broadcaster

Una Marson

About: 

Una Marson was born and grew up in Jamaica. After her work on the editorial staff of the Jamaica Critic in 1926, she founded her own magazine The Cosmopolitan, which she also edited. Having established herself in Jamaica, Marson moved to London in 1932 to experience life outside Jamaica and to find a wider audience for her literary work. She lodged with Harold Arundel Moody, and became involved with the League of Coloured Peoples. She worked for the League as its unpaid Assistant Secretary, organising student activities, receptions, meetings, trips and concerts. During her stay in England from Marson continued to publish on feminist issues, as she had in Jamaica. She also became increasingly interested in discussions about race, eugenics and the colour-bar, focussing on the most pressing issues faced by black migrants living in Britain.

During her first stay in Britain, Marson organized, staged and compered an evening of entertainment at the Indian Students Hostel. The line-up included the American singer John Payne, the pianist Bruce Wendell and the Guyanese clarinettist Rudolph Dunbar. By 1937 she was editor of the League’s journal and its spokesperson, working closely with Moody. Marson was also a member of the International Alliance of Women for Equal Suffrage and Citizenship and the British Commonwealth League (BCL). At the latter she met Myra Steadman, daughter of the suffragette Myra Sadd Brown. The All India Women’s congress was affiliated with the BCL. During the period she also became involved with the Left Book Club and encountered the writings of Rabindranath Tagore.

After two years in Jamaica, Marson returned to Britain in 1938. In 1939 Marson was offered work by the BBC as a freelancer for the magazine programme 'Picture Page' to arrange interviews with visitors from the Empire. She also drafted three-minute scripts for the programme. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Marson lectured occasionally at the Imperial Institute and worked as a talks and script writer for the BBC. In 1941 she was appointed full-time programme assistant to the BBC Empire Service, where she hosted and coordinated the broadcasts under the title 'Calling the West Indies'.

In November 1942 George Orwell asked her to contribute to the six-part poetry magazine 'Voice', broadcast on the Indian Section of the BBC’s Eastern Service, with Marson taking part in the fourth programme dedicated to American poetry, which also featured William Empson. She read her poem ‘Banjo Boy’. In the December edition of the programme she appeared alongside M. J. Tambimuttu, T. S. Eliot, Mulk Raj Anand, Narayana Menon and William Empson. This led Una to devise a similar programme for the West Indies, titled 'Caribbean Voices', which in later years under the direction of Henry Swanzy would introduce authors such as George Lamming, Sam Selvon, V. S. Naipaul and Edward Kamau Braithwaite to a wider audience. The programme ran for fifteen years until 1958. She returned to Jamaica in 1945 and died in 1965 from a heart attack.

Published works: 

Tropic Reveries (Kingston, Jamaica: Gleaner, 1930)

‘At What a Price’ (1932) [unpublished play]

Moth and the Star (Kingston, Jamaica: Una Marson, 1937)

London Calling (1938) [play]

‘Pocomania’ (Kingston, Jamaica, 1938) [unpublished MS]

Towards the Stars: Poems (London: London University Press, 1945)

Heights and Depths (Kingston, Jamaica: Una Marson, n.d.)

Example: 

‘A Call to Downing Street’, Public Opinion, 11 Sept. 1937 , p.5
 

Date of birth: 
06 Feb 1905
Connections: 

Mulk Raj Anand, Z. A. Bokhari, Vera Brittain, Venu Chitale, T. S. Eliot, William Empson, Victor Gollancz, A. E. T. Henry (BBC), C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Cecil Madden (BBC), Narayana MenonHarold Moody, George Orwell, Nancy Parratt, Christopher Pemberton (BBC), M. J. Tambimuttu, Mary Treadgold (BBC).

British Drama League, The International Alliance of Women, International League for Peace and Freedom

Contributions to periodicals: 

The Cosmopolitan

Jamaica Critic

The Keys

The Listener

Public Opinion
 

Extract: 

It is impossible to live in London, associating with peoples of other Colonies of the British Empire, without realising that British peoples the world over are working for self-realisation and development towards the highest and the best.

Secondary works: 

Delia, Jarrett-Macaulay, The Life of Una Marson, 1905–1965 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998)

Donnell, Alison, ‘Una Marson: feminism, anti-colonialism and a forgotten fight for freedom,’ in Bill Schwarz (ed.) West Indian Intellectuals in Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 114-31

Narain, Denise de Caires, 'Literary Mothers? Una Marson and Phyllis Shand Allfrey', Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry: Making Style (New York London: Routledge, 2002)

 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives, Caversham Park, Reading

George Orwell Archive, University of London

Una Marson papers, National Library of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
 

City of birth: 
Sharon Village near Santa Cruz
Country of birth: 
Jamaica
Other names: 

Una Maud Victoria Marson

Locations

14 The Mansions, Mill Lane West Hampstead
London, NW6 1TE
United Kingdom
51° 33' 5.5404" N, 0° 11' 56.7564" W
164 Queen’s Road Peckham
London, SE15 2JR
United Kingdom
51° 28' 23.7072" N, 0° 3' 5.0544" W
Date of death: 
06 May 1965
Location of death: 
Kingston Jamaica
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1932
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1932-6; 1938-45

G. V. Desani

About: 

G. V. Desani was born in Nairobi, Kenya, where his parents were working as wood merchants. The family returned to Karachi in 1914, where Desani was educated. He arrived in Britain at the age of 17, to escape from an arranged marriage. When he arrived in England in 1926, he was befriended by George Lansbury, who helped him acquire a reader's pass to the British Museum Reading Room. During this period he also found work as an actor in films. Furthermore, he worked as a foreign corespondent for a number of Indian newspapers and news agencies, such as the Associated Press, Reuters and The Times of India. He returned to India in 1928, touring Rajasthan, on which he subsequently lectured extensively for the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway Company.

