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SWARNALIPI PEER REVIEWED RERSEARCH JOURNAL
MAY-JULY 2026 ISSUE
Swarnalipi
A Peer Reviewed Research Journal
RNI No.ASSASS/2011/37923
ISSN-2231-0517
Vol 16 Issue 2 May-July, 2026
Title of Research Paper : Multi-layered Subalternity in the Novels Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud by Mulk Raj Anand by Mr. Nazim Uddin, Research Scholar, Department of English, University of Science and Technology of Meghalaya , Email: 72nazimuddin@gmail.com & Dr. Tilock Ch. Saikia, Professor, Depatment of English, University of Science and Technology of Meghalaya
Abstract:
Mulk Raj Anand was one of the most popular Indo-Anglian novelists and he was appreciated, acknowledged and read widely. Anand’s Coolie dealt with the wretched lives of the poor, and of the other people of the oppressed caste. Coolie is the story of an orphan, Munoo, who is inventive, caring and hard working. Mulk Raj Anand’s 1936 novel Coolie, following the protagonist Munoo’s journey through several interlocking oppressive systems in colonial India, creates a complex and multi-layered picture of subalternity. A nuanced perspective is provided by Anand’s 1936 novel Coolie, which depicts the complex, multi-layered subalternity of the protagonist Munoo as she navigates through several intersecting oppressive systems in colonial India. Mulk Raj Anand’s novel Two Leaves and a Bud (1937) foreground the intersections of colonial exploitation, capitalist greed, feudal tyranny and female vulnerability. This article is about the multi-layered subalternity in Mulk Raj Anand’s novels Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud. The novel focuses on Gangu, a Punjabi farmer, and other Assamese tea plantation labourers, who are portrayed as “doubly colonized” or “multi-layered” victims—oppressed by Indian middlemen, British planters, and conventional societal systems. Mulk Raj Anand, one of the most well-known Indo-Anglian novelists, had works widely praised, acknowledged, and read.
Key words: Double colonization, marginalized class, Mulk Raj Anand, Colonial India, Oppression, Coolie, Subalternity.
Introduction:
Through his prolific literary production, Anand became a voice for the marginalized and voiceless. His largest novels feature characters who are outcastes by caste or class. In Anand’s imaginary society, untouchable sweepers, oppressed coolies, debt-ridden farmers, pitiful labourers and mistreated women play important roles. He chose real people he knew well as a child to be his heroes. They are ostracised in one form or another. He writes about their lives, problems, hardships and battle for identity and survival. Coolie was written by Anand in the year 1936. Anand in Coolie has spoken of the miserable lives of the marginalized class or the poor, and in Untouchable he has expressed the agony of the marginalized caste. Coolie is the story of Munoo, an orphaned boy, who is inventive, caring and hardworking. But he also suffers from lack of love and social harassment. Unlike Bakha, he does not belong to a marginalized caste. Munoo is a member of the underprivileged section of society. Munoo is just another example of the rich always pushing the poor to the sidelines. The story is about the hardships of Munoo as a hill boy. Bakha thinks all his troubles are because of his caste. To Munoo, his poverty is the root of all his problems. Coolie and most of Anand’s books begin with the character Munoo ohe Munooa oh Mundu! sings Munoo’s aunt, her high soprano resounding across the valleys at the beginning of the book. Munoo’s journey begins from a small village of the Kangra Valley where he stays with his uncle and aunt after the loss of his parents (Coolie 1). Munoo, being a burden, is forcibly dragged by his uncle to Shampur to serve as a servant in Babu’s home. Here begins Munoo’s odyssey of unending misery. Munoo’s life is similar to Gangu’s in many respects in Two Leaves and a Bud. Gangu starts for Assam with the firm resolution of making his living. In this situation Munoo is compelled to work. In Two Leaves and a Bud, Buta promises Gangu a better, happier life with decent pay and fair treatment from the owners. Munoo’s uncle also makes false promises to him in Coolie. “Here you will be looked after,” his uncle Ramnath tells him reassuringly. There will be no scarcity of food in this house. The Babu also promised to give us three rupees per month. Don’t forget to give the masters your best. Much like Gangu’s (Coolie 14), Munoo’s hopes are dashed after reaching the tea estate in Assam. You are their servant and they are good people. Munoo comes face to face with reality and discovers that things are not as his uncle had promised. He does not get enough food or the proper treatment. “He sleeps in the kitchen corners.”
