Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer who prominently wrote in English and popularized Anglo-Indian fiction through his novels and short stories. He was a socialist who engaged in himself in the Indian Independence Movement. However, most of his novels and short stories attack various aspects of India's social structure, social biases, caste system, as well as the legacy of British rule in India. He is especially known to shed light on the lives of lower caste people who are treated with great bias and unfairness. Almost all of his novels and short stories like Untouchable, Coolie, The Big Heart, Two leaves and a Bud, etc. touch on the problems of the political structure, oppression of classes, untouchability, and so on. Anand was born on 12 December 1905 in Peshawar of British India, now a part of Pakistan. He died on 28 September 2004 at the age of 98 in Pune of Independent India. He completed his graduation from Khalsa College, Amritsar in 1924, and then he earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cambridge University, England. His dissertation was on Bertrand Russell and English Empiricists. Bertrand Russell was known for his anti-imperialist ideas as he chaired the Indian League during the 1930s.
During his days in England, he came in contact with T.S Eliot and worked for his magazine Criterion. He grew a friendship with E.M. Forster who was also working for Criterion. His first novel was Untouchable which was published in the year 1935 and its introduction was written by E.M. Forster. During World War II, Anand worked as a scriptwriter for BBC in London, and during that period, he came close to George Orwell who wrote an appreciating review of his 1942 novel The Sword and The Sickle. Some other important novels by Mulk Raj Anand include Coolie (1936), The Village (1939), Across The Black Waters (1939), and The Private Life of An Indian Prince (1953). He was offered the International Peace Prize of 1951 and in 1971, his English novel Morning Face won the Sahitya Academy Award in India. In 1967, he was offered Padma-Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India.
Characters of Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Bakha is a young Indian boy belonging to the low sweeper caste who is the son of the head of his town’s sweeper caste. Bakha is an intelligent boy with an inquisitive mind. His father Lakha is a strict person who wants his son to understand his place in society and perform his tasks appropriately, while he is lazy and tries to avoid his duties. Bakha doesn’t appreciate his work as a sweeper. The story is about the experiences of Bakha during a single day. Bakha’s mother died after giving birth to Rakha, his younger brother. Bakha believes that his father turned sour and abusive right after her death. Sohini is Bakha’s elder sister.
Charat Singh is a military sentry of the town who doesn’t care about caste biases though he belongs to a high caste. Chota and Ramcharan are his two friends. Chota and Ramcharan belong to the washerman caste which is considered higher. Gulabo is the mother of Ramcharan who doesn’t like the friendship of his son with Bakha as he belongs to a lower caste. She is jealous of Sohini too as Sohini is very beautiful. Bakha likes Ramcharan’s sister but her marriage has been fixed and he is not happy about it but he knows he could never marry her because she belongs to a higher caste. Waziro is another woman who belongs to the weaver’s caste. Unlike Gulabo, she isn’t mean to people of lower castes. Pundit Kalinath is the priest and is in charge of the town’s temple. He is a corrupt person who tries to exploit Sohini for her sexual appeal. Burra babu is an influential high-caste man of the town whose sons are of the same age as Bakha. They invite him to a match of hockey. The Doctor of the town, a high-caste man who is also very benevolent and duty-bound saved Bakha’s life when he was terminally ill during his childhood. Colonel Hutchinson is an English Evangelist who tries to convert Bakha to Christianity but his wife shouts at Bakha for being an Indian and of low caste and Bakha realizes that changing religion won’t change his situation and runs away from the church. The novel also includes a fictional speech by Mahatma Gandhi in the town that Bakha listens curiously to. R.N. Basheer is a lawyer who criticizes Gandhi’s speech and calls him a hypocrite. However, Iqbal Sarshar, a poet opposes him as Bakha listens to their debate and takes some helpful lessons from it.
