Sankalp Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (SJMS), Volume : 1      Issue: 1, September- October 2021, Pp. 28-34

 

 

BAKHA AND MUNOO: THE STRONG VOICES OF MARGINALISED CHARACTERS

Dr. Subodh Kumar Jha

 

Associate Professor & Head,

Department of English,

S.N. Sinha College, Jehanabad (M.U.)

 

Abstract— Social realism has been the major preoccupation of Mulk Raj Anand in his well-known novels Untouchable and Coolie. The very selection of the protagonists in these two novels from the marginalized class is important and even more important is the treatment that they receive by the novelist. They very successfully bring out to the fore that their suffering is not caused by fate but by fellow human beings and the social surroundings from which the sufferers still have great and immortal hopes for the betterment of life. One can very well term these two novels - Untouchable and Coolie – as the sagas of the suffering of the protagonists - Bakha and Munoo. Mulk Raj Anand traces the roots of social injustice and moral degradation to the disruption based on co-operation and brotherhood and the growth of inequality and tyranny based on caste and class scruples. We have in the novel first-hand encounters with exploitation, child labour, social governance, social setup of society, customs, religious beliefs, prejudices, and the theme of the miserable masses.  What distinguishes Bakha and Munoo from other members of the marginalized class is that they make constant though painful journeys in life with the hope of betterment through at last both are rushed under heavy burdens of life and get disintegrated into ashes. But before their death, they have to undergo several ‘deaths’. Mulk Raj Anand deftly handles the marginalized characters in his novels to raise social issues.

Keywords— marginalized caste and class, marginalized characters, social injustice, social realism.