Desani returned to Britain in the summer of 1939, only weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War.  He continued to work as a writer, journalist, and broadcaster for the Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service and the Home Division. Desani broadcast both in Hindustani and in English and was praised for his wit, humour and ability as a script-writer. He also acted in radio plays. Furthermore, Desani lectured for the Ministry of Information and the Imperial Institute, regularly touring the regions and speaking to soldiers, schools and university colleges. These lectures featured as one of his Talks Programmes in Hindustani, titled 'My Lecture Tours' (broadcast 8 May 1943). They were widely praised and drew large audiences.

During this period, he wrote his best known work of fiction, the experimental novel All About Mr. Hatterr (later republished and revised as All About H. Hatterr). On publication the book was very well received by critics. For example, T. S. Eliot praised it as a remarkably original book: 'It is amazing that anyone should be able to sustain a piece of work in this style and tempo and at such length'. The critic C. E. M. Joad compared the book to 'Joyce and Miller with a difference: the difference being due to a dash of Munchhausen and the Arabian Nights'.  With its inventive use of language and its endorsement of hybridity, the work is a trailblazer for the fiction of Salman Rushdie, who has acknowledged its influence.

While in England, Desani also published his ‘poetic play’ Hali, as well as short fiction, sketches and essays. Shortly after the publication of Hali, Desani left Britain and returned to India. He was offered a position as cultural ambassador for Jawaharlal Nehru, however he did not take this up. In 1959 he travelled to Burma to study Buddhist and Hindu culture. During the 1950s and 1960 he wrote a regular column, 'Very High, Very Low', as well as articles for The Times of India and Illustrated Weekly of India. In 1967 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. He spent the final years of his life in Dallas.

Published works: 

All About Mr. Hatterr, A Gesture (London: Aldor, 1948); revised edition published as All About H. Hatterr (London: Saturn Press, 1949)

Hali: A Poetic Play (London: Saturn Press, 1952)

Hali and Collected Stories (Kingston, NY: McPherson & Co., 1991)

Date of birth: 
08 Jul 1909
Connections: 

Mulk Raj Anand, A. L. Bakaya (BBC), Edmund Blunden,  Z. A. Bokhari, Ronald Boswell (BBC), Malcolm Darling (BBC), T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Attia HosainC. E. M. Joad, George Lansbury, L. F. Rushbrook Williams, Una Marson, Narayana Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru, George Orwell, Raja Rao, M. J. Tambimuttu.

Contributions to periodicals: 

Illustrated Weekly of India

Reviews: 

Fred Urquhart, Life and Letters Today 59.136 (All About Mr Hatterr)

Secondary works: 

Bainbridge, Emma, ‘“Ball-Bearings All The Way, And Never A Dull Moment!”: An Analysis of the Writings of G. V. Desani’, unpublished PhD thesis (University of Kent at Canterbury, 2003)

Daniels, Shouri, Desani: Writer and Worldview (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1984)

Innes, C. L., A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain, 1700–2000, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)

 

Archive source: 

Desani Papers, University of Texas, Austin

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Nairobi
Country of birth: 
Kenya
Other names: 

Govindas Vishnoodas Desani

G. V. Dasani (changes his name to Desani in 1941)

Locations

40 Kew Bridge Court
London, W4 3AE
United Kingdom
51° 29' 19.3164" N, 0° 17' 2.796" W
Hillcrest OX1 5EZ
United Kingdom
51° 43' 26.2992" N, 1° 16' 30.414" W
6 Devonshire Terrace
London, W2 3HG
United Kingdom
51° 30' 49.6584" N, 0° 10' 48.0684" W
Date of death: 
15 Nov 2000
Location of death: 
Dallas, Texas
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1926
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1926-8, 1939-52

Indira Devi

About: 

Maharajkumari Indira Devi was born on 26 February 1912 to Maharaja Paramjit Singh and Maharani Brinda of Kapurthala. She left India for Britain in 1935 at the age of twenty-three. Only her sisters Princesses Sushila and Ourmilla knew of her intentions. In England she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London with a view to becoming a movie star. While she did not fulfil this ambition, she managed to work briefly with Alexander Korda at London Films, who wanted to launch her as his next big star after Merle Oberon. However the difficulties of the film industry in the late 1930s meant she did not get her big break in the movie business.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Indira Devi successfully passed the St John Ambulance examination and drove motor ambulances during air raids. She also worked for a while as a postal censor. She joined the BBC in 1942 and became known as the ‘Radio Princess’. She hosted a half-hour radio programme in Hindustani for Indian forces stationed in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. She broadcast the programme 'The Debate continues', a weekly report to India on the proceedings in the House of Commons, where she was the only woman in the Press Gallery. She broadcast many talks series for the Indian Section of the Eastern Service Division. She also broadcast on the Home Service. She was offered a permanent contract with the Overseas Service Division in 1943. She continued to work for the BBC until 1968. Princess Indira died in Ibiza, Spain in September 1979.

