Unit 6
Coolie
Professor Academy UG TRB
English
Mulk Raj Anand
✓ Prominent Indian
Writer
✓ One of the Pioneers of
Indo – Anglican
Fiction
Biography
✓ Period : 12th Dec1905 to 28th Sept 2004
✓ Born @ Peshawar, [now in Pakistan]
died @ Pune
✓ Family tradition: Hindu Khatri family
✓ Genre: novels, short stories, critical essays
✓ Education: Khalsa College, Amritsar
University College London
Cambridge University - PhD
in Philosophy-dissertation
on Bertrand Russell
Influence of Bloomsbury
✓The Bloomsbury Group was a group of
associated British writers, intellectuals,
philosophers and artists in the early 20th
century.
✓Among the people involved in the group
were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard
Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell,
and Lytton Strachey
✓Conversations in Bloomsbury (1981).
Progressive Writers’ Association
✓Anand was one of the founding members of the
Progressive Writers’ Association, established
in London in 1935.
✓ organisation aimed to address social issues
through literature and advocate for social justice
and equality in pre-independence India.
✓Ahmed Ali, Premchand, Ismat Chughtai, Faiz
Ahmed Faiz, and Saadat Hasan Manto.
Awards and Honours
✓Padma Bhushan (1967)
✓Sahitya Akademi Award (1971 for The Morning Face)
✓International Peace Prize: Awarded by the World Peace Council for
promoting peace and humanism (1953).
✓Sahitya Akademi Fellowship: 1989.
✓Order of the British Empire (OBE): Received from the British
government for his literary contributions.
Admirations
✓Charles Dickens of India
✓Alistair Niven highlight that Anand's life and art are
inseparable – Humanist Realism
✓Prof. Nagarajan: Commented that Anand sees "life in the
raw and exposes it mercilessly,"
Coolie- Critical Comment
Praised by Ronald Dewsbury as a "realistic depiction of India" that
explores the "inhumanity of man to man".
Critic Peter Burra described its protagonist, Munoo, as a "universal
figure" representing the passion of all mankind.
Notable Works
✓Untouchable (1935)
✓Coolie (1936)
✓Two Leaves and a Bud (1937)
✓The Big Heart (1945)
✓The Private Life of an Indian Prince (1953) – Semi-Autobiographical
✓ The Old Woman and the Cow (1960): Later published
as Gauri (1976)
✓The Road (1961)
The “Lalu” Trilogy
Trilogy follows the life of a Sikh peasant youth named Lal Singh
✓The Village (1939) - Depicts rural Punjabi life and the stifling nature
of social rigidity.
✓Across the Black Waters (1940)- Follows the protagonist to the
trenches of France during WW I.
✓The Sword and the Sickle (1942) - Documents the protagonist’s
return to India and his involvement in the independence movement
The Seven Ages of Man (Semi-
Autobiographical Series)
✓planned a seven-volume series based on the stages of life, though only
four were completed
✓Seven Summers (1951): Focuses on childhood experiences under the
British Raj.
✓Morning Face (1968): Covers adolescence; it won the Sahitya
Akademi Award in 1971.
✓Confession of a Lover (1976): Follows the protagonist’s
undergraduate years in Amritsar.
✓The Bubble (1984): Depicts his life and doctoral studies in England
Short Story Collections
✓The Lost Child and Other Stories(1934)
✓The Barber’s Trade Union and Other Stories (1944)
✓The Tractor and the Corn Goddess and Other Stories(1947)
✓Reflections on the Golden Bed and Other Stories(1953)
✓The Power of Darkness and Other Stories (1959)
✓Lajwanti and Other Stories (1966)
✓Between Tears and Laughter(1973)
Themes
✓Caste Discrimination
✓Class Conflict and Economic Exploitation
✓Humanism and Empathy
✓Tradition vs Modernity
✓The Position of Women
✓Colonialism and Western Encounter
✓Poverty and Human Suffering
Anand’s Journal
✓Mulk Raj Anand founded the influential Indian art and
culture journal MARG (meaning 'Pathway') in 1946
✓founding editor to document and promote India's artistic
heritage during the nation's transition to independence,
✓ funded initially by J.R.D. Tata.
✓MARG became a vital platform for art, architecture, and
cultural discourse, evolving into a respected publisher of
art books and a foundation dedicated to South Asian arts.
