Mulk Raj Anands Novel 1.

Untouchable
It is over 60 years of independence and at least half of
Indians are carrying the burdens of slavery in the name of casts.
When will the government have the courage to abort the casts??
Untouchability - the problem still prevails especially in the central
belt of India. If you notice, Maoism only spread in these states
where the emotionally enslaved people are ready to go any
extend to get freedom. If there is Maoism, the soil for it was
watered by the cast system. Cast system should go.) Read Mulk
Raj Anands Untouchable to see the sad sate of affairs!

Untouchable is the story from the lifeof of 18

year old Bakha, who lives in the pre independence
era, as a Bhangi (one who clean toilets). Bakha is
not weak, where he is `strong and able-bodied`. He
is all enthusiastic and has his own set of dreams.
His dreams vary from to dress like a Tommie
(Englishmen) in fashun to play Hockey. However,
his limited means and the circumstances force him
to literally beg for the food and get humiliated in
each turn of the road. The dirty nature of their
work pulls downbhangis to the last of the table of
casts. They were not permitted even to take water
from a well and had to wait for hours for the mercy
of the upper caste. The food will be given to them
by throwing and if they touch anybody by accident
they will be punished. Even if they are ready
to pay, nobody will teach them. The upper class
however doesnt find this untouchability when they
molest their teen girls. It is a typical day in the life
of the Bhangi, mixed with hunger, hope, small
pleasures, insults and set backs. Add to all the
problems, they have no right to protest or express

their

emotions!!

Deprived of hope and Fed up with humiliations,

Bakha have a difficult day. Like in the story of good
Samaritan, 3 options are placed in front of Bakha.
First, a Christian missionary, who invite him to join
Christianity so that the untouchability based on the
caste can be removed. The second option he
considers is the idea of sacrifice from Mahatma
Gandhi, who came there to preach against the
discrimination to the lower caste. The third option
he considers as a solution to the entire problem is
a
flush
system.
Mulk Raj Anand considers that the caste system can only
prevail with the job one carries and the easy way to remove it is to
upgrade the work environment and bring dignity to each work. We
have no right to downgrade any work. The novel simply shows a
way to solve two problems still lingers India. 1. Sanitation. (No
need of explanation for this problem, if one travel by train in early
morning or walk in a rainy day through the roads of a not so clean
Indian
metro)
2.
Castism.
The novel simply shook our conscience. The author criticizes
the social injustice with his powerful words. He rips apart the
hypocrisy of the powerful. Meaninglessness of worship and its
uselessness when it is not practiced is stressed. The book is also
a small reminder of ignorance of strength by the lower caste and
the need for moral rejuvenation. Above all, any social revolution
should be practical is another message the book manages to
convey.
On a larger canvas, the author must have viewed the
untouchable living in all of us. Citizens deprived of rights and
burdens with obligations. The hurdle we have to overtake and

how the knowledge, civilization and technology can make a better

world. However, I wish to believe that the obvious is the intended.
We dont have to imagine for the sake of it where the obvious give
a
handful
of
duty
and
responsibility.
There is another strong message I felt from the novel. Most of
the problems of India were self created. The British could rule
India only because the masses were not seriously disturbed by
their presence. In the novel, the protagonist is not fearful of the
British. This view only reiterates the conclusion that political
freedom
alone
will
not
solve
human
misery.
Untouchable is a reminder for us to be aware of the unsolved
questions. The message from this book, written in preindependent era is still valid. The story is heart touching and the
message is convincing. Recommended!!
During Prohibition, Al Capone (De Niro) has nearly the whole
city of Chicago under his control and supplies illegal
liquor. Bureau
of
Prohibition agent Eliot
Ness (Costner),
summoned to stop Capone, conducts raids using a large squad of
officers. After his efforts fail due to corrupt policemen tipping off
Capone, he has a chance meeting with incorruptible IrishAmerican veteran officer Jim Malone (Connery). Knowing of the
system's rampant corruption and appreciating Ness's efforts to
bring Capone down, Malone decides to work with Ness. To
combat corruption, Malone suggests that they enlist men from the
police academy who have not yet come under Capone's
influence. They recruitItalian-American trainee George Stone
(Andy Garca) for his superior marksmanship and intelligence,
and accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), assigned
to Ness from Washington, D.C., forming a small team that is soon
dubbed by the press as "The Untouchables".
Wallace informs Ness that Capone has not filed an income
tax return in four years; therefore, they can try Capone fortax
evasion if nothing else. Ness is visited by an alderman who tries
to bribe him into dropping the investigation but Ness throws him
out. When Capone henchman Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) threatens
his family, Ness has them moved to a safer place and then takes
the team to the Canada United States border for a raid on a

