1.

The novel opens when Munoo is only fourteen years of age, living is the idyllic natural
surroundings of his native village in the Kangra Hills in Bilaspur. He is a happy, an
optimistic person,and remains so throughout the story. Even though he is ill-treated and
abused by his Uncle Daya Ram and Aunt Gujri,and bullied by his playmate Jay Singh,he
is content with his life at Kangra.But,this rural community also suffers from capitalism
and Munoo and his family are victimized as well.He had seen his father being
economically exploited and his mother dying from sorrow and rigorous work,yet his
happiest days are in his native village where he belonged,and throughout the story he
would think about the hills with a sense of loss.But,his Uncle and Aunt forces him to go
with his uncle to town to find a job,as he is too old for them to support.So,his schooling is
stopped and he leaves the village.The attachment he feels to the hills is reflected when the
author says that Munoo ‘would rather have had all the machines come here than tear
himself away from the black waters were he played. Munoo leaves the village and comes
to the city with his uncle.He is fascinated by the world of ‘the Lallas,the Babus and the
Sahibs from beyond the black waters’.He watches every new sight with curiosity.He is
employed as a servant for Babu Nathoo Ram,Sub- accountant,Imperial Bank of Sham
Nagar.He is a typical representation of the middle- class Indian population working for
the ‘Angrezi Sarkaar’ who considered rest of the penurious Indians as scum and the
Whites as the high and mighty.The beauty and purity of his innocence is stripped down as
he is abused by his mistress Bibi Uttam Kaur,wife of Nathoo Ram who humiliates him
and abuses him from dawn to dusk.The only person Munoo admires is the younger
brother of Nathoo Ram,Prem Chand who is a doctor ,who is somewhat kind to
Munoo.Once,when the chief cashier of Nathoo Ram’s bank Mr.England visits,a huge fuss
is made as it is considered as an honor to have an Englishman visit the house.When Prem
Chand tells him about his aspiration to pursue his higher studies in Britain,Mr.England
‘brightens at the suggestion of ‘home’ as all Englishmen in India learn to
do’.However,when Prem Chand asks his advice on what
2. courses to pursue he blushes as’though he had to pose as a big top to these natives,he had
no home to speak of’,nor has he attended any university.Munoo continues to work at Babu’s
house for the three rupees which is Uncle takes,and his high spirits continue to soar till one
unfortunate day he accidentally bites the cheek of Babu’s daughter Sheila in play as he was
doing his ‘monkey-dance’.He is beaten and abused by Nathoo Ram and unable to tolerate
anymore he runs away and gets into a train. Munoo is taken in by Prabha who runs a pickle
factory with his partner Ganpat in Daulatpur.Being a coolie all his life,he takes Munoo in and
both Prabha and his wife are really kind to him.Munoo is happy with his life in Daulatpur as
everyone except Ganpat was kind to him.Though Sir Todar Mal,a Public Prosecutor who
lived next to the factory complains to the Health Department because the smoke from the
factory was damaging his walls,Prabha manages to appease him and his pestering wife by his
humility, and occasional offerings of free pickle and jam. But one day,Ganpat cheats Prabha
who was straight-forward man and he goes bankrupt.He is publicly humiliated and beaten up
by the police for delaying his debt.They say he should not have tried to be a big Seth for he
‘was just a coolie’.Prabha falls ill after the incident and he leaves for his village,and thus
Munoo is alone again. He becomes friendly with an elephant driver in a circus who smuggles
him in their train to reach ‘Bombay’,which was ‘ truly a wonder city one should visit before
one died’ and factory work could earn fifteen to thirty rupees.But all his fantasies
crashed,because once in Bombay he realized that ‘here also the coolies slept on the
streets’.He gets employed in Sir George White Cotton Mill along with another coolie Hari
whom he met along the way.The factory workers are exploited by capitalism by long
working hours and meager pay.Most of them are willing to do anything’ and suffer as much
so long as they can have some pay.But however not everyone are subservient like
Hari.Ratan, another factory worker and a wrestler becomes Munoo’s role model.Ratan is a
part of the Worker’s Union and he is not afraid to stand up to the bullying by foreman of the
company Jimmie Thomas.But later,the factory shuts down due to lack of work and while all
the workers attend a meeting by the Trade Union,a communal riot breaks out and Munoo gets
lost in Bombay. He is knocked over by Mrs.Mainwaring’s car,and she takes him in as a
servant and takes him with her to Simla.Mrs.Mainwaring is partially of English descendence
who yearns to be accepted into the English mistake.Her hybrid identity had alienated her
from other ‘pukka’ whites,so she goes to England by marrying a young English soldier.She is
kind to Munoo,and goes as far as to manicure his hands,call Major Mechant,a doctor when he
gets a fever.Munoo serves as her personal assistant as well as a coolie for her rickshaw but
however he feels superior as he is merasahib’s personal servant as well.Major Mechant is
another example of ‘mimic men’.Being born into the cobbler society,he has come a long way
being educated in England and has cut off all his ties to his caste,embracing the British
values and culture,and marrying an English woman.Munoo is happy with his life,however
the life-sucking capitalism and slavery had taken its toll on him. He contracts consumption
and he dies in a quarantine shed at the mere age of fifteen.
2. 3. Post-colonial themes: Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie is unique in the sense that it tells the
story of the most under- privileged and exploited section of the society,who have no
voice for themselves.It brings out the ugly truth that the world of happiness belongs only
to the rich while the poor suffer wherever they are,be it Kangra Hills,Bombay or Simla.
