Poetcrit

Current Volume: 37 (2024 )

ISSN: 0970-2830

Periodicity: Half-Yearly

Month(s) of Publication: January & July

Subject: Language & Literature

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/POET

Online Access is Free for all Life Members of Poetcrit

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Humanist Vision in Untouchable: A Three Act Play with an Epilogue

By : Basavaraj Naikar

Page No: 1-13

Abstract
Dr. K. Venkatareddy has dramatized Dr. Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable just as Santha Ram Rau had dramatized E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India long back. In this dramatic version, Dr. K. Venkatareddy has added an epilogue to the original novel a la Bernard Shaw in St. Joan thereby updating Dr. Anand’s humanist vision of life and by complementing Gandhism with Ambedkarism. Dr. Anand had problematized the issue of untouchability by suggesting three options for Bakha like conversion to Christianity, education and the use of flush-system. Bakha was left confused by these difficult options. But Venkatareddy shows in his Epilogue how Bakha makes use of the privilege of reservation, passes his B.A. Exam externally and the Competitive Exam and becomes a Social Welfare Officer to fulfill the dreams of all the downtrodden people.

Author :
Basavaraj Naikar
Professor Emeritus, Former Professor & Chairman, Department of English, Karnatak University, Dharwad-580003.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/POET.2021.34.01.1

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