Excellent book!

The book is an account of a boy named Bakha, son of lakha, being a sweeper he was not allowed to be entered into the temples and other Hindu religious places as well as the homes of upper caste Hindus. Bakha liked to play hokey and dress like Sahibs and white people of the England, in suit and pants, but he wasn’t allowed to do such things. His father abused him a lot and the family of four people used to fed over the left-overs of the weddings or the breads lying near the filthy sewers.

Their life was utterly miserable!!

The book is based upon the idea of untouchability and emphasises on the abolition of it.

There are many such instances in the novel where you’ll get disillusioned about the Indian society during the English era.

It is comfortably easy to argue against the practice of untouchability when one isn't at the receiving end. Mulk Raj Anand erases that gulf and puts the reader right into the uncomfortable and worn down ammunition shoes of Bakha, an eighteen year old manual scavenger. The book is relatively short, accounting for only a day in Bakha's life. And Anand ensures that a single day is enough.

The arguments against the practice normally revolve around the socio-economic (and sometimes, political) aspect of the oppression. But 'Untouchable' takes a step closer to the individual from the collective and highlights the psychological scars that are inherited by every new generation of the outcastes's community. Bakha isn't your typical fierce, fearless and determined protagonist in spite of the fact that he has the potential to be one. There are multiple instances where his instinctual repulsion to the social setup around him, that includes him in its fold only to trample upon him and others like him, becomes obvious and painfully thwarted by a faulty reasoning that convinces him of his 'destined' place in the society. With everyone around him refusing to let him have a shred of dignity and self-respect (except of course, his sister and friends), he has little to go on and till the point he hears Gandhi's words, he appears to be spiraling downwards from a high point of apathetic acceptance in the beginning to an anguished defeat at the hands of his 'fate' of being a latrine cleaner all his life, surviving on food picked up from the streets and the sahibs' leftovers, forcefully excluded from any chances to play hockey (something he is exceptionally good at), to be educated (at the hands of two little upper caste boys) or any stray chance to raise his head high without an inexplicable shame and hesitation weighing him down.

The misery of Bakha hits all the more strongly when the reader follows his thought process in which he constantly questions his so-called 'fate' and end up with unjustifiable yet, valid realizations of his social standing. He is a perfect example of a wasted potential which never fails to mark its presence and yet, never evolves.

I don't know if any other book reveals the hypocrisy of an orthodox Hindu society better than Anand's 'Untouchable' but nonetheless, the book is a great read. Anand's writing style is easy and poetic with beautiful vivid description of both pictures as well as emotions.

THE LOWEST OF THE LOW. . .

Mulk Raj Anands 1935 novel sympatheticaly portrays a day in the life of Bakha who as a sweeper and latrine-cleaner is on the lowest rung of Indias caste system. Written simply and directly it captures the many humiliations, trials and tribulations that Bakha and his father, younger brother and sister experience at the hands of higher caste Hindus.

It's a relatively short but enlightening read and vividly creates the atmosphere of the times and place for this reader at any rate. Thoroughly reccomended for any one who is interested in getting a glimpse of the world as lived by other people, in other places and times. Caste and poverty is an on going problem in India despite much fanfare in recent years in relation to Indias high tech industry. Readers who are interested in an account of more recent years will find P.Sainaths well written "Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts" an invaluable resource.

The author of the untouchable Mulk Raj Anand has apparently been described as the Indian Dickens, but I feel he is quite a different author from Dickens (in this book at any rate) - far different in style and none the worse for it. The potrayal of Bakha is far more detailed, and for want of a better word - modern, than anything Ive read by Dickens. Well reccomended.

Through the story Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand gives a rare glimpse at the social evil deeply rooted within the Hindu society during the pre-independent India. At the core of the novel it brings forth the many injustices faced by the outcaste societies on a daily basis and the hypocrisy and dehumanizing attitude towards the low caste people by the upper class Hindus. Mulk Raj Anand also highlights the impact of the industrial technology introduced by the British into India on the attitudes and ideologies of the Indian society as an undercurrent of the story.

It definitely was a good book. I recommend every one to read it.

Written in the 1930s, this short novel follows one day in the life of a teenage "sweeper" who, by accident of birth, inherits the family occupation and the designation as an "untouchable".

With an afterword by E.M. Forster, this powerful work grapples with outsized issues of prejudice, religion, destiny, and offers some insight into tactics to overcome the system. The 2014 introduction provides important context for developments since the time of the novel. Gandhi is discussed in the forward, and appears in the novel. Apparently he was an influence on Anand.

Most of the novel closely follows the sweeper Bakha, who cleans latrines and sweeps refuse from the streets. Bakha is uneducated — because he is not permitted to attend school (where he would pollute the other students). Bakha is confused by religion — because he is forbidden to enter a temple (because of pollution, etc.)

Late in the book, in a moment of turmoil, Bakha encounters a Christian missionary who has adopted elements of native dress and attempted to learn the language: "But the edge of his tongue was like a pair of scissors which cut the pattern of Hindustani into smithereens as a parrot snips his food into bits."

