and the exploited. He is both a realist
and humanist whose fundamental aim is to establish the fundamental oneness of mankind.
Mulk Raj Anand’s first novel “Untouchable” deals with the problem of casteism in general
and Untouchability in particular, in vivid artistic terms and its artistic power is evident in every
page of the novel. Untouchable, lays bare the humiliating experience of Bakha who challenges
the Barhamincal attitudes of high caste people. His biting satire against the high caste and the
rich exposes their double standards. Sohini is otherwise an untouchable, yet the high priest of
society do not hesitate to desire sexual pleasure from her body. In this novel he attacks casteism.
He say casteism is a crime against humanity and everyone who believes in human dignity
“Coolie”, is a heartrending saga of human suffering. Munoo’s travails and tribulations are
sharp pointers to man’s sadistic pleasure in torturing child domestics. Munoo represents those
numberless children whose childhood is lost in endless physical labour. Love, care and fund
are strange words for them. Mulk Raj Anand takes up the theme of human suffering again and
again.
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Critical comments
1.“To Anand belongs to the honour of being the pioneer, the first launching modern India’s
Sajjad Zaheer
2. “As novelist addressing himself to the task of exposing certain evil, Anand has been as
- K.R.Iyengar
3.“ His upbringing and his intellectual development have led him, on the whole, to place
greater emphasis on the need to revolt against the decayed aspects of the Indian tradition.”
-M.K.Naik
4. “In his two novels “Untouchable”, “Coolie” Anand deals with the misery and
wretchedness of the poor and their struggle for a better life”
-C. Paul
5. “Anand’s condemnation of untouchability desires its effectiveness from the total control
of all the aspects of his problem. He shows a sure grasp of the psychology of both the caste
Hindu and the Untouchable”
-M.K. Naik
6. “Anand is a rational humanist, in the western tradition, believing in the power of science
to improve material conditions in progress and manifest intension is to propagate his beliefs
through his novels.”
-Meenakshi Mukharjee
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7. “For Anand the Marxist-social purist of the appropriate verbal structure, if not virtually
one and the same are complementary aspects of a single purpose.
-S.C. Harrex
8. “Mr. Anand’s picture is real comprehensive and subtle and his gifts in all moods from
force to comedy, from pathos to tragedy, from realistic to poetic are remarkable”.
-V.C Pritchett
9. “Anand censures all such relationships, for they are inhuman, unhealthy and meanly
submissive”.
-Saros Cowasjee
10. “Mulk Raj Anand is essentially pre-occupied with one broad theme, whatever his
ostensible subject. The theme of the confrontation between tradition and modernity”.
- M.K. Naik
11. “Anand’s novels are organic wholes, the form and content are fully integrated; they are
inseparable parts of a single whole.”
- S.S. Harrex
-
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Summary
“Coolie”, the novel that established Anand as a novelist depicting the social realism of the
nature, it is the story of Munoo, The landless peasant, the young innocent boy of fourteen
who is compelled to leave his home in the idyllic hills of North- East in the late 1920s.”
Mulk Raj Anand‟s second novel “Coolie” was published in the year 1936. It may be
regarded as a social tragedy of a common man, where Munoo is a tragic character who
inspires pity. Here Anand does not romanticize the protagonist but exposes the social forces
evils of caste system which has condemned a large section of Indians to a sub human
gap between the haves and have nots, the exploiter and the exploited, the ruler and the
ruled. The novel explores the stresses and strains generated in Indian society as a result of
the developing economic structure, expanding commerce and political change, which
The novel revolves round another social evil of no less magnitude, the system of class. It
describes the effects that the pervasive evil of class system has on a poor hill boy named
Munoo, who is forced to leave the idyllic hills to make a living in the plains. Drifting from
place to place, job to job, Munoo becomes virtually rootless and incapable of finding a
place for himself in a society infested with human sharks and fat gods. He symbolized the
disinherited and the dispossessed of the earth whose tragic life indicates man‟s inhumanity
to man. “Coolie” is a study in destitution, or to use Peter Quenelle’s words, Indians, seen
third Class a continent whose bleakness, vastness and poverty are shaded by a touch of the
glamour more or less fictitious, that so many English story-tellers, from Kipling to Major
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The novel relates a series of adventures in picaresque manner, only the hero is no rogue but
himself the victim of the word‟s rogueries. Unlike Bakha, the negative hero of
“Untouchable”. Munoo’s place is not in the old caste system that is questioned because
nature. Bakha‟s experience is limited in time and space, but Munoo’s struggle for survival
takes him through the cross-section of the whole country. As S. C. Harrex points out, “The
tragic illumination and leading to inevitable doom”. After Untouchable, Anand again
records the plight of the miserable have-nots in his very much successive novel Coolie. It
is a panoramic novel having a much wider canvas than that of his first novel Untouchable.