Coolie
✓Second Novel published @ (1936)
✓examined the problems of poverty in Indian
society
✓The book is highly critical of British rule in
India and India’s caste system
✓ Social Realism in Picaresque and Episodic
Structure
✓5 Parts Journey
5 Part Journey
✓The narrative moves through five distinct phases:
✓ The hills of Kangra
✓ The town of Sham Nagar
✓The business center of Daulatpur
✓ The metropolis of Bombay
✓The hill station of Simla
Characters
➢Munoo: A 14-year-old orphan from the Kangra Hills
➢Daya Ram: Munoo’s uncle
➢Babu Nathoo Ram: A sub-accountant at the Imperial Bank and
Munoo’s first master
➢Bibi Uttam Kaur: Nathoo Ram’s wife
➢Prem Chand: Nathoo Ram’s brother, a kind-hearted doctor
Characters
➢Prabha Dyal: The owner of a pickle factory
➢Ganpat: Prabha’s business partner and the novel's primary antagonist
in this phase.
➢Ratan: A wrestler and factory worker
➢Hari: An old mill worker
➢Jimmie Thomas (Chimta Sahib): The bullying, corrupt British
foreman
➢Mrs. May Mainwaring: An Anglo-Indian woman
➢Mohan: A fellow rickshaw-puller
Part 1
✓Munno was called by Gujri –( W/o Daya Ram)
✓Wears a Scarlet saree
✓Jay Singh- Son of Village Landlord
✓Bishan and Bishambar – Friends of Munno
✓Jay Singh- lazy fellow- receives 2 annas as pocket money
✓ munno’s five acres land was seized by village landlord
✓Munno dreamt of the stories heard about the town life
✓He wished to go and work with machines-studied in 4th standard –
Science Primer
Part I
Ripe yellow man¬ goes dropped by d
ozens in the spring and could easily be hidd
en in the grass and the hay. Purple and red
jamans and long green mulberries fell in sic
kly profusion during the summer and could
be stored on broad banana leaves. In the wi
nter the stick-likc sugar-cane aroused no su
spicion in the gardener, who drowsed lazily
in his siest
Part II
Daya Ram, the chaprasi of the Imperial Bank of India, as he strode
with big military strides, in his gold-brocaded, red coat and neatly
tied white turban, along the circuitous hill road constructed by
the Angrezi Sarlcar.
Part II
✓ten-mile march – Feet Hurts
✓Munno wears thick cotton tunic which had originally belonged to his
uncle and looked like a cloak about him.- Dark Brown Eyes
✓Munno asks for a vehicle ride
open-mouthed at the marvels of different carnages, two-wheeled,
box-like bamboo carts and tongas, four-wheeled phaetons and landaus,
and huge, rubber¬ wheeled, black-bodied phat-phaties
What is that animal?’ – Rail Engine
Part II
✓Munno’s inquiry about animals, Vegetation, and lifestyle
✓Disturbed by Ices, cool ices,’
✓ interested in the weird tin wail of a song which issued from a box
on which a black disc revolved. Tie smiled as the voice in the box
trailed along.
Part II
Distracted by a steel horse and beaten by Daya Ram rescued by Toy
Seller
entered the high-pillared hall of the Imperial Bank. Salaam, salaa
m, you are late. The Babu Sahib is angry because there was no one to g
o and fetch his food at mid-day,’ said Fir Din, coughing asthmatically, a
nd smoothing his fiery, henna- dyed beard over the gold-braided red coa
t which he, too, wore
Part II
But the bags of money are to go to the cantonment, and it is the English-
mail day, and the Lallas are coming in fast for their
business. So you had better be quick.’’
The boy followed his uncle into a large cool room, past brass bars arou
nd which men crowded, eager-eyed and eager-eared, to see and hear the
jingling of bright silver rupees and the rustling of clean currency notes.
They entered another room. Beneath a swiftly moving pair of wings, sus
pended by an iron rod from the centre of the ceiling, before a huge table,
on a chair much too big for him, sat a little man with an irregular, sallo
w face, quite vague except for a flat nose, the white spots on his cheeks,
and a thin, drooping black moustache, of which each hair seemed to sta
nd out distinct
Part II
• ‘Say “I bow injr forehead before you” or "long live the gods” to Babuj
i,’ whispered Daya Ram audibly to Munoo.
admiring his clothes: the high, hard, white collar which he wore;
the enormous turban wound round a pyramidal Kulah of red velvet
embroidered with gold thread; the khaki coat with big pockets
like money-bags; the wide cotton pyjamas; and the boots, the
boots, the blade boots.
