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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Mulk Raj Anand was one of the leading figures among the politically committed Indian novelists writing in English during the nineteen thirties and forties. He published several novels after Independence, but most of his writings appeared before 1947 and dealt with the political choices facing the Indian of that era. The intention of this paper is to examine Mulk Raj Anand's novels in order to gain insight into the politics of the Indian revolutionary elite, and, in particular, into the conflicts between their cultural background and professions of political faith, their image of themselves, and the utopia they sought.
I wish to acknowledge my deep intellectual debt to Professor Lloyd I. Rudolph of the University of Chicago who when at Harvard University supervised my Ph.D. dissertation on which this study is based.
1 The Untouchable appeared in 1935, Coolie in 1936, Two Leaves and a Bud in 1937, The Village in 1938, Across the Black Waters in 1939, The Sword and the Sickle in 1940–1941, and The Big Heart in 1944.Google ScholarHis novels got favorable reviews in Indian Writing, a Quarterly popular among Indians in England: ed. Singh, Iqbal, Shelvankar, K. S., Ali, Ahmad, and Subramaniam, A. (a Ceylonese) (London: Bibliophile).Google Scholar Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the contributors to the magazine. Most of the novels were published first in England and then reprinted in the US and India; they have since been translated into major Indian languages. During the British Raj (pre-1947) all of Mr Anand's writings were banned in India. This of course served to stimulate the public's interest in them.
2 Though there exist thoughtful studies on the intellectuals in India and other non-Western countries, notably: Shils, Edward, The Intellectual between Tradition and Modernity: the Indian Situation (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1961),Google Scholar and Kautsky, John H., ed., Political Change in Underdeveloped Countries: Nationalism and Communism (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967),Google Scholar the social scientist continues to under-rate or even ignore the significance of contemporary novels and novelists as an index of political thinking in colonial/under-developed countries. This paper, by exploring the literary scene, attempts to present a fresh approach to the subject while at the same time it tries to etch points that have been raised or implied in the existing works, in particular Shils' observations on the intensity of the intellectuals' political involvement, his attraction to socialism (also see Benda, in Kautsky, op. cit., pp. 241–3, and Kautsky, ibid., pp. 46–9 on this), his ambivalence—devotion to, while rebelling against, authority, his rootedness in his traditional culture despite his ‘feelings’ of alienation, his belief in his ability to lead ‘the people’ (also see Kautsky, ibid., p. 47)—and Mary Mattossian's contention that the intellectual from the under-developed countries ‘looks up to “the people” but down on “the masses”’ (ibid., p. 262) are confirmed and elaborated in this study.
3 Anand, Mulk Raj, Apology for Heroism: A Brief Autobiography of Ideas (repr., Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, 1957), p. 91.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., p. 86.
5 For biographical data I have relied mainly on Anand's, Mulk RajApology for Heroism [cited hereafter as Apology], and Seven Summers (repr., Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, n.d.), an autobiographical novel in which Anand tries to recreate his own childhood; and on a personal interview, London, 24 July 1971.Google Scholar
6 Anand, Apology, p. 9. The sub-caste of coppersmiths, according to Manu Smriti, was of mixed origin: it evolved from the marriage of a Kshatriya male and a mixed caste female (cited in Subsidiary Table VI, Census of India 1911, vol. XIV, p. 484).Google Scholar In the 1911 Census Anands are classified as a Khatri sub-caste (‘Khatri: a well-known caste of high status among the Hindus. Their chief occupation is trade.’ ibid., p. 463); Khatri caste claimed to be Kshatriyas who in ancient times took up trade to save themselves from Parasurama's wrath. According to legend Paraśurama was Vishnu's sixth incarnation, born to exterminate the Kshatriya caste. Thathiars (coppersmiths) formed a relatively low sub-caste among the Khatris though in 1911 they were claiming Rajput and Brahmin origins (ibid., p. 394).
7 This oral tradition continues in Modern India. It is often the only form of ‘moral’ education imparted to the child: it presents him with ideal modes of behavior he ought to follow in life. These stories, often associated with the warmth of a mother's lap or bed, leave a lasting impression on the child. Mulk Raj Anand's mother had a special talent for story-telling: ‘I found myself rapt in her tales with an intensity of wonder.’ Seven Summers, p. 187; also a personal interview with Mr Anand, London, 24 July 1971. Shils, , The Intellectual between Tradition and Modernity, pp. 61–2, 64–5, comments on the Indian intellectuals' emotional attachment to traditional values and moral code.Google Scholar
8 Mulk Raj enjoyed stories of Krishna killing his evil uncle Kansa and various demons who plagued the lives of the good, simple cowherds (Anand, Seven Summers, pp. 190–5), of Rama killing the demon king Ravana, a theme enacted annually by Mulk Raj's father's regiment during the ten days of Dussehra (a popular Indian festival commemorating Rama's victory over Ravana, celebrated during the end of September), ibid., pp. 195–7, but most of all he enjoyed stories about the exploits of Raja Rasalu (personal interview).
