Oppression of the Subaltern: A Depiction by Mulkraj Anand in his Untouchable

Abstract

Anand is largely remembered for his depictions of the oppressed class in India. He had got an international acclaim because of his perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed class in India. Untouchable ,being his first novel that was published in 1935,is well known for his analysis of the exploitation and subservient, pathetic conditions of the lower class people that he depicts through a character like Bhaka .though the novel presents incidents that happened in a day in the protagonist’s life,by large it speaks about the oppression of the lower castes by the upper castes that was very much visible in the colonial as well as the postcolonial India .the novel mainly focuses on the subaltern that was and also is the most burning issue in the Indian subcontinent. The novel displays the pretentions, snobbery and flamboyance gestures of the upper class against the lower classes.