Post colonial analysis : Coolie by Mulk Raj anand

The above paper is an analysis of the post colonial elemnts in Mulk Raj Anand's well renowned novel, Coolie.

1. Assignment 3: POST-COLONIAL LITERATURES

A POST-COLONIAL ANALYSIS OF COOLIE,BY MULK RAJ ANAND

Submitted by: Malavika G Nair
Coolie,by Mulk Raj Anand, is the perfect example of the Other Rights/Writes History.The
pre-independence India is seen through the curious eyes of a young boy called Munoo
who becomes a coolie to earn a living,and as the story unravels it brings out multiple
post-colonial themes like racism,mimic men,psychological dependence of the colonized
and loss of culture.
Plot Summary & Characterization:
The novel opens when Munoo is only fourteen years of age,living is the idyllic natural
surroundings of his native village in the Kangra Hills in Bilaspur.He is a happy,an
optimistic person,and remains so throughout the story.Even though he is ill-treated and
abused by his Uncle Daya Ram and Aunt Gujri,and bullied by his playmate Jay Singh,he
is content with his life at Kangra.But,this rural community also suffers from capitalism
and Munoo and his family are victimized as well.He had seen his father being
economically exploited and his mother dying from sorrow and rigorous work,yet his
happiest days are in his native village where he belonged,and throughout the story he
would think about the hills with a sense of loss.But,his Uncle and Aunt forces him to go
with his uncle to town to find a job,as he is too old for them to support.So,his schooling is
stopped and he leaves the village.The attachment he feels to the hills is reflected when the
author says that Munoo ‘would rather have had all the machines come here than tear
himself away from the back waters were he played.
Munoo leaves the village and comes to the city with his uncle.He is fascinated by the
world of ‘the Lallas,the Babus and the Sahibs from beyond the black waters’.He watches
every new sight with curiosity.He is employed as a servant for Babu Nathoo Ram,Sub-
accountant,Imperial Bank of Sham Nagar.He is a typical representation of the middle-
class Indian population working for the ‘Angrezi Sarkaar’ who considered rest of the
penurious Indians as scum and the Whites as the high and mighty.The beauty and purity
of his innocence is stripped down as he is abused by his mistress Bibi Uttam Kaur,wife of
Nathoo Ram who humiliates him and abuses him from dawn to dusk.The only person
Munoo admires is the younger brother of Nathoo Ram,Prem Chand who is a doctor ,who
is somewhat kind to Munoo.Once,when the chief cashier of Nathoo Ram’s bank
Mr.England visits,a huge fuss is made as it is considered as an honor to have an
Englishman visit the house.When Prem Chand tells him about his aspiration to pursue his
higher studies in Britain,Mr.England ‘brightens at the suggestion of ‘home’ as all
Englishmen in India learn to do’.However,when Prem Chand asks his advice on what

