Mulk Raj Anand and his imagination of global resistance against caste, colonialism, propaganda

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In 1937, as India struggled to gain independence from the British, a more global battle was raging thousands of miles west in the war-torn city of Madrid. Of the many foreign nationals serving in the Spanish Civil War in different capacities was Mulk Raj Anand, who saw Spain's struggle as a key point to decide the fate of democracy in Europe.
With the revolt of General Franco to overthrow the government, Anand's anti-fascist principles led him to defend the Spanish Republic. During the battle, Eric Arthur Blair, a friend of Anand, was shot in the neck by a sniper but miraculously survived, as mentioned in DJ Taylor's definitive biography, Orwell: The Life.
Years later, their paths realigned during the Second World War to counter the Axis propaganda led by Subhash Chandra Bose. Prompting Indians to revolt against British rule, Bose presented a formidable challenge to the British government in India, writes Stanley Wolpert in A New History of India.
Today we recognise Mulk Raj Anand as the author of groundbreaking classics like Untouchable and Coolie. His novels depicted disturbing realities, holding a mirror to the plight of the lowest orders in Indian society. Recounting a day in the life of a sweeper boy who dreamt of a dignified life like the Sahibs, Anand presented the world with a side of India nobody talked about.
However, Bakha was not the only one on the receiving end of societal brutality. There was Orwell in Paris (Down and Out in Paris and London), Bigger Thomas in Chicago (Native Son), and several others carrying their own untold stories.
Anand's life was about much more than writing novels. As a committed Marxist deeply involved in left-leaning politics, Anand was also a vocal advocate for the values he profoundly believed in, willing to raise his voice in their support. From the trenches of the war-torn city of Madrid amid exchanges of gunfire to the broadcasting studio of the BBC, his fight continued. Let's revisit Mulk Raj Anand's journey from the jails of Amritsar to joining the International Brigade in Madrid, shaping the political and literary landscape of global resistance in the 1900s.
Anand's early radicalism
An avid reader of Dickens, Shakespeare, and Gorky during childhood, Anand was drawn towards underground politics during his teen years. During the Non-Cooperation Movement launched by Gandhi, he joined a revolutionary rebel group in Amritsar that the British government recognised as a terrorist organisation. Deeply embedded in the revolution, Anand was arrested twice before completing his degree from the University of Punjab.
Anand's father, a military clerk loyal to the British Indian Army, was not proud of his son's altercations with the government. As detailed in Saros Cowasjee's biography, Mulk Raj Anand: His Life and Work, his father's background in the British Army helped Anand secure a scholarship to pursue a PhD at University College, London.
With high regard for the British model of democracy, Anand was shocked to find that the condition of the working class in London was no different from that in India. He concluded that the British government was organised and it functioned in the interest of a small minority that controlled the whole state. Driven by his rebellious nature, Anand ended up fighting for the rights of British coal workers during the strike of 1926.
These events not only solidified Anand's anti-imperialist views but also prompted him to join a Marxist study circle for a better understanding of the struggles of the working class.
It did not take Anand long to find the like-minded company of left-leaning intellectuals during his university years in London. 'He'd frequent the British Museum to meet eminent writers and artists,' recounts Irish poet Louis MacNeice in his unfinished autobiography, The Strings Are False. As Anand's network widened, he cultivated some valuable friendships that would shape his literary career. It was the friendship and mentorship of notable author EM Forster that opened doors for him into the established British literary scene.
Soon, Anand became a familiar name in influential literary circles in London, most notably the Bloomsbury Group, founded by English writer Virginia Woolf and her siblings, artist Vanessa Bell and author Thoby Stephen. Although not a permanent member, Anand attended several of the literary meets held on Thursday evenings, mostly at 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury.
Despite the intellectual exchanges and collaborations, Anand observed pro-colonial sentiments and a racist attitude that he perceived as 'ignorance of other 'cultures' and the club's 'disengagement' with both national and international politics.' Remarks like 'lesser breeds beyond the law' about Indians left him 'feeling anger and shame,' as he recounts in his memoir Conversations in Bloomsbury (1981).
