Mulk Raj Anand, 1905-

Select page numbers to listen or LCCN to display the bibliographic record.

Readings:

1. Untouchable. A novel.
   London: Wishart Books LTD, 1935
   (LCCN: 96908898 LC has different edition)
   Realmedia excerpt: pp. 89-92
   MP3 excerpt: pp. 89-92
   
2. Coolie.
   London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1936
   (LCCN: 52068107. LC has different edition)
   Realmedia excerpt: pp. 60-63
   MP3 excerpt: pp. 60-63
   
3. Across the Black Waters.
   New Delhi: Vision Books, 2000
   (LCCN: 41001979. LC has different edition)
   Realmedia excerpt: pp. 355-357
   MP3 excerpt: pp. 355-357

Mulk Raj Anand was born in 1905 in Peshawar in present-day Pakistan. A pioneer of Indian writing in English, he gained an international following early in his life. His novels Coolie and Untouchable set an entire generation of educated Indians thinking about India's social evils that were perpetuated in the name of religion and tradition. These and other early novels and short stories brought into sharp focus the dehumanizing contradictions within colonized Indian society. Through his writings he revealed that in addition to the foreign colonialism of Britain there existed layers of colonialism within Indian society. This internal colonialism stood in the way of India's transition to a modern civil society. While exposing the overarching divide between the British and a colonized India, he reveals an Indian society creating its own layers of colonizers and colonized thereby rendering the fledgling Indian nationalism an extremely problematic concept. Mulk Raj Anand was a founding member of Progressive Writers Association, a national level organization that wielded considerable influence during India's freedom struggle and beyond. An incredibly prolific writer, Mulk Raj Anand's creative career spanning a period of more than seventy-five years has been inextricably intertwined with the search for a just, equitable, and forward-looking India. He has written extensively in areas as variegated and diverse as art and sculpture, politics, Indian literature and history of ideas. He kept in constant touch with literary giants from across the globe, among them E.M. Forster who wrote a foreword to his novel, "Untouchable". Mulk Raj Anand received the International Peace Prize from World Peace Council. Sahitya Akademi Award, "Padma Bhushan" and Leverhulme Fellowship are some of the awards and accolades during his long literary career. The Library of Congress has more than one hundred and fifty publications by and on him in its collection.