10 For an interesting comparison with M. K. Gandhi's favorite stories, see Erikson, Erik H., Gandhi's Truth (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1969), pp. 118–19, 243, 253 and 318.Google Scholar Note that Gandhi's favorite stories of Shravana, Harishchandra and Prahlada all extol suffering. On how the radicalism of the intellectual is often an extension of the adolescent rebellion, see Shils in Kautsky, op. cit., pp. 206–8.
11 Anand, Apology, pp. 21–2. Anand's attitude to his father reflects the influence on him of the British critique of the Indian Babu as somehow being un-Indian and therefore culturally impure; the Indianized Englishman was equally contaminated. See Greenberger, A. H., The British Image of India (Oxford University Press, 1969), for an interesting elaboration of the idea of purity of culture being essential for leadership.Google Scholar
12 See Seven Summers, pp. 139–40. Mulk Raj describes vividly his first beating for having stolen a mango. His reactions are very similar to those described by Erikson, Erik H. in Young Man Luther: a Study in Psychoanalysis and History (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1958), pp. 64–5, when Martin is beaten for stealing a nut.Google Scholar
13 After his second beating Mulk Raj cried: ‘the swine! How I hate him (his father)! I hate him! I wish he would die!’, Seven Summers, p. 142.
14 Ibid., p. 140.
15 Morris Carstairs, G., The Twice-Born: A Study of a Community of High-Caste Hindus (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958), especially pp. 158–9.Google Scholar
16 Anand, Mulk Raj, The Big Heart (repr., Kutub Publishers Ltd, 1944), p. 226.Google Scholar See Wolfenstein, Victor, The Revolutionary Personality: Lenin, Trotsky, Gandhi (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1967), for a psychoanalytic explanation for this preoccupation with masculinity: Wolfenstein argues that the revolutionary is generally a person with severe conflicts regarding masculinity arising out of intense Oedipal complex.Google Scholar
17 On 14 April 1919, Martial Law was declared in Amritsar. Any offenders of the law were publicly flogged. General Dyer, the author of the order, admitted to the Hunter Committee that the order was ‘humiliating’, but within the ‘custom’ of the Martial Law: See Mitra, H. N., ed., The Indian Annual Register 1920 (Calcutta: The Annual Register Office, 1920), pp. 13, 41, and 43.Google Scholar
18 Anand, , Apology, p. 53.Google Scholar
19 Personal interview with Mr Anand, London, 24 july 1971.
20 Anand, , Apology, pp. 19–20.Google Scholar
21 Ibid., p. 21.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid., pp. 47–8.
24 Ibid., pp. 67–8. Jawaharlal Nehru, though he never fully accepted Leninist Marxism, admits in words not too different from Mulk Raj Anand's: ‘A study of Marx and Lenin produced a powerful effect on my mind and helped me to see history and current affairs in a new light. The long chain of history and of social development appeared to have some meaning, some sequence, and the future lost some of its obscurity.’ (Nehru, J., The Discovery of India, London: Meridian Books, 3rd ed., 1951, p. 13).Google Scholar
25 The Left Book Club distributed books on socialism singing of ‘Glorious Russia mighty and strong/Glorious Russia can do no wrong.’ See Laver, J., Between the Wars (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1961), p. 160.Google Scholar John Strachey's The Coming Struggle for Power made a good case for communism; John Middleton Murry pointed out that ‘intellectually, spiritually, ethically, the choice before the conscious Englishman is to be a Communist or nothing’ (The Necessity of Communism, New York, 1933, p. 110).Google Scholar Prakash Tandon, a student in England around the same time as Mulk Raj, observes: ‘It did not take a young Indian in England long to discover socialism as his political creed. We were vexed by the imperialist attitude of the conservatives. … The socialists on the other hand considered the conservatives as much a problem and a menace as we did. The socialist sympathy for the underdog anywhere naturally appealed to us. They spoke about free-trade, equality of races, ridding the world of poverty; and they included everybody in the future hope of the world’ (Tandon, P., Punjabi Century 1857–1947, London: Chatto and Windus, 1961, pp. 216–17).Google Scholar
