Mulkraj Anand - Coolie

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Mulk Raj Anand is one of the big three of Indian English fiction along with R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao. Anand is the most famous creative writer in Indian English fiction. The novelist Anand is similar to Dickens, Hardy, Tolstoy, Munshi Premchand and Chinua Achebe, who have on a large scale concentrated on the problems of their respective societies.

Anand is also a short story writer and art critic writing in English. Anand was among those who gave Hindustani idioms to English. In his works, Anand showed a real-life representation of the poor of India which arouses our pity. Anand and R.K. Narayan were among the earliest Indian writers to become internationally famous.

The face of the novel writing in English was changed by Anand. Anand is likely the first Indian novelist writing in English who depicted the real troubled lives of the suppressed Indians. In the novels of Anand, we can see that he points out to the readers the living conditions of people like a sweeper, a coolie, a peasant, etc. who suffered exploitation, conditions of poverty and bad actions. Anand included the lives of the unlucky ones in his works. His great sympathy and intensity of narration produced exceptional vigour in his novels as in the novels of Marxim Gorki.

Anand is a dedicated writer. According to him, literature is for the benefit of people, for purifying them, and stirring up feelings of human welfare in them. He tried to produce pity in people for the sufferers.

Mulk Raj Anand was born on 12^th December, 1905 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Anand

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at an nearly time onwards protested against his father’s subordination to the British authorities. He attended Khalsa College, Amristar. He completed graduation with honours in 1924. In England, he studied at University College London and Cambridge University. In 1929, he received Ph.D. Anand studied at League of Nations School of Intellectual Cooperation in Geneva. He also lectured at this place later. Through the early 1930s he worked as a lecture, a broadcaster at the British Broadcasting Corporation, and contributed to T.S. Eliot’s journal named Criterion. His friends there included the likes of George Orwell and Henry Miller. He was inspired by the literary products of Marxim Gorky and James Joyce. He was also strongly motivated by the writings of Karl Marx and was a member of communist party. He was outraged by the civil war in Spain (1936) and joined the fight for the republican cause.

Anand became involved in the literary field by a tragedy in the family. Anand’s first prose essay was a reaction to an aunt’s suicide. This lady had been excommunicated for dining with a Muslim woman.

Anand spent his time pursuing literary career in England and with Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom struggle. After 1945, he returned permanently to India. Gandhiji influenced him and that had a great effect in his life and his writing. He founded a magazine called Marg. He held the position of the director of Kutub publishers. He taught at Indian Universities for eighteen years from 1948. From 1965 to 1970, Anand was the fine arts chairman at Lalit Kala Academy (National Academy of Arts). He became the President of Lokayuta Trust after he made a community and cultural centre in the village of Hauz Khas, New Delhi.

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In the works of Anand, we can hear the moving wail of suppressed people of India. He gave voice to those were denied their basic rights to live. He wrote about India before the independence in 1930s. He reproduced the conditions of the times, that is, he was able to reinvent the social, moral and political conditions that existed then. His stories present a realistic and sympathetic portrait of the poor in India. Anand was the first novelist in India to make an untouchable, the hero of a novel. Anand’s works are based on the poorest of the poor in India, whom he had come to know about. The works Untouchable, Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud depicts the plight or sad state of the suppressed men of India.

Untouchable is Anand’s first novel. It was written in 1935.It is his most compact as well as artistically satisfying work. All his other novels are longer than Untouchable. This short novel narrates a day in the life of eighteen year old Bakha, who is treated very miserably by all Hindus on account of his profession which is to clean latrines. The place is the town of Bulashah. Untouchable is a marvellous work of art that shows the bare inhuman realities of life. The many things that occurred to the victim Bakha in the novel could have happened somewhere. Perhaps, it is still going on.

Coolie is Anand’s second novel. It came out in 1936. It is the story of a child labourer Munoo. The orphan boy Munoo runs to avoid every place of cruelty in search

of happiness and everywhere he is suppressed. He is aged fifteen and he does various jobs at Daulatpur, Bombay and Simla. He dies of tuberculosis in the end because of poverty. In Coolie, Anand brings out his favourite themes of the varied nature of man, the power of money and brutual suppression. It gave wide recognition to Anand.

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Munoo is exploited greatly in one way or another, by one person or another. Munoo universally symbolizes the suffering of the oppressed and those taken advantage of. According to the novelist, there is a need for reestablishment of kindness. Anand not only makes a hero out of the boy but also gifts him with self-esteem. Suppression takes major role in Coolie to show how pathetic the lives of the Indian people are under the suppressive forces.

Coolie has been called an epic of misery. It is the epic of modern India. The main theme is the suppression of the poor by the forces of colonialism, capitalism and sex. This theme is deeply studied with references to Munoo and others, who are prevented from enjoying their fundamental rights to live with happiness on earth.

Coolie is different from Untouchable in that the author gives a wider canvas through the lives of coolies. Coolie has many themes and ideas that make it a masterpiece.