Part II
• one-storeyed square house approached by a verandah
Western blackboard announced in white English letters to
Eastern civilization the glory of ‘Babu Nathoo Ram, Sub-Accountant
Imperial Bank, Sham Nagar.
Part II
a man with a big red face, shadowed by queer,
khaki, basket-like headdress, a collar like the o
ne the Babu had worn round his thick scarlet
neck, a beautiful jacket which washowever,
somewhat ridiculous, as it neither covered Iris
big round paunch nor the heavy buttocks which
were shamelessly exposed by the stretch of his
khaki breeches
Part II
✓‘Will you go and tell Babuji to buy the vegetables when he leaves the o
ffice and send them by the boy?’ came the voice of his mistress suddenl
y to Munoo’s ears.
✓Munno compares village vs Town
✓3rupees a month salary of Munno
✓Made to sleep @corner of the kitchen of Babu Nathoo Ram’s house
✓Disturbed by swam of flies and the loud snore of babuji
✓ after vegetable purchase – gave loaf of stale pancake to eat
Part II
✓There were plates of burnished brass with black-bottomed, bronze sau
cepans and tumblers of aluminium mixed with children's toys, and glas
s bottles, big and small, bottles of medicine like the labelled bottles wi
nch Munoo had seen in the shop of the Doctor of his village
✓Prem –chota babu
✓Rake out the ashes in the fireplace, and scrub last night’s soiled utensi
ls. You went to sleep, you dead one, so early last night that you didn’t e
ven do that! And light the fire. Then put the water on to boil in the sau
cepan for tea for Babuji. I will get up in a little while.'
Part II
✓Lila – Younger child
✓Sheila – Elder child went to fair yesterday with her uncle- ten, with
golden hair, an ivory complexion and light brown eyes
✓Lavatory problem
Sheila,’ said Prem Chand- loudly do you remember that poem about tea
which you read on the posters of the Imperial Tea Company at the
railway station?’
“Hot tea cools your heart in the heat of summer,” you mean, uncle?’
said Sheila
Part II
✓Prem had picked up the child and, bringing her and Sheila to the
sitting-room amuse them by playing the gramophone.
✓Burnt bread toast - Babu Beli Ram’s mother funeral that afternoon.
✓Met two boys outside - I work in the house of Babu Gopal Das,’ said
the tall boy. ‘He is bigger than your Babu. And the Babus of these two
work in the court. We all come from Hoshiarpur
✓\“Look, Uncle! Look!’ laughed Sheila, ‘he is dancing like a
monkey.’ ‘Shabash! Shabash!’ said the chota Babu, joiningin the sport
in the rdle of the juggler.
Part II
✓‘Your place is here in the kitchen! You must not enter the sports of
the chota Babu and the children.
✓Servant’s lavatory – Cleanliness
✓Serving of the tea in china – “How shall I carry them?’ he asked.
✓pouring first milk from the long jug, then tea from the fat pot with the
beak like a pig’s nose, adding sugar in the cups that lay before him.
✓Babu Ram Lall visits the house
✓Shaving
Part II
✓A young girl with a fine wheat-coloured face, framed modestly but
prettily in a pink muslin head-cloth – Kausalya
✓Restricted to the cash box
✓Went to clean bed rooms- ‘What is written in that book, I wonder?’ he
asked himself. ‘How does the big clock work?’ ‘The voice in the box: I
wonder how it arises?
✓You are their servant,' said Daya Ram. ‘You must not mind what they s
ay. ‘You must grow up and work. You have had too easy a life at home.
Part II
✓On his return Bibiji gave him two chapatis and a spoonful of lentils
and vegetables. He had to eat it on hand without utensils
✓Bibiji went out
✓Choto babu come with some friends, brought rasagula,jamun and
English sweets –gave some portion
✓Tired of Household errands
✓memory of the relish of the syrup
✓HIERARCHY – WHO I AM?
Part II
The biological expedient, however, which made him want to
live, was forcing the multi-coloured cells in his body to reach out
instinctively to the space about him, even for a breath of the foul
air in his master’s dingy little kitchen, and for a crust of bread.
