View of THE “UNTOUCHABLES’’ OF MULK RAJ ANAND AND ARUNDHATI ROY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

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ACCENT JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ECOLOGY & ENGINEERING

Peer Reviewed and Refereed Journal IMPACT FACTOR: 2.104(INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL) ISSN-2456-1037

Vol.04,Special Issue 04, ²^nd Conference (ICIRSTM) April 2019, Available Online: www.ajeee.co.in/index.php/AJEEE

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THE “UNTOUCHABLES’’ OF MULK RAJ ANAND AND ARUNDHATI ROY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mrs. Reena Kumari

Assistant Professor (English), Govt. Girls PG College Baran

Abstract- The paper attempts to make a comparatives study of two great novelists, who through their writing have shown how the materialistic advancements have deprived common folk of their basic rights of livelihood.

Mulk Raj Anand was a great social historian and a chronicler and Arundhati Roy, the famous Booker Prize winner, a product of the much talked of developed world. History and literature have the parallel functions to perform. The former records the events, and the latter makes an intrepid exploration leading to the portrayal of character in such a veneer where their protracted stand permeates through their presumption. In this paper there is a portrayal of Untouchables as Bakha of Mulk Raj Anand and Velutha ofArundhati Roy.

“Untouchable” of Mulk Raj Anand is a pathetic but heart rending cry of author against the cruelty and prejudices of the higher caste people towards the lower castes. It is his ruthless attack against the hitherto rigid but gradually crumbling caste system in Indian society.

Mulk Raj Anand portrayed Bakha as a hero of thenovel, Untouchable (1935), he was a son of sweeper. In Arundhati Roy’s “The God Of Small Things” Velutha is an untouchable, like Bakha he belongs to a low caste. He is a Paravan, a South Indian untouchable, whose sole job includes extracting today and doing other lowly jobs. Both of them have strongly physical prowess. They are tooearn their bread themselves. Bakha and Velutha are two names clothed in same grab with same destinies. If Bakha stands for innocence and adolescence, Velutha symbolizes experience and maturity. Bakha’s tears of isolation worked like molten tears for Velutha who perfected them by proffering his life. He drank all tears reticently for the sake of huminity and stood crucified at the hands of society.Velutha attains the status of Christ who was resurrected. Bakha is glorified in Velutha who earmarks a sublime space in reader’s heart.Bakha and Veluth are the victims of social stigma and were “not able to touch anything that touchable touched.”Thus thispaperprovide us a detailed study of two untouchables namely Bakha and Velutha, portrayed by Mulk Raj Anand and Arundhati Roy.

Keywords- Prejudices, Exploration, Caste System, Untouchability, Parawan, Social stigma, Crescendo

1 INTRODUCTION

History and literature have the parallel functions to perform The former records the events, and the latter makes an intrepid exploration leading to the portrayal of character in such a veneer where their protracted stand permeate through their presumption. This paper provides a comparative study of two great novelists, who through their writing have shown how the materialistic advancements have deprived common folk of their basic rights of livelihood. Mulk Raj Anand was a great social historian and a chronicler and Arundhathi Roy, the famous Booker Prize winner, a product of the much talked of developed world.

1 THE CASTE SYSTEM- THE OLD MECHANICAL FORMULA OF LIVES The caste system has been practiced in the Indian society for centuries. The viperousroots of this evil system deeply and firmly planted in the Indian mind has

poisoned the healthy thinking of the people in society. Caste System originated in the division of function and the responsibilities of agrarian societies of the Aryans. Originally there were four castes- The Brahmin (priest), The Kshatriya (soldiers and feudal lords), The Vishay (farmers and shopkeepers) and The sudra(bondsman and artisans). The fourth one sudras was considered as untouchable. Entry into the temples was forbidden to its members.

2 DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS OF UNTOUCHABLES

The Nobles written in this period throw an ample light on deplorable condition of untouchables.The novels of Mulk Raj Anand and Arndhati Roy are commendable efforts in this direction.

Untouchable (1935) by Mulk Raj Anand is a pathetic but heart-renting cry of the author against the cruelty and prejudices

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2 of the higher caste people towards the lower castes. It is his ruthless attack against the hitherto rigid but gradually crumbling caste system in Indian society.

The novel is a vehement satire against,

“The old mechanical formula of lives” like the mode of disposal of the garbage by a particular section of society called untouchable.

Arundhati Roy, in her famous novel “ The God of Small Things” makes Velutha the titanic figure stand outas the representative of the untouchables. He belongs to a class of the people, who were not allowed to walk on the public roads.