26 Anand, , Apology, pp. 79–80.Google Scholar
27 Erikson, Erik H., Young Man Luther, p. 17.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., p. 22.
29 E.g. see the role played by Kanwar Rampal Singh's gang in The Sword and the Sickle (repr., Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, 1951), Gandhi in ibid., and The Untouchable (repr. Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, n.d.), and Colonel Hutchinson in The Untouchable.Google Scholar
30 These are self-control, asceticism, non-attachment to worldly goods and family ties, and an unmitigated devotion to the Truth. See Puranas and the stories in the Indian Epics.
31 Anand, , Coolie, p. 335.Google Scholar
32 Ibid., p. 280 (italics mine).
33 Ibid., p. 282.
34 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, pp. 357–9.Google Scholar
35 Ibid., p. 88.
36 Ibid., p. 207.
37 Anand, , The Big Heart, p. 112.Google Scholar
38 Ibid., p. 142.
39 Ibid., p. 74 (italics mine).
40 Anand, , Coolie, p. 334.Google Scholar
41 Ibid., p. 284.
42 Ibid., p. 268.
43 For a comparison see Mattossian in Kautsky, op. cit.
44 Anand, Mulk Raj, The Village (repr. 2nd ed., Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, 1960), p. 87.Google Scholar
45 Ibid., p. 80.
46 Ibid., pp. 153–5.
47 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, pp. 170–74.Google Scholar
48 Ibid., p. 160.
49 Anand, , Coolie, p. 96.Google Scholar
50 Anand, Mulk Raj, Across the Black Waters, (repr., Bombay: Kutub Publishers Ltd, 1955), p. 205.Google ScholarOn the theme of the intellectuals' preoccupation with authority, see Shils in Kautsky, op. cit., pp. 205–8.Google Scholar
51 Anand, , The Big Heart, p. 225 (italics mine).Google Scholar
52 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, p. 392.Google Scholar
53 Ibid.
54 Anand, , The Big Heart, p. 82.Google Scholar
55 Ibid., p. 81.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid., pp. 124–31.
58 Ibid., p. 153.
59 Anand, , Coolie, p. 46.Google Scholar
60 Anand, , The Village, p. 163.Google Scholar
61 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, p. 292.Google Scholar
62 Here I accept Tucker's, Robert C. thesis (see his Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961) that the only community Marx was concerned with was the community of the self: man with his external and internal human nature; this split of man's human nature was evident in the material world by the splitting of collective man into classes—the exploiter and the exploited. To Marx, self change, or Revolution, was to be the work of the fully alienated worker, the proletariat: ‘emancipation of the workers contains universal emancipation’ (Marx, Manuscripts of 1844, p. 82).Google Scholar
63 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, pp. 391 and 393.Google Scholar
64 Anand, , The Big Heart, p. 226.Google Scholar
65 Ibid., p. 170.
66 Anand, , Two Leaves and a Bud, p. 130.Google Scholar
67 Anand, , The Sword and the Sickle, p. 171.Google Scholar
68 Anand, , Apology, p. 93.Google Scholar
69 Anand, , Apology, p. 99 (Anand's emphasis).Google Scholar
70 Ibid., p. 100 (Anand's emphasis).
71 Ibid., p. 101.
72 Ibid.
73 Anand, Mulk Raj, Letters on India (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd, 1942), p. 47.Google Scholar
74 According to Hindu Cosmogony, acquisitiveness is considered the cause of the moral decline of the world from a state of virtue (Krita Yuga) to one of moral decadence (Kali Yuga).
75 Anand, , The Big Heart, pp. 197–8.Google Scholar
76 For an interesting comparison see Tocqueville, Alexis de, Democracy in America, Vol. 2 (New York: Vintage Books, 1961), pp. 189–98, on the relations of masters and servants in a democracy.Google Scholar
77 Anand, , Apology, p. 110.Google Scholar Camus points out the paradox between abstractions and reality: between ‘killing tyranny, killing despotism’ and ‘killing a human being’. Man is the end of Revolution but he is also used as a means. ‘He who loves his friend loves him in the present and the revolution wants to love only a man who has not yet appeared. To live is in a certain way to kill the perfect man who is going to be born of the revolution’, Camus, Albert, The Rebel: an Essay on Man in Revolt (New York, Vintage Books, 1958), p. 239.Google Scholar