Scholars are of the opinion that if Untouchable is the microcosm, “Coolie” is more like the
“Coolie” is the most extensive in space and time. It brings out variegated action and
between rural and urban India and the race relations. Cruelty, poverty and inhuman social
forces of exploitation are responsible for the tragic denouement in this story. The premature
death of the protagonist, an innocent child, becomes very tragic. Munoo becomes acutely
aware of his predicament at some point or other in his life and begins to search for the
meaning of life and destiny. A sweeper is at least assured of his place in society because of
the indispensability of his work. But the coolie has no such assurance and lives under the
perpetual threat of losing his job. As the class system has proved more divisive, Anand‟s
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“Coolie” has been variously described as an “Epic of misery”, the epic of modern India,
“The odyssey of Munoo” and a “Tragic drama” with five episodes. It further confirms
Anand‟s position as one of the most interesting revolutionary writers of their time. The
sociological concern of Anand in his fiction is no longer primarily limited to caste, but the
general issue of poverty, exploitation, social and economic parasitism and moral
corruption are presented in more representative contexts. So, “Coolie” has a power to move
us with its presentation of a universal human tragedy which is the result of exploitation of
all kinds prevailing in the society. It is one of the great novels with hunger, starvation,
sufferings and wretchedness, sickness, disease and degradation that hunger causes its
theme. Anand serves to illustrate and develop the central theme of the exploitation and
suffering, of the poor in a capitalistic society. Anand‟s compassion for the underdog
invests the novel with great power, but at the same time his artistic control over his material
does not slacken him. Anand universalizes the individual tragedy of Munoo, following the
Munoo has become a victim of irrational system and inhuman cruelties of society.
“Coolie” is the story of the hill boy, Munoo, an orphan village lad, who moves from the
hill-village to the town, from town to the city, and then up to the mountains. He is an
archetype of downtrodden, the sum and substance of whose life-story is always the same,
meaning unendurable suffering and perpetual apathy. At the tender age of fourteen, Munoo
was imparadised from his village and launched on the whirlpool of experiences and is
finally swept away to his doom. Munoo’s life is tragic in the extreme, means he is exploited
by almost everyone and everywhere. The poor orphan is forced to leave his idyllic village
in the Kangra hills. Before the beginning of his inglorious odyssey, Munoo is a sensitive
and intelligent boy full of high spirits and a zest for life.