Munoo, the central character of Coolie, is exploited all the time in one way or the other and his future is typical of the future of millions whose only common feature is patient suffering. The novelist brings into prominence the requirement of reestablishment of kindness in the world lost in capitalism and colonialism. Munoo is a person with lot of problems. He creates pity in our minds but no fear. Here, Anand does not romanticize the

character but renders the societal forces of catastrophe, that is, capitalism and colonialism, as they are found taking place in existing society.

If Untouchable is the microcosm, Coolie is the macrocosm of Indian society.

Coolie is really a cross-section of India – the visible India that contains the horrible and

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the holy, the inhuman and the human, the sordid and the beautiful.

Two Leaves and a Bud is a dramatic novel and its title is appropriate. It came out in 1937. This novel holds a special position among his novels. It is about the suffering and exploitation that takes place in the lives of workers on Assam tea-plantations. In the novel, we see a poor Punjabi peasant Gangu who suffers in a tea-plantation and is killed by a British official who attempts to destroy the chastity his daughter. Anand also portrays other coolies under the clutches of suppression.

Like Munoo, Gangu has zest for life and this leads him to leave his village for a tea estate in Assam. This is in the hope of making money and land for cultivation as assured by a person called Buta. Gangu is accompanied by Sajani (his wife) and children, Leila and Buddhu. Buta traps Gangu and his family with his sweet words. Despite the advance of civilization, the tea estate is a terrible place. It is a hell within a hell. Gangu receives only low wages and lives in unhealthy conditions. This makes him to suffer an attack of malaria, but, he recovers. His wife comes down with fever and dies.

Munoo and Gangu’s life symbolizes tragedy responsible for their agony. The title of one of the works is not ‘The Coolie’ or ‘A Coolie’ but ‘Coolie’ encircling all coolies who are treated badly and their providence.

The works Village which came out in 1939, Across the Black waters which came

out in 1940 and The Sword and the Sickle that came out in 1942 were strong protests against social injustices. These three works are based on different phases of Lal Singh’s life. In these three works, the author shows the career of Lal Singh over the years before the First World War to the Post-war era in India. The Village is a true picture of a typical

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Punjabi village, and shows the adolescent Lal Singh rebelling against the narrow superstitions of the villagers—he goes so far as to cut his hair, which a Sikh normally won’t do. Across the Black Waters shows Lal as a soldier fighting in the trenches of Flanders in World War I; his contact with the French makes him realize that the white races too are human, and not demigods like the British in India. The Sword and the Sickle shows Lal engaged in revolutionary activities in India after eloping with the village landlord's daughter; it is not as well written as the earlier two volumes.
The Big Heart came out in 1945. It recreates some features of Untouchable such as intensity and compactness. The novel describes a single day’s events in Ananta’s life who is a coppersmith. He is called ‘big heart’ because of his kind nature.

The work Seven Summers that was published in 1951 is a semi-autobiographical work based on Anand’s childhood. It covers the early seven years of the hero’s life.

In The Private Life of an Indian Prince ,we find the fall of kingship in India and the suffering of the Indian princes. Victor is one of the six hundred rulers. He had all the bad features of royalty and becomes insane and enters an asylum. The work was first printed in 1953.

The Old Woman and the Cow depicts the hardships and revolutionary

transformation of a character named Gauri. The Old Woman and the Cow was brought out in the year 1960.The Road came out in 1963. The Death of a Hero is based on the life

of a Kashmiri freedom fighter. Morning Face (1968) is about the life of Krishna Chander Azad till the age of fifteen. Morning Face and Confession of a Lover (1976) continue progression of Anand’s autobiography. The Bubble appeared in 1984. Anand published

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over six volumes of short stories. His fiction defends the value of living and highlights the condition of the marginalized men.

Anand has written about seventy short stories. His short story collections include: The Lost Child and Other Stories(1934), The Tractor and the Corn Goddess, and Other Stories(1947), Reflections on the Golden Bud and Other Stories(1953), The Power of Darkness and Other Stories(1959), Lajwanti and Other Stories(1966) and Between Tears and Laughter(1973). He retold old Indian tales in two collections: Indian Fairy Tales (1946) and More Indian Fairy Tales (1961).

The awards he won include the following: Leverhulme fellowship, 1940-42; World Peace Council prize, 1952; Padma Bhushan, India, 1968; Akademi prize, for Morning Face, 1970; Sahitya Academy award, 1974; Birla award.

The concept of life as journey is dominant in Anand’s novels. The realistic demonstration of life as well as the ugly, unpleasant and immoral realm of life can be noticed in his novels. Anand is a humanist. He is a fine storyteller and he can bring out a story which makes the readers excited and convinced.

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CHAPTER II

SUPPRESSION AND HUMANISM

Suppression takes many forms to enter into the poor people’s lives and create problems for them. The main types of suppression are capitalistic, colonial and sexual. Suppressing one person for another’s existence is a curse on humanity. Every society has this menace. Anand’s Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud, presents to us the horrifying state of victims, who are suppressed till their death.

Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud, display Anand as a unique representative of the weak. Their cry, pain and suffering are portrayed with heartfelt sympathy. Anand presents a representation of Indians through the realistic depiction of the oppressed people of India. Several people across the world are suppressed for the pleasure and well-being of others. A lot of people in India are suppressed in a lot of ways.

In Coolie, Anand presents Munoo, an eleven year old boy who is innocent and energetic. Through his saga of suppression, Anand shows the decline and upturn in the life of Munoo. Munoo’s uncle and aunt consider him as a machine for obtaining money. Munoo willingly receives his role as a slave and agrees to go to town with his uncle. His pain and powerlessness can be seen through these lines:

‘My aunt wants me to begin earning money,’ said Munoo. ‘And she says

she wants a son of her own. My uncle says I am grown up and must fend for myself. He has got me a job in the house of the Babu of the bank where he works in Shampur.’(Coolie 2) Being an orphan he should look after him. Daya Ram and Gujri behave as agents who

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lead the boy to suppression. At fourteen, Munoo is forced to work in the house of Babu Nathoo Ram,a worker in Imperial Bank in Sham Nagar. Munoo’s romantic views are destroyed by the wife of Babu Nathoo Ram. This lady is not good-natured and always abuses and curses him without any reason. Anand’s Munoo is denied happiness. Munoo is humiliated for relieving outside the wall and abuse is showered on him. Munoo suffers physical and mental torture and this shows suppression in the form of child labour. Even at the tender age of fourteen, he is not provided with the basic necessities. One day, when the boy protested against Daya Ram, he was rewarded with thrashes. The boy’s wail shows his poor condition: ‘Oh, don’t beat me, please don’t beat me, uncle,’ cried Munoo. ‘I only want food.’(Coolie 47)

Munoo has meagre expectations in life. His face is swollen and tear-washed and this shows his utter submission to suppression. In another place called Daulatpur, we again see suppression. Munoo gets in a train that goes to Daulatpur. During the journey Munoo meets Prabha Dayal, who is very kind to Munoo because he is childless and treats him as his own son.

Prabha Dayal is completely unlike his partner Ganpat. While Prabha Dayal and his wife behave well to Munoo, Ganpat ill-treats Munoo. Prabha gained his present status by his effort to overcome difficulties. Prabha Dayal is ruined by the exploitation of his partner Ganpat. Ganpat was the son of a rich man who lost all his wealth and was helped by Prabha. But Ganpat cheated Prabha and made him without money by not letting Prabha the money that was obtained. After the bankruptcy of Prabha Dayal, Munoo and Tulsi try to get a job in the grain market. The unhygienic condition of the market clearly 10 shows the dishonest and profit-loving mind of the ruling class. In the grain market, Anand shows the true picture of the oppressed people. A watchman shouts at Munoo and Tulsi: ‘Go away, away from the precincts of this shop. Lalla Tota Ram does not allow any coolies to lie about near here. There is a cash box in this shop.’(Coolie 118) Here, Anand shows suppression in its severe form. Lalla Tota Ram is a representative through which Anand shows the suppressing nature of merchants. The hardships of coolies who lie in the gutters trying to get a wink of sleep after the hard labour of the day are portrayed by the author. In the market, there is cut-throat competition among the coolies and so Munoo and Tulsi try their best to succeed. The coolies rush madly in the direction of the shop and this shows their state of poverty and helplessness. They struggle to fill their empty stomachs. The coolies get only low wages. The author gives authentic picture of the oppressed. Anand reveals:

For there were swarms of coolies about. And, urged by the fear of having to go without food, driven by the fear of hunger gnawing in their bellies, they rushed frantically at the shops, pushing, pulling, struggling to shove each other out of the way, till the merchants’ staves had knocked a hill man’s teeth out or bled the sores on a Kashmiri’s head. Then they would fall back, defeated, afraid for their lives and resigned to the workings of fate, which might single them out for the coveted prize of an anna job. It was not that the strongest of them were chosen and the weaker had to go to the wall. The caprice of any merchant boy decided their lot, or the shrewdness of the Lalla who could make them accept less wages for more

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work. (Coolie 126)

In Two Leaves and a Bud also Anand presents the saga of suppression, mainly through Gangu. Men are suppressed and ill-treated in plantations. Gangu is a middle-aged peasant. He and the members of his family become the sufferers of suppression. They were cheated by tempting words of Buta. They thought that they would become rich. They later realized that the plantation itself is a prison without bars. Their dreams are shattered and like Gangu’s family many men, women, and children get suppressed by the ruling class.

Gangu and his family went to a market expecting low price for their goods. The low wages and capitalistic suppression forced them to bargain for their food items. Gangu’s expectations were shattered. Seth mocked Gangu. Their conversation reveals suppression undertaken in the society.

Man has urge to live happily in the novel, but he is suppressed to the core by the merchants. There is class conscience and suppression. Seth Dhanu Mal is a typical of the suppressing class. Seth Dhanu Mal shows the true nature of them in his talk. He is a person who wants to make money and charges more. He never thought of the condition of a man like Gangu. Anand brings into prominence the agents of suppression who made other’s life miserable.

