Indian Sensibility in the Select Works of R K Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand with Special Reference to the English Teacher and Coolie

Author Name : Aswathy Prakash, Dr. A. Babu Rajendra Prasad

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SELECT WORKS

Coolie by Mulk Raj Anand

The second great political novel, Coolie, published in 1936. It tells the story of Munoo, an orphaned hill lad who is barely fourteen years old and lives with his uncle Daya Ram and aunt Gujri. Despite being mistreated, Munoo is comfortable in the picturesque surroundings of his home village of Bilaspur. He is compelled to travel to the city in order to support himself and makes his way to the Imperial Bank, Shamnagar's sub-accountant's residence. He is mistreated by Bibiji, BabuNathoo Ram's shrewd and vengeful wife, and only ChotaBabu, Nathuram's younger brother, is friendly to him. He flees the torment he is receiving in the house and relieves himself at the home of his second employer, PrabhaDayal, where he works at the pickle factory. But Prabha's business associate Ganpat similarly mistreats him. Unfortunately, Ganpat's dishonesty causes his master to lose everything. He is once more made to permanently leave Daulatpur. He began working as a coolie, but he had to contend with fierce competition from other coolies. He arrives at the railway station in order to work as a coolie, but he runs away out of fear because he lacks a license. He is saved from this struggle by an elephant driver, who also assists him in getting to Bombay. He meets Hari and his wife Lakshmi, a homeless couple in Bombay, and works at a cotton mill alongside them. He lives on a crumbling, unsanitary pavement and works in the most appalling conditions. He develops a close friendship with Ratan, who takes him to the Red-Light District, where he witnesses conflicts between Hindus and Muslims and a workers strike that the factory owners may have planned to prevent. Last but not least, he is knocked down by the car of an Anglo-Indian woman Mrs. Mainwaring who brings him back to Simla from Bombay who then hires him as a page-cumrickshaw-puller. It is assumed that She may have been using him sexually. Eventually, overwork results in his illness and Munoo dies of tuberculosis.