Flavours of compassion
Kanchan Mehta

Selected Short Stories
by Mulk Raj Anand. ed. Saros Cowasjee. Penguin. Pages 262. Rs 250.

"Anand’s main forte has been to awaken us to the realities of life in India, which we already know, but to which we have turned a blind eye," asserts Saros Cowasjee, expert on Mulk Raj Anand, who has selected and edited with an introduction this cluster of stories by that stalwart in Indo-Anglican fiction. The majority of the stories, portraying agonies and woes of the underdogs, touch us deeply.

The scorching sun, "cruel, blood-sucking demon scorching all sentient things, as in some pre-historic war of elements", the common motif in these stories, brings out how the marginalised are bullied by both the nature and the affluent. The identical Rumour and Old Bapu are the heart-rending narratives of the miseries of age and unemployed. The information of job turns out to be a "rumour" for "old Bapus". They get jolts of dismay, abuses and instructions, but no words of pity.

Confession pictures a coolie’s pleadings with a middle-class lawyer for his "just dues". The coolie’s entreaties stir the reader’s imagination. In portraying the character of the lawyer, Anand digs at the selfishness of some middle-class persons who exploit manual workers. The lawyer does not give in to the coolie’s just demand and suffers guilt. The story says that it’s a sin to exploit manual workers, a common scene in India.

The Thief and A Dog’s Life are landmark stories. He focuses on beggars and beasts, both victims of abject poverty in India. Their filthy, sordid and coarse existence haunts you. The Thief portrays a beggar woman, "a leer, an abject, worthless nothing, an ignorant, illiterate and dumb creature," who feeds herself with "a crust or a raw vegetable peel" and "a rotten banana peel from the rubbish bin" and her child "on a bared breast."

A Dog’s Life describes a starving dog’s desperation for food and human sympathy. The wretched dog is killed mercilessly by a beggar who sees the dog as his rival. The beggar’s cruelty is heart-rending and reflects that starvation dehumanises us. Anand’s subtle penetration into the dog’s inside is remarkable.

Lajwanti, Promoter of Quarrels, Lottery and Lullaby unfold Anand’s concern about women’s oppression. These expose traditional and exploitative structures of Indian rural society, which degrade, maltreat and commoditise women.

Professor Cheeta and The Gold Watch grapple with the tension between the Whites and the Indians. The indifference or the sense of superiority of the White and the submissiveness of the Indians are the greatest barriers to meaningful communication between them. The twain shall never meet unless they put down the split.In a couple of stories, the beauty is in detail and the cognizance of human psyche. Terrorist digs into the labyrinths of an ineffectual terrorist, Singh. A Kashmiri Idyll and Signature explore idiosyncrasies of the Nawabs.

Liar, The Maharaja and Tortoise, A Pair of Mustachio immortalises and The Hangman’s Strike can be grouped together as narratives of unalloyed humour. These works establish Anand as a humorist. It’s hard to forget the irrational and curious demeanour of the fussy Khan Azam Khan (in A Pair of Mustachio), who, to safeguard his tiger mustachio, pawns his prized possessions to the cunning moneylender.

The Barbar’s Trade Union, a gripping tale, both stirs and comforts the reader by treating the maltreatment of the underdog, perennial theme of Anand’s fiction, with a touch of comedy. The humorous opening signals an interesting story ahead: "Among the makers of modern India, Chandu, the barbar boy of our village, has a place which will be denied him unless I press for the recognition to his contribution to history".

There’s a sensitive study of the Indian childhood in The Child and Fear of Rear. The war of words between the child and parents reflects oppositions of playfulness and regulations, energy and order and world of senses and world of ethics. Both stories emphasise the need of a civilised balance between temptations and reason.

Apart from artistic realisation of Indian themes, Anand has given an Indian flavour to English and used Hindi and Punjabi words lavishly. As most of his characters are from the lower strata of society, their speech is loaded with swear words.

This is a collection of sad, compassionate, satirical, funny and charming stories that deal with contemporary situations, show behaviour patterns and portray life in the raw. Reverting to the Editor’s note in the Introduction: "Artistry, honesty and compassion`85 are sufficient virtues to ensure Anand a place in the annals of the Indian short story."

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