2. courses to pursue he blushes as’though he had to pose as a big top to these natives,he had
no home to speak of’,nor has he attended any university.Munoo continues to work at
Babu’s house for the three rupees which is Uncle takes,and his high spirits continue to
soar till one unfortunate day he accidentally bites the cheek of Babu’s daughter Sheila in
play as he was doing his ‘monkey-dance’.He is beaten and abused by Nathoo Ram and
unable to tolerate anymore he runs away and gets into a train.
Munoo is taken in by Prabha who runs a pickle factory with his partner Ganpat in
Daulatpur.Being a coolie all his life,he takes Munoo in and both Prabha and his wife are
really kind to him.Munoo is happy with his life in Daulatpur as everyone except Ganpat
was kind to him.Though Sir Todar Mal,a Public Prosecutor who lived next to the factory
complains to the Health Department because the smoke from the factory was damaging
his walls,Prabha manages to appease him and his pestering wife by his humility, and
occasional offerings of free pickle and jam. But one day,Ganpat cheats Prabha who was
straight-forward man and he goes bankrupt.He is publicly humiliated and beaten up by
the police for delaying his debt.They say he should not have tried to be a big Seth for he
‘was just a coolie’.Prabha falls ill after the incident and he leaves for his village,and thus
Munoo is alone again.
He becomes friendly with an elephant driver in a circus who smuggles him in their train
to reach ‘Bombay’,which was ‘ truly a wonder city one should visit before one died’ and
factory work could earn fifteen to thirty rupees.But all his fantasies crashed,because once
in Bombay he realized that ‘here also the coolies slept on the streets’.He gets employed
in Sir George White Cotton Mill along with another coolie Hari whom he met along the
way.The factory workers are exploited by capitalism by long working hours and meager
pay.Most of them are willing to do anything’ and suffer as much so long as they can have
some pay.But however not everyone are subservient like Hari.Ratan, another factory
worker and a wrestler becomes Munoo’s role model.Ratan is a part of the Worker’s Union
and he is not afraid to stand up to the bullying by foreman of the company Jimmie
Thomas.But later,the factory shuts down due to lack of work and while all the workers
attend a meeting by the Trade Union,a communal riot breaks out and Munoo gets lost in
Bombay.
He is knocked over by Mrs.Mainwaring’s car,and she takes him in as a servant and takes
him with her to Simla.Mrs.Mainwaring is partially of English descendence who yearns to
be accepted into the English mistake.Her hybrid identity had alienated her from other
‘pukka’ whites,so she goes to England by marrying a young English soldier.She is kind to
Munoo,and goes as far as to manicure his hands,call Major Mechant,a doctor when he
gets a fever.Munoo serves as her personal assistant as well as a coolie for her rickshaw
but however he feels superior as he is merasahib’s personal servant as well.Major
Mechant is another example of ‘mimic men’.Being born into the cobbler society,he has
come a long way being educated in England and has cut off all his ties to his
caste,embracing the British values and culture,and marrying an English woman.Munoo is
happy with his life,however the life-sucking capitalism and slavery had taken its toll on
him. He contracts consumption and he dies in a quarantine shed at the mere age of
fifteen.

3. Post-colonial themes:
Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie is unique in the sense that it tells the story of the most under-
privileged and exploited section of the society,who have no voice for themselves.It brings
out the ugly truth that the world of happiness belongs only to the rich while the poor
suffer wherever they are,be it Kangra Hills,Bombay or Simla.
Colonizer-Colonized Relationship:
Anand brings out the diabolical effects of colonialism on the psyche of people.He brings
out the inferiority complex wired into the minds of Indians,when he says about Munoo’s
‘subservient soul’.When the foreman announces the company is on shut-down,the coolies
plead with him as they ‘considered him to be God’,capable of doing anything.The racial
discrimination against the coolies is portrayed when Munoo goes into a shop in Bombay
to have a glass of soda water and he is asked to sit on the ground because he is a coolie
and as he is chased away,he feels ‘nervous and extremely guilty for intruding the rich
man’s world.’
The behaviour of all the English men emphasizes their superiority complex,as they
consider natives as worthless ‘niggers’.Whenever the coolies in the cotton mills payed
their respect in salaam to the foreman Jimmie Thomas,he returned the favour with an
abuse or a kick.Anand brings out sharp contradictions here by pointing out that these
same officials like Jimmie Thomas and Mr.England themselves were poor in the past and
had led a tough life which they have now forgotten.He also brings out the tendency of the
colonized to imitate the colonizer,i.e the national bourgeoise in Frantz Fanon’s theory
through the characters like Nathoo Ram,Ganpat and Sir Todar Mal who ill-treats the poor
and are proud of their associations with the British.Interestingly,we see Munoo considers
himself better than other coolies because he could read and write and he regards the
lepers and beggars on street with contempt as well.At this point,we realize that even the
discriminated people are not exactly advocates of equality as well.This idea is further
confirmed in the communal riots that broke out during the trade union meeting.Indians
have a strong sense of community to which they identify very much and this virtue was
the one exploited by the British to ‘divide and rule’.
Anti-colonialist Resistance: Frantz Fanon’s Theory
Though the story deals with the oppressions faced by working population,we can see
elements of colonial resistance being brought out by characters like Ratan,the Trade
Union personnel and Mohan,another coolie who worked with Munoo in Simla.Ratan,a
wrestler,does not take the harassment by the foreman and even the foreman is intimidated
by him and gives him his full wage.Ratan inspires Munoo to stand up for one’s self and