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When he was going to city with his uncle, “he had dreamed of course, of all the wonderful
things which the village-folk spoke about when they came back from the town.” But all his
dreams are shattered when he is ill-treated by a shrewish and vindictive housewife Bibiji,
Uttam Kaur, wife of Babu Nathoo Ram, the sub-accountant in Imperial Bank of
Shamnagar. The experiences of his humiliation started in this house. He is shocked and
he learns here his first lesson in the harsh school of the modern urban world. On the next
day of his arrival, he relieves himself in the drain outside the kitchen and thereby,
In fact Munoo has been presented as passive and incapable of analyzing his situation like
Bakha therefore he took for granted his identity. It never occurred to him, to ask himself
what he was, apart from being a servant and why he was a servant. And like every child in
the world, like most grown-ups, he had been blinded by the glamour of greatness, glory
and splendour of it, into which forgetting that he was condemned by an iniquitous system
always to remain small, abject and drab. What kept him chained to the wheel of “coolie’s”
destiny was his ignorance about the potentialities of his make-up. He had suffered every
day since he came to the house but now he had been slapped and abused most callously,
because he slipped with a tea-tray in presence of Mr. England. His heart was no longer in
his work. When a few days later, he complained to his uncle, he refused to listen to him,
and beat him most mercilessly. Munoo’s expectations are extremely modest. The world is
not his oyster and he wields no sword with which to open humiliates him. Munoo fails to
dampen his high spirits completely, and it is finally his living vitality and irrepressible
impetuosity which drive him away from the house, as, while playing, he accidentally
injures the small daughter of Bibiji. He runs away from Sham Nagar. As Anand says
“whipped dog hides in a corner, a whipped human seek escape”, he thought he could no
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longer bear the disgrace and humiliation he had suffered. Sham Nagar episode is the first
After the early sting at Shamnagar the second phase of Munoo’s tragic life begins in
Daulatpur, where Prabha Dayal and his wife are kind to him, but Prabha’s partner in pickle
factory, Ganpat, ill-treats him. Prabha’s wife soon grows fond of him and gives him
motherly warmth. Here, life for Munoo is pleasing in the beginning owing to the affection
of Prabha and his wife Parvati. But “Happiness is an occasional episode in the general
drama of pain.” Life becomes ugly and hellish because of Ganpat‟s wicked behavior and
condition is clearly observed when Ganpat wants to turn him out of his factory but in a
The pickle factory is sold out and Munoo has to work as a coolie which means mere beast
of burden, first in the grain market and then in the vegetable market. His poor and meek
personality is exploited here because in the grain market there is cut throat competition
between the naked starving coolies each competing with the other for jobs at extremely low
wages. Anand gives us a harrowing account of sufferings of Munoo and other coolies in
the market. They are reduced to the level of beast and are huddled with them.
Munoo’s urge to go to Bombay is fulfilled and he is overjoyed but all his enthusiasm and
curiosity about Bombay goes proironical when he comes to understand and experience the
“Life in death” there. He is also warned by elephant driver- “The bigger a city is, the
crueller it is to the sons of Adam… You have to pay even for the breath that you breathe.”
He does not find the city much different from Sham Nagar or Daulatpur; only he realizes
that life is more confusing in Bombay. The problems of the exploited remain the same; the
change is only the scale. In the bigger factories there is more ruthless exploitation and
21
greater human misery. The working conditions in the Sir George Cotton Mills are worse
than those in the pickle factory at Daulatpur. Ganpat turns into Jimmi Thomas, a tyrannical
foreman who is wicked and shrewd. In this episode, Anand wants to make it clear that the
economic and political exploitation thus coalesce into one. The capitalists particularly
Englishmen consider the laborer and coolies as subhuman with no rights. For them “the
Indian labourer is just a piece of property a sub human being, no rights and all duty, whose
Standing in contrast with the covert exploitation instanced above, the exploitation which
flows from the lower layer of the industrial system the layer symbolized by the foreman
Chimta Sahib is face to face exploitation. It alternates between the crude and the subtle.
When Hari and Munoo approach Chimta Sahib in search of employment, there follows
the following dialogue which illustrates the crudeness and rudeness of exploiter Chimta
Sahib, “Oh, Huzoor, „entreated Hari, Joining his hands again, please be kind to us for the
sake of these Children.” “Yes”, said the foreman, „You have the pleasure of going to bed
together, damn fools, and breeding like rabbits, and I should be kind to your children.”
“Huzoor Sahib”, interposed Munoo, I Heard in Daulatpur that the least pay for work in a
factory was thirty Rupees.” “Yes, bark a lie,” said Jimmy Thomas and he would have burst,
but Lal kaka brought a book for him to sign.” Chimta Sahib’s exploitative approach
changes from rudeness to subtle politeness and pose of sympathy as he comes to the main
points of exploitation.