Munoo had passed the night curled up in a corner of Babu Nathoo Ram’s kitchen, Anand said. He was overtired, and sleep does not come to the weary, so his night was troubled. And yet, with all those ventilator-like holes along its narrow length and width, he’d been given a tattered, old brown blanket. His tunic was soaked with sweat. The insects had bit him many times all night, and had complained in his ears. The severest test of Munoo is Bibiji, Babu Nathoo Ram’s wife, who is always scolding him. A swarm of flies buzzed about him, settling on his face and making a noisy and irritating commotion. He is constantly being sworn at, threatened and warned. Words like “you eater of your masters”, “shameless brute”, “dog”, “vulgar stupid hillboy”, “an utter brute”, “a savage”, “son of bitch”, “unveiled brute”, “monkey”, and “owl”, humiliate Munoo. He is always ill-treated, like Bakha in Untouchable. Munoo is told about his position and poverty every time he leaves the kitchen and enters another room. This is the kitchen where you belong. You are not eligible to participate in the children and chota babu sports. Soon you have to do the housework. There is no time to lose. “We hired you to help us with the housework, not to procrastinate.” You are being paid well. That is more money than you have ever seen in your entire village life, more money than your parents have ever seen. Bakha suffers due to his caste, Munoo suffers due to his class, his poverty and his poor status due to his poverty. You should put minimal effort for it. It would be a good idea. Bibiji nags him all the time but he does all the work.
As soon as he has finished one job, Bibiji points him to another. He has a good meal after he has finished all his work. Bibiji is an orthodox Hindu, and follows her notions of purity. Munoo is not a lower caste person, but he shares Bakha’s ideas of ‘pollution’ and ‘touch’. Bakha takes bread as Munoo takes food from Bibiji. When he came back, Anand says, Bibiji served him two chapattis and a spoonful of lentils and vegetables. He was considered too low to be allowed to eat on the utensils, so was made to eat on his hands. The insult stung him. Munoo is made a slave from a lively youngster at the home of Babu. He had become a servant who must do all the odd jobs and be ill-treated, even beaten. Munoo loses both his identity and his innocence.
Mulk Raj Anand’s novel Coolie, which follows the protagonist Munoo as she navigates multiple intertwining oppressive systems in colonial India, paints a nuanced, multi-layered picture of subalternity. Munoo is a victim of economic poverty, but also of colonialism, caste, class and finally the “nomenclatural violence” of being reduced to a “coolie” (a dehumanized labourer). The novel opens in the hills where traditional social hierarchies and economic inequality (the landlord-tenant relationship) rob the rural poor of a voice. Coolie’s multi-layered subalternity is represented in multiple realms.
Objectives:
· The article talks of the intersectional oppression of class, caste and colonial imperialism that constitutes a system of multi-layered subalternity.
· It discusses the economic displacement of individuals in Coolie and the plantation as a “total institution” in Two Leaves and a Bud.
· Considers gendered subalternity and the role of native elites in exploiting the underclass.
· It examines Anand’s literary humanism as a political intervention against colonial and nationalist narratives.
Methodology and Research:
This qualitative research methodology framework analyzes multi-layered subalternity in Mulk Raj Anand’s novels Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud. It utilizes postcolonial, Marxist, and subaltern studies frameworks. This study employs a qualitative, text-centered research design rooted in critical textual analysis and hermeneutics. It operates within the theoretical frameworks of Subaltern Studies (Antonio Gramsci, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Ranajit Guha) and Marxist literary criticism. The design is conceptual rather than empirical. It focuses on decoding the socio-economic, political, and cultural layers of oppression depicted in Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937).The primary data consists of the complete textual corpus of the two selected novels Coolie (1936) Two Leaves and a Bud (1937) by Mulk Raj Anand. To systematically analyze “multi-layered subalternity,” the study synthesizes three main theoretical axes like Economic Subalternity (Marxist Critique) Social and Institutional Subalternity (Post-colonial & Subaltern Studies and Gendered Subalternity (Spivakian Feminism). Language of dehumanization used by upper-caste characters or British colonizers against the protagonists.The transition from rural spaces to oppressive, enclosed industrial/plantation spaces (e.g., the Macpherson Tea Estate, the Bombay pickle factory). Moments where subaltern characters are denied speech, legal recourse, or agency.The study utilizes Qualitative Thematic Analysis combined with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The analysis follows five distinct phases:
· Familiarization: Repeated close reading of both novels to understand narrative arcs and systemic power dynamics.
· Coding: Generating open codes for every instance of marginalization, subjugation, and resistance.
· Theme Generation: Grouping codes into overarching “layers” of subalternity (e.g., Colonial-Capitalist Alliance, Internalized Caste Hegemony, Intersectional Patriarchy).
· Cross-Textual Comparative Analysis: Comparing how subalternity functions for an individual, mobile labourer (Coolie) versus a displaced, collective community of labourers (Two Leaves and a Bud).
· Synthesis: Evaluating how Anand’s socialist-realist aesthetic style.