Published works: 

The Revenge of the Gods: A Story of Ancient Egypt (London: The Eastern Press, 1928)

Date of birth: 
26 Feb 1912
Secondary works: 

Bance, Peter, The Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photographs (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007)

Orwell, George (ed.), Talking to India (London: Allen and Unwin, 1943)

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Kapurthala
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Maharajkumari Indira Devi of Kapurthala, The Radio Princess, Indira of Kapurthala

Locations

512a Nell Gwynn House
Sloane Avenue, Kensington
London, SW3 3AU
United Kingdom
51° 29' 32.2476" N, 0° 9' 56.736" W
Hepatica Cottage Ivinghoe Aston, LU7 9DQ
United Kingdom
51° 51' 14.0472" N, 0° 37' 5.5308" W
Date of death: 
01 Sep 1979
Location of death: 
Ibiza
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1935
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1935-68

Venu Chitale

About: 

Venu Chitale was a talks broadcaster and assistant to George Orwell at the BBC’s Indian Section of the Eastern Service. She arrived in Britain in the mid-1930s. She had come to Britain with her teacher in Poona, Winnie Duplex, to study at University College, London.

She joined the BBC in 1940 when the service expanded to broadcast different Indian languages including Marathi, her mother tongue. From 1941, Chitale assisted George Orwell in his work as a talks programme assistant for the BBC Indian section of the Eastern Service from 1941-43. She broadcast on his series of talks ‘Through Eastern Eyes’ as well as his 1942 magazine programme 'Voice'. She also broadcast as part of the series of talks ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’, which focused on the role of women in the war effort. Like Indira Devi of Kapurthala, she also broadcast on the Home Service, where she served as a newsreader at the height of the war. She contributed to programmes such as ‘Indian Recipes’ and the ‘Kitchen Front’ series, which was produced by Jean Rowntree. Orwell was particularly impressed by Chitale and she was often complimented for her speaking voice. She became a full-time member of staff as the Marathi Programme Assistant in 1942.

While in London, Chitale also became involved with the India League and forged a close relationship with Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister. She returned to India in 1950 and married Prof T. G. Khare. She published several novels and died in 1995.

Published works: 

In Transit, Foreword by Mulk Raj Anand (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1950)

Incognito (Pune: Sriniwas Cards, 1993)
 

Date of birth: 
28 Dec 1912
Secondary works: 

De Souza, Eunice and Pereira, Lindsay (eds), Women’s Voices: Selections from Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Indian Writing in English (Delhi: OUP India, 2002)

West, W. J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)
 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Shirole, Kolhapur
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Leelabhai Ganesh Khare

Locations

Central Club YMCA
Great Russell Street
London, W.C.1B 3PE
United Kingdom
51° 31' 4.8504" N, 0° 7' 36.2964" W
48 New Cavendish Street
London, W1W 6XY
United Kingdom
51° 31' 8.2956" N, 0° 8' 57.3864" W
Date of death: 
01 Jan 1995
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Location of death: 
Bombay/Mumbai
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1937
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1937-50

Z. A. Bokhari

About: 

Before arriving in London, to become director of the Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service, Bokhari was the director of the Delhi Broadcasting Station of All India Radio. Bokhari was in London in July 1937, where he attended a reception held by Firoz Khan Noon at India House Aldwych. He moved to London to take up the post of Indian programmes organizer for the Indian section of the Eastern Service of the BBC from 1940 to 1945. Sir Malcom Darling recruited Bokhari on the recommendation of the controller of broadcasting for All India Radio, Lionel Fielden, to set up the Indian section of the Eastern Service. Initially Bokhari and his team only contributed a weekly news report and the odd cultural programme.

Bokahri together with Darling were instrumental in recruiting George Orwell, who would be an important asset also because of his friendship with Mulk Raj Anand, who had previously rejected Darling's offer of work at the BBC.  Bokhari hoped that he would be able to persuade Anand and other Indian friends to work for the Indian Section. During his time in London he managed the contracts and programming of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, working closely with George Orwell. He was also an accomplished broadcaster, regularly transmitting talks in Urdu to India. He accompanied Richard Dimbleby to report on the Indian soldiers stationed with the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. Organizing and coordinating the activities of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, Bokhari was instrumental in the the Service’s programming and bringing together the network of free-lance talks writers based at the BBC. In 1945 he took up the position of Director of the All India Radio Station in Calcutta and later moved to Pakistan to become Controller of Broadcasting in Karachi for Radio Pakistan.

Published works: 

Orwell, George, (ed.), Talking to India (London: Allen & Unwin, 1943)

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1904
Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Fielden, Lionel, Beggar My Neighbour (London: Secker and Warburg, 1943)

Ranasinha, Ruvani, South Asian Writers in Twentieth Century Britain: Culture in Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)

West, W. J., Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)

The Times (06 July 1937), p. 21
 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Peshawar
Country of birth: 
India
Current name country of birth: 
Pakistan
Other names: 

Zulfikar Ali Bokhari, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah Bukhari
 

Locations

Park Lane
London, W1K 7AF
United Kingdom
51° 30' 23.094" N, 0° 9' 7.9128" W
55 Portland Place
London, W1B 1QG
United Kingdom
51° 31' 15.4596" N, 0° 8' 43.6092" W
Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service
200 Oxford Street
London, W1D 1NU
United Kingdom
51° 30' 55.8288" N, 0° 8' 24.9612" W
Date of death: 
12 Jul 1975
Location of death: 
Karachi, Pakistan
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

early 1920s; 1940-5

Narayana Menon

About: 

Narayana Menon studied at Madras and Edinburgh Universities. He was a Carnegie Scholar in English from 1939 to 1941 at Edinburgh where he became active in student politics, joining the Executive Council of the Indian Student Association of Great Britain. He graduated with a PhD in English for his thesis on the development of William Butler Yeats, which was published in 1942. E. M. Forster reviewed it favourably on BBC radio, which marked the start of a life-long friendship. Menon became a Senior Carnegie Scholar in 1941-2.

