Truth and nothing else but the truth. Review on Coolie - Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand, along with his contemporaries, the magnificent R K Narayan, and the luminous Raja Rao, is considered to be the pioneer of the Indo-English novel.

Anand belonged to a generation that did not worship money or media hype. For him, writing was nothing short of expressing his social concern and genuinely believing that he was playing an important part in purging society of its ills. Amongst the most important influences upon Anand were the Bloomsbury group and Mahatma Gandhi, who directly shaped his social consciousness.

Though Anand had previously published some non-fiction, the appearance of Untouchable and Coolie established his credentials as a novelist. Both the stories dealt with the downtrodden. In fact, the social outsider, the underdog, is a favourite with Mulk Raj and appears in many other novels also. Both the aforementioned novels are excellent critiques of the Indian caste system and British colonialism. Untouchable touches upon the life of Bakha, an unclean outcaste and the humiliations that he has to face, while the Coolie carries on its shoulders the tragedy of a fifteen-year old labourer who dies of tuberculosis.

Today, people may find Anand’s razor-sharp realism of Coolie to be brusque, but the fact is that the novel still makes you squirm in discomfort with its naked realism. Benjamin Disraeli rightly quipped, “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do, you apologize for the truth.”

I was introduced to novel, and subsequently Mulk Raj Anand during my university days. If I have to make a choice between the three great writers, I would any day go for the somnolent prose of Narayan, closely followed by Rao’s magic realism (particularly Kanthapura). Anand has never actually inspired me like these two have. But yes, his idealism and the stoicism of his vision are remarkable.

Coolie is a great novel of pre-independence India that has stood the test of time gallantly. One clearly remembers the protagonist’s agony on being denied the right to answer nature’s call. That one scene alone makes for timeless reading.