Assistant Professor

Department of English

Siddharth University, Kapilvastu,

 Siddhartha Nagar, U.P., India 

Former Dean & HOD

Department of English

C.S.J.M. University,

Kanpur, U.P., India

Abstract

Mulk Raj Anand is the first Indo-Anglian novelist to depict the tragic plight of underdogs of Indian society. He writes realistically in his fiction about the doomed lives of the lower section and oppressed, who are all agonized victims of capitalistic exploitation, poverty, and inhuman cruelty. He gave depth and profundity to the Anglo-Anglian novel. Before his novel, fiction was an easy source of entertainment. Under the cover of history romantic elements were inserted in the novels just to cater to low romantic taste. Anand gave a sense of purpose and urgency, meaning and mission to the novel. He did not write for the sake of art but for social change and reform. He is a writer with a mission. His two earlier novels, Untouchable and Coolie, had a revolutionary impact because of the intellectual elements in them. His fiction is an expression of his philosophy of humanism and socialism. His world-famous novel Coolie has been variously approached as a social tragedy, a tragic epic in prose, a novel of protest, a chronicle of coolie and so forth and so on. This associating genre gives an added artistic variety to the novel.  The purpose of the novelist is to present a realistic picture of the social panorama of life. Coolie is full of strong social criticism which is the result of the novelist’s social anger. The depiction of society and survey of the social panorama ranging from the low class to the upper class has been an epic scale.

Keywords: Tragic, Capitalistic, Exploitation, Poverty Humanism, Socialism, Criticism

In the 18^th century, Henry Fielding propounded the epic theory of the novel. He defined a novel as a “comic epic in prose.” In another way, a novel may be called an epic of modern times for the simple reason that the modern age is not fit soil for an epic. Hence it has been supplanted by the novel. A novel may be called an epic based on its vast scope and epic qualities. But it is not always a comic epic. Thomas Hardy’s novels are tragic epics in prose because he describes the story of the novel in an appropriate sequence. In the same way, Mulk Raj Anand’s famous novel Coolie is also a tragic epic. The main purpose of Fielding was comic and satirical. Therefore, he called the novel a comic epic in prose. Anand’s primary goal is to throw light on the tragic life issues of the Indian people. He does have a flair for comedy and uses humour and satire casually. His anger is so strong that pathos and protest are dominant in Coolie which presents the drama of exploitation and misery. Munoo is the central protagonist of the novel and his tragedy is not individual, it is only a case in point.

Now a pertinent question arises as to which qualities make a novel an epic. In an epic life is depicted on a vast scale that is, its scope is wider, its canvas is larger and more varied. It presents a vast panorama of life. Its action is of some magnitude and comprehensiveness. It covers a wide range with a variety of characters. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is the epic of American democracy, and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones is epical in its panoramic survey of life. Similarly, Coolie is an epic of modern India.

Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie is rightly the prose-epic of modern India because it has a dominant epic quality comprising various qualities. It is written in prose. It gives an epic picture of modern India. It has been conceived and executed on an epic scale. But it does not narrate the grand heroic action of the hero who is the champion of a race. Rather, it is a novel of social protest, an organ of the downtrodden. It also gives a realistic picture of the extremely tragic lot of coolies and labourers in modern India through the individual destiny of Munoo who forcedly goes away from his village and its cruelties with romantic and glorious visions of city life only to die a tragic death. It is also a story of wretchedness not only of India but mankind. Coolie is epical in its variety of characters, epic portrayal of life and spatial vastness of society.