liquor shipment. Ness chases one of the gangsters into an empty

house and kills him in self-defense. Malone captures George
(Brad Sullivan), a Capone bookkeeper, and brings him back to the
house for interrogation. As George proves uncooperative, Malone
grabs the dead man and shoots him to coerce George into
cooperating, much to the dismay of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police who have assisted in the raid.
While Wallace takes George into protective custody, Nitti
infiltrates the police station, killing Wallace and George in the
service elevator; then writes "touchable" on the wall with blood.
Ness angrily confronts Capone and his men, but Malone
intervenes, as Capone mocks Ness over the death of his friend.
Malone persuades Ness to stall the district attorney (Clifton
James) from dropping the case, then corners police chief Mike
Dorsett, who sold out Wallace to Capone. Malone learns about
another Capone accountant, Walter Payne, and calls Ness with
the news. A knife-wielding thug breaks into Malones home;
Malone forces him out of the backdoor with a shotgun, only to
step into a Tommy gun ambush by Nitti. He lives long enough for
Ness and Stone to find him, and advise which train Payne will
take out of town before he dies.
Ness and Stone arrive at Union Station and find Payne
guarded by several gangsters. After the fierce and epic shootout,
the two succeed in killing the gangsters and taking Payne alive.
He testifies in court about how untaxed cash flowed throughout
Capone's organization. Ness notices that Capone seems
unperturbed despite the probability of serving a long prison
sentence, and also sees Nitti carrying a gun inside his jacket. He
escorts Nitti out of the courtroom with the bailiff and discovers that
Nitti has the mayors permission to carry the weapon. Ness
identifies Nitti as Malones assassin after seeing Malone's
address in Nitti's matchbook.
Nitti shoots the bailiff in a panic and flees to the roof of the
courthouse, but Ness corners him. After fighting down his urge to
take revenge for Malone, Ness plans to deliver Nitti to the
authorities; but when Nitti insults the memory of Malone while also
saying that he will never go to prison, Ness angrily pushes him off
the roof. In the courtroom, Stone shows Ness a document from
Nittis jacket that reveals that the jury was bribed, explaining

Capone's relaxed mood. The judge has no intention of using it as

evidence until Ness bluffs that the judge's name is in Paynes
ledger of payoffs. The judge decides to switch juries with a
neighboring courtroom and restart the trial.
Upon hearing the judge's order to the bailiff to have the juries
switched, Capone immediately realizes what has happened and,
contrary to his earlier bored, relaxed mood, becomes angry with
his lawyer, telling him to "do something over here." The lawyer,
presumably realizing that a fair trial will almost certainly result in
Capone's conviction and attempting to mitigate the outcome,
proceeds to announce to the judge - without Capone's consent that they have decided to withdraw the plea of "not guilty," and
enter a plea of "guilty." Shocked and infuriated, Capone flies into
a hysterical rage, railing furiously first at the judge, and then at
Ness, shouting angrily over and over again that he (Ness) is
"nothing but a lot of talk and a badge." As the scene ends,
Capone has utterly lost his cool, and is seen being dragged from
the courtroom, screaming at Ness and struggling to get free of the
courtroom bailiffs. In a following scene, back in his office some
time later, Ness is seen clipping newspaper headlines announcing
first Capone's conviction, and then his eleven-year prison
sentence.
Packing up his Chicago office, Ness ponders the Saint
Jude pendant that Malone had carried with him for many years,
and which Malone had given to him before dying. He gives the
pendant to Stone, reasoning that Malone would have wanted a
cop to have it. When a reporter mentions that Prohibition is due to
be repealed and asks Ness what he might do then, Ness
responds, "I think Ill have a drink."