The term humanism has several meanings. This is due to the fact that authors and speakers do not make clear the meaning they intend. There are various kinds of humanism – literary humanism, renaissance humanism, cultural humanism, philosophical humanism, Christian humanism, etc. Humanism is a philosophy for those who think of

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themselves among others. A humanist is capable of challenging and exploring any area of thought. It is a philosophy of reason and science that is in search of knowledge.

Humanism is a philosophy that is realistic and for those in love with life. Humanists take the responsibility for their lives and enjoy the adventure of being part of fresh discoveries searching new knowledge and exploring new options.

Humanists look at the world by giving importance to human beings--their nature and place in the universe. Humanism means love of man with all his weaknesses, instincts and impulses. Human desires, values and dignity are given great importance. Humanism indicates commitment to the considerations of mankind. It is an attitude that focuses on the pursuit of humans more than the supernatural world, the world of nature or the so called animal kingdom. There have been several types of humanism that can be categorized as religious and non-religious. But, all the humanists agree that people are the centers of their study. Every person has importance and worth and should be respected by every other person(s). Humanism has its roots in ancient Greece and Rome. Even though humanism had its roots in the life and thought of ancient Greece and Rome, it flourished as a historical movement in Europe from the 1300s to the 1500s. Its approach to the study of humanity formed the intellectual core of the cultural reawakening called Renaissance. Even today, the humanistic attitude towards life has not come to an end.

The thrilling rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman led to the beginning of humanistic movement in the early Renaissance. These classics were models of literary style. They were also helpful in understanding life. This was dissimilar to the opinion of many medieval scholars, who said that earthly life should be lived in a way that would be

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helpful in getting a place in heaven.

Humanists were against their attitude of sinful nature of humanity. This new way of looking at life during the revival of learning began in the country of Italy and extended to France, Germany, Netherlands and England. At its height in the 1500s, humanism was an international fellowship of scholars.

A lot of modern western culture results from humanistic achievements. Humanism still influences the arts, education and governments. Most of the early humanists were religious. Later, the humanists urged a more robust recognition of the realities of human nature. The literature of the humanists is realistic, critical and usually humorous. Erasmus, a Dutch humanist who was brilliant was a priest and he attempted to find similarity in Greek philosophy and Christian thought. The Price of Folly is his great work. This work is witty. It is a satiric criticism of kings and churchmen and also recognition of general human error.

Historically, humanism is a Renaissance doctrine, which emphasis the essential worth, dignity and the greatness of man as compared to an earlier attitude that humans are not good, are worthless and destined to destruction both in this life and in that to come. Anand’s humanism makes him use his arts for serving humanity.

Anand favoured humanism. This can be seen in his expressions. Anand was influenced by both eastern and western thought. Anand stated that he ignored all types of system and categories of philosophy that are part of western humanism.

Anand is a great humanist. His emphasis on man’s greatness regardless of

caste, creed and wealth, his appeal for the practice of compassion as a living value, his

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idea of the whole man, the great importance he attaches to art and poetry as instrument for developing whole men, his crusade against superstition, feudalism and imperialism are a few of the main features of Anand’s humanism. A true humanist, Anand refuses to accept God, fate, religion, past and future. He is not against the supremacy of man. Anand admires man. He opines that man is the maker and breaker of worlds. This admiring attitude of Anand does not restrain him to man’s weakness. He does take knowledge/awareness of man’s greed, lust, selfishness, cruelty and uncertainity. He really respects man. He loves man. He trusts in man’s ability to live a life full of dignity. Anand says that humans are capable of finding solution to their troubles with the aid of imagination, reason and advancements of science. For Anand, the highest reality in the world is ‘the whole man’ and not God and the supernatural.

Because of the reason that man is wholly responsible for his destiny, Anand does not believe in fatalism, a concept that adversely affected the Indian masses for a very long time. Fatalism decreases man’s faith in oneself and proceeding inconspicuously and harmfully tries to make him become passively rely on unseen and non-existent forces. So fatalism is truly not a humanistic idea. Anand says that caste system is a heinous crime and a severely affects the concept of the dignity of man. Therefore, casteism should be stopped.

Anand’s humanism declares the fact that pain and cruelty are two other serious maladies of the universe. With the help from the progressing science and technology, and

practicing love and compassion for the downtrodden, misery and sadness can be lessened or even removed. To Anand, humanism is a great tool for social development. He says

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that getting rid of pain should be the paramount importance for people everywhere. One should believe in the virtue of brotherhood of men and must be practiced by everyone without falsity.

The philosophy of Anand is extremely against fascism, feudalism, imperialism, and tendencies which obstruct man’s efforts to get freedom. These forces separate people into groups and classes, which is why it should be deliberately avoided. There should be democracy, socialism and nations must be in harmony with each other. Everyone should have social, economic, political, intellectual and emotional freedom without destroying another’s freedom. Nationalism sometimes produces war and no one who knows about the horrifying events resulting from the use of modern weapons would want a war. Anand says that art and science are useful together and both should strive to make man happier and good.

