I first came across Mulk Raj Anand through Man Mela’s stage production of Across the Black Waters when I was making a BBC Radio 4 documentary about the experiences of Indian soldiers in the First World War. I was immediately struck by the immediacy of his characters’ peasant soldier dialogue and the unique Indian perspective he created of the awful and baffling conditions they experienced on the Western Front. I began to read more of Anand’s work and gradually discovered what an extraordinary life he had led. He had been involved in some of the most radical political and artistic movements in the first few decades of the 20th century, most notably with the Indian freedom fighters, the Bloomsbury group and the Spanish Civil War – what a creative crucible for any aspiring novelist! I was intrigued by the cultural exchanges that must have been taking place in all those encounters and how they might have contributed to his development as a writer. Having persuaded BBC Radio 4 that this was writer whose life and work should be celebrated, I decided to focus my programme on those formative years Anand spent in Britain - as An Indian in Bloomsbury. 

Although I exchanged letters with him last year, sadly, he was too frail to be interviewed. I did send him a copy of the finished programme and his career said she played it to him a little at a time. I hope it gave him some pleasure to hear that his work lives on and has found many new fans in Britain, the country where he first developed his craft, made so many friends and also where he married and had his only child. The programme received a wonderful response when it was first broadcast and I am delighted that Radio 4 is repeating it as a tribute to mark his death. 

Mukti Jain Campion
Culture Wise
Producer/Presenter An Indian in Bloomsbury BBC Radio 4
28/10/04