Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mulk Raj Anand’s second novel Coolie was published in the year 1936 and it established him as one of the most popular and successful Asian anglophone writers of his time. Like his first novel (Untouchable) Coolie also depicts the story of an Indian adolescent teen experiencing the harsh realities of the British Indian establishment. The term coolie is outdated. It was first used during the late 16th century by British traders to refer to a low-wage unskilled laborer particularly belonging to India or China. By the 18th century, coolie specifically became a term to refer to Indian-indentured labor. It was as derogatory as Niger or similar other words were. In the 20th century and especially after the end of the British Raj in India, the term Coolie changed to refer to porters at railway stations.
The novel depicts the misfortunate journey of Munnoo from the small village of Himachal to the big city of Bombay and back to Shimla in a year in which Munnoo spends his whole life. Along with describing the ill effects of British rule and poverty in India, Mulk Raj Anand stressed the infective politics of communism and the ill effects of religionism (Hindu-Muslim riots) in this novel.
Characters of Coolie by Mulk Raj Anand
Munnoo is an orphan adolescent teenager of age 14 living with his uncle Dayaram and his family. Dayaram and his wife are not very kind to Munnoo and soon he is sent to work as a house servant at the home of babu Nathoo Ram whose wife is against a harsh lady. However, Nathuram’s younger brother Premchand is kind to Munnoo and Nathuram’s daughter Shiela becomes his friend. Mr. England is the British officer of the bank where Nathuram works. Prabhadayal is a businessman who offers work to Munnoo at his factory of pickles. Ganpat is Prabhadayal’s corrupt and disloyal business partner. Tulsi is another young laborer at Prabhadayal’s factory who makes Munnoo realize that he is growing up. Sir Todarmal is another businessman who offers loans to Prabhadayal and his son Ramnath is a sub-inspector in the British police. Harihar and his wife Lakshmi work at Sir George White Cotton Mills in Bombay. Munnoo saves Harihar’s younger son by risking his life and Harihar then helps Munnoo in getting a job in the factory where he works. Englishman Jimmi Thomas, also known as Chimta Saab is the foreman of the Mill. Ratan is another worker at the Mill who is a brave and physically strong person who raises his voice for the welfare of laborers as he is a member of the All India Trade Union Congress. He saves Harihar and Ratan against the atrocities of Chimta Saab and other bullies like Pathan who also works at the Mill. Sauda is a communist leader of the Red Flag Union who instigates Ratan to declare a strike to raise their political power. Omkar Nath is a Congress Union leader. Mrs. Mainwaring is an Anglo-Indian woman who is an adulteress. She employs Munnoo as a rikshaw puller cum page but her intention is to exploit young Munnoo for her own pleasure. Mohan is another rikshaw puller appointed by Mrs. Mainwaring who becomes a friend of Munnoo. Dr. Merchant is the health officer of Shimla who examines Munnoo and concludes that he is suffering from consumption.
Summary of Coolie by Mulk Raj Anand
Munno is an orphan who is being taken care of by his unkind uncle Dayaram and his wife. He lives in a village in the Kangra district. As he turns 14 years old, his uncle tells him that he can no longer afford his education and he must work to earn a living from now on. Munnoo is unskilled and uneducated. The next day, Dayaram takes Munnoo to the house of Babu Nathuraam who is a banker in the nearby city of Shamnagar where he is indentured as a domestic servant. Babu Nathuram and his wife whom Munnoo calls Bibii are no better than his uncle and aunt. Bibiji keeps exploiting him and pressuring him with overwork. However, Nathuram’s younger brother Premchand is kind to him. One day, when Nathuram’s officer visits him for dinner, Munnoo accidentally drops a tray with cups of tea and breaks all the crockery. He gets a strong beating from Bibiji after that. Shiela is the daughter of babu Nathuram who becomes a friend of Munnoo. One day, while playing with her, Munnoo acts and dances like a monkey which exhilarates Shiela. This excites Munnoo further and he goes on to act an attack like a monkey and bites Shiela on her cheek in a childlike manner. This enrages Nathuram and he beats him mercilessly. Munnoo feels he won’t survive long at Nathuram’s house and decides to leave. He reaches the railway station and boards a train going to Daulatpur. On the train, he meets a businessman Prabhadayal. He is very kind to Munnoo and decides to take him to Daulatpur where he may work and stay at his factory of pickles. Prabhadayal’s partner Ganpat is not very happy about it but he doesn’t oppose it.
Situations aren’t very healthy at the factory in Daulatpur where Munnoo starts living. Yet, he feels his life is better than what it was at Babu Nathuram’s house. He meets Tulsi at the factory who is the same-age girl. Munnoo feels attraction toward the opposite gender for the first time. Pabhadayal’s partner Ganpat defrauds the factory and Prabhadayal finds himself burdened with loans to Sir Todarmal. As Prabhadayal is unable to pay the loan, Todarmal’s son, sub-inspector Ramnath takes him to custody where he is beaten. Finally, Prabhadayal decides to sell his factory and go back to his village after paying the loans. Munnoo again finds himself jobless and homeless. He tries to work as a coolie at the Grain Market and Vegetable Market but fails to get enough money to make two-time meals. He also tries to test his luck at the railway station as a coolie but fails again.