Main Discussion:
This article assesses how marginalized groups are deprived of agency and historical voice using Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s ideas on marginalization and Antonio Gramsci’s concept of the “subaltern”. Ittraces the changes from medieval agrarianism to industrial capitalism using Marxist economic theory, looking at how class exploitation is fueled by the commodification of human labour. An intersectional framework to examine how manyoppressive factors, such as colonial imperialism, traditional caste systems, and socio economic class, has been used combine to create am atrix of dominance. In order to find narrative patterns, recurrent themes, character arcs, and dialogue that demonstrate systemic oppr ession. His essay closely examines both novels, places the literary narratives within the mater ial realities of 1930s colonial India by contrasting Munoo’s fluid, urban subalternity in Coolie with Gangu and Leila’s static, spatially constrained plantation subalternity in Two Leaves and a Bud. Anand’s fiction is cross referenced with historical background. It accounts of industrial mills indentured labour on tea estates.
The reputable text versions o f Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie (1936) and Two Leaves and a Bud (1937) classifies textual data into three distinct subalternity layers: political (colonial law/state violence), patriarchal violence), and economic (wage slavery/debt bondage) decoding the chain of comma ndand exploitation by cha rting the connectionsbetween native comprador middlemen, European overs social (caste discrimination/drawing eers, and subaltern labourers, conclusions n how Anand’s literary humanism serves as a purposeful political intervention against myths of elite Indian nationalism and British imperialism.
Munoo’s poverty and low caste limit his prospects to submissive roles. Munoo is affected by “colonial capitalism” as he moves to urban centers such as Daulatpur, Bombay, and Shimla. He is employed in a cotton mill in Bombay where there is a ‘new and crueller social stratification’ in which local factory owners and British business interests collaborate to exploit the working class. Munoo signifies the “muteness” of the subaltern who is often unable to express his pain or change his fate in a society that sees him only as a source of labour. His lot is described as the universal condition of the “starving millions of India” and his struggle is contextualized in terms of a “proletariat” oppressed by both foreign and indigenous elites. The subalternity of the book is visceral as well as economic. Munoo is subjected to daily degradation of his psyche, which robs him of his humanity and dignity, and physical abuse, “kicking and beating” to enforce discipline. Gender only makes it worse. The sexual abuse and exploitation of the female characters in the book and male subalterns are from time to time in the feudal and capitalist patriarchal regimes. Coolie is, after all, seen as a “densely layered palimpsest,” in which Munoo’s journey foregrounds the coming together of a number of structures of dominance (colonialism, patriarchy, caste and capital) to produce a totalizing sense of marginality. Two Leaves and a Bud by Mulk Raj Anand is a masterpiece of literature. Anand’s portrayal of Munoo’s private agony is transformed into a wider critique of a structural incapacity to afford the poor dignity. The central quote of the novel is the statement of Dr. John De Le Havre, “There is nothing more horrible in this universe than the cruelty of man to man.” (Anand, M. p. 119)
Mulk Raj Anand’s Two Leaves and a Bud (1937) presents subalternity in several layers through the interstices of feudal tyranny, capitalist greed, colonial exploitation and gendered vulnerability. The novel deals with the story of Gangu, a Punjabi farmer, and the other Assamese tea plantation workers who are “doubly colonized” or “multi-layered” victims, oppressed by Indian middlemen, British planters, and conventional societal systems. The novel, Two Leaves and a Bud portrays colonial and economic subalternity. The tea estate is shown as a close, repressive society where the coolies are caged and isolated, working under a sort of feudal slavery masquerading as work. At the top of the hierarchy are British planters and administrators like Croft-Cooke and Reggie Hunt, who see the native workers as inferior subjects to be controlled and exploited for money. Workers like Gangu come to the plantation with the false hope of a better life only to be caught in the trap of debt, squalor and poor wages (less than eight annas). The subalternity is not just British versus Indian. It is arranged as follows: Indian officials such as Buta Ram, a recruitment agent, abuse the workers to gain their own privileged position, creating a degree of internal, indigenous exploitation; British planters; lower-grade officials (clerk Shashi Bhushan); warders/recruiters (Neogi, Buta Ram); and schools (Gangu); There are more levels of exploitation for Native women. They are the victims of patriarchal savagery and imperial rule. Reggie Hunt’s attempted rape of Gangu’s daughter Leila is a case in point, which marks the white planter’s attempt to claim female characters for sexual advances and the ultimate vulnerability of the female subaltern. The novel Two Leaves and a Bud emphasizes social and caste based marginalisation. Gangu’s pain is primarily economic (poor) rather than caste-based like Bakha in Untouchable, but he is still on the margins, having lost his land and status. The subalterns have no voice, no access to justice. In the legal system Reggie Hunt’s protects the perpetrators, resulting in Gangu’s beating and death. The main theme of Two Leaves and a Bud is the exploitation of tea labourers, in all its forms, by British masters and Indian managers. The book paints a “heart-rending” picture of marginalised labourers whose suffering is absolute because it is the result of the combined forces of imperialism, capitalism and social inequality. Masters despise, maltreat and abuse their servants, and abuse their wives and daughters for their own selfish ends. Reggie Hunt, the assistant manager, is approached by servants who want to grow crops on the land of their wives or daughters. The book graphically portrays a number of humanitarian souls in the narrative, especially Le Havre and Miss Barbara, who promised help, as against the ruthless exploiters of the same origin, Gangu for giving him land to cultivate. “Yes, I will do that. Of course you should have land; it is part of the contract of every labourer that when he comes here he will get land to grow rice on. I will see that the contract is enforced,” – he tells Gangu.
