Barber's Trade Union by M.R.Anand

1. The Barber’s trade union -Mulk Raj Anand

2. Let’s Discuss….. • What is an Insult ? • How one feels after experiencing an Insult ? • Is insulting someone is good ? • Can Insult be taken positively ? • Can insult be turned into a passion for progress ? • Insult = progress/development… Agree ?

4. Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004)- Assistant. Prof. of English, LalBahadurShastriMahavidyalaya, Dharmabada, was born into a Kshatriya household in Peshawar. He moved overseas after finishing his schooling in India to pursue higher study, which included a doctorate in philosophy. Many notable honours have been bestowed upon him, including the Padma Bhushan, the International Peace Prize, and the Sahitya Academy Award. As a novelist, short story writer, and critic, he has been prolific. Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936), Two Leaves and a Bud (1937), The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1940), and The Sword and the Sickle (1941) are among his works.

5. In Mulk Raj Anand’s‘The Barber’s Trade Union’, aspects like • status • image • alienation • pride • cleverness • independence • respect • freedom explored. 

6. Themes • caste or social status  • Caste discrimination by High Caste people • Insult • Protest/Opposition to injustice

7. Characters :- Chandhu- protagonist, Chandu was senior by about six months to the narrator. He is a barber by profession in a village. He is from a low caste.his father died of plague so he has to leave his education after fifth primary class and do the work of barber. He visits door to door for grooming. wants to take revenge of the insult by Sahukar The Narrator-he is from a high caste, does not believe in casteism, good friend of Chandu, plays and imitates Chandu, does not believe in Casteism, Chandu is a hero for him Chandu’s Mother- old woman, kind to the narrator Narrator’s Mother-She does not like Chandu as he is a low-caste barber’s son and that they must keep up the status of their high caste and class. She puts red caste mark put on narrator’s forehead every morning, asks narrator not to be with Chandu The Sahukar-aged, he is from high caste and follows casteism, he insults Chandu on his caste publicly, he has a very young wife younger than her husband by twenty years, he alwats has a clean shave with a moustache The Villagers-they follow casteism, they threatened Chandu to do work of a barber Lalla Hukam Chand- the lawyer of the village, kind to Chandu, allows Chandu a ride to town with him, six miles away, on the foot-rest of his closed carriage

8. The Story.... • At a tender age, Chandu embarks upon full-fledged domestic responsibility. Every morning Chandu has to make door to door visits to the notables in the village for shaving and hair-cutting. • He was a genius at catching wasps, and at pressing the poison out of their tails, at tying their tiny legs to cotton thread and flying them, while I always got stung on the cheeks if I dared to go anywhere near the platform of the village well where these insects settled on the puddles to drink water. He could make and fly paper kites of such delicate design and the narrator fails to do all such things, so he is envious of Chandu. Chandu is his role model. • His father apprenticed Chandu early to the hereditary profession of the barber’s caste and sent him out hair-cutting in the village, and he had no time for the home tasks/home work which our school master gave us.

10. The Story......(3) Chandu’s father died of plague. For then he would do the round of saving and hair-cutting at the houses of the high-caste notables in the morning, bathe and dress. He left the school. Then steal a ride to town, six miles away, on the foot-rest of the closed carriage in which Lalla Hukam Chand Travelled to town. So he always brought me some gift or other from the town-a paint brush, or gold ink, or white chalk, or a double-edged penknife to sharpen pencils, and he would entertain me with long merry descriptions of the variety of things he saw in the bazaar. At district, he loved English styles in clothes which he saw the sahibs and the lawyers, the chaprasis and the policemen wearing at the District Court, where he had to wait for the journey home at the back of Lalla Hukam Chand.

17. Plot Chandu was a barber by caste. He adopted the profession of his father. As he was considered a member of a low caste, the other people of high caste used to insult him. In the end he decided to go on strike and stop visitingpeople's homes. He opened his own shop and the villagers had to go thereto get themselves shaved.

18. Plot Construction 1. Exposition - ? 2. Rising Action- ? 3. Climax- ? 4. Falling Action- ? 5. Denouement/ Solution - ?

19. Plot Construction 1. Exposition - Information about major characters, protagonist, hint about the story, setting 2. Rising Action- Chandu gets the clothes like Dr. Kalan Khan 3. Climax- Chandu is insulted by Sahukar and decides to go on strike 4. Falling Action- the villagers are unshaved and faced troubles due to the strike 5. Denouement/ Solution - Chandu rejects to withdraw the strike. Buyies a cycle and successfully opens an own shop at town

20. Conflict A) Internal - ? or B) External - ? & Between Whom.......?

21. Conflict A) Internal - in the mind of Chandu. He wanted to take revenge of his insult against the villagers and specially the Sahukar or B) External - No external conflict in the story & Between Whom....... Internal conflict is between Chandu and the villagers