All people should have freedom as well as equality. There should not be wars for mankind to live on. Religion is something that should be left for the individual to decide.

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CHAPTER III

COLONIAL SUPPRESSION IN COOLIE AND TWO LEAVES AND A BUD

Colonialism means oppression, humiliation and suppression of people of the colonized regions. The British formed and controlled the largest empire in history for a fairly long period. India also formed part of the empire. They came for trade and established their empire in our land.

Suppression in India began in the early stage in the form of trade. Afterwards it engulfed the society wholly. The white man had a feeling of racial superiority and this also was a main reason for capturing India and making it their colony. They damaged seriously the indigenous culture and heritage. For them, the orient people were a mass of barbarians and called their rule as ‘civilizing mission’ and suppressed people to the core and made their lives a hell. Under the British rule, India lost its cultural heritage and honour. The colonizers forced rules on the native people and forced them to do work requiring great effort. Less pay made them poor.

COLONIAL SUPPRESSION IN COOLIE

In Coolie, Anand shows the state of coolies on a big scale. The author proves these suppressing monopolies are the cause of the wretched lives of coolies. The colonizers always harmed the coolies in order to secure the position of colonial traders. Anand gradually puts in his novels the bad condition of the coolies. Anand writes:

The bodies of numberless coolies lay strewn in tattered garbs. Some were

curled up into knots, others lay face downwards on folded arms, others

were flat on their chests, pillowing their heads on their bundles or boxes,

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others crouched into corners talking, others still huddled together at the

doorsteps of closed shops, or lay on the boards in a sleep which looked

like death, but that it as broken by deep sighs.(Coolie 162)

Munoo, the protagonist of Coolie, with a character Hari joins a big cotton mill. Jimmie Thomas, the white foreman is like devil and the cotton mill is a hell for the coolies.

Colonizers not only suppressed men and women but also their children. Jimmie Thomas is an example of one of the colonizers who utilized the Indian workers like anything. He harassed the poor natives like Hari. The wicked colonizers squashed the lives of men to amass wealth. Without shame, he demands eatables for Mem Sahib. He makes Hari to borrow ten rupees from him for his present needs. The method of these wicked men was tricky; they knew the needs and conditions of people and suppressed them till they faced death. Jimmie Thomas in Anand’s Coolie says:

‘And now I suppose you have no money. Well, I will advance you ten

rupees at four annas in the rupee, which sum I will add to the regular

monthly commission you give to me. Agreed? I will go and fetch the

money.’ (Coolie 174)

Hari was asked to live in a cottage that was not enough even for animals. Hari had to pay commission to the white man.

The whistle sound of the factory heard before dawn gave them no time to sleep or to have food. Through Munoo, the author Anand, clearly explains the labour rules of the

whites and the poor treatment there. The poor Indian labourers were to work without rest

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from dawn to dusk.

The colonizers ruined the lives of people under their rule. Jimmie Thomas made the people work very hard. Hari became panic-stricken as he had to take his boy to the doctor and at the same time was expected to work also. Here, is a person who is in dilemma.

The colonizers troubled the people under their rule both mentally and physically. The trouble-makers gradually led people to death. The heart-breaking condition of women and children in the spinning-shed shows the brutal treatment of the British.

Hari’s family represents millions of toiling coolies in India who are ill-treated and insufficiently nourished till the end. The colonizers saw the unlucky Indians just as animals. The colonizers never cared for the safety of the Indians.

COLONIAL SUPPRESSION IN TWO LEAVES AND A BUD

In Two Leaves and a Bud, Anand presents the lives of coolies under the control of the colonizers. The author shows the hardness of the rules which made the lives of the victims a terrible experience. The victims had only few dreams in their lives and even these few expectations did not happen. Labour rules were imposed on the coolies without any human consideration.

Coolies in the Macpherson Tea Estate suffered due to the unhealthy living conditions and undernourished food. Every year, cholera took away many lives mainly due to lack of water supply. The white owners did not improve the living conditions of coolies. A section of the novel says:

The whole bloody thing was fantastic in its futility. Such as a simple

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scheme he had devised. The water supply was at fault. It was the main

source from which the disease spread. And it was criminal not to do

anything about it. (Two Leaves and a Bud 18)

The white owner Croft-Cooke is not ready to take any action to improve the living conditions of coolies. Croft-Cooke is a hard-hearted business man. John De La Havre, a white man is a humanitarian. He is a physician and unlike other whites, he always stands for the rights of coolies. He is insulted by his fellow white man. Croft-Cooke considers the coolies as objects to be shot dead.

The cruel whites considered that it is the ‘white man’s burden’ to civilize the people of the east and white men exploited the coolies in the name of civilization.

The coolies were never allowed to leave the plantation which was a prison within a prison. The coolies are overworked till they spat blood. The workers are made to work under harsh rules to make profit. The unsympathetic nature of the colonizers is shown in the novel. Malaria breaks out. Sajani dies. Plantation life is set to change from bad to worse.