People have difficulty believing that a British doctor would be so direct. To show the difference between positive and negative interpersonal relationships, Anand has created this graphic. Since arriving in this country, the doctor has rebelled against the idea of British greatness as perceived by Anglo India, Anand says. At first it could have been a need to be different and stand out from the masses. Then the sentimental romantic in him would like to make a brave move to persuade himself that he had really come to see Indians as human beings and that they had the right to rule themselves, but to do so justly, eliminating the disparities of caste, class, and creed. This is the reason he had resigned from the Imperial Medical Service. In this book Miss Barbara considers the cunningness of Europeans. She is a friend of mankind. A sympathetic humanitarian attitude tempered the relations between the coolie and Miss Barbara. The third buddy of humanity is Narain, who checks out the realities of the tea fields in front of Gangu. He tells the new coolie, Gangu, about the planters’ cruelty to the unfortunate coolies. He tells Gangu the truth about Reggie Hunt.
As the story progresses, Gangu learns from Narain how the coolies get land. He is a man who enjoys developing positive, sympathetic relationships with people. Gangu believes that man has enormous potential to change society, so he encourages his fellow workers to put in a lot of effort because, “after all, men are better men when they are working than when they are idle.” Indian labourers are brutally exploited, overworked and underpaid.
Moreover, the Englishmen become suspicious of the intentions and behaviour of most of the Indians. Every employee on the tea plantations they see as a potential troublemaker. A few European men own and run all the tea estates of India, all in the singular pursuit of making money. The desire for wealth and power never wanes in imperial Britain.
The result is that millions of Indian coolies are eventually ground to death and forced to live in subhuman conditions. Gangu is a good example of this kind of British exploitation in the novel. The owners of the tea plantations do not care a bit about the welfare of the workers. Worst of all they think the only way to keep these wretched workers in proper shape is to flog them. They are trying to intimidate these workers so as to stop any kind of movement or insurrection. They eat, they drink, they make merry, while the Indian labourers work for them.
Outcomes:
· The research establishes that subalternity in Mulk Raj Anand’s novels extends beyond caste to include economic exploitation, portraying subjects as “doubly colonized” by colonial and native structures.
· Anand’s novels portray subalternity as a complex, two-pronged system where characters experience either fluid, urban exploitation or static, institutionalized confinement within tea estates. .
· Key outcomes include the identification of linguistic violence, the illusion of capitalist mobility for labourers, and the depiction of the tea plantation as a “total institution” of bondage.
Conclusion:
In the end, Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie and Two Leaves and a Bud create a profound, tragic ana tomy of human slavery rather than just narrating tales of personal misery. Anand shows that subalternity is never a single burden through Munoo’s gasping flight across a broken India and Gangu’s terrible imprisonment within the lush prison of the Assam tea farms. Rather, it is a suffocating web made of the silent horrors of patriarchal violence, the brutal currency of capital is the greed, the old constraints of caste, and the iron threads of colonial racism. The subaltern is trapped at a terrible crossroads in these social realism masterpieces, with each master blocking their way out. Anand offers a scathing humanitarian critique that transcends his historical period by charting these overlapping lavers of oppression. He reminds us that eliminating one oppressor while keeping the rest of the apparatus in place would not lead to true emancipation. Reading Anand now is like hearing the eerie, silent cries of the forgotten workers of history calling for the radical destruction of the systems that enslave people in addition to our sympathy.
Reference:
· Anand M. (1983). Two Leaves and a Bud. Arnold Heinemann Publisher. New Delhi. p. 133, Print.
· Anand M. (1985). Coolie. Arnold Heinemann Publishers, New Delhi. p. 130 Sharma. K. (1978.).”Why I Write”, IndoEnglish Literature, (Ed.). Vimal Prakashan, Ghaziabad. p.10, Print.
· Anand, M. (1983), Two Leaves and a Bud, New Delhi, Arnold it., pp. 137 Anand, M. (1955), Two Leaves and a Bud, pp. 1-8 George, C. (2000), Print.
· Anand Mulk Raj, His Art and Concerns. Atlantic Publisher, New Delhi. p. 58, Print.
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(Address: Research Scholar, Department of English University of Science and Technology of Meghalaya , Contact : 9101130215)