Not allowed to cover their upper bodies and not to allow to carry umbrellas. To add to the humiliation they had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those whom they addressed.

Velutha’s father, a toddy tapper by profession was a Paravan, Mammachi, Rahel’s grandmother even membered a time in her girlhood when Paravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom sweeping away the footprints so that Brahamins Syrian Christians would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a Paravan’s footprints.

Velutha, henceforth, converts himself into the Christian religion to be immune from the victimization of the cattiest society.

But his conversion and his technical expertise, a part from many other good things, never bring in fruitful result in the cruel and callous society. His passion find love for Ammu, a touchable considered pooh-poohed by the society illegal.

Veluth’s father new the consequences, so he rushed to inform about his son’s affair, with a view to punish him but the lady of the house spat on his face. Baby Kochamma who was fascinated in her youth towards father Mullingan, a handsome Irish Monk has cunningly rejected the affair by saying thus:-

“How could she stand by the smells: haven’t you noticed, they have a particularsmell? These Paravans” Thus “ The God of Small Things” is a story about love and brutality, the brutality against the Dalits. The novel poses a high serious question about civil right in India. The story shows how a Paravan, an untouchable, in the modern state of Kerala, a little more than twenty year ago could still be shamelessly, denied the

right to a trial, and to a basic human dignity.

Veluth is disowned by comrade Pillai, his own party leader he is ill- treated by Ammachi and finally has to lose his life all because of his Paravanidentity, The identity of an untouchable.

The basic purpose of the literature, albeit, to entertain has also in a preponderant measure, to instruct thought not by making rules or establishing norms but by giving a kaleidoscopic view of the prevalent practices. History and literature have the parallel function to perform. Their works bear the stamps of the ages. They lived in and stipulate how the materialistic advancement called development have deprived common folk of their basic right of livelihood.

Similarly “The God of Small Things” are uses curiosities because of some issues which Mulk Raj Anand, The Bloomsbury intellectual and social historian, had raised in his highly acclaimed novel-Untouchable (1935) written six decades ago. Reading of the God of small things has generated in everyone theirVelutha is the second coming of Bakkha. Bakkha and Velutha have strong similarities though born in different literary climes. Anand’s novel

“Untouchable as he himself admits, had been “rejected by as many as nineteen publishers” due to it was too filthy. But, the novel later published in over thirty languages of the world.

Portrayal of Untouchables-

When Mulk Raj Anand portrayed Bakha as the hero of the novel Untouchable (1935), it was accept truth as India witnessed such narrow clashes namely caste and class struggle. Bakha the protagonist, an untouchable was detested by high-class people and he had to announce his arrival lest the upper- class be touched and defiled. The son of a sweeper, Bakha had a good physical built up. Nature had bestowed upon him all countenance and conscience. The novel, though full of boils and toils, ends on a note of optimism.

Surely, the critical phase of India’s freedom struggle is over India attained freedom and the narrow racial feeling based on caste and creeds have subsided over the years. But the slogans that India has come to be a nation free from various

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3 prejudices and narrow racial feelings are still to be testified. Many questions about caste and creed remain yet to be answered. We also see conflict of Gandhi on Bakha. Gandhiji’s thoughts and philosophy bassed on the Geeta and humanitarian teachings of Tolstoy, reduced the discrepancies in the inter- caste relationship and finally flouted the evil system of outcaste. Gandhiji tried his bassed to raise their status in the eyes of the other castes by naming them

“Harijans”- the children of God.

Valutha, like Bakha belongs to a low caste. He is a paravan whose sole job includes extracting today and doing other lowly jobs. Both of them have strong physical prowess. They are too earn their bread themselves.They grow in an unhealthy environment of fear and fire but that doesn’t negate their potential.

The passages about them as mentioned in both the novels evoke mental images in such that we picture them in our mind’s eye as flesh and blood.

Bakha’s father, Lakha educate him to bow before Sahibs who are their master, but Velutha’s father fails to instill this idea in him. Both Bakha and Velutha are workaholics. They have in them the craftsmen who do things perfectly and to the satisfaction of their master. For his good work English Sahibs often rewards him. Bakha jumps with joy to receive even an old and tattered dress.Similarly Veluth, too swims in delight to have plaudits from Rahel and Estha. The way he made boats for the identical twins wins their hearts. Veluth learnt carpentry but he was good at machines too. He mended radios, clocks, and water pumps. He looked after the plumbing and all the electrical gadgets in the house. But, Bakha didn’t have these skills.

