Untouchable (novel)

The Untouchable

Title Cover
Author	Mulk Raj Anand
Country	India
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publication date	1935
Media type	Print
ISBN
OCLC	22686185
Followed by	Coolie

Untouchable is a novel by Mulk Raj Anand published in 1935. The novel established Anand as one of India's leading English authors. The book was inspired by his aunt's experience when she had a meal with a Muslim woman and was treated as an outcast by his family. The plot of this book, Anand's first, revolves around the argument for eradicating the caste system. It depicts a day in the life of Bakha, a young "sweeper", who is "untouchable" due to his work cleaning latrines.

Set in the fictional Indian town of Bulandshahr, Untouchable is a day in the life of a young Indian sweeper named Bakha. The son of Lakha, head of all of Bulashah’s sweepers, Bakha is intelligent but naïve, humble yet vain. Over the course of Bakha’s day various major and minor tragedies occur, causing him to mature and turn his gaze inward. By the end of the novel Mulk Raj Anand, the author, has made a compelling case for the end of untouchability on the grounds that it is an inhumane, unjust system of oppression. He uses Bakha and the people populating the young man’s world to craft his argument.

Bakha’s day starts with his father yelling at him to get out of bed and clean the latrines. The relationship between the father and son is strained, in part due to Bakha’s obsession with the British, in part because of Lakha’s laziness. Bakha ignores his father but eventually gets up to answer the demands of a high-caste man that wants to use the bathroom. This man is Charat Singh, a famous hockey player. At first Singh also yells at Bakha for neglecting his cleaning duties. The man has a changeable personality however. It isn’t long before he instructs Bakha to come see him later in the day so he can gift the young sweeper with a prized hockey stick. An overjoyed Bakha agrees.

High on his good fortune he quickly finishes his morning shift and hurries home, dying of thirst. Unfortunately there is no water in the house. His sister Sohini offers to go fill the water bucket. At the well Sohini must wait behind several other outcastes also queued up. Also waiting for water is Gulabo, mother of one of Bakha’s friends and a jealous woman. She hates Sohini and is just barely stopped from striking the young woman. A priest from the town temple named Pundit Kali Nath comes along and helps Sohini get water. He instructs her to come clean the temple later in the day. Sohini agrees and hurries home with the water.

Back at home Lakha fakes an illness and instructs Bakha to clean the town square and the temple courtyard in his stead. Bakha is wise to the wily ways of his father but cannot protest. He takes up his cleaning supplies and goes into town. His sweeping duties usually keep him too busy to go into town, and so he takes advantage of the situation by buying cigarettes and candies.