Question

Biographical sketch of mulk raj anand and Robert frost

Answer 1

Among many Indo-Anglian novelists who have committed themselves to social reform, Mulk Raj Anand stands out. He is a rational humanist who believes in the power of science to improve the material conditions in the progress of mankind in human dignity and in the quality of all men. Several of his novels take up the condition of the oppressed and social evils like untouchability, economic inequality and social injustice. Mulk Raj Anand , whom we can justifiably describe as the grand old man of Indo English fiction, was born on 12th December 1905 in Peshawar, the capital city of North-West Frontier province of India before the country's partition in 1947. His father, by birth a coppersmith, a Kshatriya sub-caste, had joined the British Army as a sepoy and risen to the position of an officer having the designation of a Subedar. Thus Anand belonged to an ordinary Hindu family which was financially not very well off. His father was superficially modern and his mother was traditional who brought up Mulk Raj Anand on the ancient stories from the epics and the shastras. It is significant that his upbringing 29 and intellectual development have led him to protest against social injustice. Anand's father was a coppersmith who early in life joined the army. The craftsman's industry and meticulous attention to detail and the army man's feeling for adventure are among the major constituents of Anand's heritage from his father. From his peasant mother he doubtless derived his commonsense, his sense of the ache at the heart of the Indian humanity, and his understanding compassion for the waifs. His feeling for the suffering masses of India colours his novels at every step and it makes him a powerful champion of the underdog. The nineteen thirties were the most tumults years in Indian history. It was the period in which Indian struggle for Independence was at its peak Anand like a true Indian could not remain uninfluenced by it. Though Mulk Raj Anand did not participate in the civil disobedience movement, he identified himself with it. Anand was a fifteen year old boy at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919, the fateful day when General Dyer ordered his men to shoot at the assembled crowd. Anand received eleven strips on his back. This incident definitely left a scar on his mind. As a young boy, Anand was extremely sensitive and physically fragile. This resulted in his aloofness. At a very early age, he received the first shock in his life. As he witnessed his pretty cousin and playmate Kaushalya die before his eyes. This young girl of nine years who was cheerful laughing and playing was consumed by 30 Tuberculosis. Anand could not overcome this shock; he refers to this incident as the first important crisis in his life, which left its mark on his mind and heart: 'I could not understand why an innocent girl should be singled out to die. And what was death ? was there survival after the passing away of a person ? If not, then life was the only time for happiness. And yet there was pain and suffering in life, why was all this ? ... No answer came to my questionings, but I could see the contrast of life and death/1 Further the death of his uncle Pratap and later that of his good aunt, Devaki, added to his general mood of sadness and confusion. These incidents however, forced Anand to question further the meaning of life and death. Death seemed dark and inevitable and this strengthened his love of life. Here it appears, are the roots of his developing philosophical bent of mind and his leanings towards humanism, a fundamental tenet of which is the staunch belief in the here and now as against the unseen and unknown hereafter. Another important fact Anand remembers as having left a strong impression on his boyhood were to the inhuman atrocities perpetrated by British officers at the time of the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre; it was only innocently that he broke the curfew order, but the police gave him eleven stripes of the cane on the back : No 31 wonder Anand grew up into an uncompromising denouncer of imperialism. Further Anand was painfully shocked to notice the mendacity, ignorance, and superstition of his coppersmith brotherhood. Anand belonged to one of the many groping young men of the generation who had begun to question everything in our background to look away from the big houses and to feel themisery of the inert, disease ridden, underfed, and illiterate people about us'. He was aware that great many of our people suffered from poverty and squalor around us with a patience that was truly heroic. No one in India had yet written the epic of this suffering adequately, because the realities were too crude for a writer like Tagore, and it was not easy to write an epic in India while all the intricate problems of the individual in the new world had yet to be solved. It became Anand's aim as a novelist to focus attention on this suffering and thus to write what may fittingly be called 'epics of misery'.

Answer 2

Mulk Raj Anand, (born December 12, 1905, Peshawar, India [now in Pakistan]—died September 28, 2004, Pune), prominent Indian author of novels, short stories, and critical essays in English, who is known for his realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the poor in India. He is considered a founder of the English-language Indian novel.

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