Treatment of Human Rights in Select Novels of Mulk Raj Anand PG & Research Department of

203 Pages·2014·1.28 MB·English

Treatment of Human Rights in Select Novels of
Mulk Raj Anand

Dissertation submitted to Bharathidasan University,
in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in English

submitted by

S. Azariah Kirubakaran
Ref.No.20138/Ph.D2/English/P.T./Re-Reg./April 2012

under the guidance of

Dr. T. Jayakumar
Associate Professor of English

PG & Research Department of English
Periyar EVR College (Autonomous)
Tiruchirappalli – 620 023

April 2014
Dr. T. Jayakumar, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Department of English
Periyar EVR College (Autonomous)
Tiruchirappalli- 620 023.

Certificate

This is to certify that the thesis entitled Treatment of Human Rights in
Select Novels of Mulk Raj Anand submitted by S.Azariah Kirubakaran to the
Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English is his original work, based
on the investigation carried out independently by him during the period of study under
my guidance and supervision.

(Dr. T.Jayakumar)
Research Adviser
S. Azariah Kirubakaran
Ph.D. Scholar
Periyar EVR College (Autonomous)
Tiruchirappalli- 620 023.

Declaration

I, S.Azariah Kirubakaran, the Research Scholar, hereby declare that the
dissertation entitled Treatment of Human Rights in Select Novels of Mulk Raj
Anand is a record of first hand research work done by me during my course period
between 2006 and 2014, under the guidance of Dr. T. Jayakumar, M.A., M.Phil.,
B.Ed., Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, PG & Research Department of English,
Periyar EVR College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli – 620023 and it has not formed
the basis for any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or any other similar title.

Tiruchirappalli
Date: S.Azariah Kirubakaran
Preface
Mulk Raj Anand is one of the best Indian novelists whose span covers over a
period of four decades. As a humanist and a socialist, Anand is against superstitions,
casteism, capitalism, exploitations, colonialism etc., He condemns the barriers that
disturb the happiness and comfort of human beings. According to him, all people must
have liberty and equality. Anand stresses the need for the emancipation of the ordinary
people from the clutches of untouchability and other social ills. The real humanness lies
in the treatment of all the people with compassion and pity. Anand plays the role of an
educator, reformer and crusader against exploitation and inhuman ill-treatment of a
downtrodden people. Many individuals face with gross human rights problems such as
torture, hunger, discrimination and the like. As a writer, Anand addresses the social
problems in all their aspects.
The study aims to create a link between fiction and human rights principles.
This study is to increase the education of human rights and to improve human rights
practices that are set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through the
novels of Mulk Raj Anand . The link between the literary art and human rights is
profound touching almost every epoch and every society on earth. Therefore it is high
time to learn Human Rights principles through literature.
First of all, I thank God Almighty for His blessings in my life.
With a sense of gratitude, I recall the assistance bestowed on me by many well-
wishers.
Special thanks are due to my guide Dr. T. Jayakumar, Associate Professor of
English, Periyar EVR College (Autonomous) Tiruchirappalli for his advice and
guidance in transforming the ideas into an academic piece of work. He guided my
research with critical insights and scholarly concern. I thank him for his magnanimity
and patience to go through my thesis and offer his valuable suggestions. Without his
constant encouragement and enlightenment, I may not have completed my research.
I am deeply indebted to my Principal Dr. D. Paul Dhayabaran, Bishop Heber
College for his constant support to complete my thesis.
I express my gratitude to Prof. K. Tamilmani, Principal i/c, Periyar E.V.R.
College, for granting permission to pursue my research.
I am thankful to Prof. William John Bosco, Head Department of English,
Periyar EVR college for his kind support.
I thank Dr. A. Dastageer, Associate Professor, Jamal Mohamed College, for
having encouraged me as a Doctoral Committee member.
The good advice, support and friendship of Dr. C. Dhanabal have been
invaluable at academic and personal level, for which I am extremely grateful. I am
indebted to him for his careful reading of my first draft.
I thank Prof. Baby Eliammal for her encouragement throughout my research.
The library facilities and internet facilities of Bishop Heber College have been
indispensable to my research work. I profoundly thank the Librarian of Bishop Heber
College Dr. Jesudoss Manalan for his support and the ambience of our library.
I thank Prof. D. Jayachandran, former Head of the Department of English,
Jamal Mohamed College for proof reading my thesis carefully.
I thank my colleague Mr. Kaviarasu for his timely help and support during the
final phase of my research work.
A special word of thanks to Dr. Krishnan for his direction on the right path.
I thank my student Mr.Vijay Sankar for designing the cover page.
I am grateful to my wife J.Jeneeth who has been a great support to me
throughout. She did a lot of work on the Computer for my thesis.
My daughters Divina and Delighta always cheer me whenever I am in distress.
They have been my emotional strength at all times. They have personally endured my
long hours on the computer and at the library.
My family has eagerly awaited the completion of my thesis. I am grateful to my
parents, S. Sathia Samuel and D. Mary Anushoy for their love and unconditional
support. I am deeply touched by their love and concern.
I thank my sisters S. Plantina and S. Persis, my brothers-in-law A. Selvin and
W. Paul, for encouragement and support in one way or the other to complete the
research successfully.
I register my thanks to Uncle John and Aunt Kala for their loving support.
I extend my thanks to J. Irin sister-in-law for constantly goading me to complete this
task.
Finally, I dedicate this work to my family and well wishers.
Contents