Summary of Untouchable:
The entire novel revolves around the single-day activities, experiences, and accidents of Bakha who belongs to the lowest caste of the Indian caste system. He lives in a mud house with a single room along with his younger brother Rakha, elder sister Sohini and father Lakha. His home is on the outskirts of the town of Bulashah near the police barracks. Lakha is a sweeper who cleans the latrines of other people of higher castes. He is the leader of all sweepers and assigns the duties of all sweepers in different areas of the town. It is early morning and Bakha is still sleeping on his bed. Lakha shouts at Bakha telling him to go and start his share of work but Rakha is feeling lazy and hesitant which angers Lakha. Bakha doesn’t like his work and he is more interested in the way English people live. He and his friends call English people ‘Tommies’. Lakha abuses him but Bakha continues to ignore him. But then he hears another angry voice of Hawaldar Charat Singh who wants him to clean his latrine so that he may start his day. Bakha becomes attentive and takes his sweeping broom and runs to do his work astutely. He doesn’t soil himself and shows proficiency in his work. Charat Singh goes to the latrine and after completing his daily routine, he appreciates Bakha and suggests that he will offer a hockey stick to him. Charat Singh is a famous hockey player and Bakha is also very good at hockey. This makes Bakha feel elated and he continues to perform his task of cleaning the latrine as many people visit the latrine to take their turn. After he is free of his duty, he returns home and finds Lakha still sleeping there. As he is thirsty, he looks for water but there is none. Sohini picks up the pot and goes to get some water from the well. No outcaste is allowed to take water from the well by himself. They must wait for someone from a high caste to get water from the well and pour it into their pitchers. As there are many other women of different lower castes waiting for someone from a higher caste to arrive and offer them water, Sohini stands in the queue behind Gulabo, a woman of the washermen caste. Gulabo doesn’t like it as she is comparatively of a superior caste to Sohini. She starts abusing her and calling names like a prostitute, bitch, etc. She is jealous of Sohini for her beauty. Sohini tries to dissuade the situation and smiles at her but Gulabo continues her attack and as she is about to slap Sohini, another woman Waziro who belongs to the weaver caste stops her and saves Sohini. Sohini is appalled, and she decides to stand alone, away from the queue.
Pundit Kali Nath arrives and decides to offer water to the waiting women. As he observes Sohini standing alone, he calls her first and fills her pitcher. He sees her with lust and asks her to visit the temple for a cleaning job later. Sohini takes water and returns home.
At home, Lakha is still sleeping. When Sohini returns, he scolds her for being late and asks her to gather her brothers and take them to their duties. He tells Bakha that he is not feeling well and Bakha should do his part of the work too. Bakha knows that his father is just feigning illness but he doesn’t argue. He drinks his tea and goes towards the temple where he is required to sweep. On his way, he meets Rakha, his younger brother along with Chotu and Ramcharan, who are his friends. Ramcharan is Gulabo’s son. He informs that his sister is going to marry. Rakha feels sad about it. Ramcharan’s sister used to be his childhood friend. He had intense feelings for her and they used to play games pretending to be husband and wife during their childhood. However, he realizes that being of a lower caste, he can never actually marry her. Bakha tells Rakha to join him in cleaning the latrines of the colonies but Rakha isn’t interested and goes home. Rakha decides to do the work alone. As he moves forward towards the town temple, he sees the sons of Burra Singh coming towards him. He greets them with respect and they start talking. They invite them for a hockey match that evening to which Rakha, Chotu, and Ramcharan agree. Rakha observes that they are going to school. He too wishes to go to school but he cannot attend as he is an outcast.
Bakha goes towards the temple. He still remembers Ramcharan’s sister. To get away from that emotion, he buys a cigarette and as he cannot ask for fire from any Hindu of a higher caste, he goes to a Muslim man and asks for burning coal to light his cigarette. As he passes by a shop, he decides to buy candy and starts munching on it. He is happy as he got this taste after so long. A high-caste man rushing towards him accidentally touches him and then starts shouting at him. Being an outcaste, it was Bakha’s duty to sing the chant of outcastes and avoid touching him but he was unattentive. Soon a big crowd gathers him and starts shouting at him. However, a horse buggy merchant arrives and disperses the crowd. The man is still angry and he slaps Rakha for touching him before he goes away. Bakha is sad and furious. He starts crying but couldn’t resist the slap nor could answer it. The buggy merchant tries to console him and he leaves for the temple. A shopkeeper reminds him of the chant of untouchables to sing while going to the temple and he starts singing. While moving towards the temple, he contemplates what just happened. He realizes that the work he does is so repugnant that nobody wants to be in touch with him.