Anand observed that in those days money decided the class of a person. How industrial and
capitalistic forces were exploiting the poor in India can be easily understood through
“Coolie”. The layer of this system in their descending order includes Sir Reginald White,
President of Sir George Cotton Mills, Mr. Little, the Manager and Jimmy Thomas, the
foreman. The higher the layer in the system, the more subtle and politely masked is the
22
exploitation. In a moment of crisis brought about by depression, Sir Reginald White guards,
“against any loss to the share holder.” But he instructs the mills to go on short time, ordering
“no work for the fourth week in every month” cutting short the labourers‟ already meagre
The factory is a huge octopus one with its numerous tentacles crutching the labourers in its
deadly grasps, slowly, paralyzing and poisoning them. The British management offers no
security of tenure and effects retrenchment summarily. The British foreman is at once the
recruiting authority, a landlord who rents out ramshackle cottages at exorbitant rent, and
also a money lender – all rolled into one, the Pathan door keeper practices usury with even
more drastic methods. The Sikh merchant puts his monopoly as the authorized dealer in the
mill workers colony to full personal advantage. The ill paid, ill housed, under nourished
and bullied labourer is broke, both in body and mind, as Munoo finds his friend Hari is,
though his own youthful vitality saves him from this ultimate fate.
The normal life is paralyzed as soon as crisis overtakes the city. Munoo finds himself in
the midst of the labour strike, followed by an outbreak of communal violence. A large
gathering of the coolies was addressed by three communist leaders, and a decision to go on
strike was taken. However, the management played a trick and a rumour was spread that
Hindu children were being kidnapped by the Mohammedans and the meeting which was
called to take a strike decision soon turned into a wild crowed frenzied with communal
passions. Their wrath against the management was turned against each other, and all efforts
of the leaders to make them see reason were of no avail. Communal frenzy possessed the
coolies and with in no time, the rioting spread to most part of Bombay. Hindus and
Mohammedans struck blows and killed each other and many other were killed and wounded
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Communal madness creates a horrible scene, and Anand has brought out the full horror of
it by his realistic presentation, just only in order to show that the people using politico-
economic factors to exploit poor people are so clever that only in order to solve their own
purpose they inspired poor, innocent, uneducated labourers to fight with each other and
used religion and caste based social status as an instrument to exploit the poor people
without thinking about the painful results of the situations. Munoo is both an actor and a
spectator who drifts with the crowd. He senses the futility of rhetoric as also the greater
futility of disorganized action. The words of poet Sauda-there are two kinds of people in
the world rich and the poor echo in his ears. Munoo feels that there is no happiness for
poor in this world. As in the search of happiness and in order to escape himself from the
world which is full of pain of suffering he runs from one place to another. He leaves
different types of miseries. And again as urge to go to Bombay, a place of happiness and
enjoyment in his imagination compels Munoo to run away from Daulatpur. But miseries
are everywhere; there is no escape from pain in this world for an underprivileged, poor
person. Only the name, shape and level of exploitation are changed. But he is being
Poverty, starvation and hunger make Munoo realize their effect when he is on the Kangra
hills. Usurious exploitation was at its peak in that village. In Shamnagar, he is exploited
physically and psychologically in order to get some relief from this fortune, unknowingly
Daulatpur and Bombay, where capitalism, industrialism and communalism are used to
suck the blood from the veins of poor labour class people. At the end of all these three
episodes, Shamnagar episode, Daulatpur episode and Bombay episode, Munoo is found
running away from every city. Tired, dazed hungry and sweating under the heat of the sun
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Munoo was walking in the middle of the road and was suddenly knocked down by a
speeding car. Thus ended the Bombay phase of career of Munoo and began the Simla phase,
In Simla, the final act of Munoo’s tragedy commences when Mrs. Mainwaring, whose
car knocks him down, treats him with almost loving care, yet he is compelled to work hard,
to pull rickshaw uphill for long hours and so his energy is sapped and he falls a prey to the
deadly disease of consumption. While pulling his mistress’s rickshaw, Munoo observes
the beauty of the place and also shows curiosity about the world of the upper sections of
society. He wishes he too belongs to this society. His mistress is kind to him but her
coquetry fires his adolescent passions till he crumples at her feet in an orgy of tears and
kisses. Mrs Mainwaring is a woman of vast pretensions and no morals. She has married
and divorced and remarried several times. To her Munoo is just a boy and a servant. Munoo
fails to endure his illness for long and at last passes away in the arms of his friends, Mohan,
when he is hardly sixteen years old. Harrex says, “In a dirge-like movement, Coolie ends
ills of society.” Thus, the life history of Munoo is presented with depth in the novel and
this is the life history of the starving millions of Indians who are over worked and treated
like animal, till they die prematurely of hunger, suffering and disease. Munoo is a universal
figure, a larger-than-life character, one who represents the sufferings of the exploited
There is a contrast between the starvation and hunger of the poor and well fed opulence of
the rich, between the luxurious and sky touching dwellings of the rich and the miserable
hovels of the poor, between the tranquil and decent bungalows of the English and the
meaner dwellings of Indians, even the well-dodo, between the tattered rags of the poor and
the gorgeous dresses of the rich and between the price and arrogance of the Europeans and
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cringing servility of the Indians. A close study of the novel shows how “Even in the midst
of unfold misery and horrible sordidness, his instinctive yearning for life compels him
Munoo has been denied the fundamental rights to happiness Anand presents him as a
victim of irrational system and of the inhuman cruelties of society. What happens to this
obscure hill boy is by no means an isolated example of human suffering and exploitation.
