Mulk Raj Anand

He met actress Kathleen van Gelder in London and the couple married in 1938. Their union produced a daughter. The marriage however unraveled and the couple divorced in 1948.

In 1950, he married Shirin Vajibdar, a classical dancer

He died in 2004 at the age of 98.

He was the born in Peshawar to Lal Chand—a coppersmith and soldier—and Ishwar Kaur. From an early age, Mulk Raj was pained by the problems of Indian society that stemmed from the issues of religion and caste.

He began to write from a young age; some of his early works were inspired by the love he had for a Muslim girl who was unfortunately already married. He was also angered by the suicide of a relative who had been ostracized for sharing food with a Muslim. These events inspired him to vent his frustration through words

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.

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.

He became a writer in English language as English language publishers were more open to publish the kind of themes he wrote on. His writing career began in England where he used to publish short reviews in T. S. Eliot’s magazine, ‘Criterion’.

During the 1930s and 1940s he was very active in politics and spoke regularly at the meetings of India League which was founded by Krishna Menon.

Over this period he became acquainted with the likes of intellectuals, such as, Bertrand Russell and Michael Foot, and authors like Henry Miller and George Orwell. He was deeply influenced by M.K. Gandhi.

His first novel, “Untouchable’ was published by the British firm, Wishart in 1935. The story was about a day in the life of Bakha, a boy who has to become a toilet cleaner just because he belongs to the untouchable caste. The novel was seen as a poignant reminder of the atrocities of the caste system in India.

In 1935, he played an important role in the founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association in London along with the writers Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali.

His best known work was the novel ‘Untouchable’ which tells of the story of a boy, Bakha, who is destined to become a toilet cleaner just because of his caste. The plot revolves around what happens when he meet an upper caste man and encounters atrocities.