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The Lasting Legacies of Mulk Raj Anand MULK Raj Anand was an illustrious writer with a mission—to foreground the tragic plight of the poor and the marginalised to evoke compassion for them, as we know it. And this book, an anthology of illuminating and scholarly pieces, sharpens our understanding of Anand the man and his various works of literature and art.
Shiv K. Kumar underlines and illustrates Anand’s iconoclasm and acerbity, using his personal experiences and extracts from Anand’s letters written to him. He eulogistically uses the epithet "titan" for the fierce and domineering Anand who had the courage of his outspoken convictions. The stimulating piece Call me Uncle recaptures Meenakshi Mukherjee’s various encounters with Anand. Particularly exciting is the first one, where the young scholar Meenakshi, with the sublime confidence of youth, dared to make an unfavourable comment on Anand’s literary style in his presence (then an established writer) in a conference. Consequently, she roused his ire and was silenced by his stinging rebuke. Surprisingly, in the evening he not only visited her but also apologised to her for his rude remarks. Hence, her estimation of his personality "impulsive as well as generous self-absorbed yet warm and compassionate" is thoroughly correct. Dolly Sahair’s piece is a moving portrait of a withdrawn, withered Anand reduced to a ghost of his previous vigorous self at the age of 99, spending his days in the company of his caregivers (Anand’s epithet for servants) in Khandala. The second part, Deliberations, is an appreciation of Anand the writer and an art critic, particularly from the perspective of humanism, a philosophy that stimulated his genius. The four pieces by Syed Afroz Ashrafi, Pinki Negi and Sumitra Kukreti, Jaya Srivastava and Lucky Gupta appraise Anand’s first novel, Untouchable, a landmark in blazing the trail in the field of Dalit fiction, with an outcaste subaltern, Bakha, as its protagonist. Delving deep into the labyrinths of the introspective sweeper boy Bakha’s mind, the truly great novel testifies Anand’s prowess as a subaltern psychologist. "In Commonwealth literature, Anand’s Untouchable is the best example that deals with a subaltern psyche struggling with his passions and obsessions," says Lucky Gupta. Two pieces by Malti Aggarwal and Anuradha Verma dwell upon Anand’s concern for woman, an important subaltern sect, surveying his well-known woman-centered novel The Old Woman and the Cow, first published in 1960 and later in 1981, under the title Gauri. The narrative of misfortunes and revolutionary metamorphosis of the female protagonist, Gauri, was Anand’s proclaimed "offering to the beauty dignity and devotion of Indian woman". Whereas another noteworthy novel Two Leaves and a Bud, centered around the pangs of labourers in the tea plantations of Assam, is dissected in a couple of pieces. The two important works, The Coolie and The Road, are repeatedly referred to as the voice of Indian subaltern in the book. To show the nexus between Anand’s life experience and his fiction, Raihan Raja looks at Seven Summers (the first volume of Anand’s much-discussed autobiographical novel Seven Ages of Man) from the point of view of a confessional novel. Jasbir Jain accounts for Anand’s humanism, tracing the shaping of it and referring to his novel Apology for Heroism, "a statement on humanism". Anandian humanism was founded upon the notions of freedom and sharing, she concludes. A.S. Dasan details Anand’s immense contribution as the connoisseur of arts. He singles out Marg, the journal of arts founded by Anand, as "the most significant manifestation of his (Anand) convictions about the utility of the arts". As a matter of fact, to extend the heritage of compassionate humanism, Anand utilised arts effectively. The profound Foreword,
written by Saros Cowasjee, an expert on Anand, adds largely to the
value of the book. The book, a befitting tribute to one of the doyens
of Indian writers in English, whose pioneering works are instrumental
in disseminating the tenets of humanism, is of great academic import.
It also appeals to the followers of the thoroughgoing humanist.
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It
contains an Introduction, which, besides being a brief yet
succinct overview of Anand’s major literary works, attempts to
stimulate audience’s interest in the writer, with persuasive
arguments. "Anand’s works not only are precious pieces of
literature," says it, "but also text full of pragmatic
humanism". The book is divided into two parts. The recollective
first, a nostalgic record of contributors’ association with the
writer, laying bare his idiosyncrasies, makes a poignant read.