4. also to enjoy life.Ratan enrolls Munoo and Hari in the Trade Union.Sauda,another activist
of the Trade Union inspires the coolies to realize the truth that ‘for centuries they have
been the victims of grafts and extortion’ and not to forget their notion of ‘izaat’.Frantz
Fanon’s theory of reclaiming one’s nativism comes into picture as the coolies dare to look
ou from their cages of inferiority complexes.The sum and essence of the range of
exploitation is contained in his words as he says that the poor souls like themselves who
are dwindled from their rights are respected by none including themselves.This notion is
further substantiated when throughout the story we see Munoo wanting to be one of the
elite,or be a Babu,’own a pair of boots’ but then he realizes his place in the world is just
as a lowly servant and a coolie.However,Munoo is inspired when Sauda tells the that they
are ‘human beings and not soulless machines’ who have every right to lead a happy
life.Here we see,Frantz Fanon’ idea of the lumpen-proletariat as the bringers of
revolution.
Hybridity,Loss of identity and Mimic Men:
Homi K. Bhabha’s theory on hybrid identities is brought out through the character of
Mrs.May Mainwaring who descended from an Anglo-Indian origin.Due to her hybrid
identity,she develops a ‘tremendous inferiority complex about her origin’ to the extent
that she was ‘obsessed with the ambition of going to England to whitewash herself’.She
tries her best to get herself recognized as a ‘pukka’,but still fails as he was neglected at
the Viceroy’s Ball by most of the white men.
Munoo suffers from loss of identity as he is displaced from one place to other in his
journey.But even when he is ill-treated for being a coolie,he reassures himself that he also
belongs to the Kshatriya Clan and is a Rajput warrior.He is relieved when he sees people
hailing ‘from the hills’ like him.Like all Indians, subservience to the English is wired into
his brain and at the same time he is curious about how the ‘angrezi-log’ behaves among
themselves’,like during the Viceroy’s Ball.
Other than characters like Babu Nathoo Ram and Sir Todar Mal who are sycophants of
the British empire,Major Mechant’s character is typical of the ‘mimic men’ of Homi
K.Bhabha.Being brought up in a Christian School,he goes to England for his
studies,marries a white girl and cuts off all his roots to his Mochi(Cobbler) caste and even
anglicizes his name to Mechant.He becomes close to Mrs.Mainwaring as ‘being an Indian
Christian it is easy to find affinity with a Eurasian than the natives or thoroughbred
English’.
Conclusion:
Throughout the novel,we see the concept of being a ‘coolie’ is reinforced,as their identity
ends and begins there.Although we can see the discriminations of the caste-based Indian
society in the novel,the more prominent divide is the gulf between the rich and the
poor,’which have no connection between them.’Though Coolie encompasses all aspects
of the horrors of colonialism,the story is not a pessimistic one .Rather,it is a realistic

5. view which exposes the reader a world he had not seen before- the same India through
the eyes of a Coolie.Munoo’s story is an example of how Edward Said theorized of
‘writing back to the power’,through the vivid picture of the alternate history of pre-
Independence India.Through his narrative writing style and distinct
characterizations,Anand brings out a multi-dimensional portrayal of not only the far-
reaching consequences of colonization on a multitude of people but also emphasizes the
communist ideologies in a capitalistic setting.
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6. view which exposes the reader a world he had not seen before- the same India through
the eyes of a Coolie.Munoo’s story is an example of how Edward Said theorized of
‘writing back to the power’,through the vivid picture of the alternate history of pre-
Independence India.Through his narrative writing style and distinct
characterizations,Anand brings out a multi-dimensional portrayal of not only the far-
reaching consequences of colonization on a multitude of people but also emphasizes the
communist ideologies in a capitalistic setting.
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