A pioneer of Indian English literature and a man whose interests encompassed diverse fields, Anand was the voice of the marginalised

MULK RAJ ANAND 1905-2004

When Mulk Raj Anand, regarded as the founding father of the Indian English novel, passed away last week, the 99-year-old writer left behind a rich legacy of ideas and thoughts that sum up his prolific life and works. For students of Indian English literature Anand was always a grand old figure. Eminent novelist, short story writer and art critic. Born in Peshawar, studied and lectured in India and abroad. Worked as a scriptwriter and broadcaster in BBC's London film division during World War II. Among the first writers to use Punjabi and Hindustani parlance in English. Founder of Marg, one of the first fine arts magazines of India. Recipient of many awards, including the Sahitya Akademi literary prize and the Padma Bhushan. And all that is just a fraction of the achievements of the man who created a new idiom for Indian English literature, almost half a century before Salman Rushdie dreamed in the colloquial diction.

Anand's involvement with the pen started early. His writing career began in England in the late 1920s with short notes on books in T.S. Eliot's magazine Criterion, which led to his acquaintance with Herbert Read and Henry Miller. He wrote his first prose as a response to the suicide of an aunt who had been excommunicated for dining with a Muslim woman. But it was his first novel, Untouchable (1935), that rewrote his introduction. This time in a single line. That and Coolie (1936) made it clear that Anand's deepest bonding was with human bondage. The abuses of untouchability, the pangs of poverty and the socio-philosophical discontent of India's freedom struggle stirred an evocative angst in him, which became the dominant motif in his writings. The fact that he was an ardent communist also governed much of his thought. His closest friends were writers E.M. Forster and George Orwell but it was Mahatma Gandhi who shaped his philosophic conscience. Anand's critique of social injustice continued in his later novels as well, including the famous trilogy, The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1940), and The Sword and the Sickle (1942).

Versatile would be a limiting word to describe Anand's genius. He wrote letters, essays, commentaries on Marx, Engels, Tagore, art, theatre, sculpture, fairy tales, heroism, love, even beauty, erotica and tantra. But in death, he left a seven-volume incomplete autobiography that he began in the 1950s. Called the Seven Ages of Man it was Anand's subtle acknowledgement of William Shakespeare's influence. From the project, Seven Summers (1951), Morning Face (1968), Confessions of a Lover (1976) and The Bubble (1984) have been published. The rest are lost.

The struggle for freedom, which he always said was without gratification or resolution, is finally over.

-By Shefalee Vasudev

Gurtu's rare mastery of thumri took the form to new heights

SHOBHA GURTU 1925-2004

For Shobha Gurtu, singing was like worshipping God. Her full-throated voice was superbly suited for the passion with which she sang. Her death, on September 27, leaves an echoing silence in the world of Indian classical music.

Born in 1925 in Belgaum, Karnataka, Gurtu underwent classical training under Nathan Khan of the Atrauli-Jaipur gharana and later under Gamman Khan and Bhurji Khan. At a time when thumri was dying out because of its association with dancing girls, she evolved a style that allowed her to negotiate with equal ease thumri, ghazal, geet and dadra, subtly blending their regional and stylistic variations. "Don't be chained by traditions," she would say. She also sang-one of the few women classicists to do so-in films like Phagun, Naya Zamana, Pakeezah and Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki.

In an age of self-promotion, Gurtu was content to be a simple woman with a sense of humour. If provoked, she would say, "Hum ko kya maloom log aise kyun hain ya kyun ho raha hai. All I want is the blessing of the elders in my musical journey." She is twice blessed-by her gurus and by her fans.

-By S. Sahaya Ranjit

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