3 BAKHA ANDVELUTHA: AS VICTIMS OF SOCIAL STIGMA

Bakha and Velutha are the two names clothed in same grab with same destinies.

If Bakha stands for innocence and adolescence, Velutha symbolizes experience and maturity. Bakha’s tears of isolation worked like molten tears for Velutha who perfected them by proffering his life. He drank all tears reticently for the sake of humanity and stood crucified at the hands of society. Bakha is glorified in Velutha who earmarks a sublime space in reader’s heart.

Bakha and Velutha are the victims of social stigma and were “not able to touch anything that touchable touched.”

Burdened with Bakha’s truth, Velutha burned with the belief that poaravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian Christians wouldn’t defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a Paravans footprints. We find in Roy’s “The God of Small things”

adequate details that Paravans were not allowed to walk on public roads not allowed to cover their bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas.

As Mulk Raj Anand portrayed in

“Untouchable” that Bakha lives in the outcaste’ colony. Under the shadow both of the town and the cantonment but outside their boundaries and separate from them. Veluth lives in a hut across the river and its irony that his technical expertise and his religious status as a converted Christian do not immune him from victimization in a caste-ridden society. We find an irony when the temple priest intoxicated with the glow of warmth being near Sohini, considers her entry to the temple as affecting the sanctity in Untouchables. Likewise, comrade Pillai’s pandering to deep-rooted caste prejudice and his speeches about Rights of untouchables burst with betrayals in “The God of Small thing”

Bakha and Velutha resemble much in their idea of rebellion. They are the victims of social stigma. As one of Mr.

Anand’s characters says to untouchables

“They think we are dirt because we clean their dirt.” The sweeper is worse off than a slave, for the slave may change his master and his duties and may even, born into a state from which both of them and where they are excluded from social intercourse and where they are conditions of his religion. Unclean themselves, they pollute others when they touch them.

4 CONCLUSION

Martin, Seymour- Smith, says on Anand’s Untouchable, “One of the most eloquent and imaginative works to deal with this difficult and emotive subject.”

And the issues raised. “God of small Things” betray the belief that the age of suffering and exploitation would come to an end after independence.

Velutha is preparing the ground through his party to protest but both of them

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4 resemble in their suffering in silence. It’s an irony that his party doesn’t come to his rescue and comrade Pillai forgets his party’s ideologies and axed Velutha because of his low caste origin. At the end Velutha goes thousand miles and bears the blows which to his conscience,are like the epithalamium sunny for the unsung hero for his inevitable rendezvous.

Though Velutha and his likes sweep their footprints off the land they stamp their ineffaceablefootprints on the sands of eternity.

Likewise, Anand’s Untouchable, The book is simply planned, but it has form, The action occupies one day and takes place in a small-area. The great catastrophe of the “touching” occurs in the morning, as Bakha whispered in the streets. Posh, Posh sweeper coming”, and poisons all that happens. Subsequently, After a jagged course of ups and downs, we come to the solution, or rather to the three solutions,is that of Hutchinson, the Salvationist mirrionary; Jesus Christ.

ButthoughBakha is touched at hearing that Christ receives all men irrespective of caste he gets bored, because the missionary cannot tell him who Christ is ? Then follows the second solution, with the effect of a crescendo: Gandhi. Gandhi too says that all Indians are equal and the

accounts he gives of a Brahmin doing sweeper’s work goes strait to the boy’s heart. Hard upon this comes the third solution, put into the mouth of a modernist poet. It is prosaic, straightforward and considered in the light of what has gone before in the book.

It is very convincing. No vows of self sacrifice and abnegation on the part of more fortunate Indians but simply and solely – The flush system. Introduce water – closets and main – drainage throughout India, and all this wicked rubbish about untouchablity will disappear. Bakha returns to his father and his wretched bed, thinking now of the Mahatma, now of the Machine. His Indian day is over and the next day will be like it, but on the surface of the earth if not in the depths of the sky, a change is at hand.

REFERENCES

1. Mulk Raj Anand- Untouchable, Preface to

Untouchable Penguin Books India 2001.

2. Binod Mishra – Bakha and Velutha: A comparative study of the “Untouchables.”

3. IyangarShrinivasa K. R. – Indian Writing in English 18^th reprint 2015

4. Sinha, M. P. and Agrwal B. R. – Major Trends in the Post-independence Indian English fiction

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