Untouchable and its global echo
Although Anand had finished writing Untouchable in 1927, his first published work was an essay, 'Persian Painting' (1930). The printed edition of Untouchable did not see the light of day until 1935, after rejections from 19 publishers. Books on Mughals, mysticism, and the extravagant lives of Nawabs fascinated publishers more, not the disturbing reality of outcasts, which many considered 'dirt.'
At last, a moving preface by EM Forster encouraged Lawrence and Wishart, a small left-wing publisher, to take a chance on Untouchable. Upon publication, the novel successfully found a reader base in left-liberal circles, especially among Marxists and anti-fascists.
The disturbing horrors of societal brutality against outcastes linked Untouchable with broader, parallel struggles unfolding across the globe, from the industrial underbelly of Britain to the Jim Crow South. Richard Wright, an African-American writer, uncovered systematic racism in the US, robbing Black communities of dignified life with Native Son (1940). Like Bakha, Wright introduced the world to Bigger Thomas, a young African-American boy from Chicago who was crushed and criminalised by structural violence. Although Anand and Wright never met, through Bakha and Bigger Thomas, they powerfully held up a mirror to societal brutality.
Orwell, Anand, and the BBC
In the 1940s, when the Second World War was at its peak, Anand was offered the position of Talks Assistant at the BBC's Indian Service in London. Citing political turmoil in India, Anand politely declined the offer, which was then passed on to George Orwell. His desire to serve his country, his wife's ill health, and financial setbacks led him to accept the job. As the new Talks Assistant, Orwell wrote a letter to Anand to convince him to write and broadcast for the BBC. Anand readily agreed.
Together, tasked with encouraging anti-imperialist sentiments in India, they worked on several radio talk series. In New Weapons of War, Anand explained the meanings of war-related phrases such as 'Pluto-Democracy,' 'Propaganda,' and 'New Order,' terms commonly spoken yet poorly understood.
According to Abha Sharma Rodrigues' doctoral thesis, George Orwell, The BBC, and India: A Critical Study, despite several ideological differences, the early life experiences of Anand and Orwell bore striking similarities. Not only did the zeal of reform motivate them to write, but they also went to great lengths to experience the pain of the lowest orders of society. While Anand spent time at Sabarmati Ashram, living with the untouchables and performing the tasks of a sweeper, Orwell resigned from the Indian Imperial Police and chose to live in slums, working menial jobs like a dishwasher in restaurants.
As Anand uncovered casteism in Untouchable, Orwell exposed classism in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), laying bare the grim realities of poverty and exclusion in Europe's capitals.
Often criticised as hypocritical and ironic, it remains debatable whether the BBC's wartime efforts to encourage anti-imperialist sentiments in India were successful. However, Orwell and Anand's experiments with language resulted in innovative broadcasts like New Weapons of War. Due to rising differences with the organisation, Orwell left the BBC in 1943, while Anand overlapped his tenure and continued to freelance as a scriptwriter and broadcaster until the end of the war. With India inching closer to freedom, he returned home and founded MARG (Modern Architectural Research Group) magazine in 1946.
Drawing together the threads of his remarkable life, Anand emerges not just as a writer but as a fearless combatant whose participation in the global politics of resistance will always be remembered. From the prison cell in Amritsar to the trenches of war-torn Madrid, and from debates in Bloomsbury to broadcasting radio talks at the BBC, Anand's journey was not limited to writing. It was about proactively utilising every platform to challenge power and expose violence against the lowest orders of society, be it outcasts in India or coal miners in London.
As we enter the age of renewed censorship and systemic oppression, the legacy of Anand reminds us that literature is not merely a mirror; it can be a weapon. You just have to wield it with some empathy forged in conviction and finally aim squarely at the architecture of injustice.