2 Coolie
Plot Summary

A wealthy, but evil man named Zafar Khan, has

fallen in love a girl named Salma and wants to marry her,
but she and her father do not let him. Zafar is arrested
for various crimes and is imprisoned for 10 years, but
when he is discharged, he sees that Salma is married to

a good man named Aslam Khan. Zafar Khan, wants to

convince Salma to marry him but Salma refuses. Zafar
plots his revenge by flooding the region in which Salma
lives in, killing her father, injuring Aslam and Salma,
causing her to lose her memory. During this catastrophe,
Salma is also separated from her young son, Iqbal. Zafar
abducts Salma and tells the world she is his wife. He also
adopts an infant from an orphanage in Kanpur, a boy
named Sunny, for Salma to raise on the advice of a
psychiatrist. Meanwhile, Iqbal is reunited with his uncle,
who has lost his wife and son in the flood. The uncle will
raise Iqbal as his own, as they have no more family.
Years pass, and Iqbal and his uncle work as coolies. Iqbal
has grown up to a be a dashing, confident young man,
and is considered the leader of the local coolies. He
organizes a labor strike, which brings the station to its
knees. A young, budding reporter, named Sunny, is
covering the story. While speaking to Sunny, Iqbal sees a
picture of Sunny's mother who turns out to be Salma.
Iqbal rushes to Salma's house to see her after all these
years, but upon meeting her son, she has no recollection
of him. Zafar is infuriated by Iqbal's trespass and has his
guards severely beat him, while he takes Salma to the
psychiatrist to administer electric shocks on her so that
her memory never returns. Iqbal and Sunny become
friends, and both find love, Iqbal with a Christian girl and
Sunny with a childhood sweetheart. Things are looking
up, but the coolies uncover a banking and housing
scandal against them. After a series of run-ins with the
corrupt parties, Iqbal finds himself in a fight to the death
with Zafar. What will happen to Zafar? Will his true
colours be expose or will he continue to punish Salma till
her death?

Zafar Khan, a Wealthy businessman with underworld

contacts, has fallen head over heels in love with Salma
and wants to marry her at any cost. However, Salma and

her father do not consent, as a result Zafar kills him, is

arrested, and imprisoned for 10 years. When he is
discharged, he finds out that Salma has married Aslam
Khan. He goes to persuade Salma to divorce Aslam and
marry him, but Salma refuses, Zafar than sabotages the
dam near Salma's village, bringing devastation and
flooding to the region, grievously injuring Aslam and
Salma, as well as separating them from their only child,
Iqbal. Zafar rescues Salma, and takes her to a hospital.
There he is told that she is unable to remember anything,
but in her own interests the doctor advises that she be
re-united with her child. Zafar than arranges for a child to
be adopted from an orphanage from Kanpur, names him
Sunny, and leaves him in Salma's care. Years later, Zafar
will be confronted by none other than Sunny himself who
wants to expose his wrong-doing on one hand, and Iqbal
on the other hand as the leader of porters (coolies) who
want their money that they had invested in a financial
company owned by Zafar. The wily Zafar must use all the
resources available to him to ensure that both Sunny and
Iqbal are killed, as well as ensure that he wins an
election that will make him virtually above the law.
The novel has been described as a naturalist portrayal of life
at its darkest moments, being that a central theme
throughout it. Mulk Raj Anand tells the story of Munno, an
orphan boy from India who wants to venture out into the
world, and goes through a series of jobs and experiences.
Yet, the gist of the novel is Anand's analysis of the boy's
inner fears, thoughts, and emotions, and the description of
the darkest moments of Munno's life up until the moment of
his death.
Its a naturalist rendition of a life story where darkness is
perennial and where the bad gets worst. Yet, it is a
masterpiece of a story to read given Anand's natural talent

for storytelling and the richness of his description and

exploration of humanity.