Menon was an accomplished veena player and gave numerous performances, amongst other at a charity concert in aid of the Indian poor in the East End of London in 1938. He joined the Indian Section of the Eastern Service in 1942. George Orwell commissioned him to write talks and Z. A. Bokhari used him on many occasions as a talks reader in Hindustani and English. His work at the BBC was diverse and included broadcasts on literature and music. He participated with Mulk Raj Anand in the fifth instalment of Orwell’s poetry discussion programme ‘Voice’. He also wrote programmes on E. J. Thompson in the ‘Friends of Bengal’ Series, adapted Tagore’s ‘The King of the Dark Chamber’ for the Hindustani Service and the Prem Chand story ‘The Shroud’ for the series ‘Indian Play’. He was advisor and producer of the Music Programme for the BBC Eastern Service, a post he held until 1947. Menon was a committed supporter of the Indian independence movement. He was involved with V. K. Krishna Menon’s India League and regularly gave music recitals at its events. He had also close links with Rajani Palme Dutt and Krishnarao Shelvankar.

After his return to India he became Director of Broadcasting in Baroda State from 1947-8, before moving to All India Radio, for which he worked from 1948-63, later becoming its director general.

Published works: 

The Development of William Butler Yeats (London: Oliver & Boyd, 1942)

‘Recollections of E.M. Forster’ in K. Natwar Singh (ed.) E. M. Forster: A Tribute (New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1964), pp. 3-14

Example: 

Memo from Orwell, Indian Section of the Eastern Service,  200 Oxford Street, London, 24 Feb. 1943

Date of birth: 
27 Jun 1911
Content: 

In this extract, Orwell defends the choice of Menon as programmes director for music.

Connections: 

Surat AlleyMulk Raj Anand, A. L. Bakaya, M. Blackman, Z. A. Bokhari, Venu Chitale, G. V. Desani, Basil Douglas, Cedric Dover, Rajani Palme Dutt E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, William Empson, Islam-il-Haq, Parvati Kumaramangalam, Una Marson, N. D. Mazumdar, Krishna Menon, George OrwellShah Abdul Majid Qureshi, Balraj Sahni, George Sampson, Krishnarao Shelvankar, Iqbal Singh, M. J. Tambimuttu, S. Arthur Wynn, L. F. Rushbrook-Williams (Director of the Eastern Service), W. B. Yeats.

Indian Student Association of Great Britain

Contributions to periodicals: 
Reviews: 

Forster, E.M. 'An Indian on W.B. Yeats', The Listener 28.728 (24 December 1942), p. 824 (The Development of William Butler Yeats)

Orwell, George, Horizon (The Development of William Butler Yeats)

Extract: 

As the point has been queried, we are asking Dr Menon to choose the 15 minute musical programmes in weeks 12, 14, etc. because he has shown himself competent in selecting programmes of this type, and he ahs the advantage of being a student both of European and Indian music. He is therefore probably a good judge of the types of European music likely to appeal to Indian listeners.

Secondary works: 

'Concert To Aid Indian Poor Of East London ', The Times (25 October 1938), p. 12

Forster, E. M., Hughes, Linda K., Lago, Mary, et al. (eds) The BBC Talks of E. M. Forster, 1929-1960: A Selected Edition (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2008)

West, W. J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

Involved in events: 

Independence Day Events of the India League

City of birth: 
Trichur, Kerala
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Thrissur
Other names: 

Vadakke Kurupath Narayana Menon

Locations

BBC Eastern Service
200 Oxford Street
London, W1D 1 NU
United Kingdom
51° 30' 55.8288" N, 0° 8' 24.9612" W
5 Marchhall Road
Edinburgh, EH16 5HR
United Kingdom
55° 56' 11.0976" N, 3° 10' 6.042" W
176 Sussex Gardens
London, W2 1UD
United Kingdom
51° 30' 52.2648" N, 0° 10' 26.1264" W
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1938
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1938-47

Location: 

Edinburgh, London.

Attia Hosain

About: 

Attia Hosain was born into a wealthy landowning family in northern India. Her father was educated at Cambridge University, and her mother was the founder of an institute for women's education and welfare. Hosain attended the Isabella Thoburn College at the University of Lucknow, becoming the first woman from a landowning family to graduate in 1933. She also undertook private tuition in Urdu and Persian at home, where she was brought up according to the Muslim tradition. Influenced by the left-wing, nationalist politics of her Cambridge-educated brother and his friends, Hosain became involved with the All-India Progressive Writers’ Association, a group of socialist writers which included Ahmed Ali, Mulk Raj Anand and Sajjad Zaheer. Encouraged by the poet and political activist Sarojini Naidu, she attended the 1933 All-India Women’s Conference in Calcutta, reporting on it for Lucknow and Calcutta newspapers. In this period, she also began to write short stories.

In 1947, determined to avoid going to the newly created Pakistan, Hosain left India for Britain with her husband, Ali Bahadur Habibullah, who undertook war repatriation work. The couple had two children, and Hosain chose to remain in Britain. She continued to write and began work as a broadcaster, presenting a woman's programme for the Indian Section of the Eastern Service of the BBC from 1949. During her time at the BBC, she broadcast on a wide range of topics, from art to music to religion to cinema. As well as reading scripts, she participated in discussion programmes and acted as a roving reporter for the Weekend Review. In 1953 she published her first work of fiction, a collection of short stories titled Phoenix Fled. This was followed in 1961 by her only novel, Sunlight on a Broken Column.