The government of India also helped the colonialists to implement their rule, and they were permitted to imprison or kill the coolies. The novelist with heartfelt sympathy shows his pain:

The famine-stricken peasantry from various parts of India was recruited to

supplement indigenous labour and the Government of India helped the

trade by giving the planters the power to imprison or kill any coolie who

broke this contract. (Two Leaves and a Bud 98)

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The author shows Gangu in a state of agony. He is penniless to cremate his dead wife, Sajani’s body.

Anand brings out the dark side of the plantation labour. Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud show colonization with all its vices. Anand portrays the pain of the coolies, the unlucky ones.

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CHAPTER 4

CAPITALISTIC SUPPRESSION IN TWO LEAVES AND A BUD AND COOLIE

The basis of capitalism are private ownership of property (capital goods); property and capital create income for those who own the property or capital; individuals and firms openly compete with one another, with each seeking its own economic gain (so that competition determines prices, production, and distribution of goods); and participants in the system are profit-driven (in other words, earning a profit is the main goal). Capitalism is the antithesis of socialism, a theory by which government owns most, if not all, of a nation's capital.

CAPITALISTIC SUPPRESSION

The disadvantaged world-wide are exploited by the capitalists. Their poverty is because of the presence of capitalism in the world.

Anand discovers that the society of the present times is divided and further divided into different classes sections of people and these are mainly the haves and have-nots. The rich exploit the poor in several ways since they are meek, fatalists and at the same time satisfied with their living conditions. They are not in a position to speak aloud angrily. Their life is a hell. The obstacles created on people in the name of things like caste, creed and religion is to protect the advanced lives of the rich of society.

CAPITALISTIC SUPPRESSION IN COOLIE

The rural village of Kangra is not free from capitalistic suppression. Munoo has a horrible fate even from his early days as a child. Munoo is led to the path of suppression and endless suffering. Anand shows capitalistic suppression as it is.

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Anand shows the mortal fate of the victims under the treachery of landlords. A landlord gained for himself his father’s five acres of land as his male parent could not return the landlord’s money on account of bad harvests. The landlords showed them no mercy and left them destitute and his father passed away due to utter bitterness and disappointment. His mother was the next target of capitalistic suppression. She worked a lot to look after the family.

With love for wealth, the capitalist suppressers are hard-hearted and behave cruelly. They treat the coolies by using bad words.

CAPITALISTIC SUPPRESSION IN TWO LEAVES AND A BUD

In Two Leaves and a Bud, Anand describes the poor condition of Gangu. The disadvantages of capitalism are experienced in the non-urban village of Hoshiarpur in the most profound manner. The villain came in the form of Seth Badri Dass. Gangu’s joint family owned three acres of land. As per a law of the British government, the debt created by one member of the family will be imposed on the other. In accordance with the rule, the debt created by a brother of Gangu lost him three acres and his hut. Seth Badri Dass came to own this property.

Like Munoo, Gangu is a sufferer of the cruel behaviour of the landlords. The law and force do not work for the sufferers but only for the British.

Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud reveal the true nature of capitalism. By any method, it takes away the properties of men and leaves them to destruction.

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CHAPTER 6

HUMANISM IN UNTOUCHABLE AND COOLIE

Through Untouchable, Anand shows the sufferings and worries inflicted on the untouchables and outcastes through Bakha, a poor sweeper boy. Bakha says: “They think we are mere dirt because we clean their dirt” (Untouchable 39). Here, we see Anand’s knowledge of the grim realities of India’s social life.

Anand speaks of Bakha. The latter is extremely sensitive and his aspiration includes a decent life with good education. He desires to be treated as a human being. Even though he has good qualities, he has to suffer insult. The rudeness of the high caste priest, the cruelness of the crowd delighting in his humiliation and also the rejection of his good act of saving the injured boy have told him that he is not of the society though he is in it. Bakha realizes that he is surrounded by a barrier which is not a physical barrier but a moral one. He realizes that it is not possible to “overstep the barriers which the conventions of his superiors had built up to protect their weakness against him.”(Untouchable 75)

He is unable to share his views with his father who “was as good as dead, a putrefying corpse like that of a stray dog or cat on the rubbish heap” (96). He finds that there is no way out. He wished that he was dead.

Untouchable shows his belief in the statement ‘man is the measure of all things.’ Man can solve the problem of misery and sadness in the society with the help of science and technology and by showing love and compassion for the weak and the low. However, in Bakha’s case, basically, man is the cause of his problems and sufferings.

Anand says that it is a heinous practice to observe casteism. This is portrayed in the novel realistically. The novel is about the wrongness and oppression to which a large section of the Hindu society is subjected by another group which is blessed with higher status. In the novel, we see the life of the untouchables who became the sufferers of social injustices. The novel is not just the story of one person Bakha, but through him, it presents an enormous problem of Hindu society. This untouchable Bakha is almost a dispossessed man. He lives in poverty.