Munoo’s destiny symbolizes the tragic situation of the poor, and the under privileged and
downtrodden who in themselves are not responsible for their unalleviated suffering, but
who are all the same victims of ruthless exploitation. Therefore, asserts K. K. Sharma that
“Coolie is a sincere protest against the emergence of a new world of money and
exploitation and class distinction. It shows how coolies like Munoo are completely
The prevailing social order and new values created by the modern civilization sap the
natural warm heartedness and zest for life of an individual like Munoo and lead to his tragic
waste and suffering. Munoo is not able to redeem himself because he is made to think that
people like him are born to suffer. He expresses himself, The poor are hungry and sick, and
weak and helpless at all places, whether in small towns and villages or in big cities. They
have no sense of self respect or dignity, they are incapable of asserting themselves, and
they have to cry before the more affluent people for right to live. They are driven from
pillar to post and are compelled to live a sub-human life in most unhygienic conditions,
having been reduced to this wretched state by the combined forces of colonialism,
Among the few good characters of Anand, Prabha Dayal treats Munoo just like his own
son and showers a lot of love and affection on him. Again in Bombay, he meets Hari and
26
Ratan and the tension created by the hellish atmosphere is occasionally relaxed by
moments of comfort and warmth of comradeship. A Sunday evening spent with Pyari Jan
is delightful too. Similarly, though rickshaw pulling in Simla drives Munoo to an untimely
death, his life there is paradoxically, much more comfortable than his life in Bombay.
Anand is fair both to the rich and the poor. He takes no side. It can, however, be said that
needless greed of the rich results in the evil of exploitation. We see a lot of difference
among ceiling Prabha's creditors, fighting among themselves to recover whatever they
can, and the coolies anything with each other to earn a few annas so that they might live
another day.
Thus, “Coolie” reaches the heights where it touches the pathetic and sublime areas of
human experience. Here, Anand explores the limits of pain central to existence. He places
predominantly hostile world. Society is the great destroyer that kills Munoo and his like.
The tragedy of Munoo is an indictment of the evils of capitalism. But the purpose of the
novelist is not to present a gloomy picture of life. On the contrary, he wishes to arouse the
conscience of humanity against the ruthless exploitation of the weak and the down-trodden.
In Coolie, Anand handles the realities of the human situation as he sees and understands
them. What he desires is self restraint and joint efforts to resist exploitation and
suppression.
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Analysis
“Coolie” is one of the most popular novels of Anand and it has already been translated into
over important languages of the world. It has been eulogised by readers, scholars and critics
alike. It is a panoramic novel having a much wider canvas than his first novel “Untouchable”,
and much larger number of characters. V.S.Pritchett praise the following glowing words,
”I got more out of “Coolie” than in out of any other novel have read for a very long time
indeed.”Coolie” is the only political Novel I have read which profoundly satisfied me”.
The novel was written in three months and was published in 1936 by Lawrence and Wiskart.
