Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004)

was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction of the
Mulk Raj Anand
lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the
pioneers of Anglo-Indian fiction, he, together with R. K.
Narayan, Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-
based writers in English to gain an International readership.
Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have
acquired the status of classics of modern Indian English literature;
they are noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the
oppressed and for their analysis of impoverishment, exploitation
and misfortune.[1][2][3] He became known for his protest novel
Untouchable (1935), followed by other works on the Indian poor
such as Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937).[4] He
is also noted for being among the first writers to incorporate
Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English,[5] and was a
recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.[6]

Born 12 December 1905

Contents Peshawar, NWFP, British
India
Early life and education
(now in Khyber
Career Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan)
Political orientation Died 28 September 2004
Later life (aged 98)
Pune, Maharashtra,
Works of Mulk Raj Anand India
Novels
Occupation Writer
Short story collections
Alma mater Cambridge University
Other notable works
University College
Autobiographies London
Notable awards Khalsa College, Amritsar

See also Period 20th century

Notable Coolie; Untouchable
References work
External links Notable Sahitya Akademi Award
awards (1971)
Padma Bhushan (1967)
Early life and education International Peace Prize
(1953)
Born in Peshawar, Anand studied at Khalsa College, Amritsar, Spouses Shirin Vajifdar
graduating with honours in 1924[5] before moving to England. Signature
While working in a restaurant to support himself, he attended
University College London as an undergraduate and later studied
at Cambridge University, earning a Ph.D in Philosophy in 1929
with a dissertation on Bertrand Russell and the English
empiricists.[7] During this time he forged friendships with members of the Bloomsbury Group. He also spent
time in Geneva, lecturing at the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.

Anand married English actress and Communist Kathleen Van Gelder in 1938; they had a daughter, Susheila,
before divorcing in 1948.[8]

Career
Mulk Raj Anand's literary career was launched by a family tragedy arising from the rigidity of India's caste
system. His first prose essay was a response to the suicide of an aunt excommunicated by her family for
sharing a meal with a Muslim woman.[9][10] His first novel, Untouchable, published in 1935, is a chilling
exposé of the lives of India's untouchable caste. The novel follows a single day in the life of Bakha, a toilet-
cleaner, who accidentally bumps into a member of a higher caste, triggering a series of humiliations. Bakha
searches for salve to the tragedy of the destiny into which he was born, talking with a Christian missionary,
listening to a speech about untouchability by Mahatma Gandhi and a subsequent conversation between two
educated Indians, but by the end of the book Anand suggests that it is technology, in the form of the newly
introduced flush toilet, that may be his savior by eliminating the need for a caste of toilet cleaners.

Untouchable, which captures the vernacular inventiveness of the Punjabi and Hindi idiom in English was
widely acclaimed, and won Anand his reputation as India's Charles Dickens. The novel's introduction was
written by his friend E. M. Forster, whom he met while working on T. S. Eliot's magazine Criterion.[11]
Forster writes: "Avoiding rhetoric and circumlocution, it has gone straight to the heart of its subject and
purified it."

Dividing his time between London and India during the 1930s and 40s,[5] Anand was active in the Indian
independence movement. While in London, he wrote propaganda on behalf of the Indian cause alongside
India's future Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon, while trying to make a living as a novelist and
journalist.[12] At the same time, he supported Left causes elsewhere around the globe, traveling to Spain to
volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, although his role in the conflict was more journalistic than military. He
spent World War II working as a scriptwriter for the BBC in London, where he became a friend of George
Orwell. Orwell's review of Anand's 1942 novel The Sword and the Sickle hints at the significance of its
publication: "Although Mr. Anand's novel would still be interesting on its own merits if it had been written by
an Englishman, it is impossible to read it without remembering every few pages that it is also a cultural
curiosity. The growth of an English-language Indian literature is a strange phenomenon, and it will have its
effect on the post-war world".[13] He was also a friend of Picasso and had paintings by Picasso in his personal
art collection.

Anand returned to India in 1947 and continued his prodigious literary output there. His work includes poetry
and essays on a wide range of subjects, as well as autobiographies, novels and short stories. Prominent among
his novels are The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1939), The Sword and the Sickle (1942), all
written in England; Coolie (1936) and The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953) are perhaps the most
important of his works written in India. He also founded a literary magazine, Marg, and taught in various
universities. During the 1970s, he worked with the International Progress Organization (IPO) on the issue of
cultural self-awareness among nations. His contribution to the conference of the IPO in Innsbruck (Austria) in
1974[14] had a special influence on debates that later became known under the heading of the "Dialogue
among Civilizations". Anand also delivered a series of lectures on eminent Indians, including Mahatma
Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, commemorating their achievements and significance and
paying special attention to their distinct brands of humanism.
His 1953 novel The Private Life of an Indian Prince is autobiographical in the manner of the rest of his
subsequent oeuvre. In 1950 Anand embarked on a project to write a seven-part autobiography titled "seven
ages of man", of which he was only able to complete four parts beginning in 1951 with Seven Summers,
followed by Morning Face, "Confession of a Lover" and "Bubble".[15] Like much of his later work, it
contains elements of his spiritual journey as he struggles to attain a higher degree of self-awareness.

