Representation of the opressed in Mulk Raj Anand’s Novels: A subaltern study

1. Representation of the opressed in Mulk Raj Anand’s Novels: A subaltern study Presentation by : Abhishek Arora Reg No. 41600037 Submitted to; Dr. Sanjay

2. Definition :The etymological meaning of subaltern is below the rank. • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak explains subaltern’s emotion in reality in her most famous essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak? (1985)” that the subaltern cannot speak until their conditions may not be historically improved. • In literature, subaltern is a non-western and post-colonial concept which is generally used for downtrodden belonging to the lower caste and class, weak sex and economically poor groups in the rigid social strata of the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, known as Third World Nations.

3. History of Subaltern in India • The historical background of Indian society unfolds that subaltern issues are inseparable part of this society since categorization and marginalization is found severely here.The history of subaltern starts in India with the invasion of Aryans. Aryans conquered most of the part of Northern India and enslaved the inhabitants of these parts of India. Aryans used out-caste or the subaltern for these enslaved people and driven out those people to the Southern parts of India. Due to the domination and superiority of Aryans, this subaltern class was compelled to do menial jobs like cleaning human excrements, sweeping roads etc. Aryans, for making their powerful impact, enforced racial, physical and spiritual exclusiveness on their society.

4. Subaltern Literature in India The period of pre-Independence was the period of frustration and social evils. In this period at one hand Britishers enslaved India and exploited the Indians and at the other hand the Hindu caste system and the plight of out-caste people and subalterns were alarming. During this period a few Indian novelists wrote about Indian conditions. Some prominent novelists like Bankim Chandra famous for his romances in the imagination of Scott, Rabindranath Tagore wrote about upper- class gentry of Bengal, Sarat Chandra for middle-class life and Munshi Premchand presented the condition of Indian peasants and humble workers.But Mulk Raj Anand is known as the champion of subalterns or out-castes.

5. Literature : A mirror • Literature always sketches the vulnerability and struggle of subjugated human beings. Like literatures from different locations of the world, Indian English writers have marked those issues with special attention in their works.

6. Mulk Raj Anand: The represenattion of Subaltern In his Novel “ Untoucahble” • Mulk Raj Anand is one of the founding fathers of Indo-Anglian literature. His Untouchable (1935) is the result of his keen sympathy with subaltern and downtrodden people. • Bakha: The protagonoist of Untoucahble is a socially outcast scavenger boy. • Hindus do not touch him: they get polluted

7. Miseries of Subaltern • Bakha’s miseries and pains are not the consequence of his fault but of his birth in the subaltern class. • he realises his subalternity when a betel-leaves-seller flung ‘Red-Lamp’ cigarettes at him “as a butcher might throw a bone to an insistent dog sniffing round the corner of his shop” (p. 34), a confectioner threw a packet of jalebis at him like “a cricket ball” (p. 37) and a high-caste housewife tossed chapattis at him as if thrown at a dog.

8. Subaltern study of Untouchable • The subaltern study of Untouchable highlights the role of caste in an Indian Hindu society. • The subaltern study of Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable illustrates the unworthiness of caste system in Hindu society because it divides society into numerous sections.

9. Subaltern can’t speak on their own The representation of the subalterns is always a controversial issue for its authenticity. The subalterns are represented by the other’s voices, specially by the writers and the historians. Though a perspective is automatically imposed to represent the subalterns before the reader, there is a chance of being biased and corrupted. Every time, the writer portrays the subaltern reality according to his/her background and viewpoint. Most of the time, other perspectives are overlooked

10. Subaltern and mirror image concept of LACAN • Bakha’s desire to be an English man is going straight to the position and power of the English colonizers who are superior, compared to Representation of Untouchables/Subalterns in Indian English Novels . This unconscious desire to elevate his position and power confronts the two dominating forces. The desire of a lower class colonized Indian like Bakha can be compared to the concept of ‘the mirror image’ by the Indian postcolonial critic, Homi Bhabha in his book The Location of Culture (1994):

11. Mimicry by the colonized: Homi Bhabha • Here, the colonized individual always wants to conquer and possess the power and position of the colonizer. The desire is for the other’s position and power. The irony of the reality is that the colonized can never be able to achieve that. We see it in Bakha at the initial stage when he is trying to imitate the English.

12. Mimicry is No solution • Although the desire to be superior by imitation is seen in Bakha, it is also shown how his desires are destroyed gradually while he faces the unbreakable societal structure and ideology. His identity remains the same and continuously announces his identity by uttering—“Posh keep away, posh, sweeper coming, posh, posh, sweeper coming posh, posh, sweeper coming

13. Final comments • the struggle of the subalterns cannot end so easily. • The writers, specially Indian English writers utilizing the medium of literature, are continuously trying to give voice to the poor and lower class people for altering the subalterns’ status. This attempt may be evaluated as insignificant, but the representation of the subalterns has created a resonance to shake the foundation of the societal stereo-typed ideology causing the people to rethink the whole problem of the subalterns, so that all classes of humanity might be guaranteed respect, sympathy, and fundamental rights.

14. References • Works Cited Anand, Raj, Mulk (2001). Untouchable. Penguin Books India: New Delhi. • Bhabha, K, Homi (1994). The Location of Culture. Routledge: London. Islam, Manzoorul, Syed (2002). • ‘The Culture of Subalternity and the New Historiography of Colonial India’, Politics and Culture: Essays in Honour of Serajul Islam Choudury. Ed. Fakrul Alam & Firdous Azim. Department of English, University of Dhaka: Dhaka. • Spivak, Chakravorty, Gayatri (1995). ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?,’ The Postcolonial Studies Reader. Ed: Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. Rourtledge: London.

15. Thank You Contact: Abhishek Arora email:abhishekfzr@yahoo.co.in • Cell: 98141-48946