Chapter Title Page No.
Certificate
Declaration
Preface
A Note on Documentation
I Introduction 1
II Child Rights in Untouchable and Coolie 45
Labour Rights in Two Leaves and a Bud and The Big
III 90
Heart
Women Rights in The Old Woman and the Cow and Seven
IV 130
Summers
V Conclusion 178
Works Cited 192
A Note on Documentation

In this process of writing the thesis on the basis of various sources, the
following abbreviations have been used. Their expansion is given below.

U Untouchable
C Coolie
TLB Two Leaves and a Bud
BH The Big Heart
OWC The Old Women and the Cow
SS Seven Summers
MF Morning Face
UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
ILO International Labour Organization
ILS International Labour Standards
Introduction

Man is the future of man, or as William Wordsworth averred: “The child is
the father of man”. Sartre in his defence of existentialism has said “My atheist
existentialism is rather coherent. It declares that God does not exist, yet there is still
a being in whom existence precedes essence, a being which exists before being
defined by any concept and this being is man or as Heidegger puts it, “human
reality” (Sartre n.p.). This definition of ‘man’ or ‘human reality’ propagates that
man first exists, encounters himself and emerges in the world, to be defined
afterwards. It suggests that it is man who conceives himself, who propels himself
towards existence. Man becomes nothing other than what actually he is and not what
he wants to be. If man is the future of man, he takes the responsibility for himself
i.e. his choices are responsible for all men. The personal responsibility of man is
vast, because it embraces all humanity.
Man deserves the right to exist as an independent agent of his own destiny.
However, materialism treats men as objects. Though men want to create a human
kingdom of values distinct from the material world, the demands of ‘the collective
power’, hierarchy, dominant society has conclusively shifted from being ‘human’ to
being less than ‘human’. Thus, it is not possible to find in each man the universal
essence called human nature.
Man deserves freedom. It is his right. It has become a problem because it
forces the individuals to take responsibility for their actions and to confront the
world on their own terms called as ‘individuality’. The English critic Isaiah Berlin
argues: “I think convincingly, that the cult of individuality that has evolved in the
west since the time of the Enlightenment has engendered totalitarian movements,
2

movements that have harnessed the ‘collective power’ of the individuals against
those who seemed less than ‘human’” (Literarism n.p.).
As a consequence basic human rights have been taken away from men who
are marginalized in the social process. Marginalization is an unfair or unjust
treatment of minority or minorities and weaker individuals or groups by the majority
or stronger group of the rest of the society for the supposed benefit of the stronger
group or groups of that society concerned. On the other hand, as a result of the
industrial revolution, a few wealthy individuals who start and run a factory or own a
mine deny basic human rights to a large number of people who are employed as
labourers. The concept of human rights clearly enlarges the scope of freedom, but
the absence of human rights condemns man to marginalization in society. Human
rights always imply a social dimension because human freedom can unfold only in
relation to fellow men and women. Johnson Glen in Human Rights Theory and
Measurement sums up the different dimensions of the human right
conceptualization:
a. Whether rights claims are based on status as an individual human
being or status as a member of some community of group of
persons;
b. The extent to which differential treatment of persons is permitted
on grounds of achievements and ascription;
c. The emphasis on rights compared with duties or obligations and
the extent to which rights and duties are thought to be
independent;
d. The emphasis on so called economic and social rights compared
with the emphasis on civil and political rights, sometimes