In an unpublished article entitled “Musings on Munoo” Anand tells us that he was provoked
Mulk Raj Anand was arguably the greatest exponent of Indian writing in English, whose
literary output was infused with a political commitment that conveyed the lives of India’s poor
in a realistic and sympathetic manner. He had been involved in India’s freedom movement,
been impressed by Marx’s letters on India and his general political framework and had been a
Novel, an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals
involving a group of persons in a specific setting. The novel is a genre of fiction, and fiction
may be defined as the art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of
The elements of a novel are the same elements as that of the short story plot, theme, setting,
point of view, character except that there may be more than one of each of these
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elements. That is, within the main plot of a novel there may be several subplots, there may be
more than one theme, and point of view can certainly change as well.
For Critical Appreciation I have analysed the following aspects from the novel “Coolie”.
Themes
“Coolie” is a complex work of art, epical in its dimensions, so a large number of themes and
ideas stand out of it. Anand’s compassion for the under-dog and indignation at the exploitation
of the Indian by the forces of capitalism, racism invest these two novels “Coolie” and “Two
leaves and a Bud” with great power so long as his autistics control over his material does not
silken. One of the important themes of the exploitation of the poor by the rich of the “ have-
nots”’, by the “haves” of society. The poor people like Munoo and Bishamber are exploited in
society, suffer due to their poverty, and are beaten due to their helplessness. Munoo is beaten
the house at Babu Natho Ram on trifle grounds because he was a poor and humble
“Coolie”and had come to sell his fowls. Thus everywhere in society the poor people were
oppressed, exploited, beaten, humiliated, crushed and neglected and their tears had no price.
The pitiable condition of the poor’s and the social injustice is the theme of the “Coolie”. Anand
has pleaded for the improvement of the lot of the poor, rustic Orphan boy and helpless. He
made the hero are two classes of people, rich and poor. Thus the main theme of this novel is
the miserable condition of poor people. The novelist shown how Munoo makes struggle for a
Anand is a humanist, he has humanised the Indian novel, but his championship of the have-
nots and his angry denunciation of the exploiters of the poor has exposed him to the charge of
being a communist and a protagonist, though time and again he was himself rejected this
charge. Anand a champion of downtrodden. In his novels he revels a trinue intuition of the
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inhumanity of man, his exploitative nature and his possible redemption. Anand finds the
stratification o society on the basis of caste abominable. Anand, the champion of the outcastes,
pictures in his novels the predicament of women is often made to another victim of the rigid
social order. He shared their sorros and coloured his imagination with the blood of the
oppresses, the downtrodden and the poor people. He express various social economic aspects
of life.
Coolie marks a greater self-assurance in the art of Anand and a further deepening description
of marginal living .It comprehends greater veriety and deeper levels of degradation than does
Untouchable. The Plot of the novel is such as will not readily yield to a plain summary of facts.
Here is the story of a hill boy, Munoo, Who moves from the village to the town, from the town
to the city, and then up to the mountains. He traverses an experience, and is finally swept away
So Anand uses the themes of downtrodden, social and economical injustice, to make a
Setting
The setting of “Coolie” merits special attention. The scene of action shifts in space in orderly
sequence .So does the centre of gravity. However, the shift in scene of action is by no means
character of the theme. The action begins in the village of Bilaspur and may be taken as time
of pain at birth. In sham Nagar, the hero fined himself in virtual serfdom. In Daulatpur, he
loses his job and is thrown out on the streets. In cosmopolitan Bombay, He has the taste of the
slum and the fifth; finally, in Simla, his cup of misery full, he goes under. Simla, it may be
30
At the time of the opening of the story, Munoo is a child of fourteen years studying in Vth
class of the school of his native village Bilaspur. His childhood is passed in the Idyllic
surroundings of the village situated on the Kangra hills on the banks of the river Beas. He is
the leader of the village boys, like Bishan and Bishamber, and Jay Singh, the son of the
village landlord, is his rival for the leadership. In the company of his friends he grazes his cows
all day, and finds time to sit under the shade of a large Bunyan tree to enjoy there the fruits of
the season. But this happily idyllic life is now coming to an end, for that very day he has to go
with his uncle Daya Ram to Sham Nagar, a town at a distance of about ten miles. His uncle
and aunt are of the that he is quite grown up, and so must start earni ng his own living. As the
novel opens, his aunt Gujri is heard shouting foe him. He must at once come home and get
ready to go to sham Nagar with his uncle. The chapter opens with Munoo,s walking with his
Anand traces the social and economical conditions of four towns in North Indian: Shamnagar,
Plot