Published works: 

'Of Meals and Memories', in Loaves and Wishes: Writers Writing on Food, ed. by Antonia Till (London: Virago, 1992), pp. 141-6

Phoenix Fled (London: Chatto & Windus, 1953)

Sunlight on a Broken Column (London: Chatto & Windus, 1961)

Date of birth: 
20 Oct 1913
Connections: 
Contributions to periodicals: 

The Pioneer (Calcutta)

The Statesman (Calcutta)

Reviews: 

E. L. Sturch, Times Literary Supplement, 4 December 1953 (Phoenix Fled)

Secondary works: 

‘Attia Hosain’, SALIDAA: South Asia Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive [http://www.culture24.org.uk/am24149]

Bharucha, Nilufer E., ‘I am a Universalist-Humanist’, Biblio 3.7-8 (July - August 1998)

Bondi, Laura, ‘An Image of India by an Indian Woman: Attia Hosain’s Life and Fiction’, unpublished MA thesis (University Degli Studio Venezia, 1993)

Burton, Antoinette, Dwelling in the Archive: Women Writing House, Home, and History in Late Colonial India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Desai, Anita, ‘Hosain, Attia Shahid’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/69/101069617]

Holmstrom, Lakshmi, ‘Attia Hosain: Her Life and Work’, Indian Review of Books 8-9 (1991)

Archive source: 

Six radio scripts broadcast by Hosain, BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

Involved in events: 

All-India Women’s Conference, Calcutta, 1933

Participant in the First All-India Progressive Writers’ Conference, Lucknow, 1936

Acted in Peter Mayne’s West End play The Bird of Time, London, 1961

City of birth: 
Lucknow
Country of birth: 
India
Date of death: 
23 Jan 1998
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1947
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1947 until death

Mulk Raj Anand

About: 

Mulk Raj Anand was a distinguished writer, critic, editor, journalist and political activist. Born into the Kshatriya (warrior) caste in the Punjabi city of Peshawar, he was educated at cantonment schools before completing a degree at the University of Punjab, Amritsar, where his involvement in the 1921 Civil Disobedience campaign against the British resulted in a short period of imprisonment. He was just nineteen years old when he left India for England on a scholarship to mark the silver wedding of George V and Queen Mary. On his arrival he registered at University College London to study for a doctorate in philosophy which he was awarded in 1929.

In England, Anand quickly became involved in left wing politics as well as the Indian independence movement. He was vocal in his support of the coal miners’ strike in 1926 and of the General Strike that followed, and soon afterwards joined a Marxist study circle at the home of the trade unionist Alan Hutt. In the 1930s and 1940s, he spoke regularly at meetings of Krishna Menon’s India League, where he came into contact with a number of British intellectuals and activists including Bertrand Russell, H. N. Brailsford and Michael Foot, and in 1937 he left Britain for three months to join the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Drawing also on his talents as a writer in the struggle for socialism, Anand wrote numerous essays on Marxism, Fascism, the Spanish Civil War, Indian independence and other political movements, events and issues of the day. He turned down the offer of a post at Cambridge University. Instead, he lectured in literature and philosophy at the London County Council Adult Educational Schools and the Workers' Educational Association, from 1939 to 1942. Anand’s belief in an international socialism, evident in the range of his political activities, was matched by his conviction of the inextricability of politics and literature. This is reflected in many of his novels which depict the lives of the poorest members of Indian society. The first of these, Untouchable, was published by the left-leaning British firm Wishart in 1935. It can also be seen in his role in the founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association in London in 1935, along with fellow Indian writers Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali.

Anand immersed himself in London’s literary scene in the inter-war years, associating and in some cases forming friendships with eminent British writers including George Orwell, T. S. Eliot, Stephen Spender and Bonamy Dobree. He was a regular reviewer for a range of national newspapers and magazines, including the New Statesman and Life and Letters Today. He also worked as an editor for Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, and for T. S. Eliot at Criterion. It was at Criterion where Anand met E. M. Forster whose endorsement of his first novel helped to secure the publishing deal with Wishart – and so his establishment as a novelist. Prior to this, he had already seen success as an art and literary critic, publishing his first book, on Persian painting, in 1930. Untouchable was followed by a string of novels which were, on the whole, reviewed favourably, as well as several essay collections on subjects ranging from art to cookery to India’s struggle for freedom. During the Second World War, Anand researched, scripted and broadcast numerous radio programmes for the BBC Eastern Service, working alongside George Orwell and the Caribbean poet Una Marson, in particular. In 1938, he married the Communist and would-be actor Kathleen Van Gelder, with whom he had a daughter, Rajani. The marriage did not last.

Soon after his return to India in 1945, Anand founded the art magazine Marg. He taught at various universities, including the University of the Punjab where he was appointed Tagore Professor of Literature and Fine Art. From 1965 to 1970, he was fine art chairman at Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Arts). He continued to write fiction and criticism, and to support a range of national and international cultural associations such as the World Peace Council, the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association, the National Book Trust, and the UNESCO Dialogues of East and West. He died in Pune on 28 September 2004.

