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Mulk Raj Anand: a Voice of Subaltern ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 MULK RAJ ANAND: A VOICE OF SUBALTERN Rimpa Khatun Research Scholar, Department of English Bodoland University, Kokrajhar Assam, India E-mail: [email protected] Received: 14 April 2020 Revised and Accepted: 8 August 2020 ABSTRACT: „Subaltern‟ represents the marginalized, non-elite and oppressed people or a group of people in opposition towards an elite and ruling class. Though we say, India is a developing country, but still it cannot revive from the practice of discrimination in the ground of caste hierarchy and gender. Mulk Raj Anand , an Indian novelist who stands with the deprived class of society. Many contemporary writers have been starting to raise their voices in favor of the poor people. Mulk Raj Anand is on the top position among them. He chose his protagonists from the lower classes of the society. My article is an attempt to show that Mulk Raj Anand is a writer of poor people who feels the suffering of the poor marginalized people with reference to his two important novels Untouchable (1935) and The Road (1961). KEYWORDS: subaltern, suffering, exploitation, illiteracy, colonialism, post-colonialism. Subaltern describes the social position of an individual or a group of people or a community who lives outsides the mainstream of society. They live beyond the centre of power, of cultural dominance, and economical or social welfare. In the Indian Hindi language crime thriller web series Paatal Lok that was premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 15th May, 2020, the character Tobe Singh kills three upper caste bullying boys who always irritate him by joining the gang “Danger Manjaar” that has been formed by some boys whose community has been oppressed or marginalized from a long time and consequently, he has to elope from his home state Punjab to Delhi and enters into the world of crime. But, in Punjab when the victims‟ relatives could not catch Tobe, out of revenge, they rape his mother in front of her husband and brother in law. Caste related violence could be seen in numerous forms. Though we say, India is a developing country, but still it cannot revive from the practice of discrimination in the ground of caste hierarchy. Many students commit suicide because of the marginalization they face in their educational institutes. However, Women become subalterns when we compare its status with men as Spivak already said in her essay: If you are poor, black and female you get it (subaltern) in three ways ( Spivak: 90) Many contemporary writers like Spivak, Bhabha, and Beauvoir have been starting to raise their voices in favor of the subalterns. Women have been represented in literature as „subaltern‟, „marginalized‟, „second sex‟ and „other‟. Mulk Raj Anand is one of the writers who raise their voice in favour of the marginalized people. His novels deal with the real life issues of poor common people like poverty, hunger, illiteracy, exploitation, racism, exploitation of female body and superstition. He adopts his protagonists from the marginalized communities who have been suppressed from a long time. .His best known novels are Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936), Two Leaves and a Bud (1937), The Village (1939), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) and The Road (1963). In Untouchable (1935), the protagonist is a sweeper (Bakha) who hates his untouchable status and poverty. Coolie (1936) is all about story an orphan boy - Munno, who struggles for his livelihood and suffers the communal frame of the Indian society. In his third novel Two Leaves and a Bud, Anand presents a realistic picture of colonial and capitalist society through the sufferings of a poor underclassmale protagonist- Gangu. Anand reflects the evil of poverty and cruelty which Gangu faced in a tea state .Gangu represents all the down trodden society in pre-independence of India which was exploited by the White men. The original pre-Independence Indian scenario has been portrayed in this novel- Untouchable which focuses the worst images of Indian society. Bakha the protagonist of the novel is an untouchable coming from the lower strata of Indian society. Bakha has to clean the latrines more than twice a day. This novel depicts the events that happen in one day of Bakha‟s life. Being a subaltern, Bakha suffers a great deal of humiliation at the hands of the higher class people.For instance, the Brahmin priest curses him for polluting the temple by standing outside the door. His humiliation is highlighted in the scene in market when Bakha touches Lallaji inadvertently, the latter slaps him. Bakha is a very sensible boy, he is aware of his lower status that he dislikes.Anand brings the real historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, IqbalSarshar and