1. Untouchable  Note prepared by: by Mulk Raj Anand Tamanna  Slide prepared by: Maruf Batch-54

2. Content Biography of the writer Summary Theme Characters Setting plot point of view Figures of speech Previous years' Qs.

3. A brief biography of the writer Prominent Indian novelist Mulk Raj Anand was born on December 12, 1905 in peshawar in present- day pakistan.After graduating from the Khalsa college of Amritsar in 1924, Anand traveled to U. K to study at the university college London and Cambridge University. After completing his Ph.D in 1929, he lectured at the League of Nations' School of Intellectual co – operation Geneva. M. R. Anand started writing as an aftermath of some tragedic incidents of his life including the suicide of his aunt for being excommunicated from the society only because of sharing meal with a muslim. He is one of those a handful writters who wrote for the down trodden, deprived people of society. His notable works include Untouchable, coolie, The village, the sword and the sickle, The private life of an Indian prince, The big heart, Two leaves and a bud etc. He passed away in September 28, 2004.

4. Summary Untouchable is a novel published in 1935, describes a typical day of a young boy named Bakha belongs to The untouchable caste of Indian Hindu society.Traditionally, his job is to sweeping the streets and the latrines of the upper caste of his society and he is predestined to stick to this profession because of his being lower caste. As the novel begins, Bakha is seen working as a substitute of his ill tampered father Lakha, the jamadar of the sweepers of Bulashah. While cleaning, A former hockey player, Charat Singh promises him to give a hockey stick which was a totally unexpected event of an untouchable like Bakha's day to day life. Then, Bakha coming back home finds her sister Sohini going to fetch water from nearby communal well. But here she has to wait until some upper caste pour her some water as she isn’t allowed to dip her own water from the well. Kali Nath, a priest agrees to give her water in exchange of her cleaning the courtyard of the temple later in the day.

5. Afterwards, Bakha goes through the street, sweeping where he is assaulted by a Brahmin Hindu for his being by Bakha's presence. But he is ultimately supported by a Mohammedan and rescued. Then goes to the temple and observing the the hymn from the yard as he isn't allowed to go inside. But here he finds her sister, Sohini coming out from temple crying being sexually assaulted by the priest.Bakha tells her to go to home taking the responsibility of gathering food on his shoulder. Bakha spends the rest of the afternoon begging for food where he has to be subjected to various indignities and cruelties from the upper caste Hindus. Returning home, he tells his father the story of his mistreatment from the upper class Hindus.But his father doesn't support him rather takes their side saying that one of the upper caste's Doctor saved Bakha's life when he had a fever. Bakha attends the wedding of the sister of one of his friends. There one of his friends suggests him to take revenge on the upper caste Hindus for their approach towards Bakha as well as other Untouchables. But, Bakha rejects this idea as he thinks that it will result in nothing except falling himself and his family in more trouble.

6. And when Bakha is trying to play hockey with hockey which he gets from Charat Singh, accidentally a little boy is hit by a rock stone. Bakha picks him up and carries him to his mother who recognizes him as a sweeper and blames him for polluting her son. Coming back home, Bakha finds his father furious because of his being out all the afternoon. He kicks Bakha out of the house and Bakha makes his way towards the train station where he unexpectedly witnesses one of Mahatma Gandhi's speech in which he condemns caste system. He also overhears a conversation between a poet and a lawyer. Though he finds the lawyer not that much supportive in Gandhi's protest, the poet is very much optimist and Bakha is also trying to hope that oneday they won’t regarded as Untouchables anymore for their work's being replaced by flushing toilets.

7. Theme The prevailing theme of the novel is the utterly inhumane, age old caste system of traditional Hindu society.The discrimination and maltreatment that was inflicted on the lower castes' people of pre – independent Indian society is the primary concern of the writer of this novel. As the novel goes on describing a single typical day of a young boy of the “ Untouchables”, It deals with the picturization of prevailing social problems of a society where the people are divided into four segments on the basis of their professions. Whereas Brahmins are literally worshipped for their being priest, the sub -caste of Shudras that is Chandalas are meant to be untouchable for their cleaning human waste by profession. Not only that, they are subjected to all kinds of abuses can be applied to a human being. The upper caste people are thought to be polluted in touch with them. In short, they lead a life of complete social degradation. M.R. Anand basically depicts these social evils in this particular novel.

8. Characters Protagonist: Bakha Antagonist: Society and upper caste people. Major characters: Bakha, Lakha, Sohini. Minor characters: Rakha, Charat singh, Kali Nath, Chota, Ram Charan, Ali, Gulabo, Mathma Gandhi, colonel Hutchinson etc.

9. Setting Setting of Place: An imaginary town namely Bulashah in any Cantonment area.( supposed to be The north Indian Cantonment town, Bulandshahr). Setting of time: Morning to evening of a single day of 20 th century's typical Hindu society.

10. Point of view The novel is written in third person omniscient point of view. The writter knows all the facts of the characters though they don't know.

11. Figures of speech  Simile: a)”Father's voice sure as a bullet to it's target” b)” each muscle of his body hard as a rock when into play, seemed to shine forth like glass” c) “ he seemed as easy as a wave sailing away on a deep – bedded river” d) “ fixed yet flowing like a wave confirmed at the beginning of each generation”  Metaphor: a)”the burning flame seemed totally itself with him... masterful instinct” b) “ must be destroyed in order to make room... Gandhi stood for”  Irony: a)“son of pig”

12. Thank You Batch-54 English,CU