He reaches the temple and finds peace there. He starts sweeping the lanes of the temple. As he sees some worshippers coming towards the temple, he starts chanting the song for outcastes to avoid any mishap again. He gets curious about the temple that he never saw from inside as being an outcast, he isn’t allowed inside the temple. He dares to approach the temple but just before entering the main door, he decides not to and returns to his work. He is listening to the hymns and prayers of other worshippers in the temple and it soothes him. Suddenly, he hears Pundit Kalinath shouting at Sohini for impuring him by touching. He reaches Sohini who informs him that Kalinath tried to sexually exploit her by touching and when she resisted, he started accusing her. Soon a big crowd gathers around Bakha and Sohini, accusing Sohini. Bakha decides to confront the crowd and informs them that Kalinath tried to molest Sohini. The crowd reduces their shouts but none of them dares to question Kalinath. Sohini realizes that situation may turn against Bakha and her and asks him to let it go and leave. He agrees and tells Sohini to go back home while he will go to gather food. Sweepers were supposed to clean latrines of society, colonies, and homes and in return would ask for food from people of high caste. As his mother wasn't alive, he, Sohini, and Rakha used to ask for prepared food. Sohini returns home and he goes from street to street to beg for some food so that his family can eat. But today is a hard day, no one offers him food. As he gets tired, he sits under a tree in front of a house. A Sadhu appears and asks for food as alms and a lady comes out of the house to offer food to Sadhu. As she sees Bakha sitting in front of her door, she shouts at him and he moves away. Another woman comes out from the neighborhood and offers some food to Sadhu and gives a chapati to Bakha with the same benevolence. However, the first woman gives Saadhu some food but asks Bakha to clean the gutter of her house before she gives him some food. Bbbbaligently cleans the gutter but as he looks for the food, the woman throws a chapati in front of him as if he is a dog. This disgusts him. He picks up the bread, throws away his sweeping broom, and runs towards his home.
At home, Lakha is alone as Rakha has gone to the barracks to beg for food. As Bakha reaches home, Lakha gets angry as he brings just two pieces of bread. Bakha says that he doesn’t know many people to ask for food. Lakha says that he must know people as it is the only way for him to get food in the future. He realizes that Bakha is distraught. He asks what happened to him. Lakha informs him about the accident and the slap he got and how Pundit Kalinath treated Sohini and him. Lakha tries to console him and says that high-caste people are superior to them and they should respect them. He then says that not all high-caste people are bad. Then he tells a true story of Bakha’s childhood when he was very little and got ill. When Lakha went to the doctor, who belongs to a high caste, he had to wait outside to get some prescriptions. But before he could meet the doctor, he got information that Bakha is about to die. So he forcefully entered the doctor’s clinic where many high-caste patients were sitting and they got appalled at seeing him. But he begged the doctor to help him save his child. The other people threw him out. Frustrated, when he reached home, he found Bakha barely alive as he was having difficulties in breathing. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door. The doctor came to his home breaking all barriers of caste to protect Bakha and saved his life with proper medicines. Listening to this, Bakha feels relieved and happy. Soon Rakha returns with more food. As Bakha sits to eat some, he realizes that the food Rakha brought is taken from the remains of other people’s plates. This again repels him and he decides to go away making an excuse to attend Ramcharan’s sister’s wedding.