Colonizer-Colonized Relationship: Anand brings out the diabolical effects of colonialism
on the psyche of people.He brings out the inferiority complex wired into the minds of
Indians,when he says about Munoo’s ‘subservient soul’.When the foreman announces the
company is on shut-down,the coolies plead with him as they ‘considered him to be
God’,capable of doing anything.The racial discrimination against the coolies is portrayed
when Munoo goes into a shop in Bombay to have a glass of soda water and he is asked to
sit on the ground because he is a coolie and as he is chased away,he feels ‘nervous and
extremely guilty for intruding the rich man’s world.’ The behaviour of all the English
men emphasizes their superiority complex,as they consider natives as worthless
‘niggers’.Whenever the coolies in the cotton mills payed their respect in salaam to the
foreman Jimmie Thomas,he returned the favour with an abuse or a kick.Anand brings out
sharp contradictions here by pointing out that these same officials like Jimmie Thomas
and Mr.England themselves were poor in the past and had led a tough life which they
have now forgotten.He also brings out the tendency of the colonized to imitate the
colonizer,i.e the national bourgeoise in Frantz Fanon’s theory through the characters like
Nathoo Ram,Ganpat and Sir Todar Mal who ill-treats the poor and are proud of their
associations with the British.Interestingly,we see Munoo considers himself better than
other coolies because he could read and write and he regards the lepers and beggars on
street with contempt as well.At this point,we realize that even the discriminated people
are not exactly advocates of equality as well.This idea is further confirmed in the
communal riots that broke out during the trade union meeting.Indians have a strong sense
of community to which they identify very much and this virtue was the one exploited by
the British to ‘divide and rule’. Anti-colonialist Resistance: Frantz Fanon’s Theory
 Though the story deals with the oppressions faced by working population,we can see
elements of colonial resistance being brought out by characters like Ratan,the Trade
Union personnel and Mohan,another coolie who worked with Munoo in Simla.Ratan,a
wrestler,does not take the harassment by the foreman and even the foreman is intimidated
by him and gives him his full wage.Ratan inspires Munoo to stand up for one’s self and
3. 4. also to enjoy life.Ratan enrolls Munoo and Hari in the Trade Union.Sauda,another
activist of the Trade Union inspires the coolies to realize the truth that ‘for centuries they
have been the victims of grafts and extortion’ and not to forget their notion of
‘izaat’.Frantz Fanon’s theory of reclaiming one’s nativism comes into picture as the
coolies dare to look ou from their cages of inferiority complexes.The sum and essence of
the range of exploitation is contained in his words as he says that the poor souls like
themselves who are dwindled from their rights are respected by none including
themselves.This notion is further substantiated when throughout the story we see Munoo
wanting to be one of the elite,or be a Babu,’own a pair of boots’ but then he realizes his
place in the world is just as a lowly servant and a coolie.However,Munoo is inspired
when Sauda tells the that they are ‘human beings and not soulless machines’ who have
every right to lead a happy life.Here we see,Frantz Fanon’ idea of the lumpen-proletariat
as the bringers of revolution. Hybridity,Loss of identity and Mimic Men: Homi K.
Bhabha’s theory on hybrid identities is brought out through the character of Mrs.May
Mainwaring who descended from an Anglo-Indian origin.Due to her hybrid identity,she
develops a ‘tremendous inferiority complex about her origin’ to the extent that she was
‘obsessed with the ambition of going to England to whitewash herself’.She tries her best
to get herself recognized as a ‘pukka’,but still fails as he was neglected at the Viceroy’s
Ball by most of the white men. Munoo suffers from loss of identity as he is displaced
from one place to other in his journey.But even when he is ill-treated for being a
coolie,he reassures himself that he also belongs to the Kshatriya Clan and is a Rajput
warrior.He is relieved when he sees people hailing ‘from the hills’ like him.Like all
Indians, subservience to the English is wired into his brain and at the same time he is
curious about how the ‘angrezi-log’ behaves among themselves’,like during the
Viceroy’s Ball. Other than characters like Babu Nathoo Ram and Sir Todar Mal who are
sycophants of the British empire,Major Mechant’s character is typical of the ‘mimic men’
 of Homi K.Bhabha.Being brought up in a Christian School,he goes to England for his
studies,marries a white girl and cuts off all his roots to his Mochi(Cobbler) caste and even
anglicizes his name to Mechant.He becomes close to Mrs.Mainwaring as ‘being an Indian
Christian it is easy to find affinity with a Eurasian than the natives or thoroughbred
English’. Conclusion: Throughout the novel,we see the concept of being a ‘coolie’ is
reinforced,as their identity ends and begins there.Although we can see the discriminations
of the caste-based Indian society in the novel,the more prominent divide is the gulf
between the rich and the poor,’which have no connection between them.’Though Coolie
encompasses all aspects of the horrors of colonialism,the story is not a pessimistic
one .Rather,it is a realistic
4. 5. view which exposes the reader a world he had not seen before- the same India through
the eyes of a Coolie.Munoo’s story is an example of how Edward Said theorized of
‘writing back to the power’,through the vivid picture of the alternate history of pre-
Independence India.Through his narrative writing style and distinct
characterizations,Anand brings out a multi-dimensional portrayal of not only the far-
reaching consequences of colonization on a multitude of people but also emphasizes the
communist ideologies in a capitalistic setting. ----------------------------
5. 6. view which exposes the reader a world he had not seen before- the same India through
the eyes of a Coolie.Munoo’s story is an example of how Edward Said theorized of
‘writing back to the power’,through the vivid picture of the alternate history of pre-
Independence India.Through his narrative writing style and distinct
characterizations,Anand brings out a multi-dimensional portrayal of not only the far-
reaching consequences of colonization on a multitude of people but also emphasizes the
communist ideologies in a capitalistic setting.