Published works: 

Persian Painting (London: Faber & Faber, 1930)

Curries and Other Indian Dishes (London: Desmond Harmsworth, 1932)

The Golden Breath: Studies in Five Poets of the New India (London: John Murray, 1933)

The Hindu View of Art (London: Allen & Unwin, 1933)

The Lost Child and Other Stories (London: J. A. Allen & Co., 1934)

The Untouchable (London: Wishart, 1935)

Coolie (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1936)

Two Leaves and a Bud (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1937)

Marx and Engels on India (1937)

The Village (London: Cape, 1939)

Across the Black Waters (London: Cape, 1940)

Letters on India (London: Labour Book Service, 1942)

The Sword and the Sickle (London: Cape, 1942)

The Barber's Trade Union, and Other Stories (London: Cape, 1944)

Big Heart. A Novel (London: Hutchinson, 1945)

Apology for Heroism: An Essay in Search of Faith (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1946)

Indian Fairy Tales (Bombay: Kutub-Popular, 1946)

On Education (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1947)

The Tractor and the Corn Goddess, and Other Stories (Bombay: Thacker & Co., 1947)

The King-Emperor's English; or, The Role of the English Language in the Free India (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1948)

Lines Written to an Indian Air. Essays (Bombay: Nalanda Publications, 1949)

Seven Summers: The Story of an Indian Childhood (London: Hutchinson, 1951)

The Story of Man (Amritsar and New Delhi: Sikh Publishing House, 1952)

Private Life of an Indian Prince (London: Hutchinson, 1953)

Reflections on the Golden Bed, and Other Stories (Bombay: Current Book House, 1954)

The Dancing Foot (Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 1957)

The Power of Darkness and Other Stories (Bombay: Jaico Publishing House, 1959)

The Old Woman and the Cow (Bombay: Kutub-Popular, 1960)

More Indian Fairy Tales (Bombay: Kutub-Popular, 1961)

The Road: A Novel (Bombay: Kutub-Popular, 1961)

Death of a Hero: Epitaph for Maqbool Sherwani: A Novel (Bombay: Kutub-Popular, 1963)

Is There a Contemporary Indian Civilisation? (London and Madras: Asia Publishing House, 1963)

Kama Kala: Some Notes on the Philosophical Basis of Hindu Erotic Sculpture (Geneva: Nagel Publishers, [1958] 1963)

The Story of Chacha Nehru (Delhi: Rajpal & Sons, 1965)

Lajwanti and Other Stories (Bombay: Jaico Publishing House, 1966)

The Humanism of M. K. Gandhi: Three Lectures (Chandigarh: University of Punjab, 1967)

Morning Face. A Novel (Bombay: Kutub Popular, 1968)

Roots and Flowers: Two Lectures on the Metamorphosis of Technique and Content in the Indian-English Novel (Dharwar: Karnatak University, 1972)

Author to Critic: The Letters of Mulk Raj Anand, ed., introduction and notes by Saros Cowasjee (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1973)

Between Tears and Laughter (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1973)

Folk Tales of Punjab (New Delhi: Sterling, 1974)

Confessions of a Lover (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1976)

Gauri (New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1976)

The Humanism of Jawaharlal Nehru (Calcutta: Visva-Bharati, 1978)

The Humanism of Rabindranath Tagore: Three Lectures (Aurangabad Murathwada University, 1978)

Conversations in Bloomsbury (London: Wildwood House, 1981)

The Bubble (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1984)

Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English (Bombay: Macmillan, 1972)

The Letters of Mulk Raj Anand, ed. and with an introduction by Saros Cowasjee (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1974)

Selected Short Stories of Mulk Raj Anand, ed. and with an introduction by M. K. Naik (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1977)

Autobiography (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1985-)

Poet-Painter: Paintings by Rabindranath Tagore (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1985)

Pilpali Sahab: The Story of a Big Ego in a Small Boy (London: Aspect, 1990)

Caliban and Gandhi: Letters to "Bapu" from Bombay (New Delhi: Arnold, 1991)

Old Myth and New Myth: Letters from Mulk Raj Anand to K. V. S. Murti (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1991)

Anand to Alma: Letters of Mulk Raj Anand, ed. by Atma Ram (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1994)

Nine Moods of Bharata: Novel of a Pilgrimage (New Delhi: Arnold Associates, 1998)

'Things Have a Way of Working Out'...and Other Stories (New Delhi: Orient, 1998)

Reflections on a White Elephant (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications PVT Ltd., 2002)

Example: 

Anand, Mulk Raj, Across the Black Waters (London: Cape, 1940), pp. 30-1

Date of birth: 
12 Dec 1905
Content: 

Across the Black Waters is a war novel written from the perspective of Indian sepoys enlisted to fight in the Flanders trenches during the First World War. Drafted partly in Barcelona in 1937 and influenced by Anand’s recent experience of fighting for the Republican cause in Spain, it is one of a trilogy of novels which focuses on peasant (subaltern) experiences of war and changing conditions in early twentieth century India. Across the Black Waters is not often remembered as a ‘British war novel’ but bears significant comparison to E. M. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage.