Mulk Raj Anand's 1936 novel Coolie is about a 14-year-old

boy, Munoo, who represents the lowest part of India's
socioeconomic spectrum, a position identified by various
names,
including Dalit and,
more
commonly,
"the
untouchables." They are destined to remain at the bottom of
this extraordinarily rigid caste system. By presenting as his
protagonist a servant in the home of a member of the upper
caste, the desperately poor Munoo, Anand has indicted the
entire class system that dominates Indian culture.
Furthermore, by vividly contrasting the opposite ends of the
socioeconomic spectrum through the eyes of his perceptive
protagonist, the author has illuminated the fundamental
injustices inherent in the system imposed by an alien power,
Great Britain, while also placing the blame for this
unfortunate situation squarely in the hands of those Indians
on the higher levels of the socioeconomic spectrum (one
cannot use the phrase "socioeconomic ladder," as that would
denote the possibility of upward mobility). The latter have
benefited from this system while ignoring its long-term
ramifications. In one passage in Coolie that presents this
stark contrast between the hopes and expectations with
which the individual is raised in Indian society, Anang
describes the young boy's thoughts:
"It did not occur to him to ask himself what he was apart
from being a servant, and why he was a servant and
Babu Rathoo Ram his master. His identity he took for
granted, and the relationship between Babu Rathoo
Ram, who wore black boots, and himself, Munoo, who

went about barefoot, was to him like sunshine and

sunset, inevitable and unquestionable."
The theme of Coolie, therefore, is the hopelessness and
despair to which millions of Indians are condemned by virtue
of an antiquated and inherently unjust economic and social
structure.

3. Two Leaves and a Bud

Mulk Raj Anand's third novelTwo Leaves and a Bud is the story
of a coolie, named Ganju, and his family who were forced
to leave their house and premises in Hoshiarpur district of
Amritsar. Buta, an agent of tea planters, appeared in front
of them as a savior and promised them money, land and
security in the distant Macpherson Tea estate in Assam.
Ganju ,with his wounded honour, believed everything Buta
said and left for Macpherson tea plantation in Assam with
his wife Sajani and children Leila and Buddhu.
Anand portrays the miserable condition of coolies in the
tea plantation and how are they trapped by the planters.
Before long, Ganju realises that the greedy money lenders
of his village (who took his house and premises because
his younger brother had mortgaged them) and the planters
and agents are all the same. Here Anand points at the
double suppression coolies experienced in the hands of
indians as well as Europeans. Though all the three of them
worked hard, they were paid barely eight annas a day.
Once in a week, they visited the market to buy essentials,
where the merchants sold things at an exorbitant rate that
made things worse. Ganju who dreamt of a house and
land, was living in a tin-roofed shed and little he got as

possessions. Besides, the coolies were not provided with

adequate water supply and sanitation facilities which
made them vulnerable to dreadful diseases. That's how
Ganju's wife Sajani was affected by malaria and died. in
order to give her proper funeral, he visited the chief
planter, Mr. Croft Cooke, and requested for a loan. Mr.
Croft Cooke, mortally afraid of malaria and cholera, was
terribly angry to see Ganju at his doorsteps and kicked
him out of his bungalow.
In this hopeless world of tea estate, Ganju met Dr. John De
La Havre, a sympathiser of the downtrodden. Dr. Havre
enquired about his health and promised to get him some
land and gave him money needed for the last rites of his
wife. In the meanwhile, Ganju got a piece od land and his
hopes rose to the hights...
A few days later, the calm atmosphere of the estate was
broken when two coolie women sparked off a quarrel
which eventually turned to curses and beatings. Things
took an unexpected turn when the assistant planter Mr.
Reggie Hunt, a ruthless exploiter and womaniser,appeared
with his men at the sight and beat the coolies blue. In the
process , one coolie died and several were wounded. The
hurt mob marched to the house of Dr. Havre, praising his
philanthropic activities, to get the wounded attended by
the doctor. Dr. Havre was surprised to see that these
vioceless coolies were able to stnad in a march. He was
tempted to lead them towards the bungalow of Mr. Crooft
Cooke. After the treatment, Dr. Havre directed the mob to
go to the bungalow of the chief planter and demad justice.
At the bungalow, they were not allowed to air their woes
and were threatened by the planters.

Though the coolies were dispersed at the time being, the

planters were shocked to see the mob and feared riot. All
of them, including Mr. Croft Cooke, Reggie Hunt, Macara,
Hitchcock etc... took refuge in the club and tried to get
military support in case of emergency. Dr. Havre consoled
and led the people which resulted in his dismissal from the
colonial service.
A few days later, lured by the loveliness of Leila, Reggie
Hunt chased and attempted to assault her. Ganju was hert
broken to see his daughter suffer and tried to stop Reggie
who shot him dead. later, Reggie was brought to the court
and was acquitted of any crime.