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 12th 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.