Chandu, a low-caste barber, is publicly insulted by the wealthy Sahukar for dressing in fine clothes. In response, Chandu goes on strike and refuses to shave or cut the hair of the villagers. His strike is successful and forces the villagers to come to his new barber shop in town, allowing Chandu to establish his own business and gain independence from the villagers who once looked down upon him.

1. The Barber’s trade union
-Mulk Raj Anand

2. Let’s Discuss…..
• What is an Insult ?
• How one feels after experiencing an Insult ?
• Is insulting someone is good ?
• Can Insult be taken positively ?
• Can insult be turned into a passion for progress ?
• Insult = progress/development… Agree ?

4. Assistant. Prof. of English, Lal Bahadur Shastri Mahavidyalaya,
Dharmabada, was born into a Kshatriya household in Peshawar. He
moved overseas after finishing his schooling in India to pursue higher
study, which included a doctorate in philosophy.
Many notable honours have been bestowed upon him, including the
Padma Bhushan, the International Peace Prize, and the Sahitya
Academy Award. As a novelist, short story writer, and critic, he has
been prolific. Untouchable (1935), Coolie (1936), Two Leaves and a
Bud (1937), The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1940), and
The Sword and the Sickle (1941) are among his works.

5. In Mulk Raj Anand’s , aspects like
• status
• image
• alienation
• pride
• cleverness
• independence
• respect
• freedom explored.

6. • caste or social status
• Caste discrimination by High Caste people
• Insult
• Protest/Opposition to injustice

7. 1. Chandhu- protagonist, Chandu was senior by about six months to the narrator. He is a
barber by profession in a village. He is from a low caste.his father died of plague so he
has to leave his education after fifth primary class and do the work of barber. He visits
door to door for grooming. wants to take revenge of the insult by Sahukar
2. The Narrator- he is from a high caste, does not believe in casteism, good friend of
Chandu, plays and imitates Chandu, does not believe in Casteism, Chandu is a hero for
him
3. Chandu’s Mother- old woman, kind to the narrator
4. Narrator’s Mother- She does not like Chandu as he is a low-caste barber’s son and that
they must keep up the status of their high caste and class. She puts red caste mark put on
narrator’s forehead every morning, asks narrator not to be with Chandu
5. The Sahukar- aged, he is from high caste and follows casteism, he insults Chandu on his
caste publicly, he has a very young wife younger than her husband by twenty years, he
alwats has a clean shave with a moustache
6. The Villagers- they follow casteism, they threatened Chandu to do work of a barber
7. Lalla Hukam Chand- the lawyer of the village, kind to Chandu, allows Chandu a ride to
town with him, six miles away, on the foot-rest of his closed carriage

8. • At a tender age, Chandu embarks upon full-fledged domestic
responsibility. Every morning Chandu has to make door to door
visits to the notables in the village for shaving and hair-cutting.
• He was a genius at catching wasps, and at pressing the poison out
of their tails, at tying their tiny legs to cotton thread and flying
them, while I always got stung on the cheeks if I dared to go
anywhere near the platform of the village well where these insects
settled on the puddles to drink water. He could make and fly paper
kites of such delicate design and the narrator fails to do all such
things, so he is envious of Chandu. Chandu is his role model.
• His father apprenticed Chandu early to the hereditary profession
of the barber’s caste and sent him out hair-cutting in the village,
and he had no time for the home tasks/home work which our
school master gave us.

9. • Narrator’s mother resented the fact that Chandu won a scholarship at school
while I had to pay fee to be taught.
• And she constantly banned him from playing with Chandu, saying that chandu
was a low-caste barber’s son and that narrator ought to keep up the status of
my caste and class.
• But whatever innate ideas I had inherited from my forefathers I certainly hadn’t
inherited any sense of superiority.
• I was always rather ashamed of the red caste mark which my mother put on my
forehead every morning, and of the formalized pattern of the uchkin, the tight
cotton trousers, the gold- worked shoes and the silk turban in which I dressed.
• I longed for the right to wear all the spectacular conglomeration of clothes
which Chandu wore-a pair of khaki shorts which the retired subedar had given
him, a frayed black velvet waistcoat, decorated all over with shell buttons, and a
round felt cap which had once belonged to Lalla Hukam Chand, the lawyer of
our village..

10. Chandu’s father died of plague. For then he would do the round of
saving and hair-cutting at the houses of the high-caste notables in
the morning, bathe and dress. He left the school.
Then steal a ride to town, six miles away, on the foot-rest of the
closed carriage in which Lalla Hukam Chand Travelled to town.
So he always brought me some gift or other from the town-a paint
brush, or gold ink, or white chalk, or a double-edged penknife to
sharpen pencils, and he would entertain me with long merry
descriptions of the variety of things he saw in the bazaar.
At district, he loved English styles in clothes which he saw the
sahibs and the lawyers, the chaprasis and the policemen wearing at
the District Court, where he had to wait for the journey home at the
back of Lalla Hukam Chand.

