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The century's very own

SURESH KOHLI remembers the literary phenomenon called Mulk Raj Anand, whose 100th birth anniversary falls on December 12

THE LEGEND Mulk Raj Anand (1905 - 2004)

Though he had ceased writing some years before he passed away in September last year, a little ahead of celebrating his 99th birthday, Mulk Raj Anand would have achieved yet another, somewhat personal though, milestone had he lived on for another year. A whole century of existence. Opening your eyes in one century, in one era and closing them in another. And in the process witnessing and imbibing everything that the world of the mortals had to offer: love, compassion, war, and hatred. Better still, through an active involvement in the process by being able to chronicle much of what one would have seen through creative writing. Mulk Raj Anand was onto the sixth volume of his ambitious "Seven Ages of Man" through a series of autobiographical novels when his ink-soaked fingers became too numb to even hold the pen, and his spirit began to wane.

Some of his best writing has been sought to be restored - including a short essay on how he became a writer, and a somewhat prophetic, slightly off the mark, self obituary - in "Mulk Raj Anand: A Reader", edited with an introduction by Atma Ram (Sahitya Akademi Pp. 640. Rs 250). Though it hadn't began thus, the commemorative volume contains 15 short stories; extracts of 15 of his novels (including four from the confessional series); two selections from his non-fiction writing; reproductions of four personal letters to Saros Cowasjee, KVS Murti and Atma Ram himself (ostensibly culled from three relatively unknown published volumes written to the individuals concerned dealing with his philosophy and craft of writing, but certainly not the best, or most profound. There must be scores more that might still be in private collections. Uncle Mulk loved writing letters); E.M. Forster's Preface to Untouchable; and a select bibliography. No mean achievement that's reasonably marred by bad proof reading to which the late legendary author would have reacted in his typical angry manner. His aesthetics never permitted bad printing, either.

A path-breaker

In the blaze of headlines by current achievers, and glory of the moment, we tend to forget the achievements of our seniors. Uncle Mulk with his path-breaking "Untouchable" and "Coolie", which have been reissued as Penguin Modern Classics, showed the road towards new horizons to be conquered. His achievements ought to be acknowledged and recorded. And as has been outlined in the blurb, this "is the first attempt of its kind to fill this gap and introduce the author to a large readership." It couldn't have been worded in a worse manner.

Mulk Raj Anand was a misunderstood versatile genius. An underrated author despite over two dozen novels and ten collections of short stories (known mainly for "Untouchable" and "Coolie" though); an art historian who rediscovered and resurrected the ancient and modern cultural heritage of India and Asia through 136 volumes of MARG; a social crusader who adopted a whole village in Khandala; a political crusader, advocating peace; an amateur painter and a filmmaker (he made an award winning film out of his own short story "The Lost Child").

Indeed, his growth from a sulking lonesome boy to an awe-inspiring writer and speaker was amazing. He was, perhaps, the last one to be not a mere eyewitness to the turbulent 20th Century history, but a participant and a product of it as well.

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