If we analyse Coolie we will find that it is certainly a picture of the panorama of Indian life. In this novel, we are taken to various towns and cities situated at long distances from one another and it shows the people and their behaviour in different areas. Munoo moves from Sham Nagar to Daulatpur and then to Bombay and the hills of Simla. All these journeys are forced but they convey the total picture of Indian life in its vastness and variety.
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| Novel Coolie—Picture of the Panorama of Indian Life |
This portrayal bears complete fidelity and it is without any exaggeration or distortion. Thus, like other novels of Anand, realism is the keynote in this work also. Moreover, it deals with certain social problems of the country - poverty, unemployment, exploitation of the poor and under privileged. This novel introduces us to various segments of Indian society without concealing anything. We must also remember that this novel deals with the life of the Indians in the thirties, the days before independence, and the conditions prevailing in those days.
Coolie is thus, a faithful picture of the miseries of the people in pre - independent India. Munoo is the representative of the majority of the poor people in those days. Two essential facts of the Indian village life have been revealed. The rich landlords and the exploited poor working men and peasants are the two chief social classes. The landlord had seized the small piece of land from Munoo's father because he could not pay the interest of the borrowed money. He died in bitterness and disappointment. His mother also died under the strain of over work and anxiety. This incident represents the fate not only of this family but of a lot of poor villagers of those villages. In the same way, Munoo's aunt is a typical village woman of the poor classes. She expresses resentment against Munoo for he now totally depends upon her as his parents have already died. She continuously scolds and abuses him and thus Munoo's plight in his village has been realistically depicted.
After this picture of misery and suffering in the Indian villages, Anand takes us to Sham Nagar. Here Munoo sees a number of amazing sights of the town. He is surprised to see these things. For some time, Munoo feels as if he is walking through a fairy world. Then he is placed at the disposal of Bibiji, a cruel hard hearted lady. Here we are given the most realistic picture of middle class Indian family. Nathoo Ram's strong desire for promotion to the next higher post in the bank, Bibiji's treatment of Munoo, Prem Chand's generous disposition, Sheila's childish desire to play with him while her mother forbids her to play with the domestic servant, all these have been realistically described. In this household, Munoo realises for the first time the truth of his uncle's words that money is everything. Munoo also discovers that there are only two kinds of people in the world the rich and the poor. Even caste does not matter in comparison to money. He notices that his identity is only a servant boy and a poor child while his employer, the Nathoo Ram family are rich people. He is away from his home, quite lonely and desolate but he cannot help himself. Fed up with this troublesome life, he runs away from his employer's home after he is severely beaten. This is the common feature of the Indian social life.
Even in Daulatpur, he feels some relief only for a while and undergoes endless tortures in the pickle factory. He patiently tolerates all this because his kind master Prabha is loving and considerate to him . But the true Indian social picture again is highlighted when Prabha is first deceived and betrayed by his business partner Ganpat, then harassed by his creditors and is finally taken to the police station. He is cruelly beaten by the police at the orders of the police inspector Ram Nath. It is revenge upon him for the misbehaviour of Ganpat. Thus, all this has been most realistically portrayed. Equally realistic picture of the Indian society is the account of the coolies running and crowding for work in the grain market and the vegetable market. Each of the coolies is trying to undersell his services because of the availabilities of the large number of coolies while the work for all of them is not sufficiently available. The episode of the Swami with the young daughter - in - law of an old lady is also quite realistic. The scene at the railway station with large crowds of passengers waiting for the train and a ticket collector getting Prabha and his companion seats for a bribe of eight annas is typically Indian in spirit. From the portrayal of various people in this chapter, the servants Munoo and Tulsi and Prabha and his wife, Ganpat and Sir Todar Mal, the whole panorama of Indian society has been realistically presented. Some represent good while the others are symbolic of evil dwelling side by side in the society. The human and inhuman, the holy and the unholy, are living together which proves that the whole is the cross section of the Indian society, particularly of the India of the British rule.
The Indian landscape has also been perfectly portrayed in the novel. Munoo's train journey from Daulatpur to Bombay central station is quite vivid and realistic. As the train moves, Munoo enjoys the scenes of various stations and the fast changing views are quite vivid before our eyes. Nothing has been missed or overlooked. We feel as if we are travelling through a region where we have never been before. Munoo notices the half-naked village children, people living in mud huts and the glorious regions of heated deserts and the palm forests. Finally when he reaches Bombay, he is dazzled by its glory but at the same time is profoundly disgusted with the inhumanity and heartlessness of the people there. Anand conveys to us most effectively the appalling poverty of such labourers in the city. There are toiling millions of workmen living in filth and slums in spite of their endless toil. So , the miseries and tortures of Hari at the hands of the rich, the workers exploited by mill owners and English officers like Chimta Sahib is the realistic picture of the miserable India of those days. The management has curtailed the working days of the mill and the poor starving workers have to suffer greater poverty. The typically Indian scene of social degradation has been revealed in the incident when the management spreads the rumour that the Muhammadans have kidnapped Hindu children. This results in large scale disturbance and bloodshed in the whole town. This is the most painful state when a large number of innocent people are killed and Munoo also escapes with great difficulty. Sauda also points out the realistic Indian condition when he tells the workers how their capitalist employers selfishly care for their own interest only and treat the workers even worse than the animals.
In the Simla section also, we find the realistic picture of Indian social life. The Anglo - Indians are sexually most corrupt and they have virtually polluted the whole society. Undoubtedly there is no economic exploitation but poor young boys like Munoo frequently fall a victim to the lust of such ladies. Sometimes we feel in this chapter that the realism of Anand is faltering a little and he shows his prejudice against the Anglo Indian women like Mrs. Mainwaring. She keeps Munoo just in the ways of a lover, nurses him in his illness and thus the burden of exploitation is relieved for some time. But the excess of sexual exploitation causes consumption and the lust of Mrs. Mainwaring is directly responsible for it. This aspect of the novel presents a different picture of the social condition of those days in India. This is why the critics say that “Coolie is more like the macrocosm that is Indian society.” It is verily a cross section of India, the visible India, that mixture of the horrible and the holy, the inhuman and human, the sordid and beautiful. The general effect is panoramic, good and evil being thrown together as in actual life. There is no time for us to pause, to think, to judge. A new situation engulfs us at every turn, Munoo is the exploited one all the time and his fate is typical of the fate of the millions of Indians. The novel thus adopts epic dimensions of human misery and a reproduction of Indian life. It acquaints us with the wretchedness, misery and sad plight of millions of Indians.