A Reading of Mulk Raj Anand's Two Leaves and a 3Bud

Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 5, 2020 Review Article DISCOVERING THE CONFORMING PSYCHE TOWARDS THE OCCIDENTS: A READING OF MULK RAJ ANAND'S TWO LEAVES AND A 3BUD Abhilasha Phukan Assistant Professor, University of Science And Technology, Meghalaya [email protected] Received: 16.01.2020 Revised: 22.02.2020 Accepted: 27.03.2020 Abstract: The novel Two leaves and a Bud by Mulk Raj Anand is a poignant portrayal of the socio-economic condition of the tea-workers in Assam. Set in the colonial era, the novel has been a signifier of the dominance of the colonial powers over the poor workers, their atrocities and the subsequent submission of the latter. The tea workers also known as ‘coolies' came to work in the tea gardens in search of a better livelihood and they were treated as the peripheral ‘Other' who were devoid of even the minimum standards of living. The burden of colonisation and the perpetual state of poverty of the workers made them powerless. Although there were several hundreds of workers working together in the tea estates, they did not resist and silently conformed to colonial suppression and cultural brainwashing. This paper attempts to study the ways in which the colonial powers conditioned the mind of the tea workers, their psychology of Occidental dominance with the help of the data gathered from primary and secondary sources. Keywords: colonisation, occidental dominance, poverty, psychology, cultural brainwashing, other, peripheral © 2019 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.05.35 INTRODUCTION Sardar of the estate who gives him high hopes of acquisition of Mulk Raj Anand was one of the distinguished Indian writers in wealth and land.“They will give you a house, and nice house built English whose works permeates into the lives of the marginal with bricks in the Angrezi manner with tin roof they will give you people and their disadvantaged lives. Being a Cambridge everything, everything believe me” (Anand, 7). Gangu went to graduate, the writer is considered to be amongst the prominent work in the garden because he was full of debt which he failed to writers who contributed in the development of the Indo-Anglian repay. He was a victim of circumstance who had to leave his novels. His writings are a realistic portrayal of the lives of the village in order to start a fresh debt- free life. His poverty people crushed under the powers of colonialism and capitalism. stricken life can be considered as one of the primary factors why His works often describes the internal political scenario of the he had to work as a slave for the White men. nation as a backdrop for the exploitation meted upon the poor people. His famous works includes Untouchable, Coolie, Across the The White Men or the colonisers depicted in the novel had no Black Waters, Two Leaves and a Bud. Published in the 1940s prior empathy for the coolies rather they considered them as the to Independence, the novel is a vivid description of how the White Men’s Burden. They facilitated the idea of conformity of colonial forces exploited the tea-workers in their estates. the coolies towards them through the application of force and fear. By depriving them of even the minimum standard of living “Two Leaves and a Bud is a crucially important novel which deals served as a potential tool for control. One exception was Dr. De with the theme of exploitation as a part of the larger colonial La Havre, the white doctor who was quite concerned with the experience. There are oblique colonial references in the first two poor conditions of the coolie lanes. He showed an empathetic novels but in this novel , colonialism is analysed with greater attitude towards the coolies who were ignored as sub-humans by concentration. The entire tragedy is unfolded against the dark the majority of Britishers. backdrop of the tea plantation which symbolizes the might and inhumanity of the British empire. The racial problem looms “No septic tank latrines’, he muttered to himself the picture of larger in this novel. The Indian social life has given a new hookworms among the puddles of Urine formed itself in his dimension. The British officials and their Indian subordinates are mind. There must be thousands of them hatching under such ranged against the defenceless coolies working in the stifling favourable conditions, he thought. If only those syndicates surroundings. The capitalist forces are symbolized in this novel couldstop and think for a minute that the coolies should not by the British . The Englishmen who believes in the ideology of suffer from anaemia and listlessness. If only the director had white man’s burden are pathologically suspicious of all Indians . sanctioned his plan to stem the tide of cholera that has arisen Every coolie is a potential agitator for the British officials. The year after year and carried hundreds of lives away!”(Anand, 15). natural result of this distrust is the despair of the Indians working there” (Mohan 6). These thoughts of the English doctor De La Havre who worked in the garden vividly portrayed the unhygienic conditions in which It gives us a clear picture of how the lives of the marginal people the workers were doomed to live in. The various ailments and are ignored by the mainstream people reducing them to profit epidemic that engulfs the coolie lines was also described in this extracting mediums working endlessly regardless of their health paragraph of the novel. However, away from the dirt and disease, conditions. The novel starts with Gangu and his family migrating was the planters bungalow which was majestic. De La Havre to Macpherson Tea Estate of Assam from Hoshiarpur. He goes persisted in his efforts to improve the lives of the workers. “The there in search of better livelihood and is tricked by Buta, the white doctor becomes the mouthpiece of the writer whose misfortune is depicted at the superstition and stupidity and Journal of critical reviews 203 DISCOVERING THE CONFORMING PSYCHE TOWARDS THE OCCIDENTS: A READING OF MULK RAJ ANAND'S TWO LEAVES AND A 3BUD illiteracy and ignorance of the peasants (Rashmi 755). He spoke decades of Independence. In the text The Intimate Enemy, Ashish to Croft-Cooke for improvising their lives to which he said, Nandy throws some light about the psychology of Colonialism. “These coolies are sub-human and they do not altogether value the benefits of hygiene...” (Anand,27). De La Havre tries to “The example I shall use will be that of India, where a colonial inculcate a change and serve the poor workers. He did not want political economy began to operate seventy years before the full to rule them but eradicate the barriers of discrimination and blown ideology of British imperialism became dominant, and exploitation of the coolies. The entire family of Croft-Cooke had where thirty-five years later after theformal ending of the Raj, lived with their ideologies which regarded the workers as sub- the ideology of colonialism is still triumphant in many sectors of humans and unworthy of care and nutrition. Just like the division life...As a state of mind, it is an indigenous process released by of the ‘One’ and ‘the Other’ is structured in Edward Said’s theory external forces. It’s sources lie deep in the minds of the ruler and of Orientalism, the Macpherson Tea Estate was also divided into the ruled”(Nandy 2). the One and the Other where the latter is deprived of even the basic necessities of life. The coolies were considered as the He gives the example of India which internalized itself as a insignificant and peripheral ‘Other’ who were insignificant, sub- colony even before seventy years and thirty years after the humans unworthy of facilities. The intentional negligence formal British rule. Similarly the tea-workers also viewed towards the workers can also be interpreted as a mode of themselves as the inferior, submissive race who are bound to asserting their authority and a tool for subduing them by follow orders of their masters. Emily Cummins has defined depriving them of the basic necessities. They White men feared Internal Colonisation as a theory that explains how inequality that if the insignificant ‘Other’ was bestowed with facilities then and domination are maintained in a society when there is not they would use those resources to retaliate against their masters necessarily a foreign power ruling. The people such as the Neogi and assert their freedom. Sardar, Buta Sardar who mercilessly exploits their own people are some of the examples why the process of internalising of the Conformity is the act of fitting in with the group. As a group- supremacy of the master still goes on. living species, much of our behaviour is focused on preserving group cohesion. The tendency to change one’s behaviour tp The groups of coolies acted and thought together. In the novel we match the responses of others is often adaptive (Cialdini and found instances of secret group meetings at night where the Goldstein). The protagonist Gangu in the initial part of the novel coolies discussed the ways to flee from the tea estate. Its is the is seen to be hopeful about a better life but as he comes in contact natural fear for the White Men that was a barrier between them with his fellow workers he also seems to have accepted his and their freedom. The coolies were large in number but they poverty stricken and inferior state.

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