Mulk Raj Anand - Humanism

 

Mulk Raj Anand

Humanism 

Anand’s central preoccupation in his writings is with humanism. He regards art and literature “as the instruments of humanism”. The creative artist should have love for human beings, especially the downtrodden, and should offer them his own passion. This enables the writer, as well as the reader, to maintain the equilibrium in his life, and live cheerfully even in the face of the tragic events of the world. This humanism was, in Anand’s case, the compulsion to write books. He came to grasp it under the influence of Marx, Guru Nanak, Gandhi and others, and it was the outcome of the synthesis of the best in Asia and Europe. In Apology for Heroism, he states his position as a humanist: ‘I believe, first and foremost, in human beings, in Man, the whole man ...The humanism which I prefer does not rest on a Divine Sanction ... but puts its faith in the creative imagination of man, in his capacity to transform himself, in the tireless mental and physical energy with which he can, often in the face of great odds, raise himself to tremendous heights of dignity and redeem the world from its misery and pain....’Anand’s humanist philosophy finds its most systematic expression in his book, ‘Is There a Contemporary Indian Civilization’. He elaborates it as follows:

1. This humanism places man in the center of all things.

2. This humanism believes that matter precedes mind in any metaphysical attitude towards the universe.

3. This humanism believes that man is an evolutionary product of the matter of which he is part.

4. This humanism, which puts man in the center of the Universe, believes that human beings possess the potential power to understand many problems, hitherto undreamt of, both in relation to themselves and to nature.

5. This humanism believes, in opposition to all theories of fatalistic acceptance of God, predestination and determinism that human beings, conditioned by man’s history, possess genuine freedom of creative choice and action.

6. The humanism believes in an ethic which is based on human psychology and human values, in this earthy existence, achieved through the relations of persons and persons, and persons and society.

7. This humanism believes that the individual attains full manhood by integrating his personal satisfactions and continuous creative self-development through significant creative work with the hand, the heart and the brain ....

8. This humanism believes in the widest and deepest possible development of creative art and the awareness of beauty.

9. This humanism believes in the brotherhood of man through the affirmations of love.

10. This humanism believes in the application of imagination, reason and scientific method in all human undertakings, making room for the understanding of different instincts and emotions.

11. This humanism believes in the constant questioning of the basic assumptions and convictions of inventive science, employing, throughout, human tests based on moral values.

12. This humanism wishes to connect itself to international humanism, so that, in spite of differences, a comprehensive universalize outlook may prevail ... .

Anand’s humanism is an amalgam of the best of Asiatic and European knowledge and traditions. Anand points to the growth of the humanist values in Buddha, the medieval Hindu saints, Islam, Guru Nanak, Rammohan Roy, and Jawaharlal Nehru. His concept of comprehensive humanism is not original. He plainly says: “... by humanism I do not mean anything more or less than what it has always meant, illumination or enlightenment in the interests of man, true to his highest nature and his noblest vision”.