A Comparative Study of Social Pressure and Office Life: Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s Vipatra.

This research project conducts a comparative and translation-based inquiry into the representation of social injustice within Indian literature, focusing on Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935) and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s Vipatra (1964). The study examines the evolution of the "Social Gaze"—the mechanism by which society monitors and marginalizes the individual—shifting from the physical caste boundaries of pre-independence India to the bureaucratic alienation of the post-colonial era. Central to this project is an original English translation of Muktibodh’s Vipatra from its source Hindi. Utilizing Michel Foucault’s theory of the "Panopticon" and Lawrence Venuti’s framework of "Foreignization," the research argues that the structures of oppression have not vanished but have transitioned from the external village street to the internal institutional office. The study concludes that the "unworthy" individual in modern bureaucracy is a direct psychological successor to the "untouchable" figure of the past.

@article{ijter2026212606217392,
  author = {Dr. B. Patra and Sangam Singh},
  title = {A Comparative Study of Social Pressure and Office Life: Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s Vipatra.},
  journal = {International Journal of Technology &  Emerging Research },
  year = {2026},
  volume = {2},
  number = {6},
  pages = {169-174},
  doi =  {10.64823/ijter.2606014},
  issn = {3068-109X},
  url = {https://www.ijter.org/article/212606217392/a-comparative-study-of-social-pressure-and-office-life-mulk-raj-anand-s-untouchable-and-gajanan-madhav-muktibodh-s-vipatra},
  abstract = {This research project conducts a comparative and translation-based inquiry into the representation of social injustice within Indian literature, focusing on Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935) and Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s  Vipatra (1964). The study examines the evolution of the "Social Gaze"—the mechanism by which society monitors and marginalizes the individual—shifting from the physical caste boundaries of pre-independence India to the bureaucratic alienation of the post-colonial era. Central to this project is an original English translation of Muktibodh’s Vipatra from its source Hindi. Utilizing Michel Foucault’s theory of the "Panopticon" and Lawrence Venuti’s framework of "Foreignization," the research argues that the structures of oppression have not vanished but have transitioned from the external village street to the internal institutional office. The study concludes that the "unworthy" individual in modern bureaucracy is a direct psychological successor to the "untouchable" figure of the past.
  
  },
  keywords = {Untouchable,Social Gaze, Physical caste boundaries,social injustice },
  month = {Jun},
}

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