Political orientation
Anand was a lifelong socialist. His novels attack various aspects of India's social structure as well as the legacy
of British rule in India; they are considered important social statements as well as literary artefacts. Anand
himself was steadfast in his belief that politics and literature remained inextricable from one another.[16] He
was a founding member of the Progressive Writers’ Association and also he helped drafting the manifesto of
the association.[17]

Later life
Anand married Shirin Vajifdar, a Parsi classical dancer from Bombay in 1950.[18][19]
Anand died of pneumonia in Pune on 28 September 2004 at the age of 98.[18]

Works of Mulk Raj Anand

Novels
Untouchable (1935)
Coolie (1936)
Two Leaves and a Bud (1937)
The Village (1939)
Across the Black Waters (1939), Orient Paperbacks, ISBN 978-81-222025-8-8
The Sword and the Sickle (1942)
The Big Heart (1945)
The Lost Child (1934)
Seven Summers : A Memoir (1951)
The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953)
The Old Woman and the Cow (1960)
The Road (1961)
The Death of a Hero (1964), based on the life of Maqbool Sherwani (adapted as Maqbool Ki
Vaapsi on DD Kashir)[20][21]

Short story collections

The Lost Child and Other Stories (1934)
The Barber's Trade Union and Other Stories (1944)
The Tractor and the Corn Goddess and Other Stories (1947)
Reflections on the Golden Bed and Other Stories (1953)
The Power of darkness and Other Stories (1959)
Lajwanti and Other Stories (1966)
 Between Tears and Laughter (1973)
Indian Fairy Tales (1946)
More Indian Fairy Tales (1961)[22]

Other notable works

The Golden Breath: Studies in five poets of the new India (1933) [23]
Introduction to Indian art (1956) (editor)[24]
Kama Kala (1958)[25]
Homage to Khajuraaho co-authored with Stella Kramrisch[26]

Autobiographies
Seven Summers (1951)
Morning Face (1971) - won the Sahitya Akademi Award (Best Literature award) in India.
Conversations in Bloomsbury (1981)
Pilpali Sahab (1985)

Notable awards
International Peace Prize - 1953
Padma Bhushan - 1968
Sahithya Akademi Award - 1971

