Book Review: Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

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Introduction:

Book Name: Untouchable

Author Name: Mulk Raj Anand

Genre: Literary Fiction

Publisher: penguin books

Bakha is the eighteen- year old son of the village head sweeper. He resides in a mud home with his brother, sister, and father. Having lived with his uncle at the British regimental barracks, he is highly impacted by their manner of dressing. But life occurs not that simple when you are the underdogs in a community rife with casteism and you are inaccessible.


About the Author:

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian columnist in English significant for his portrayal of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian Society. One of the settlers of the Anglo-Indian novels, he concurrently with R.K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali, and Raja Rao, was one of the primary India-based novelists in English to increase a worldwide readership. 

Anand is appreciated for his novels and quick stories, which have amassed the status of masterpieces of modern Indian English books; they are noted for their sensitive insight into the existences of the oppressed and their estimation of impoverishment, exploitation, and hardship. 

He became known for his uprising book untouchable (1935), pursued by other works on the Indian poor such as coolie (1936) and two leaves and a bud (1937).
He is also distinguished for being among the first columnists to integrate Punjabi and Hindustani utterances into English and was a recipient of the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan.

Born in Peshawar, Anand studied at Khalsa university, Amritsar, finishing with honors in 1924 before shifting to England. While helping in a cafe to help himself.

About the Book:

This is a short book, under one hundred and sixty pages, but it evacuates you with serious thinkings. Set in pre-independent India, Untouchable is a dark story. You all know why I told you that when you graze the wonderful preface by E.M Forster. The story of a normal man, who is aware of his significance in the community and yet can not help but doubt his disservice.

It made me understand the confidential life I live, and also how some portions of my community have not yet let go of their age-old racisms. The story informs us about how hard it is to develop, not only as a pariah but also as a girl growing there without a mommy to house her. 

Thought it made me think odd when Bakha did not miss his mommy that much. Made me admire whether it was due to being emotionally impeded, but that guessed did not last long particularly after suffering his conflicted emotions regarding his personality and his place in the community in the wider strategy of things.

What was odd or perhaps was not was the incestuous aspect where bacha understands about his sister Sohini, even though he is conscious of how untrue he is in his intuition in the next moment. 

Distant from that, it is such a moving tale. You can realize their helplessness not being able to glorification in the chapel, eating leftover food of others, etc. He hoped somebody would come, someone to replenish his mind, which had dried up, become unexpectedly vacant.

Untouchable does not just barely question this difficulty of untouchability but also gives three explanations of which the last is the most logical. This characteristic is what makes the novel stand out because it barely represents a difficulty but conducts to resolve it also. 

The book advances an outstanding look at the Indian community of the pre-independence era, how existence functioned then. It’s something we can’t comprehend because our lives and our community is so greatly several from that. It is slightly slow-paced as it slowly follows the circumstances, thoughts gliding in Bakha through one single day.

However, Untouchable is hailed as composition and so is it. On the verge, it appeared surreal, the way the circumstances unraveled, that all happened within a single day. It ends on an optimistic note, though there is no sudden relief to be got from his proceeding plight.


My View:

Untouchable is a wonder of Indian fiction. Written by Mulk Raj Anand, it is not the formal kind of novel but rather a masterpiece with deals with one of the worst sins of the Hindu caste system-untouchability. 

It is composed so sensitively that the book catches the reader instantly into it is raw characterizations and narration. After reading this, what I felt was that before informing about religion, which is no doubt a part of our individuality for some of us, we should rather understand about kindness. The author interprets the characters and their emotion profoundly way.


My rating for the book is 5/5
Get a copy of this book easily from Amazon: Untouchable

Written By - Muskan Gupta
Edited By - Anamika Malik