The plot of the “Coolie” is not a well constructed plot. Anand tries a single pattern in the carpet
of life and avoids superfluous things form the plot of “Coolie”. The story begins in Kangara
hills develops in industrial cities and ends in a hill station. The beginning and end of the story
lies in the hills either the Kangara hills or Simla. The novel has a design, a plan, a framework
which is definite. He aims to represent the true life of an Indian Coolie. The household service
in the house of Babu Natho Ram is a kind of domestic slavery as “Munoo” the hero of the
novel calls it. The setting of every part is calculated, every event in the life of Munoo shows
the tragedy, and serves the purpose of events is maintained throughout the plot. Munoo has
passed a very miserable life after the death of his father. Munoo goes to the city of Sham
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Nagar with his uncle Daya Ram bae footed. His uncle is a peon in the imperial bank and he
had got him a job in the house of Babu Natho Ram. Munoo feels weary and not asks his uncle
to ride in the cart but Daya Ram refuse him. Munoo observe new things, in the town like huge
buildings, different vehicles, the steam engine and various item of eatable things. He had never
seen these strange things; he was surprised to hear the sound of phonogram. There was no eager
“Coolie” is a comprehensive study of social condition of India. The aim of this novel is to
Characters
Mulk Raj Anand had drawn inspiration from the stream of consciousness technique. He
tried to present those characters whom he knew from early childhood. He showed his wide
observing power of humanity in delineating his characters. He selected this character among
the common people. He showed in his novels that the characters are not the product of
circumstances. Anand present the real feelings of his characters and delegates their merits and
weakness. He has sympathy with his characters. His curiosity and compassion for his characters
makes him a real master in the art of characterization. For his central character Munoo, one of
his childhood playmates, who was consigned to labour in a pickle factory and who accepted
his lot with fatalism peculiar to the Indian peasantry. The characterization of Munoo is vivid,
dramatic, and powerful. Munoo is cast in the mode of the archetypal, ironic, and perfect
victim or scapegoat under the sentence of death. But the ironic focus in not sharp enough to be
convincing. This is so because Anand attempts a naturalistic reproduction of the vast human
landscape and develops and epic mood and scale. Like Balzac and Tolstoy, he draws vast
spaces and creates memorable characters. He is not sufficiently detached to maintain the
aesthetic distance which, properly speaking, yields the ironic stance. Munoo is conceived as
32
a romantic hero, and as such there is no incongruity in the delineation, which is basic to the
ironic portrayal. He is first and last, a victim rather than a rebel and, therefore, is capable of
rising to a tragic stature. All other men and women, their morality and behaviour, their mode
of thinking and speaking, are evaluated in accordance with Munoo’s reactions to them. Munoo
is the hero of the novel ad round him are grouped a number of characters which may be
classified as
Individual characters
Institutional characters
Representational characters
Individual characters are less important than the central figure. But they have their own
well marked personalities and they shape the action by the good or the evil that is in them. Such
individual characters in the novel are Jimmie Thomas and Ganpat among the wicked, and
prabha dayal among the noble –hearted. The village friends of Munoo, the servants of the
rich men in Sham nagar, Tulsi, Maharaj and the wife of Prabha in Daulatpur, the soda
water seller, the foot-path sleepers including the woman whose husband had died the previous
night, the yogi, prostitute piari jan, the Pimp Bude Khan, and dancers Janaki and Gulab
Jan, Mr. Little, The manager, the rickshaw pullers of Simla etc.. All belong to the class of
institutional characters also minor figures, like the institutional ones, but their personalities are
So, Anand’s attempt to use different types and different levels of characterisation to present
Point of view:
33
The life of Munoo has been depicted from the psychological point of view. Munoo has a
sense of his inferior social position and aspiresto raise his status. He cries but no body cares,
he weeps but nobody hears his means, he revolts against the exiting social oddes but nobody
respond him. The structure of this novel is such that the entire picture of the life of Munoo
from his infancy to the adulthood comes before the eyes. Munoo shows the reaction to every
situation and acts according to his conscience. He runs from the house of Babu Natho Ram,
when he was beaten. He had a sense of self respect. He does not want to eat the residue food
The psychological fiction there are two tendencies , first the use of probing method, like
introspection or analysis, and secondly developing techniques, like point of view and stream
of consciousness which stimulate the flow of inner-conflict. Anand’s novel “Coolie” is purely
a psychological novel where in he has depicted the gradual development of the mind of Munoo
and his psychological approach to various problems in a novel way. In the novel “Coolie” the
surface life of Munoo reflects the inner-self. Munoo, a hill boy, leaves his Idyllic surroundings,
so that he may work and see the world. The first contact with reality shatters his dreams.
