Write the introduction to Mulk Raj Anand.

Ans.

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, notable for his portrayal of the lives of the poor and downtrodden in traditional Indian society. One of the champions of Anglo-Indian fiction, he together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India based writers in English to gain an international readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of classics of modern Indian English literature, they are noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and for their analyses of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune. He became known for his protest novel Untouchable (1935) followed by other works on the Indian poor such as Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937). He is also noted for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English, and was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.

Early Life and Education

Born in Peshawar. Anand studied at Khalsa College, Amritsar, graduating with honours in 1924 before moving to England, while working in a restaurant to support himself, he attended university college London as an undergraduate and later studied at Cambridge University, earning a PhD in Philosophy in 1929 with a dissertation on Bertrand Russel and the English empiricists. During this time he forged friendships with members of the Bloomsbury Group. He also spent time in Geneva, lecturing at the League of Nations’ international committee on intellectual co-operation.

Anand married English actress and communist Kathleen Van Gelder in 1938, they had a daughter. Sushila, before divorcing in 1948.

Anand has to his credit thirteen novels, nine short story collections and several other notable works and autobiographies.