Exploitation in Coolie of Mulk Raj Anand

Nisha Rani
(Research Student of C.D.L.U. Sirsa)
India

Abstract

This paper presents Anand’s protest against exploitation of poor people by rich people. Mulk
Raj Anand is a novelist of social concerns. Even in a random reading of Anand’s novels the
readers becomes immediately aware of such problems as-injustice, class conflits, and
exploitation of various kinds of the poor people by rich etc. And Coolie is the best example
of exploitation. It protests against the injustice and exploitation perpetrated on the
disinherited and dispossed of the earth. Coolie is the life story of munoo. It tells us about the
trials and tribulation of a sensitive, inquistive hill boy in a world which is ridden by
exploitation and suffering of the down- down trodden people. In the end of the novel Munno
finds that even upper class persons if they have no money have to slave for their living. He
thinks: -“i am Kshatriya and i am poor, and and Varma a Brahamin is a servent boy, a
menial.”(240) Munno is open to exploitation at every turn because he is dispossessed of the
earth.

INTRODUCTION: - Mulk Raj Anand is one of the pioneering figures of Indian novel in
English. It seems that he wrote to expose and denounce the society based on such distinction
between the rich and the poor. Coolie, his second novel is called a sequel to his first novel
untouchable. Coolie shows dissatisfaction against man’s exploitation by a man. Exploitation
has a strong relation with the society. In the society there are many people who are being
exploited or manipulated for the benifits of others. In simple words exploitation refers to
using another person’s labour or work without offering accurate rewards including all of
abuses as physical, emotional, sexual, psychological and mental.He was aware of that a
number of people suffered from poverty around us. In his novels he deals with the theme of
poverty, exploitation, hunger, industialisation, communalism and the suffering of Indian
masses.coolie is a protest novel. It protests against the injustice. The major theme of Coolie

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is the economic or social exploitation of the poor people by rich people. Coolie is the life
story of Munno. It tells us about the tribulations of a hill boy in a world which is ridden by
exploitation. Munoo is the central character in this novel. In CoolieMunoo’s suffering attains
epic dimensions and a universal significance. Munoo, the coolie is an orphan and of fourteen
years of age who is denied his fundamental right to life and happiness. Munoo lives with his
uncle. One day he demands food and is beaten by his uncle. He cries: “oh, don’t beat me,
please don’t beat me, uncle. I only want food.”(216) He is ill-treatd by his uncle and aunt.
Munoo says:
“I want to believe, i want to know, i want to work, to work this machine.”(218) Munoo is the
hero of the novel. Munoo is a victim of exploitation. He is ill-treated and his aunt abuses
him. His uncle and aunt want that Munoo should earn his living hinself. Munoo is not only a
victim of such exploitation the novelist makes it quite clear that such exploitation of the poor
is everywhere in india whether in a village or a big city like bombay. In his boyhood Munoo
suffers very much when he has to work as a domestic servant in BabuNathoo Ram’s house.
Bibi Uttam Kaur often abuses him. She abuses him every time and misbehaves with Munoo.
Munoo finds that even upper caste class person if they have no money have to slave for their
living. In the next phase of his life Munoo is in Daulatpur. PrabhaDayal, the owner of the
pickle factory and his wife are kind to him. But PrabhaDayal’s partner Ganpat ill
treatesMunoo. “It was a dark and evil life.Munoo rose early at dawn before he had his full
sleep out, having gone to bed long before mid-night”. (230)Ganpatdecieves his partner and
the pickle factory is sold out. As a result Munoo has to work as a Coolie - first in the Grain
Market and then in the Vegetable Market. In the Grain Market there is hard competetion
between the starving coolies. Munoo suffers very much here. In the Vegetable Market
Munoo is paid very low wage and there is stiff competition of starving coolies. Munoo next
tries the railway station but he is scared out and he runs away in terror. A kind – hearted
elephant driver comes to his help and Munoo reaches Bombay. In Bombay poverty and
hunger is on a very large scale. Munoo starts working in a cotton mill where the conditions
are very horrible. There are the lepers, the beggers, the sick and the dying. Poverty
demoralises them. The picture of the dirt and squalor in which the factory workers live is
very touching. The picture is very touching when Munoo and Hari with his family are
seeking night’s shelter on the crowded pavements of Bombay. All the workers cry before
Jimmie Thomas, the owner of Cotton Mill as well as before the shopkeeper. Both of them
cheat and exploit the poor. At the last phase Munoo finds hinself at Shimla as the domestic
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servant, rickshaw – puller and perhaps somethung mere of Mrs. Mainwaring. The poor boy is
made to work hard, to pull rickshaw uphill for long hours till his energy is lost and he
begains to cough and blood. At last he passes away in the arms of his friend Mohan. To
conclude we can say that the novelist presents class strugle and class exploitation in this
novel Coolie. The life history of Munoo is the history of starving millions of Indian who are
overworked and insulted and treated as animals till they die before time. Munoo is a
universal figure one who represents the suffering and starving millions of the country. The
novelist has given the title Coolie because he wants to show the misery of the Indian masses.
As a whole the novel has rightly been called “the epic of misery.” Prof.M.k. naik calls coolie:
- “a drama of exploitation.” Munoo’s life begains and ends with the keynote of exploitation.

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References
1. AnandMulk Raj, 1956 Coolie. Penguin Books
2. Coolie: Dr. Sen 1996 (History of English Literature)

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