Colonial Hutchinson in the context of the text, 6788 ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 19, 2020 those who raised their voices in favor of the subalterns.As Anand is a realist, he presents the real events and issues of Indian society.Anand exploresthe theme of untouchability when Gandhi was raising his voice against it through mass movement is not a sheer coincidence. It shows Anand‟s faith in Gandhi‟s ideology and his own concern about untouchability. After listening the lectures from these figures, Bakha begins to dream of becoming an honourable man. Bakha is the representation of all the lower class people. This novel is a powerful indictment on the caste discrimination and hypocrisy of the higher classes. Mulk Raj Anand‟s third novel Two Leaves and a Bud which was published in 1937 had brought him immense popularity. In this novel, Anand presents a realistic picture of colonial and capitalist society through the sufferings of a poor underclass male protagonist- Gangu. This novel presents the pathetic life of the coolies of Assam Tea Estates. Gangu is the representation of the whole exploited Indian laborers of the tea plantation who become the victim at the hands of the Capitalists as well as the Colonizers. Anand reflects the evil of poverty and cruelty which Gangu faced in a tea state .Gangu represents all the down trodden society in pre-independence of India which was exploited by the Whitemen. Anand always presents a realistic picture of colonial as well as post-colonial society in his novels where the subaltern suffers. Though he follows the ideology of Subaltern Studies Group to uplift the subaltern and return them their social rights and voice in his novels, but he also agrees with Spivak that the subalterns can not speak. They can not speak because they are not allowed to raise their voice against the authority as they don‟t have any historical and political importance.Thus,Spivak claims that the voice of the subaltern cannot be retrieved. As the history was written by the authority, so the poorpeople have been marginalized. Hence, Spivak claims this history as biased and impartial. Anand writes his another novel-The Road (1961) is a sequal to Untouchable.In it, Anand again represents the caste hypocrisy in Indian society which was represented twenty-five years ago in Untouchable. Though the setting and characters are changed, the theme of the exploitation of the subaltern is the same. Bhakha is replaced by a poor boy - Bhikhu.Bhikhu is thus the authentic voice of the downtrodden, low caste poor. He is both a victim and a rebel. Anand wants to point out that the independence has not made any significant change in the misfortune of the untouchables. The low caste people turn a little rebellious but the high caste also turn more rigid in their attitude towards them. The Road deals with a single incident in the life of an untouchable in a small village. The incident of constructing the road to facilitate transportation of milk from Govardhan to Gurgaon, a town nearby creates a conflict between the caste Hindus and the low caste untouchables. The construction of the road shortens the distance between two places but widens the gap between the two classes. As a realistic novelist, Anand does not end the novel with the happy union of the two classes. He knows that untouchability is deeply rooted in the Indian psyche.For Spivak, there is an element of double oppression for poor women in the colonial situation. Spivak said, …in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and can not speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow. (Spivak: 294) Women become subalterns when we compare its status with men in both Pre and Post Independence Indian societies. Being subalterns, Indian women become the subject of exploitation both by the male and the upper caste classes. In Untouchable, Anand presents the character of Sohini, Bakha‟s sister who not only exemplifies caste exploitation but also sex exploitation. As a caste-exploited, she is shown waiting patiently for a long time when she goes to fetch water from the caste well. Gulabo, a washer woman, a caste superior to all other outcastes exploits Sohini. She not only abuses the sweeper girl but also rushes to hit her. Sohini behaves unlike any other outcaste woman. When other women make servile appeal and show their abject humility to the passerby high caste Hindus to draw the water from the well, she sits patiently away from them. She becomes the victim of sexual exploitation due to her caste and poverty. She is very beautiful but she has not enough clothes to protect her beauty from the hungry eyes of the male. When the Pundit tries to molest her she screams to protest, but when the priest accuses her for polluting him she remains wonderstruck. She realizes that no one will believe her.
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