Anand is a true humanist, and he rejects fate or God. Anand opines that the basic reason for Bakha’s sad state is nothing but the cruel activities of mankind. Bakha was considered an inferior by the higher caste. They did not have a brotherly affection towards him. He was treated as an untouchable. The many humiliations Bakha experiences wihin a day of his life speak of his life as one of blighted hopes and despair.

Anand improves Bakha’s religious status when Bakha faces Colonel Hutchinson, the main person of the Salvation Army. The colonel’s portrait is really an eminent satire on Christian missionary activity. The readers are chanced to get a glimpse of his sensation-loving wife shouting at her spouse and making fun of his missionary work. Bakha does not yield to the missionary’s manoeuvres.

As a humanist, he is sure that man’s problem can be answered by universal brotherhood, love and pitiable feeling. Unlike the Hindus of high caste, there are also good persons like Havildar Singh, who shows great love and consideration for him. The Tommies also treats him like a human being unlike the caste Hindu to whom he is untouchable.

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Bakha’s world is not fit for his wants and therefore, he longs for another world. Anand tries to identify the kinds of likely answers to religious conversion, rapid industrialization and the Gandhian way. Bakha likes only the idea of cleanliness and equality that can be attributed to Hutchinson’s religion and feels flattered by Gandhi’s sympathy. It is only the poet Iqbal Nath Sarshar’s solution--the flush system that captures Bakha’s attention. Anand appears to believe that the rapid growth of industries only could create secular situation and introduces flush system as a desired image of the change. He is not happy with Hutchinson’s religious idea of getting equal status by conversion. In a similar way, he is skeptical of the gradual regeneration of the traditional Hindu society in the Gandhian way. For Bakha, hope lies in machines. “Perhaps, I can find the poet on the way and ask him about the machine.”(Untouchable 178)

In Untouchable, Anand creates a character who is seeking his own identity in the world around him which has for ages suppressed persons of his kind. It is a degrading ill of the society which people like philosophers, poets and reformers have fought over a span of one thousand years. Anand’s heroes always live and cope up with the present and struggle for the future.

The best fictional treatment of Anand’s humanism can be seen in his second novel Coolie besides his first novel Untouchable.

Coolie is a novel about the lowest class showing the tragic situation of millions of coolies who are without land and has run away from hunger and starvation. It is because of their poor condition that they become coolies and labourers and fall prey to forces of oppression in society. Afterwards they die somewhere in a corner, unknown and unwept.

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Coolie is the narrative of life and death of a coolie, Munoo, in a time span of two years. Anand is a reformer of the society besides being a realist. So, he preaches for the welfare of the many like Munoo. His tragedy is Anand’s passionate appeal for change. Humanism is Anand’s solution to this menace. This is expressed through typical situations and characters.

Coolie shows his belief in the essential dignity of man whether he belongs to the group of the rich or the group of the poor. In this novel, Anand chooses a poor boy, Munoo, as the hero, and he dominates this novel from the beginning to the end. To Anand, the pain and suffering form universal brotherhood, love, etc. Through Coolie, Anand expresses his belief in man’s dignity whether he is rich or poor. Munoo’s life is full of sufferings and in the beginning of the novel itself we can see how his aunt Gujri ill-treats him. Anand writes:

‘Munoo ohe Munooa!’ she called again, exasperated and raising her

voice, this time, to the highest pitch to which, in her anger and hate, she

could carry it: ‘Where have you died? Where have you gone, you ominous

orphan? Come back and begone!’ The piercing soprano resounded through

the valley and fell on Munoo’s ears with the dreadening effect of all its

bitter content.(Coolie 1)

If his aunt Gujri and Uttam Kaur had not ill-treated him, his tragedy would have been avoided. In the novel, Munoo meets cruel and bad characters besides good characters like Prabha Dayal and his wife in Daulatpur, Chota Babu in Sham Nagar and Ratan in Bombay. Here is an example of the goodness of Prabha Dayal. When Munoo

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first met Dayal, the latter ignoring his partner Ganesh’s advice, patted Munoo on his back and said: ‘Come, come now, be a brave lad. Wipe your eyes. We will take care of you. Look, we are almost nearing Daulatpur!’ (Coolie 64)

Anand’s philosophy of humanism rejected fatalism and gave importance to man and his ability. Anand opines that Munoo suffers because of society and not because of fate. Munoo meets his tragic end because the society leads him to it.

Unlike Bakha in Untouchable, Munoo belongs to high caste. Society did not consider him as a human being because of his poor living conditions. Social forces of capitalism and industrialism are more powerful than stray individuals. Munoo has no economic freedom or prosperity and he is victimized. His hunger and poverty makes him yield himself to be oppressed.

In Coolie, Anand refuses to accept the idea of karma. As per the Indian belief, one gets rebirth on the basis of his/her karma. The people with special benefits are important than those without those benefits because of this. Munoo has important aims about life. But, he is treated just like an animal used for heavy work. Anand says the only solution to this problem is humanism—a creed of love.

