Expressing grief at the demise of noted novelist Mulk Raj Anand earlier today in Mumbai, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, described him as a freedom fighter and one of the founding fathers of the English novel in India.

Recalling Shri Mulk Raj Anand's outstanding contributions to Indian literature, both in the vernacular and in English, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that his realistic and sympathetic portraits of the lives of the poor in India would always be remembered. Apart from his achievements as a writer, an art critic and an educationist, Shri Mulk Raj dedicated many years of his life to the universal cause of freedom, including participation in the Spanish Civil War, the Prime Minister said.

Dr. Singh said that Shri Mulk Raj's many talents and his outstanding literary career would be treasured among the defining elements of modern Indian literature.