Discuss the vision of life underlying Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie.
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Answer:
Anand, as is well known, was under a great and direct influence of Mahatma Gandhi. He felt immense pity for the down-trodden class who were the innocent victims of social injustice and exploitation. Gandhi devoted his life for the uplift of the same class and Anand followed his path at least in literature.
Mulk Raj anand is one of the famous novelists of Indian English Literature, who along with Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan stands in the first line. His portrayal of character is living and authentic. His great works present us the lives of Indian‘s poor in a realistic and sympathetic manner. Mulk Raj Anand‘s debut novel Un- touchable is a true voice of the Dalit class. This novel depicts the events of a single day in the life of Bakha. Bakha throughout the novel faced the discrimination in the Caste-based so-called society. He belongs to the sweeper community.
In Anand‘s novel Confession of a Lover , the political arena is dominated by Mahatma Gandhi, the Satyagraha and Non-Co-operation Movement of 1920-21. Gandhi converted the political agitation into a national movement for total freedom from British rule. He created a demand for self-government despite the imperialist stand that Indians lacked courage, manliness and were in-capable of administration. Gandhi revived the epic concept of courage in his own personal example and in the Satyagraha or non-violence movement. In Gandhian thought this movement was the force that is Truth, the Fear-lessness that is separable from Truth. In Glimpses of India , Jawaharlal Nehru considers Satyagraha as a means of political action, a weapon to win political freedom:
Satyagraha was definite, though non-violent, form of resistance to what was considered wrong. It was, in effect, a peaceful rebellion, a most civilized form of warfare, and yet dangerous to the stability of the State. It was an effective way of getting the masses to function and it seemed to fit in with the peculiar genius of the Indian people. It put us on our best behaviour and seemed to put the adversary in the wrong. It made us shed the fear that crushed us, and we began to look people in the face as we had never done before, and to speak out our minds, and this new freedom of speech and action filled us with confidence and strength. And, finally, the method of peace prevented to a large extent the growth of those terribly bitter racial and national hatreds which have always so far accompanied such struggles, and this made the ultimate settlement easier.
At the Nagpur Session of the Congress in 1920, the Resolution for the NonCooperative Movement was passed. It called for a withdrawal from ―such school as are owned, aided, or in any way controlled by Government‘s student over sixteen were to ―withdraw from institutions thus owned by a system of government which the nation has solemnly resolved to bring to an end….such students were neither to devote themselves to some special service in connection to the Non-Cooperation movement, or to continue their education in national institutions. (106, Bald) Anand could not boycott his government support school in Ferozepur as his father was in the employment of the Angrezi Raj and in the army besides.
Gandhi had advocated that self-rule, self-mastery and self-realisation should come first for all Indians and this effort was to be based on an acute sense of personal moral responsibility for our day to day actions, irrespective of the distant goals. This doctrine he termed Hind Swaraj, a doctrine of Passive Resistance.
Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul-force …. If I do not obey the law, and accept the penalty for its breach, I use soul-force. It involves sacrifice of self.