ANAND’S THE ROAD: A DALIT PERSPECTIVE (Pages 33-41) by Ms. Pranayaja in THE ENGLISH INDIA / ISSN: 2321-1172 (Online); 2347-2634 (Print)

Anand’s novels have been the means of giving form and utterances to the hopes and desires, enthusiasm and sympathy and the thrills of joy and stab of pain of the time. Anand claims to be a realist. Without being a realist the true image of the place, period and people cannot be presented. Anand evinces a keen interest in the eradication of social evils and his novels are artistic attempts to arouse the slumbering conscience of the poor and the exploited, the froth and scum of society. He led a crusade against those who took devilish pleasure in sucking the life blood of the underdog. After a long interval of twenty six years (after the publication of Untouchable), Anand again dealt with the theme of untouchability in The Road published in 1961. In this novel the novelist is aware of the social and political changes that have taken place. Anand has a specific preoccupation in The Road. His main emphasis as a social reformer is to lay emphasis upon mass action and collective transformation. Anand narrates the story of Bhikhu and his Dalit friends who build road for the government and come into conflict with caste Hindus who do not want to touch the stones defiled by the so called Chammars. Dhooli Singh with his progressive views helps them. But Thakur Singh opposes him. In the end, Bikhu runs to Delhi to escape untouchability. The road, in the novel, is a symbol of progress and prosperity. In Untouchable, Bakha returns home to give out the message of hope offered by the modern machine to his community. Bikhu, on the other hand, seeks salvation only for himself and escapes into modernity. In these two novels Anand confines himself only to the theme of social outcastes.nand’s novels have been the means of giving form and utterances to the hopes and desires, enthusiasm and sympathy and the thrills of joy and stab of pain of the time. Anand claims to be a realist. Without being a realist the true image of the place, period and people cannot be presented. Anand evinces a keen interest in the eradication of social evils and his novels are artistic attempts to arouse the slumbering conscience of the poor and the exploited, the froth and scum of society. He led a crusade against those who took devilish pleasure in sucking the life blood of the underdog. After a long interval of twenty six years (after the publication of Untouchable), Anand again dealt with the theme of untouchability in The Road published in 1961. In this novel the novelist is aware of the social and political changes that have taken place. Anand has a specific preoccupation in The Road. His main emphasis as a social reformer is to lay emphasis upon mass action and collective transformation. Anand narrates the story of Bhikhu and his Dalit friends who build road for the government and come into conflict with caste Hindus who do not want to touch the stones defiled by the so called Chammars. Dhooli Singh with his progressive views helps them. But Thakur Singh opposes him. In the end, Bikhu runs to Delhi to escape untouchability. The road, in the novel, is a symbol of progress and prosperity. In Untouchable, Bakha returns home to give out the message of hope offered by the modern machine to his community. Bikhu, on the other hand, seeks salvation only for himself and escapes into modernity. In these two novels Anand confines himself only to the theme of social outcastes.Keywords: Untouchability, Progress, Prosperity, Modernity, Outcastes.