Book Review of 'Untouchable' by Mulk Raj Anand

Book Review of ‘Untouchable’ by Mulk Raj Anand This novel was published in 1935 and talks about the caste system in India. Even though it was written in pre-independent India, but it’s relevance has not vanished. Bakha, the protagonist of the novel, is just a child who works as a toilet cleaner. His father doesn’t support him; instead, he abuses him on a daily basis. Most of the cleaning work is done by the protagonist, as his younger brother doesn’t bother to help him. In the novel, the protagonist has a liking for British outfits and tries to copy them. The living conditions of their place are horrible, as the sewer water flows there openly, giving the place an unpleasant odor. Even among themselves, they have a caste system that has been showcased by the conversation between Gulabo, a washerwomen and Sohini, protagonist’s sister. She is verbally abused by her just because of her jealousy, and Sohini just tolerates it as Gulabo was higher in caste within their caste system. The lower-class people can’t draw water from wells, as the so-called higher-class people thought it would impure the water. They had to wait until someone from higher society would come and help them get water. Sohini gets sexually assaulted by a Brahmin and when she tries to get away, she is blamed and called impure. That is quite ironic; where was that man’s dignity and his status when he wanted to assault her. The protagonist too faces humiliation in the market, and when he bought anything from there, his money is first washed and the material (be it food or anything) was thrown towards him. In this story, he is blamed even when he’s not even at fault. All the discrimination is mostly shown by adults only, the kids and peers of the protagonist don’t discriminate and are good friends even after being from different castes. A Britisher meets him and tries to convert him to Christianity, but the man was interrupted by his wife . The novel doesn’t show only the negative incident but also positive, story when Bakha was a child and a doctor from a higher-class society treated him and one more person is portrayed as positive, Charat Singh, who treats Bakha way better than anyone else does. Mahatma Gandhi’s speech about the same is also mentioned and the protagonist overhears the conversation between a poet and lawyer who were talking about the new system of cleaning toilets where no manual work is required. Hearing this, a ray of hope arises in his heart. That he will be treated better and will be equal to people in a higher-class society. After reading this, one might think all of the incidents happened on different days, but all that happened within a day! This novel shows the dark, evil side of society, where higher-class people can do whatever they want and lower-class people can’t even raise their voice.