34 pages • 1 hour read
Mulk Raj AnandUntouchable
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Hockey Stick
The hockey stick that Charat Singh gives to Bakha symbolizes tolerance and generosity, even from a member of the upper caste. After Charat Singh promises to give Bakha the gift, Bakha fixates on the hockey stick throughout the day. No matter how mistreated he is, a Brahmin—and a famous athlete—has promised to give him a gift. The hockey stick is a symbol of hope and kindness, traits that are further reinforced when Charat Singh invites Bakha into his home and allows him to touch his possessions. The moments after receiving Singh's kindness are the only ones in the novel that Bakha spends in pure pleasure.
However, the hockey stick also becomes a reminder of Bakha's inequality. He joins the hockey game, eager to show off his new equipment. After the wealthy boy is wounded by a thrown rock during the brawl, his mother is abusive to Bakha, who is only trying to help. By trying to use the gift that Singh gave to him, Bakha joins the game and is forced to acknowledge the difference in the status of himself and the other boys.
Clothing
Clothing is a symbol of status for Bakha. After becoming enamored of the British, Bakha tries to dress like them. He no longer enjoys wearing the traditional Indian dhoti, and begins saving whatever money he can to buy trousers so that he will look more like the white soldiers. If he resembles the whites, he hopes that he will eventually be treated with more respect. His allegiance to the British extends to their disdain for gaudy jewelry, and Bakha transforms from someone who loves his mother's gaudy rings to someone who hates them and would never deign to wear such an ornament.
When Colonel Huchison speaks to Bakha later in the novel, Bakha is not only surprised that the white man is talking to him, but also that a man in trousers is willing to speak to an Untouchable. Moreover, Hutchison speaks to him in his native language, representing the appropriation of native culture by whites for their own ends: to convert, Christianize, and therefore obliterate Indian culture.
Gandhi
Gandhi appears only briefly in the novel, but the way he is discussed shows that he has become a symbol of many different things in India, depending on who is discussing him. He is referred to as a fool, a child, an angel, a hero, a savior, a devil, and more. For the Untouchables, Gandhi is a symbol of hope that their status and lives can change for the better. Gandhi focuses on the plight of the Untouchables in his speech and urges them to continue to improve their lives and demand respect. In this way, he is a symbol of reform. For the attorney, however, Gandhi is a symbol of naïveté and ingratitude. He sees Gandhi as naïve because he knows how difficult and unlikely it is to overturn a tradition with as lengthy as history as the caste system.
Sohini's Beauty
Bakha both admires and regrets his sister's beauty. When her body begins to mature, he sees the way that men begin to watch her, and he knows that she will be given away to a husband, desired simply because of her physical attributes. He is envious at times that Sohini is able to command positive attention—or at least, the appearance of it—because of the way she looks. She is a symbol of the lower status that women occupy in India's culture of the time, when marriages are arranged and girls are given to their husbands as if they are property. At the same time, it is certain Sohini will be given to another Untouchable, perpetuating the cycle of oppression.
Sohini's beauty becomes the catalyst for Bakha's transition into anger and resentment at the temple. He knows that it is irrational to blame her for the priest's actions, and he feels protective of her. When he sees that he cannot fight back against the man who assaulted his sister, Sohini's beauty becomes a symbol, for him, of the futility of the Untouchable's resistance.
