Untrountable: Treatment Of Subaltern Agony In The Untouchable

Treatment of Subaltern Agony in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable pointed out the subjugated sections of society. The concept of untouchability began with the religion of Hinduism. Usually, Brahmins- the upper classes dominate the lower class people. The concept of untouchability puts into action mainly on lower caste and class. During the first half of the twentieth century, Mulk Raj Anand played an important role to bring India’s controversial issues. The ‘Untouchable’ is a unique experiment in the art of fiction by its concentration on a single day’s experience in the life of its hero. Anand’s achievement in the novel becomes more spectacular when we think that the hero is a sweeper boy of just eighteen years of age, a member of a so called untouchable community whose life is nothing but uneventful to an ordinary observer. The novel becomes a great work by drawing into its world the life and culture of a whole village community. Bakha, the sweeper boy is the center round which the world of the novel unfolds itself. This novel is a social criticism, powerful criticism, of the evil of untouchability that made life more miserable and intolerable to the poor section of Indian society. The etymological meaning of the subaltern is below the rank. The British Military officer used this term for their junior subordinates. Concise Oxford English Dictionary explains the term subaltern as, “an officer in the British army below the rank of captain,