The increasing indebtedness and unemployment forces Munoo to go to town in search of work. In the Daulatpur market, he is astonished to see the wild competition in there. The feeling of insecurity and uncertainity of employment makes Munoo to come to Bombay. Even here, the situation is not different.

. Munoo’s tragic story is shown to be all over the world and the human element in

men of lower birth is introduced by revealing their essential dignity and innocence.

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Coolie is a novel of social protest. Anand’s anger with which he described Munoo’s pitiable situation is a direct expression of love of man, a basic principle of his humanism. Through Coolie, he behaves like a proletarian humanist.

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CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

Anand has a philosophical view of the world. He also has a poetic vision of life.

As a social realist and a critic, he is against every unjust act. He speaks for the unlucky people. He openly reacted to various kind of suppression which had created problems in the people’s lives.

As a fiction writer, Anand has been noticed for vitality and keen sense of actuality. Anand selects from the lower section of the society those with pureness and innocence and gives full life and blood to them. His novels mostly portray the tragedy of those free from moral wrongs under external and wicked forces.

Anand rises in value because of his love for the enslaved mankind. His novels are an eye-opener to our community. Anand understood the degree of pain and suffering of his fellowmen. Anand is the champion of the suppressed, that is, he fought for the good of the suppressed. He has always written to stress man’s worthiness for respect and to generate pity and love for the underdogs and downtrodden.

Anand is a humanist and he is a writer with a mission which is to write for the good and development of the oppressed people of the society. He writes for the sake of man, for cleansing and making him noble and for leading him into action calculated to achieve the welfare of everyone. Anand’s humanism is the focal point of his fiction. He is almost as great as Dickens. The people of the lowest class of the society in India are the central characters of his novels—a sweeper, a coolie, a labourer, a villager, etc. Anand wanted to eliminate social problem by criticizing it through his novels. This makes him a

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novelist of the lower class. Each and every novel and short story created by him show that his main purpose is to bring into prominence the different social problems of Indian society.

Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud prove the genius of a great writer, who set apart his works for the outcasts of Indian society. Anand deals with suppression in a larger scale in Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud. The different forms of suppression take place with all its venom and brutality. The endless sagas of suppression in these novels start with colonial suppression. Anand depicts the cruelty of the colonizers, which has no limits.

The lives of Munoo, Gangu and other coolies give easily understandable demonstration of the crushed humanity throughout the world. They do laborious work, yet, they get abuses and good thrashing. They have skeletal bodies which show their poor condition under white reign. Even the mothers with new born babies are denied their right to suckle their babies. Here, the author Anand shows the madness of men who go after money like anything which shows the callousness of colonial monsters.

The severely damaged lives of Munoo and Gangu are strong representation of capitalistic power. Through the lives of Munoo and Gangu, Anand shows the not so wonderful side of life under the capitalists. Anand brings into prominence the pain of Munoo who is without his parents because of capitalistic suppression. His parents were sufferers of it and throw him into a life of misery. Anand shows how Gangu is in penury under capitalistic suppression. Gangu loses his means of living under its powerful hold and he has to work hard to make both ends meet.

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With the help of his novels, Anand portrays the outcastes’ intense struggle with the suppressing forces. Of these, only the rebel Bakha succeeds to a significant little. Bakha and Munoo stands for the the two faces of the archetypal figure of the dispossessed but undefeated outcastes or the untouchables that could be found in all of Anand’s novels. The misery and unhappiness of the poor and their attempts to get better lives can be seen in Untouchable and Coolie. The tale of the pitiable conditions of Munoo and Bakha serves the good intention of arousing the conscience of the educated Indians to the economic and social injustices in India.

Anand was well familiar with the life of the untouchables and Bakha has been based on one of his playmates. The high caste Hindus were polluted by just an untouchable’s touch like Bakha. But we can see that those like Pandit Kali Nath do not hesitate to molest an outcaste girl like Sohini.

Anand is for the scientific and technological development because he sees in it the plentiful potentials for solving our socio-economic problems. Munoo thinks of railways as a wonderful thing. In Untouchable, the problem of untouchability is sought in machines as it creates new labour system and destroys the caste system where all people are not equal and some are suppressed. The sociological concern of poverty, suppression and corruption are shown in Coolie and Untouchable. He wrote Untouchable on the theme of untouchability and the Coolie presents the tragic situation of the coolies.

Most of Anand’s heroes are poor suffering people. Characters belonging to the other classes, that is, the middle class and upper class also make appearance but they are the object of his social satire. It is the suppressed persons -- a Bakha and a Munoo -- who

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have sympathy on their side. The sweeper, the peasant, the plantation labourer, the city drudge, the sepoy –all come out alive from his novels anguished and hungry. With these characters, Anand started the literature of the suppressed.

Anand intensified his efforts to demonstrate the current tragic state of taming millions, conflict within the class and defend the propaganda against him. His commitment to humanism can be seen in his treatment of the theme of hunger, poverty, etc. Anand has presented unforgettable scenes. We cry when we find Anand’s victims are intensely pained and denied even the basic requirements of life.

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