Contributions to periodicals: 

Congress Socialist

Criterion

Fortnightly Review

Indian Writing

Labour Monthly

Left Review

Life and Letters Today

The Listener

New Statesman and Nation

New Writing

Reynold's Illustrated News

Spectator

Times Literary Supplement

Tribune

Reviews: 

Herbert Read, The Listener, 24 December 1930 (Persian Painting)

R. A. Scott-James, London Mercury 32.187, May 1935 (Untouchable)

John Somerfield, Left Review 1.10, July 1935 (Untouchable)

Peter Burra, Spectator 5635, 26 June 1936 (Coolie)

Peter Quennell, New Statesman and Nation 12.280, 4 July 1936

Cedric Dover, Congress Socialist 1.35, 22 August 1936 (Coolie)

V. S. Pritchett, London Mercury 34.202, August 1936

Ronald Dewsbury, Life and Letters Today 15.5, Autumn 1936 (Coolie)

Edgwell Rickword, Congress Socialist 2.8, 27 February 1937

Arnold Palmer, London Mercury 36.211, May 1937

New Statesman and Nation 14.332, 3 July 1937

L. J. Godwin, Spectator 5695, 20 August 1937 (Two Leaves and a Bud)

Stephen Spender, Life and Letters Today 16.8, Summer 1937 (Two Leaves and a Bud)

Anthony West, New Statesman and Nation 27.425, 15 April 1939 (The Village)

Kate O’Brien, Spectator 5783, 28 April 1939 (The Village)

Bonamy Dobree, Spectator 5865, 22 November 1940 (Across the Black Waters)

Maurice Collis, Time and Tide 21.48, 30 November 1940 (Across the Black Waters)

Kate O’Brien, Spectator 5938, 17 April 1942 (The Sword and the Sickle)

Tullis Clare, Time and Tide 33.17, 25 April 1942 (The Sword and the Sickle)

Times Literary Supplement, 2 May 1942 (The Sword and the Sickle)

George Orwell, The Times Literary Supplement, 23 May 1942 (The Sword and the Sickle)

George Orwell, Horizon, July 1942

George Orwell, Tribune, 19 March 1943

F. J. Brown, Life and Letters Today 47.99, November 1945 (The Big Heart)

S. Menon Marath, Life and Letters Today 59, December 1948

Walter Allen, New Statesman and Nation 46.1174, 5 September 1953
 

Extract: 

Lalu was full of excitement to be going along to this city. The march through Marseilles had been merely a fleeting expedition, and he was obsessed with something which struggled to burst through all the restraints and the embarrassment of the unfamiliar, to break through the fear of the exalted life that the Europeans lived, the rare high life of which he, like all the sepoys, had only had distant glimpses from the holes and crevices in the thick hedges outside the Sahib’s bungalows in India. And, as he walked under the shadows of mansions with shuttered windows like those on the houses of Marseilles, reading the names of shops on the boards, as he walked past vineyards dappled by the pale sun, past stretches of grassy land…his tongue played with the name of this city, Orleans, and there was an echo in his mind, from the memory of something which had happened here, something which he could not remember.

‘A quieter city than Marsels,’ Uncle Kirpu said…

‘Oh! Water, oh there is a stream!’ shouted the sepoys whose impetuosity knew no bounds.

Lalu rushed up and saw the stream on the right, flowing slowly, gently, and shouted:

‘River!’

Everything is small in these parts,’ Kirpu said. ‘Look at their rivers – not bigger than our small nullahs. Their whole land can be crossed in a night’s journey, when it takes two nights and days from the frontier to my village in the district of Kangra. Their rain is like the pissing of a child. And their storms are a mere breeze in the tall grass…’

Secondary works: 

Abidi, Syed Zaheer Hasan, Mulk Raj Anand's Coolie: A Critical Study (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1976)

Abidi, S. Z., Mulk Raj Anand's 'Untouchable': A Critical Study (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1977)

Agnihotri, G. N., Indian Life and Problems in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan (Meerut: Shalabh Book House, 1984)

Agrawal, B. R., Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2006)

Amur, G. S., Forbidden Fruit: Views on Indo-Anglian Fiction (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1992) 

Anjaneyulu, T., A Critical Study of the Selected Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, Manohar Malgonkar and Khushwant Singh (New Delhi: Atlantic, 1998)

Arora, Neena, The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand: A Study of His Hero (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005)

Bhatnagar, Manmohan K. and Rajeshwar, M., The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand: A Critical Study (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2000)

Berry, Margaret, Mulk Raj Anand: The Man and the Novelist (Amsterdam: Oriental Press, 1971)

Bheemaiah, J., Class and Caste in Literature: The Fiction of Harriet B. Stowe and Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2005)

Bluemel, Kristin, George Orwell and the Radical Eccentrics: Intermodernism in Literary London (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

Cowasjee, Saros, Mulk Raj Anand: Coolie: An Assessment (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976)

Cowasjee, Saros, So Many Freedoms: A Study of the Major Fiction of Mulk Raj Anand (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1977)

Dayal, B., A Critical Study of the Themes and Techniques of the Indo-Anglian Short Story Writers with Special Reference to Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan and K. A. Abbas (Ranchi: Jubilee Prakashan, 1985)

Dhar, T. N., History-Fiction Interface in Indian English Novel: Mulk Raj Anand, Nayantara Sahgal, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, O. V. Vijayan (London: Sangam, 1999)

Dhawan, R. K., The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Prestige, 1992)

Fisher, Marlene, The Wisdom of the Heart: A Study of the Works of Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Sterling, 1985)

Gautam, G. L., Mulk Raj Anand's Critique of Religious Fundamentalism: A Critical Assessment of His Novels (Delhi: Kanti Publications, 1996)

George, C. J., Mulk Raj Anand, His Art and Concerns: A Study of His Non-Autobiographical Novels (New Delhi: Atlantic, 1994)

Gupta, G. S. Balarama, Mulk Raj Anand: A Study of His Fiction in Humanist Perspective (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1974)

Indra Mohan, T. M. J., The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand: A New Critical Spectrum (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005)

Jain, Sushil Kumar, An Annotated Bibliography of Dr. Mulk Raj Anand (Regina, Sask, 1965)

Khan, S. A., Mulk Raj Anand: The Novel of Commitment (New Delhi: Atlantic, 2000)

