The article discusses the portrayal of the sufferings of the poor and the downtrodden in Mulk Raj Anand?s Untouchable. The sufferings of the poor and the dalits have been a familiar sight in India throughout the ages. The exploitation of the Dalits assumes various shapes ? social, physical, financial, moral as well as psychological. The conditions of the life of the untouchables are realistically portrayed without inflammation or exaggeration. Not only the distinction and gulf between the high caste Hindus and the untouchables are made clear in this novel, but also the superiority ? inferiority complex among the members of the low caste themselves. Anand has located the protagonist, Bakha, in a fixed reality in the hope of capturing the essence of the sweeper?s existence. In the novel, the temple priest, Pandit Kali Nath treats Sohini, Bakha?s sister like the lowdown girlhood to be molested with impurity. At that time he forgets that Sohini belongs to an untouchable class and he tries to fulfill his sexual desire. Anand tries to show injustice and exploitation with dalits in his novel Untouchable by giving many examples, such as the dalits could not sit with high caste people, they themselves could not draw water from the well, they could not go to schools for education, they got their food collected being thrown at them from the top of the house and so on.
Research Scholar, Department of English, Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya
