Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand was born into the high-status Kshatriya caste, in the northwestern corner of what was at the time British-ruled India. Despite growing up with a measure of wealth and social privilege, Anand experienced the consequences of the caste system first-hand after his aunt was ostracized by her family for sharing dinner with a Muslim woman; the isolation was so intense that his aunt ultimately died by suicide. After initially studying in India, Anand went to University College London and Cambridge University for further education. It was in England that Anand forged a series of lifelong literary connections, bonding both with other leftist South Asian writers and with members of the modernist Bloomsbury Group, including celebrated author E. M. Forster. After living for a few months at Mohandas K. Gandhi’s residence in western India, Anand began drafting Untouchable, which would make him a literary star in both India and Great Britain. After the runaway success of this initial novel, lifelong socialist Anand continued to write protest fiction like Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937). As with Untouchable, these books used fictional characters to explore the plight of India’s poor and low-caste citizens. Anand was married twice, first to a British actress and later to Shirin Vajifdar, an Indian classical dancer.