He visits Ramcharan’s house but doesn’t dare to enter alone as he fears Gulabo who is known for her hatred towards lower caste people. Chotu joins him and together they enter Ramcharan’s house. Ramcharan sees them and greets them and comes towards them. He opens a handkerchief full of sugarplums and asks Bakha and Chotu to eat. Bakha refuses and tells him to throw some sugarplums to him that he will pick. This dismays Ramcharan but Chotu realizes that Bakha has gone through some terrible experience. He asks what happened and Bakha fails to control and tells them about the slap he got and how Kalinath treated Sohini. Chotu gets hyper and suggests a way to take revenge on Kalinath which Bakha ignores. Then Chotu reminds him of the hockey match with Burra Babu’s kids. Ramcharan says that they should go home if they have to play hockey in the evening. Chotu goes home and Bakha goes to meet Charan Singh to take a new hockey stick.
At Charan Singh’s home, he finds no one outside and decides to wait for him. Charan Singh comes and enters his home without noticing Bakha. Later on, Bakha decides to call for him. Charan Singh happily greets him and takes him to his house. He offers him some tea despite being a man of high caste. Bakha reminds him and Charan Singh happily offers him a hockey stick. Charan Singh says that Bakha is a good player but he should devote more time to practicing. Bakha is happy after getting such a generous response from Charan Singh, a man of high caste. His new hockey stick fills him with enthusiasm.
On the ground, Barru babu’s younger son brings all the hockey gear. Bakha, being a member of the lowest caste, cannot play with boys of the high caste. Chotu says that he is a bearer of English Sahib to mask his real identity and thus Bakha gets a chance to play. Bakha proves to be a brilliant player and soon scores a goal against the team of Burra Babu’s son. Their goalkeeper gets angry and hits Bakha’s leg. This creates a ruckus and Chotu asks his teammates to attack the other team. Ramcharan picks a stone and throws which hits Burra babu’s younger son and he falls unconscious. Bakha sees him bleeding on the head and swiftly picks him up to take him to his home. As Burra Babu’s wife sees her son bleeding and in hands of an outcaste, she starts shouting and accusing Bakha of murdering her son. Bakha tries to say that Ramcharan hit him and it is not his fault but she doesn’t listen and curses him. Bakha runs away to his home. He hides his hockey stick and enters the home. Lakha is angry at him for remaining away for so long while they had to work. He shouts at him and tells him to o away and never return. Bakha is exasperated. He decides to leave and runs outside.
He reaches afar and sits down under a peepal tree near a church. Colonel Hutchinson sees him and goes to him. He touches his soldier and asks why he is so distraught? Bakha gets emotional and tells him all that happened to him during the day. Hutchinson says that Jesus died for the sins of the Brahmins and Bhangis. He encourages him to accept Christianity and offers him food and cloth if he visits the church with him. Bakha agrees and Hutchinson takes him inside the church where his wife is waiting for him. As she sees him with a black Indian of low caste, she shouts at him and abuses Bakha. Bakha realizes that changing religion is no solution and runs away from there.
He reaches a place where a large crowd has gathered to listen to a speech by Mahatma Gandhi. He decides to listen to the speech. Mahatma Gandhi arrives and says that caste discrimination is the biggest curse on Indians and requests people to discriminate against people for their caste. He says that lower caste people should attain equal opportunities, and proper education, they should be allowed in temples, and should attain basic rights of humanity. Bakha is impressed by Mahatma Gandhi. The speech ends and people start to move away. Soon he hears a voice criticizing Mahatma Gandhi for being a hypocrite. He comes to know that the man is a lawyer named R. N. Basheer. Another man, who is a poet named Iqbal Shahar opposes him and says that though Mahatma Gandhi did commit some mistakes overall, he is great and honest. He says that soon caste system will go away as new technology is coming up which will allow people to clean their latrines by themselves through flushes without getting their hands dirty. The latrines would be clean without humans and the cleaning profession would completely vanish resulting in the eradication of the untouchables. Bashir cannot respond to the claims of Iqbal and they leave.
Bakha finds it interesting as he feels that his work makes people disgust him. He is happy. He is cleansed of all the bad things that happened on that day. Bakha then decides to follow the instructions given by Mahatma Gandhi. He understands that having a flush system would decrease the problems faced by untouchables and heads back home to say all these things to his father.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected to the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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