Mulk Raj Anand as Short Story Writer:A Critical Assessment

Mulk Raj Anand is one of the three major novelists of modern Indian writing in English. Although he was born in Peshawar, he became a part of Allahabad and studied in England even before the independence. He started writing with his first novel Untouchable. Besides writing the novels like Coolie, The Road, he started writing stories more proficiently and continuously. His shorts tires are published in several collections- Lajwanthi and Other Stories, The Corn Goddess and Other Stories and Barber Trade Union and Other Stories etc. In his short stories he described the life of the people in the Indian villages, their troubles and travails. His depiction of character is vivid and he narrates incidents vividly. He has simple technique of narrating in the third person with an eye on the other elements like atmosphere.etc. The dialogue is also an important part of his stories. The raciness of language and his English has the impact of Punjabi, his mother tongue, In his English he uses many Hindi and Punjabi words. His range of social themes is wide-poverty, childhood, corruption, caste discrimination, evils of dowry, marital disharmony, male dominance etc.Thus he proves to be major short story writers in our country.