The missionary provides an excuse to explore the power of Christianity to improve the lives of the underclass, but Bakha is left confused. Next up, Gandhi.

The text in the late stages diverges from a clean focus on Baker's life into a muddy exploration of philosophy, and that somewhat detracts from the literary merit of the novel. What else to do, though? How else to impose this important discussion on the reader?

Had to read it for global modernism.
Interesting in a global aspect

8/10
This book broke my heart. One day in the life of a teenager who belongs in the lowest caste of India during the 1930s, written in the 1930s. Incredible for 80% of the book pulling right into the despair, the trauma of the people but sadly falls off a little by the end.

First of all, I have to say it's pretty awesome to have E. M. Forster write the preface for your book.

Briefly, this is the story of one day in the life of a young untouchable (latrine-cleaner, lowest caste of Hindu society). We experience all his emotions and all the abuse that is heaped on him and clearly see the horrors of the caste society, but it is much more interesting than that. We experience the teeming vibrancy of Indian life and the convoluted thoughts and feelings of a frustrated teenager, surprisingly appealing.

‘Posh! Posh! Sweeper coming through!’ ‘Posh! Posh! Sweeper coming through!’

This is the cry of the latrine cleaner/road sweeper as he navigates his way through the crowded streets warning of his approach so people can avoid being touched and thereby polluted, requiring immediate and extensive cleansing and purification.

For Bakha the latrine cleaner cannot touch or be touched. He is an untouchable. He lives with his widowed father Lakha, sister Sohini and younger brother Rakha. They clean the latrines and sweep the road for the local regiment. Importantly they are treated by the soldiers not as pariahs, but people employed to do unpleasant menial work.

Bakha’s family is well established in the community, so they know the sahibs, sepoys and the other untouchables. Although I had something of an idea of what untouchable meant this story opened my eyes to the all-embracing nature of this Hindu brand of slavery cum segregation, full of abuse and insults and impossible to escape, at least in 1935, when the book was published.

Bakha’s younger sister Sohini goes to the village well to collect water for the family, but must wait in the heat for others to draw their supply, and indeed cannot draw the water herself, but must rely on a person from a higher caste to draw the water on her behalf. It’s a long wait. Sohini is picked on by an older jealous woman, food is thrown and Sohini is rescued by a priest at the temple only to be molested.

It should be noted that Bakha and his sister are beautiful people: young, strong, healthy and attractive, but this does not help them, in fact it probably makes the way they are treated worse. One of the Indians at the barracks, Havildar Charat Singh, of a higher caste, is a famous street hockey player who gives Bakha an old hockey stick, which would otherwise be out of his reach. While filled with gratitude, Bakha soon realises that people will think he stole it.

A terrible tale of organised repression: the saddest aspect being the inevitability of Bakha becoming inured to his lot as he ages and his youthful buoyancy deflates.

Although I didn't enjoy the style of this novel so much, I found it very interesting all the same: A day in the life of a young Indian man of the lowest of castes, with having to go by ridiculous rules and constant abuse or at the very least constant risk thereof by his "superiors" and his wish to simply be treated like a human (although it's not quite said straight out like that). His constant change of mood between anger at his wretched situation in life and complete reverence of everyone from a higher caste - or even an ENGLISHMAN, lo and behold! - kind of reminds me of Frederick Douglass, in his own introduction to a speech he held for the abolitionist society in a book I read by and about him. The humbleness of a person who all is life has "known" that he is an absolute inferior to everyone else is painful to read. And I feel as if I owe it to that person to try to understand his feelings, which is why this book gets four stars from me: it invokes that same sadness over a world where humans' abuse of other humans, individual and systematical, seem to have no beginning and no end. And although that of course is not a pleasant feeling, I do think it's always an important reminder.

The last ten pages or so take place in a Ghandi rally. The great man himself. Ghandi's speech and the effect it had on our protagonist was very interesting, and it even provided a small comic relief, when the following words are put in Ghandi's mouth, as he tells a story from his childhood:

While on my way to school, I used to touch the Untouchables; and, as I never would conceal the fact from my parents, my mother would tell me that the shortest cut to purification after the unholy touch, was to cancel it by touching a Mussulman passing by.

The superstition and ignorance of it all! It is hard to believe.

It's a great book. It is about a day in the life of an untouchable - Bakha. Halfway through the book the story seems ordinary, but the unthinkable ending takes it to another level.

Although, for the ones who are reading Mulkh Raj Anand’s book for the first time will be sort of disappointed. The author is known to use Hindustani words in his novels. But in this novel he has translated literal meanings of some words. So while reading, you will come across characters calling 'brother-in-law' to others. It’s a turn off for those who don’t know Hindi. It would have made a good difference if the author had chosen to use the hindi word 'Saale' instead.

All in all, it’s good enough to get you to explore more of Mulk Raj Anand's world.  

The story of Bakha, a young "untouchable" in India, was sad and informative and gave an interesting perspective.

Yet, there were moments (especially the "big thing" at the end) that caused me to lose attention. I understand the last message, yet I would like to be "just" the story of the life of the "untouchable".

[3.5 stars]