Krishna Rao, Angara Venkata, The Indo-Anglian Novel and the Changing Tradition: A Study of the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, Kamala Markandaya, R. K. Narayan and Raja Rao, 1930-64 (Mysore: Rao & Raghavan, 1972)

Lindsay, Jack, Mulk Raj Anand: A Critical Essay (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1948)

Mishra, Binod, Existential Concerns in Novels of Mulk Raj Anand (Delhi: Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors, 2005)

Naik, M. K., Mulk Raj Anand (London: Arnold-Heinemann India, 1973)

Nasimi, Reza Ahmad, The Language of Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, and R. K. Narayan (Delhi: Capital Publishing House, 1989)

Nautiyal, Sarojani, An Introduction to Three Indo-Anglian Novels: Untouchable, The Serpent and the Rope, The Man-Eater of Malgudi (Ambala: IBA Publications, 2001)

Niven, Alastair, 'Anand, Mulk Raj (1905-2004)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/93854]

Niven, Alastair, The Yoke of Pity: A Study in the Fictional Writings of Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1978)

Pacham, G., Mulk Raj Anand: A Check-List (Mysore: Centre for Commonwealth Literature and Research, University of Mysore, 1983)

Patil, V. T., Gandhism and Indian English Fiction: The Sword and the Sickle, Kanthapura and Waiting for the Mahatma (Delhi: Devika, 1997)

Paul, Premila, The Novels of Mulk Raj Anand: A Thematic Study (New Delhi: Sterling, 1983)

Prasad, Amar Nath, Critical Response to V. S. Naipaul and Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2003)

Prasad, Shaileshwar Sati, The Insulted and the Injured: Untouchables, Coolies, and Peasants in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand (Patna: Janaki Prakashan, 1997)

Rajan, P. K., Studies in Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1986)

Rajan, P. K., Mulk Raj Anand: A Revaluation (New Delhi: Arnold Associates, 1995)

Savio, G. Dominic, Voices of the Voiceless: Mulk Raj Anand and Jayakanthan: Social Consciousness and Indian Fiction (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2006)

Sharma, Ambuj Kumar, Gandhian Strain in the Indian English Novel (New Delhi: Sarup, 2004)

Sharma, Ambuj Kumar, The Theme of Exploitation in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: H. K. Publishers and Distributors, 1990)

Sharma, K. K., Four Great Indian English Novelists: Some Points of View (New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2002)

Sharma, K. K., Perspectives on Mulk Raj Anand (Ghaziabad: Vimal, 1978)

Singh, Pramod Kumar, Five Contemporary Indian Novelists: An Anthology of Critical Studies on Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan, Kamala Markandaya and Bhabani Bhattacharya (Jaipur: Book Enclave, 2001)

Singh, R. V., Mulk Raj Anand's Shorter Fiction: A Study of His Social Vision (New Delhi: Satyam, 2004)

Singh, Vaidyanath, Social Realism in the Fiction of Dickens and Mulk Raj Anand (New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers, 1997)

Sinha, Krishna Nandan, Mulk Raj Anand (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972)

Suresh Kumar, A. V., Six Indian Novelists: Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan, Balachandran Rajan, Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai (New Delhi: Creative Books, 1996)

Suryanarayana Murti, K. V., The Sword and the Sickle: A Study of Mulk Raj Anand's Novels (Mysore: Geetha Book House, 1983)

Thorat, Ashok, Five Great Indian Novel: A Discourse Analysis: Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable, Raja Rao's Kanthapura, Kushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan, Rama Mehta's Inside the Haveli, Chaman Nahal's Azadi (New Delhi: Prestige, 2000)

Vijayasree, C., Mulk Raj Anand: The Raj and the Writer (New Delhi: B. R., 1998)

Relevance: 

The significance of this passage – and the book as a whole – lies in the fact that it favours the viewpoint of the sepoys Anand depicts. The narrative succeeds in reversing the notion of the ‘other’ so that the English sahibs, the French and Europeans (including the landscape they find themselves in, as well as their history) are presented as both alien and exotic. It reveals some of the deceptions of ‘empire’ and the exploitation of the sepoys whose conditions are described in depth, and highlights the need to question enlightenment history and Western authority. The novel also raises issues of translation and disorientation, both for the British reader (the intended audience) and for the characters who have crossed the black waters to Europe.

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives, Caversham Park, Reading

British Library Sound Archive, St Pancras

Leonard Woolf Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections

Monks House Papers (Virginia Woolf), University of Sussex Special Collections

The George Orwell Archive, University College London

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, US (some publishing papers relating to the publishing history of Untouchable)

India League files, L/PJ/12/448-54, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Papers of Saros Cowasjee, Dr John Archer Library, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Involved in events: 

Meetings of the Indian National Congress, Lahore, 1929

Second Conference of the International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture, London, 19-23 June 1936

Spanish Civil War (joined International Brigade in 1937)

XVIII International PEN Conference, London, 1941 (delivered plea for independence)

Numerous India League meetings

City of birth: 
Peshawar
Country of birth: 
India
Current name country of birth: 
Pakistan

Location

8 St George's Mews Regent's Park Road
London, NW1 8XE
United Kingdom
51° 32' 26.9484" N, 0° 9' 30.5532" W
Date of death: 
28 Sep 2004
Location of death: 
Pune, India
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Sep 1925
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1925-45. Trips back to India and elsewhere during this period: 1929 (India), 1930 (Rome, Paris and Vienna to visit art galleries), 1935 (India), 1937 (Spain, three months with the International Brigade in the University Trenches).

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