What constituted their superiority, he did not know. They all
wore nice clothes, had nice things.
Part II
✓ he promised himself again that he would be a good servant, a perfect
model of a servant.
✓Mr. W. P. England came to tea with Babu Nathoo Ram and family one
afternoon.
✓Mr. England was the chief cashier of the Sham Nagar branch
He was a tall Englishman with an awkward, shuffling gait accent
uated by the wooden, angular shape of his feet marching always hesitan
tly at an angle of forty-five degrees, and with a small, lined, expressionl
ess face, only defined by the thick glasses on his narrow, myopic eyes. H
e had a rather good-natured smile on his thin lips, and it was that which
had led to the tea-party.
Part II
✓Robert Horne, Esq., Manager of the Imperial Bank of India
✓application for an increase in salary and promotion to the position of t
he Accountant.
✓abu Afzul-ul-Haq occupied it for the last twenty years.
✓Starting a conversation- talk about weather suggest barrister friend
✓He had forty thousand rupees’ worth of shares in the Allahabad Bank
and was surely a trusted ally of the Government
✓The Khansamah at the Club cooks curry sometimes – Conversation
✓ develops
Part II
Mr. England walked up, stupidly dressed for the occasion
in a warm navy-blue suit, with Nathoo Ram on one side and
Prem Chand, the Babu’s doctor brother, on the other, and with
Daya Ram, the chaprasi, in full regalia following behind, he felt
hot and bothered.
Part II
✓Father’s home in Brixton, a semi-detached
house on the Hay Mill estate, which they had furnished on the
hire-purchase systern'with the help of Mr. Drage and where he
had occupied the maid’s room when he was a clerk in the Midland
Bank, before he came here and suddenly became a chief cashier
✓ Abdul Kerim, the Hindoo,’ in that Hollywood film called The Swa
mi’s Curse, with fountains in the hall, around which danced the variou
s wives of the Babu in clinging draperies and glittering ornaments?
Part II
✓He felt as tall as Nelson’s column
✓[Link] asked suggestion about his course in England
✓England had never been to a university and knew nothing about ‘cour
ses of study’, except those of Pitman’s typewriting and shorthand scho
ol in Southampton Row, which he had attended for a season before goi
ng to the Midland Bank.
Family photograph - Nathoo Ram, with rings in his ears, garland
round his neck and white English-Indian clothes, as he stood stiffly
caressing the arm of his bride’s chair with the left hand and showing a
European watch to the world with the right
Part II
✓This is my wife, Sir,’ said Nathoo Ram, pointing to a form loaded with
clothes and jewellery
✓Ain—ain—wain—ain—ain—ai—an,- This is our Indian music, Sir,’ s
aid Nathoo Ram proudly; 'a ghazal, sung by Miss Janld Bai of Allahab
ad.
✓England loves to hear -A that ears were used at the best to the
exotic zigzag of Charleston or Rumba or his native tunes ‘Love
Is Like a Cigarette,’ 'Rosemarie, I Love You’ and 'I want to be
Happy, but I can’t be Happy till I make You Happy too.’
Part II
✓Mr. England avoids food and asks for tea
✓Munno breaks the tea pot
✓Our servant, Munoo, Mr. England, knows that a Japanese tea-set only
costs one rupee twelve annas. So he does not care how many cups and
saucers he breaks.’
✓Munno was scolded abusively and beaten
✓Week off – decided to meet uncle Daya Ram
✓Hate turnip curry and want to eat rice and dal
Part II
✓Scolds and beating from uncle
✓Varma, the Brahmin servant of the Sub-judge
✓Lehnu, another servant of the neighbourhood about as old as himself a
nd a thin- lipped, sharp-nosed Brahmin, who had come down in life
like his friend.
✓Munno was teased by these servant boys – steals money from the mist
ress and eats sweets from shop of Bhagu
✓Quarrel between the three and munno was attacked and left
bloodshed
Part II
✓Treatment by Dr. Prem
✓Fever and become sick
✓Recollects his friends in village and old Gangu, the seventy- year-old
✓grandfather of Iris school friend, little Bishan
✓'I am a Kshatriya and I am poor, and Vaima, a Brahmin, is a servant
boy, a menial, because he is poor. No, caste does not matter.