He comes in contact with some circus workers who brag about the opportunities of work in Bombay, a huge city afar. Munnoo decides to board a train to Bombay. The circus people and their animals were also moving to Bombay on the same train. During the travel, a child is attracted by the elephants of the Circus and decides to take a close look. The elephant tries to hit the child with his trunk but Munnoo saves the child in time while risking his own life. Harihar is the father of the child who works at a cotton mill in Bombay. He is going back to Bombay with his wife Lakshmi and two children. He is grateful to Munnoo and suggests that he will help Munnoo to get a job at the same mill where he works.
Harihar requests Jimmie Thomas, the foreman of Sir George White Cotton Mill to provide jobs for his wife Lakshmi, his elder son, and a friend Munnoo. Jimmi Thomas is a cruel manager who not only exploits workers through overwork at a meager salary but also robs them by forcing them to live in the huts owned by him at high rent. Mill workers call him Chimta Saab because of his cruel practice of beating workers with an iron Chimta for minute mistakes. Munnoo gets a job at the mill and he starts living with Harihar’s family in his hut and shares the rent. Being an unskilled worker, he takes time in learning how the mill machines work, and on the very first day, when he tries, he almost gets trapped in the machine that could have caused great injury to him but is saved by a strong healthy worker named Ratan. Ratan is a wrestler and he is vocal about laborers' rights. Whenever Chimta Saab bullies mill workers, Ratan stands up in support of workers to oppose him. He saves Munnoo and Harihar many times from the atrocities of Chimta Saab and his henchman Pathan, who is also a mill worker. One day, during the heavy rains of Bombay, Harihar and Munnoo’s hut gets completely ruined. Ratan offers them a small room in his chall where he lives. The room is smaller than their hut and Harihar, Lakshmi, their two sons, and Munnoo have very little space to sleep. Munnoo gets so impressed with Ratan for his help that he starts following him at every instance.
One day, Harihar takes his sick children to the medical facility while Ratan goes to meet a prostitute. Munnoo follows Ratan and that is the first time he feels the need for a female relationship. He soon returns to his room while Ratan stays in the prostitute’s room for the night. In his room, Ratan finds Lakshmi alone, waiting for Harihar. She knew where Ratan took Munnoo. She grasps the condition of this young lad who is gradually becoming an adult. She asks him to come close and takes him in her embrace near her breasts and says that they all belong to the suffering class and hence, are one. She presses him close to her with a peculiar passion that creates a desire in his heart. That night Munoo forgets everything for the pleasure of making love to Lakshmi.
At the mill, Jimmi Thomas is too pissed over Ratan’s interventions in support of laborers. He decides to sack him. Ratan gets infuriated and complains about his termination from the All India Trade Union Congress of which he is a member. Omkar Nath, the leader of Congress investigates the matter and finds that the mill is suffering losses and hence the management has decided to reduce some expenditures by reducing the workforce. Ratan is not satisfied with this explanation but Omkar Nath suggests he be patient. Meanwhile, another competing Labour Union Organization of Communists, headed by local leader Sauda makes contact with Ratan. Sauda tells him that the Union Trade Congress won’t help him as Omkar Nath has connections with mill management and invites him to join his union named Red Flag Union. Ratan joins them and Sauda instigates him to collect all the workers and declare a strike until the management agrees to increase payment of workers and reinstate Ratan at his job. Ratan gathers all the workers in a meeting to be addressed by him and Sauda. Munnoo and Harihar also go there along with all male workers.
Meanwhile, the mill management learns that workers have declared a strike on behalf of the communist Red Flag Union and they spread a rumor that the Mohemmdan Pathans have kidnapped the children of Hindu workers and they are planning to attack their homes at night. As this false news spreads among the workers, they start fighting with the Muslim workers at the meeting place. Sauda realizes that the management has played tricks to divide the force of workers in Hindu Muslim biases. He tries to manage the crowd but fails. A sudden burst of Hindu-Muslim riots destroys their plan for the strike. In the ensuing violence, Munnoo gets separated from Harihar and Ratan. He tries to find them but fails. As he sees a mob coming towards him, he hides in a broken wagon and spends the whole night in it. The next morning when he wakes up and comes out of the wagon to examine the situation, a motor car comes towards him from the backside and hits him. He gets unconscious. Mrs. Mainwaring was traveling in that motor car. She is an Anglo-Indian woman who is an adulteress. She married and divorced many times and she has aseverallovers. When she sees Munnoo, she gets an interest in him and takes him to her residence in Bombay. She gets medical help for him and soon he gets well. She appoints him as her page and a rikshaw puller and decides to take him to Shimla with her.
Munnoo is happy at returning to the hills where he took birth and spent his childhood. He is no more a child now, he is 15, and a lover boy of Mrs. Mainwaring. She not only uses him for her unquenchable desires but also makes him work hard as a rikshaw puller. She has three more rikshaw pullers along with him and one of them is Mohan who becomes a close friend of Munnoo. Mrs. Mainwaring continues to exploit him and his body soon starts showing fatigue as he catches tuberculosis because of the extreme conditions he suffered at the factory in Daulatpur and at the mill in Bombay. He starts bleeding coughs and suffers a high fever. Mrs. Mainwaring calls Dr. Merchant, one of her lovers, to check Munnoo’s health. After examining, Dr. Merchant informs Mrs. Mainwaring that Munnoo is suffering from consumption and advises her to remain away from Munnoo to avoid getting infected. Mrs. Mainwaring stops meeting him but does ensure that he gets proper medication and care. However, his health is too much deteriorated and soon, he dies. He was just 15 years and a few months old at the age of his death.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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