See also
List of Bloomsbury Group people

References
1. Zakaria, Rafiq (29 September 2004). "Very English, more Indian" (http://archive.indianexpress.c
om/oldStory/56034/). The Indian Express.
2. "...it can be said that they have taken over from British writers like E. M. Forster & Edward
Thompson the task of interpreting modern India to itself & the world." The Oxford History of
India, Vincent A. Smith (3rd edition, ed. Percival Spear), 1967, p. 838.
3. Ranjit Hoskote (29 September 2004). "The last of Indian English fiction's grand troika:
Encyclopaedia of arts" (https://web.archive.org/web/20041217175613/http://www.hindu.com/20
04/09/29/stories/2004092904171100.htm). The Hindu. Archived from the original (https://www.t
hehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/the-last-of-indian-english-fictions-grand-troika/article276
75173.ece) on 17 December 2004. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
4. Norwich, John Julius (1990). Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Arts (https://archive.org/det
ails/oxfordillustrate00norw). USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 16 (https://archive.org/details/oxf
ordillustrate00norw/page/16). ISBN 978-0198691372.
5. "Mulk Raj Anand Profile" (http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/mulk-raj-anand.html),
iloveindia.com.
6. "Padma Awards" (http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf) (PDF).
Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
 7. William Walsh, Indian Literature in English, Longman Group Limited (1990), p. 63
8. "Mulk Raj Anand" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1472853/Mulk-Raj-
Anand.html). The Daily Telegraph. 29 September 2004. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
9. C. J. George, Mulk Raj Anand, His Art and Concerns: A Study of His Non-autobiographical
Novels (https://books.google.com/books?id=M7LSHdlvRtcC&pg=PA8&dq=mulk+raj+anand+a
unt+muslim&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ehMqUbuPNNCykgWY8oH4Aw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onep
age&q=mulk%20raj%20anand%20aunt%20muslim&f=false), New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers,
1994.
10. Shailaja B. Wadikar, "Silent Suffering and Agony in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable" (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=g2DHBzEO9UEC&pg=PA144&dq=mulk+raj+anand+aunt+muslim&
hl=en&sa=X&ei=ehMqUbuPNNCykgWY8oH4Aw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=mul
k%20raj%20anand%20aunt%20muslim&f=false), in Amar Nath Prasad and Rajiv K. Malik,
Indian English Poetry and Fiction: Critical Elucidations, Volume 1, New Delhi: Sarup & Sons,
2007, p. 144–155.
11. "Mulk Raj Anand" (http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/mulk-raj-anand), Penguin
India.
12. Cowasjee, Saros. So Many Freedoms: A Study of the Major Fiction of Mulk Raj Anand, New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1977.
13. Orwell, George. The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell – My Country
Right or Left 1940–1943, London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1968, pp. 216–220.
14. Text of lecture (https://books.google.at/books?id=YI_nZjqwPIYC&pg=PA73&dq=%2Banand+%
2B%22the+search+for+national+identity+in+india%22&hl=de&ei=OEz7Tc38GtSx8QPO48Wp
CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%2Banand%20%2B%22th
e%20search%20for%20national%20identity%20in%20india%22&f=false)
15. Sahitya Akademi Award recipients in English (http://www.sahitya-akademi.org/sahitya-akadem
i/awa10304.htm#english) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070713025744/http://www.s
ahitya-akademi.org/sahitya-akademi/awa10304.htm) 13 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
16. Berry, Margaret (1968–1969). " 'Purpose' in Mulk Raj Anand's Fiction". Mahfil. Michigan State
University, Asian Studies Center. 5 (1/2 1968-1969): 85–90. JSTOR 40874218 (https://www.jsto
r.org/stable/40874218).
17. Malik, Hafeez (1967). "The Marxist Literary Movement in India and Pakistan" (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/2051241). The Journal of Asian Studies. 26 (4): 649–664. doi:10.2307/2051241 (http
s://doi.org/10.2307%2F2051241). ISSN 0021-9118 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0021-9118).
18. Jai Kumar; Haresh Pandya (29 September 2004). "Mulk Raj Anand (obituary)" (https://www.the
guardian.com/news/2004/sep/29/guardianobituaries.india). The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October
2017.
19. "Remembering Shirin Vajifdar – Pioneer in All Schools of Dance" (https://thewire.in/society/rem
embering-shirin-vajifdar-dancer). The Wire. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
20. Anand, Mulk Raj (1968). Death of a Hero: Epitaph for Maqbool Sherwani (https://books.google.
com/books?id=Q-WRswEACAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en). Hind Pocket Books.
21. " "Maqbool Ki Vaapsi" Title Song" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTNC87zmRW8). M S
Azaad. 28 August 2012.
22. Anand, Mulk Raj (1 January 1999). Greatest Short Stories (https://books.google.com/books?id=
K5zdxkjeiPYC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=short+story+collection+mulk+raj+anand&h
l=en). Jaico Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-7224-749-2.
23. Mulk Raj Anand (1933). The Golden Breath (http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283252).
24. Ananda Coomaraswamy and Anand, Mulk Raj (1956). Introduction to Indian art (http://archive.o
rg/details/in.gov.ignca.5933).
25. Anand, Mulk Raj. Kama Kala (http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.15691).
26. Anand, Mulk Raj; Kramrisch, Stella. Homage to Khajuraho (http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignc
a.10136).
External links
Marg Publications (http://www.marg-art.org)
Obituary from rediff.com (http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/28mra.htm)
Mulk Raj Anand, "The Search for National Identity in India" (https://books.google.com/books?id
=YI_nZjqwPIYC&pg=PA5&dq=isbn:3771103118&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PP
A73,M1), in: Hans Köchler (ed.), Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations. Tübingen (Germany):
Erdmann, 1978, pp. 73–98.
Talat Ahmed, "Mulk Raj Anand: novelist and fighter" (http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=60&is
sue=105), in International Socialism, Issue 105, 9 January 2005.
Mulk Raj Anand: A Creator with Social Concern (http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fline/fl2121/sto
ries/20041022008413000.htm) Frontline, Volume 21, Issue 21, 9–22 October 2004.
Charlotte Nunes, "Scholar explores work and career of writer Mulk Raj Anand" (http://blog.hrc.u
texas.edu/2011/05/10/scholar-explores-work-and-career-of-writer-mulk-raj-anand/), Cultural
Compass. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Yasmin Khan, biography of Mulk Raj Anand's time in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s in A
Passage to Britain: Series 1:1 The Viceroy of India (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bg
6vhg/a-passage-to-britain-series-1-1-the-viceroy-of-india)

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