✓Rich and Poor
Part II
✓Bites Sheila`s cheek
✓Brutally abused - 'Oh Babuji, forgive me, forgive, forgive, please!’ he s
creamed and squirmed, grovelling on the ground.
✓He dragged his body to safety, deeper into the space under the bunk, a
nd rested his face on the floor to soothe the white fumes of heat.
✓He did not know where the train was going, but he was thankful to be
in the moving thing.
Question 1
Who is the "Chota Babu" (younger master) in the house who treats
Munoo with kindness?
A. Nathoo Ram
B. Prem Chand
C. Ganpat
D. Ratan
Question 1
Who is the "Chota Babu" (younger master) in the house who treats
Munoo with kindness?
A. Nathoo Ram
B. Prem Chand
C. Ganpat
D. Ratan
Question 2
What does Munoo see in the house that fascinates him?
A. A television
B. A gramophone
C. A car
D. A telephone
Question 2
What does Munoo see in the house that fascinates him?
A. A television
B. A gramophone
C. A car
D. A telephone
Question 3
What does Munoo do when he first sees the gramophone?
A. He plays it
B. He breaks it
C. He dances on all fours like a monkey
D. He hides in fear
Question 3
What does Munoo do when he first sees the gramophone?
A. He plays it
B. He breaks it
C. He dances on all fours like a monkey
D. He hides in fear
Question 4
Which two servants beat up Munoo?
A. Ganpat and Prem
B. Varma and Lenu
C. Hari and Ratan
D. Maharaja and Bonga
Question 4
Which two servants beat up Munoo?
A. Ganpat and Prem
B. Varma and Lenu
C. Hari and Ratan
D. Maharaja and Bonga
Question 5
Why does Munoo bite Sheila?
A. She steals his food
B. She mocks his caste
C. She pulls his ear persistently
D. She pushes him
Question 5
Why does Munoo bite Sheila?
A. She steals his food
B. She mocks his caste
C. She pulls his ear persistently
D. She pushes him
Question 6
"A whipped dog hides in a corner; a whipped human seeks escape".
Who is this quote referring to?
A. Daya Ram
B. Munoo
C. Ratan
D. Prabha
Question 6
"A whipped dog hides in a corner; a whipped human seeks escape".
Who is this quote referring to?
A. Daya Ram
B. Munoo
C. Ratan
D. Prabha
Question 7
Which character is a "caricature of a middle-class Anglophile"?
A. Prem Chand
B. Daya Ram
C. Babu Nathoo Ram
D. Mr. England
Question 7
Which character is a "caricature of a middle-class Anglophile"?
A. Prem Chand
B. Daya Ram
C. Babu Nathoo Ram
D. Mr. England
Question 8
For which work did Mulk Raj Anand win the Sahitya Akademi
Award in 1971?
A) Untouchable
B) Morning Face
C) The Private Life of an Indian Prince
D) Seven Summers
Question 8
For which work did Mulk Raj Anand win the Sahitya Akademi
Award in 1971?
A) Untouchable
B) Morning Face
C) The Private Life of an Indian Prince
D) Seven Summers
Question 9
Match the family members with their relationship to Munoo:
Gujri — A. Munoo's deceased father
Kangra Peasant — B. Munoo's deceased mother
Hard-working woman — C. Munoo's aunt
Daya Ram — D. Munoo's uncle
Options:
A) 1-C, 2-A, 3-B, 4-D
B) 1-D, 2-B, 3-A, 4-C
C) 1-B, 2-A, 3-C, 4-D
D) 1-C, 2-D, 3-B, 4-A
Question 9
Match the family members with their relationship to Munoo:
Gujri — A. Munoo's deceased father
Kangra Peasant — B. Munoo's deceased mother
Hard-working woman — C. Munoo's aunt
Daya Ram — D. Munoo's uncle
Options:
A) 1-C, 2-A, 3-B, 4-D
B) 1-D, 2-B, 3-A, 4-C
C) 1-B, 2-A, 3-C, 4-D
D) 1-C, 2-D, 3-B, 4-A
Places
✓Gopipur (Kangra Valley): Munoo’s beautiful but poor native village,
near the Beas River, representing his lost innocence.
✓Sham Nagar: A town at the foothills where Munoo first experiences
servitude under Babu Nathoo Ram, encountering household
exploitation.