11. • He expressed to me a secret wish he had to steal some money from the pitcher
of his mother to buy himself a rig-out like that of Kalan Khan , the dentist , who
, he said, performed miracles in the town, fitting people with rows of teeth and
new eyes.
• He described to me the appearance of Kalan Khan, a young man with hair
parted on one side, with an ivory collar and bow tie, a black coat and striped
trousers, and a wonderful rubber overcoat and pumps. Khan also had an
Angrezi leather hand-bag and flourished his shining steel instruments used by
Dentists.
• Chandu wanted to looke like Kalan Khan. He told the narrator that he learnt
how to treat pimples, boils and cuts on people’s bodies from his late father,
who learnt fronm his father before him.
• One day Chandu at the door of narrator’s house in the morning. He was
dressed up in a white turban, a white rubber coat (a little too big for him, but
nevertheless very splendid), a pair or pumps , and he had a leather bag in his
hand he was setting off on his round and had come to show grand.

12. • Chandu visited the house of the landlord, whom he shaved every morning. The narrator
also following admiringly behind.
• When the landlord who was of high caste watched the dress of Chandu. He was angry
and started insulting Chandu. He used the words like ‘The son of a pig!’
• He insults Chandu for bringing a leather bag of cow-hide into our house and a coat of
the marrow of, I don’t know, some other animals and those evil black Angrezi shoes. He
said ‘Get out! Get out! You son of a devi! You will defile my religion. I suppose you have
no fear of anyone now that your father is dead.’‘Go away you swine, go away and wear
clothes befitting your low status as a barber’. We will have to treat the whole house
with the sacred cow-dung to purify it’ Go and come back in your own clothes! Then I
shall let you cut may hair’
• Chandu was very upset and about to cry. He had decided something.
• He went up town way and says he earned some money shaving people on the roadside.

13. • Chandu made a plan and informed it to the narrator
• Chandu was going to each these orthodox idiots a lesson . He was going on strike
and shall not go to their houses to attend to them.
• He was going to by Japanese bicycle from the gambling son of Lalla Hukam Chand
for five rupees.
• He shall learn to riding it and go to town on it every day in the attire like of
Kalan Khan.
• The narrator was also excited and supported him. He desired to take a ride on
the cycle with Chandu.
• Chandu got support from the narrator to learn bicycle riding.
• The Sahukar and the villagers made fun of Chandu and advised him not to do
such things and do the work of a barber. But Chandu ignores them.

14. • Chandu was still on strike. As he was the only barber in the village, the villagers and
the Sahukar were unshaved and without grooming.
• Chandu showed the faces of the villagers to the narrator. The narrator failed to
recognize them because of their long hair and unshaved faces. Their faces started
itching.
• The Sahukar looked shabby with his long –jawed face dirtied by the white scum of his
unshaved beard
• The Sahukar had grew big thick moustache (Which I knew the landlord Dyed) with the
prickly white bush on his jowls (lower jaw). His sharp moustache was without
trimming.
• Chandu and the narrator made fun of Sahukar... ‘Ha! Ha! I roared a sick lion! He looks
seedy.’ and “beavers, beavers” and run away.
• Even those who were of high castes, even the members of the families of the elders,
began to giggle with laughter at the shabby appearance of the great ones and made
rude remarks about their persons.

15. • And it was said that at least the lanlord’s wife threatened to run away with
somebody, because, being younger than her husband by twenty years , she had
born with him as long as he kept himself in trim , but was now disgusted with
him beyond the limits of reconciliation .
• His strike was successful. Chandu did good business in town during these days
and saved money, even though he bought new clothes and new tools for himself
and gave the narrator various presents.
• The village elders threatened to have Chandu sent to prison for his offences, and
ordered his mother to force him to obey before they committed him to the
police for a breach of the peace. But his mother rejected it.
• The villagers thought of getting the barber of Verka (nearby village) to come and
attend them , and offered him an anna instead of the two pice they had usually
paid to Chandu .

16. • Chandu had seen the shop of Nringan Das, the barber of the town. He opened
his own shop at the town like Nringan Das on the wayside at the head of the
bazaar Dhunoo(bazaar spot).
• Chandu created ‘Rajkot District Barber Brothers’ Hairdressing and Shaving
Saloon’ with other barbers in the town. This Union was the first one in the pre-
independent country followed by other such unions in the country.

17. Chandu was a barber by caste. He adopted the profession of his
father. As he was considered a member of a low caste, the other
people of high caste used to insult him.
In the end he decided to go on strike and stop visiting people's
homes.
He opened his own shop and the villagers had to go there to get
themselves shaved.

18. 1. Exposition - ?
2. Rising Action- ?
3. Climax- ?
4. Falling Action- ?
5. Denouement/ Solution - ?

19. 1. Exposition - Information about major characters, protagonist, hint about the story,
setting
2. Rising Action- Chandu gets the clothes like Dr. Kalan Khan
3. Climax- Chandu is insulted by Sahukar and decides to go on strike
4. Falling Action- the villagers are unshaved and faced troubles due to the strike
5. Denouement/ Solution - Chandu rejects to withdraw the strike. Buyies a cycle and
successfully opens an own shop at town

20. A) Internal - ?
or
B) External - ?
&
Between Whom.......?

21. A) Internal - in the mind of Chandu. He wanted to take revenge of his insult against
the villagers and specially the Sahukar
or
B) External - No external conflict in the story
&
Between Whom.......
Internal conflict is between Chandu and the villagers