Mulk Raj Anand | |
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Born | Peshawar, NWFP, British India (now in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan) | 12 December 1905
Died | 28 September 2004 Pune, Maharashtra, India | (aged 98)
Occupation | Writer |
Alma mater | Cambridge University University College London Khalsa College, Amritsar |
Period | 20th century |
Genre | Realistic fiction |
Notable work | Coolie; Untouchable |
Notable awards | Sahitya Akademi Award (1971) Padma Bhushan (1968) International Peace Prize (1953) |
Spouses | Shirin Vajifdar |
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Mulk Raj Anand (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004) was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer class in the traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an International readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of classics of modern Indian English literature; they are noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and for their analysis of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune.[1][2][3] He became known for his protest novel Untouchable (1935), which was followed by other works on the Indian poor such as Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937).[4] He is also noted for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English,[5] and was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.[6]