Biography of mulk raj anand.

Biography of mulk raj anand.

1. The Two Lady Rams By Mulk Raj Anand Biography Of Mulk Raj Anand Sr Chandrodaya J St Xavier’s College, Mahuadanr Nilamber -Pitamber University Latehar, Jharkhand.

2. Mulk Raj Anand was born on Dec 12 th in 1905 in Peshawar in present-day Pakistan, to Lal Chand – a coppersmith and soldier and Ishwar Kaur. He went to Khalsa College, Amritsar, and then to the University of Punjab from where he graduated in 1924. While at the college, he became involved in the Non Co-operation Movement in 1921 and was imprisoned for a short while.

3. Thereafter he went to University College, London on a scholarship before enrolling at the Cambridge University. He earned his PhD in 1929. In England, he actively became involved in left wing politics. From an early age, Mulk Raj was pained by the problems of Indian society that stemmed from the issues of religion and caste .

4. Family tragedy sparked Anand’s career as a writer. One of his aunts committed suicide after being excommunicated by her family for sharing a meal with a Muslim woman. This violent, explicit, and personal consequence of Indian’s uncompromising caste system led Anand to write his first prose essay and his main novel,  Untouchable . While in university he became friends with members of the Bloomsbury Group (also known as the Bloomsbury Set), a loose collective of influential English writers, intellectuals, and philosophers. Among their members was the English realist novelist E. M. Forster, who became a close friend of Anand .

5. During the 1930s and 1940s he bounced between India and England penning propaganda on the behalf of India’s independence movement. Simultaneously he supported movements for freedom around the world, most notably the Spanish Civil War. He joined the International Brigade (team) in the Spanish civil war in 1937 .

6. As a socialist, he wrote numerous articles and essays on Marxism, Fascism, Indian independence and other political issues. During World War II he worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC in London, became friends with George Orwell . He met actress Kathleen van Gelder in London and they married in 1938 and had a daughter. The marriage however unravelled (undone) and the couple divorced in 1948. In 1950, he married Shirin Vajibdar , a classical dancer He died of pneumonia in Pune, India in 2004 at the age of 98 .

7. Literary works and Achievements of Mulk Raj Anand : Mulk Raj Anand was one of the first and prominent Indian authors of novels, short stories, and critical essays in English, who is known for his realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the poor in India. He is considered a founder of the English-language Indian novel. He is considered as a founder of the English-Language Indian Novel. He was considered a pioneer of the Anglo Indian Fiction .

8. A prolific (creative) writer, Anand first gained wide recognition for his novels Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936) these both novels portrayed the problems of poverty in Indian society . ‘Two Leaves and a Bud’ -1937: His heart cutting novel which dealt with the way the lower caste people are exploited in India. It was the story of a poor peasant who is brutally killed by a British officer who tries to rape his daughter .

9. In 1939 he wrote ‘The Village’, which was the first part of the trilogy that would include the novels ‘ Across the Black Waters’ (1940) and ‘ The Sword and the Sickle’ (1942). The trilogy was about was about a rebellious adolescent and his experiences in the World War - I. The Big Heart  (1945; rev. ed. 1980).

10. He also intermittently (occasionally) worked on a projected seven-volume autobiographical novel entitled  Seven Ages of Man , completing four volumes:  Seven Summers  (1951),  Morning Face  (1968),  Confession of a Lover  (1976), and  The Bubble  (1984).

11. Anand wrote other novels and short story collections and also edited numerous magazines and journals. He wrote a series of diverse books on aspects of South Asian culture, including Persian Painting (1930), Curries and Other Indian Dishes (1932), The Hindu View of Art (1933), The Indian Theatre (1950), and Seven Little-Known Birds of the Inner Eye (1978).

12. Anand worked as a broadcaster and scriptwriter in the film division of the BBC in London during the World War II. After the end of the Second World War he returned to India. From a village in Western India he continued to craft a range of literature on a plethora of topics, including poetry, autobiographies, essays, and novels.  The Private Life of an Indian Prince ,  one of his most celebrated works, was penned during this time.

13. He founded the fine-arts magazine, ‘Marg’ in 1946. He spent the next several years from 1948 to 1966 teaching at various universities. During the 1960s he served as Tagore Professor of Literature and Fine Art at the University of Punjab. He served as the fine art chairman at Lalit Kala Akademi from 1965 to 1970. He also became the president of Lokayata Trust in 1970.

14. Awards: Untouchable  earned Anand the moniker (name) “India’s Charles Dickens.” Mulk Raj Anand received the International Peace Prize from World Peace Council. He was honored with the Padma Bhushan , India’s third highest civilian award in 1967 for his vast contributions towards the field of Literature & Education.

15. He won the Sahitya Academy Award for his novel ‘The Morning Face’ (1968). Leverhulme Fellowship are some of the awards and accolades (honours) during his long literary career. Today Mulk Raj Anand is remembered for his seventy-five-years-long literary career that mirrors the trajectory of India’s search for a just, equitable, and progressive society.