Arriving in the house of a bank clerk, he fails foul of a shrewish and vindictive, house wife and
before he feels from his employer’s frenzied rage he has relived himself near their doorstep
So, Anand’s novel “Coolie” is depicted from the psychological point of view.
CONCLUSION :
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“A project work on Critical Appreciation of Mulk Raj Anand’s Novel Coolie”, is a project work
taken up by me in which I have analysed the critical appreciation of Mulk Raj Anand’s “Coolie”. My
experience during this project is marvellous. I came to know and learn many aspects Mulk Raj Anand’s
2. What is a novel?
Further I had a personal enrichment by learning about MulkRaj Anand’s “Coolie” I choose the
“ Coolie” as my topic for project study because I am very interested to know about
comprehensive study of Indian English Novel. Anand‘s love for novelty and originality
enabled him to carry the Tagore and Premchand, Bankim and Sarat Chandra to a new
In the sensitive portrayal of an Individual like Bakha, Mulk Raj Anand displays his penetrating
thought and human attitude in understanding the grim realities of the social life in India. It is a
revolutionary novel in the sense that it has an outcaste as its chief protagonist. “Coolie” is
based upon the problem of class-struggle, social-injustice and psychological conflict of the
subaltern, the poor, under dogs and the rich, the privileged ones.. The observations, which came
up as final facts of the studies of Anand’s novels as social realism which is doubtless firm
From this project I learnt that a little more sympathy and little more tenderness on the
part of the society , and the healthy human values and radiacl social transformation in our
human society.
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Anand has created a special place as a writer of Indian writing in English. At last I would like
to conclude with the words that social realism is the foremost and chief essence in the major
novels of Mulk Raj Anand. After the profound investigation of Anand’s major novels I could
say that they are written for the betterment of society, particularly the downtrodden, suppressed
untouchables and all the sufferers at the hand of the social design.
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3. Shodhgana.inflibnet.ac/bitstream/1063/1112/pdf./
4. https://brainly.in/question/3745662
5. G.G.Harpham. M.H.Abrams, a Glossary of literary terms, pg:253-257
6. Birjadish Prasad, “a background to the study of English literature pg:193-224, Chenai, 1957 macmillan
India limited, 2005
7. https://www.ijtra.com/special-issue-view.php/critical-analysis-of-protagonists-of-mulk-raj-anands-
novels.pdf?paper=critical-analysis-of-protagonists-of-mulk-raj-anands-novels.pdf
8. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-the-theme-novel-coolie-by-mulk-raj-anand-87043
9. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/709/9/09_chapter%205.pdf
10. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/comment-mulk-raj-anands-characterization-munoo-256238
11. https://www.scribd.com/document/345356051/Coolie-Mulk-Raj-Anand
1. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/comment-mulk-raj-anands-characterization-munoo-
256238
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2. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.684.3674&rep=rep1&type=pdf
3. http://dspace.pondiuni.edu.in/jspui/bitstream/pdy/312/1/T1292.pdf
4. https://brainly.in/question/3742577
5. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/526024.Coolie
6. https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-does-title-coolie-reinforce-theme-exploitation-
256240
7. http://www.theijes.com/papers/v2-i4/part.%20(2)/F0242031033.pdf
8. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/4059/8/08_chapter%202.pdf
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