Cultural Conflict in Mulk Raj Anand's 'Untouchable'

Mulk Raj Anand the eldest of the three great Indian novelists, is regarded as the father of Indo-English literature, the other two being Raja Rao and R.K.Narayan. He was born on December 12, 1905 at Peshawar. He was 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 writes realistically in his novels all about the miserable lives of the poor. Anand being a novelist of the common man, has profoundly dealt with the villages, with the extreme poverty, with orphans, untouchables and urban labourers. He took upon himself the task of attacking social snobbery and prejudice. The Indian life that he portrays in his novels is that of outcastes, peasants, soldiers, the depressed and oppressed ones of the society. Anand has, says the noted critic P.K. Singh, great concern for down-trodden people of India and his novels therefore throw light on the existing pains and predicaments of " have-nots ". His novels present minute pictures of Indian society, withspecial focus on the plights of poor people.1 Anand " s early novels deal with the misery and the wretchedness of the crushed and oppressed people and their struggle for a better life. His subsequent novels are almost a variation on the same theme. The present research is an attempt to study how several social issues and aspects are reflected in Mulk Raj Anand " s " Untouchable " .

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 2024

Mulk Raj Anand is a legendary and towering personality in the sphere of Indian English Literature. He is well known for realistically portraying his characters because of his firsthand knowledge of the scenes and situations portrayed in his novels. "Untouchable" is a novel that has earned tremendous popularity not only in India but also all over the world. It depicts a true and clear picture of Indian society specifically the condition of the society prior to Indian Independence, where the condition of the untouchable of the subalterns was very pathetic because of their marginalized status. Mulk Raj Anand is popularly known as a novelist of the lowly and the marginalized. He has portrayed the anguish along with the sufferings of the low caste protagonist Bakha in this book, who is the target of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of the purported protectors of Indian society. The book tells the story of the oppressed in Indian culture, socially engineered to suffer, and brings up images of the terrible social ills that pervaded the country throughout the colonial era and the decades that followed.

The writers in the early decades of the 20th century were deeply influenced and inspired by Gandhi. He provoked intellectual turmoil and awakening amongst the intelligentsia. His exhortation to the Harijans to shun the bad habits and get integrated into the mainstream of the Indian nation slowly but surely. Caste was a group system based on services and functions. He regards untouchability as “the greatest bolt on Hinduism”. He utters that he did not want to be reborn. But, if he were to reborn, he would wish to be reborn as an untouchable, an outcaste so that he may share their sorrows, sufferings and affronts levelled at them, in order that he may endeavour to free himself and them from their miserable condition Key words: untouchability, outcaste, influenced, caste system, integrated, Hinduism

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 2014

Problem of untouchabilty is still prevalent in the society and Mulk Raj Anand through his novel Untouchable brings to light the sorrows and sufferings that high caste Hindus inflicted on the untouchables. Mulk Raj…

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand was usually regarded as the father of Indian English novel. His debut of novel writing was begun with his masterpiece work Untouchable. This article aims to talk about the caste system as one of the major issues and its imagery throughout the day and the struggles of Bakha, a central character in the story and his agony over the caste system. Undoubtedly, the implications of caste system in the novel depicted the lower life style of Bakha and his denunciation of pleasures and desires due to it. The author also tried to find out the difficulties of 18 years old strong boy of one day from his Bloomsbury experiences of stream of consciousness novel. Bakha mostly concerned about his peer group of higher caste people and their life style but of no point his helplessness in enjoying life as them. Mulk Raj Anand called his protagonist Bakha as 'hero of tragedy' and also portrayed the tragedies of all the lower castes like suppressed, oppressed, repressed in the country due to the traditional custom of caste. Irrespective of the fact of his lower status, Bakha tried to become a babu or sahib or upper caste person to lead a happy life and to satisfy his schooling desire. All of these were outrage of Bakha's reactions as he received from other higher and middle class people.

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand exposes his message of humanism, socialism, brotherhood, economics, freedom and equality in his novel Untouchable. In this present paper he gives message of Humanism. In Untouchable he is expressing his central philosophy of it through the vehicle of fiction. In this novel he expresses artistically some of the basic idea of his variety of humanism. He establishes the dignity and humanity of common men like sweepers as essential human beings when they are seen in their true colours and not as the down-trodden and dehumanised. Bakha is a superb specimen of humanity. The cruel inhuman treatment meted out to him on the basis of his caste has damaged him. Anand express his sympathy with the social outcastes who are also human beings and hence they should be treated as such. Humanism is the philosophy of man. It reaffirms faith in man as man who was relegated to a damned creature by the concept of original sin. Man is the basic and central concern of Humanism. It means ...