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Abstract
Human rights are held by all persons equally, universally, and forever. Human rights are those basic standards without which people cannot live in dignity. To violate someone's human rights is to treat that person as though she or he were not a human being. Mulk Raj Anand is one of the few prolific Indian writers in English who have earned a good name as major novelists. He still continues to enjoy the reputation of being a stalwart in the field of Indian writing in English. Perhaps no other writer has been so intensely and actively associated with literary creation, with arts and with the cultural mainstream of the country as Anand has. His novels and stories are read and admired all over the world. All his novels deal with the underprivileged sections of Indian society. The most recurrent theme in his novels that strikes the reader is his treatment of the oppressed and suppressed classes of society. His subject is man. It is this kind of Anand's love of humanism, a principle of all embracing humanity, and his immediate and ultimate concerns as a writer and passionate sincere sympathy for the downtrodden sections that continually inspire and stimulate him to write continuously and prolifically. In Untouchable, human rights appeared to be restricted to those who control the civil society based on religious interpretations and the political regime. Hinduism prevents the Hindus from touching the sweepers or even touching anything a sweeper has touched. For example, in Untouchable we see the confectioner throws the "jalebis" to Bakha and his assistant splashes water on the nickel coins Bakha has placed on the shoe-board. Furthermore, human rights are denied and abused because of the social and religious structure in India during that time. The high castes Hindus are given the authority to degrade the lower-caste.