Mulk Raj Anand describesCoolieas a realistic novel with a powerful tragic ending. It is a tragic chronicle of the life and death of a young coolie. Munoo who is an orphan, was dragged from his village at the age of fourteen by his uncle to work as a domestic servant in the house of Babu Nathoo Ram. The new terrain of experience in the glitter and the gloss of city life fills his tender heart with luxurious visions and desires, but the merciless mechanic rhythm of town life and the mercenary and exacting taskmasters begin to churn the spark of life. It is the reason that Munoo’s tragedy begins which is a story of exploitation, victimhood, thwarted, innocence and unfulfilled potentiality. In the house of Babu Nathoo Ram his wife Bibi Uttam Kaur beats and abuses him. No longer able to bear the torture of undernourishment and overbeating with no solace from his uncle, he runs away and boards a train. He is taken to Daulatpur by one Seth Prabha Dayal who owns a pickle factory in the town and knew well the plight of Munoo as he in his childhood had come from his village to work as a coolie. But his partner Ganpat always beats and abuseshim harshly. However, his suffering is balanced by love and affection which Munoo receives from his godly master and his wife. It is after losing the pickle factory owing to Ganpat’s treachery that Munoo works as a coolie in the market of Daulatpur and at the railway station. He meets an elephant driver of a circus company who is kind to him and takes him to Bombay. It is here his second tragedy begins. He works as a labourer in a British Textile Mill along with one Hari. In Bombay,Munoo is again tortured and exploited by a victim of capitalism. In a roadside accident, he is picked up by Mrs. Mainwaring who takes him to Simla to use him as a rickshaw puller. He is now broken in body and spirit. He becomes a victim of consumption; his vital energy is sapped and he meets his premature and tragic death at the age of sixteen. Therefore, nature or fate is not responsible for his tragedy but man is responsible for his downfall.

The special panorama of Coolie is complete so far as the social hierarchy is concerned. Munoo the central protagonist, is shown as living in three classes of society- the lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. For the first time, he works as a domestic servant in the house of Baboo Nathu Ram, the sub-accountant of the Imperial Bank. Munoo works as a labourer in the pickle factory. This incident provides him with an occasion to know intimately the spoils of life in the middle class. After sometime he becomes a Rickshaw puller of Mrs. Mainwaring. This meant to depict the Indian upper class and the English society. Through the Odyssey of Munoo Mulk Raj Anand realizes his epic aspiration of presenting a vast social panorama of life. Munoo is dominant throughout the novel but there is a variety of well delineated characters who add an extra dimension to the epic quality. In this novel, there arepeasants like Hari and Munoo, a middle-class educated man like Chota Babu, a social climber like Prabha, a spoiled man like Ganpat, and an upper-class Anglo-Indian like Mrs Mainwaring. We can also see a British Sahib like Mr W.P. England and an English middle-class man like the Chimta Sahib. Therefore, Anand has presented a variety of characters through his world-famous novel Coolie.

The brief analysis of the famous novel shows that Anand’s Coolie is a tragic epic in prose. We can see a glimpse of a modern tragical drama, the tragical drama of a common man. In this novel, there is a combination of novel and tragedy. In Coolie pathos alone was dominant but here he moves from pathos to tragedy. The tragic death of the Munoo shows him as a proletarian hero. In ancient times, the royal personage would be a tragic hero. In this novel,Munoo is the central protagonist in the sense of modern tragedy. His tragic death is a symbol of the tragedies of the millions of workers and common men who cannot avert their tragic ends.

However, it is not the tragic death of a common man alone which amounts to a social tragedy but there should be a tragic theme and a clear presentation of the forces of society which cause such heart-touching tragedy. Therefore, the central theme of Coolie is denial and classconflict. Munoo has the potential of a good citizen and, if given a chance, he would have easily averted his tragic death.

The epic portrayal of life is also made possible by the picaresque framework of the novel Coolie whichhas the primary aim of presenting latent social criticism through a realistic survey of the social panorama. The spatial vastness in Coolie is brought in by the description of Munoo’s picaresque adventures during which he goes from his village to Shyam Nager to Daulatpur, to Bombay and then to Simla.

This discussion clearly shows that the Coolie is an epical novel in scope because of the variety of characters and width in range. On the other hand, it is a novel about the Indian way of life manners and atmosphere. Therefore, Mulk Raj Anand’s famous novel Coolie is a realistic representation of the tragic ending. It is a tragic chronicle of the life and death of a young Coolie, Munoo who is an orphan who is dragged from his village at the age of fourteen by his uncle to work as a domestic servant.

Works Cited:

1. Anand, Mulk Raj. Coolie. Penguin India, 2001.

2. Bhattacharya, Bhabhani, Et al. Major Indian Novelists: Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao.Prestige Books, 1990.

3. Iyengar, Srinivasa.K.R. Indian Writing in English. Sterling Publishers, 2001.

4. Rajan, P.K. The Growth of the Novel in India. Abhinav Publications,1989.

5. S.A. Khan, Mulk Raj Anand: The Novel of Commitment, Atlantic Publishers, 2000.

6. William Walsh, R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation. Allied Publishers, 1993.