Coolie as a Picaresque Novel

Edwin Muir says, "The picaresque novel is the tale of the hard-working travelling hero, suffering every vicissitude, good or bad, and enduring them all.” Coolie has several elements of a picaresque novel. It is episodic in nature. It relates to a series of adventures and episodes but lacks logical unity. The novelist has shown the adventures of Munoo because he moves from the North to the South, and then returns to the North. It describes his adventures or misadventures in Sham Nagar, in Daulatpur, in Bombay and in the end, in Simla where he breathes his last.

Firstly, he is appointed as a domestic servant in Babu Nathoo Ram’s house in Sham Nagar and he is ill-treated there and then runs away from Sham Nagar. He then reaches Daulatpur and works as a boy servant in a pickle factory and then he serves as a coolie in the grain market. Next, the turn of fortune’s wheel brings him to Bombay where he works in a textile mill and experiences the worse conditions of the coolies, communal riots, drinks and even goes to the red light area. Lastly, he comes to Simla and is appointed as a domestic servant-cum rickshaw puller of Mrs Mainwaring and dies of consumption.

      The novel Coolie is charged with a loose and rambling plot. The only unity that these adventures have is that they happen to the central figure, Munoo. Coolie is not a novel of character like a picaresque novel, but it is a novel of movement and action. The novelist does not take an interest in the evolution of Munoo’s character; he simply gives a description of the various phases in his life and the adventures and happenings which take place in his life.

Anand never speaks of Munoo’s inner and spiritual developments, he never attains maturity or self-realisation. He wanders here and there without any goal in his life. In fact, he does not act but he is acted upon by society Munoo spends his life visiting one place to another and within two years of a hard life, he passes away. He moves from Bilaspur, his village to Sham Nagar and from there to Daulatpur, from Daulatput to Bombay and lastly returns from there to Simla. At every turn of his life, he meets someone and is helped by him. The persons who come into his life are mostly kind-hearted and sympathetic, and his future course of action is determined by chance and fate.

      A picaresque novel deals with a wide variety of events and characters. The canvas of Coolie is a crowded one, so Anand has little time for character development, for giving us well-developed, three-dimensional, remarkable figures. In the life of Munoo, a great number of characters appear but soon they are replaced by others. Over time, when Munoo ends his Sham Nagar sojourn, his uncle, Daya Ram, his master Nathoo Ram, Bibiji and others are not heard of. Their place is taken by Prabha Dyal, the pickle factory owner, his wife, Parbati and the co-partners of the factory Ganpat, Toder Mal, and others. When Munoo leaves Daulatpur for Bombay these characters are left behind. While living in Bombay he comes across Hari Har, his wife, Lakshmi, Ratan, Jimmie Thomas, the foreman of the factory and many others. These characters also make an exit from the scene when he comes from Bombay to Simla. After that, no characters are again seen on the stage. What happens to Hari and his family and Ratan is not further stated. There is not a single character save Munoo who is present from the beginning to the end of the novel.

      A picaresque novel is panoramic in nature. Through the movement of the hero from one place to another, the novelist presents a wide panorama of social life i.e. it relates to social criticism and social indictment. Coolie is also a panoramic novel. Its action moves from the village of Bilaspur in the hills of Kangra, in Punjab to Sham Nagar, from Sham Nagar to Daulatpur, from Daulatpur to Bombay, and then back again from there to Simla in the North. Thus, the novelist gives a wide view of the varied scenes and sights of India.

      Anand’s purpose in writing a novel like Coolie as a picaresque novel is to give a panorama of the society of the times and to expose and criticize its many evils and vices, and injustices. Indeed a picaresque novel is a novel of social criticism. Anand through his great art Coolie gives us a comprehensive and detailed view of the society of the time. He has concentrated on the sordid side of life.

      In a nutshell, Coolie contains the elements of a picaresque novel. In fact, it has the picaresque framework—its series of adventures, its diversity of characters and incidents and its episodic nature. Coolie is only different from a picaresque novel as its hero is not a rogue, but a humble, and innocent boy who has been the victim of the world’s rogueries.