Ganpat: Character Analysis in The Novel Coolie

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      Ganpat is the co-partner of Seth Prabha Dayal in the pickle factory. He is a very wicked person. The workers in his presence tremble and are afraid of being dismissed from the job or being beaten mercilessly, therefore, they work honestly and properly in the factory He causes much suffering to Munoo during his working period in the factory. The writer describes him as a man, ‘with dark-brown goat-like face, hollowed-cheeked and pinched’. He abuses and slaps him. When he is away to collect dues, Munoo shapes his hair and the other workers cut jokes on one another.

      Ganpat was a rich man’s son, born and bred in the lap of luxury who had a grievance against fate because his father had gambled away his fortune at the stock exchange and had left him penniless to work for his own living. He has been taken up by Prabha and lives in comfort through his partner’s kindness. He was always afraid that he had neither the skill nor the will to work and felt himself a mere parasite. He wanted to be free from the possibility of his downfall. He had cultivated a tough skin and a bullying manner with a view to amass wealth and to rise in the world. He had developed into an instrument of personal hate and perverse selfishness, defeating the very ends they were employed to serve.

      Ganpat is presented as a foil to his good and noble partner as he has been left penniless by his father he wants to have his revenge upon the world at large. Hence his behavior to Prabha Dayal and Munoo and others seems to be a transferred malice. He is lustful, treacherous cruel and ungrateful. When Prabha wants to see the accounts, he gets angry because he had spent the money collected from the clients of the factory on the prostitute. On the top of that, he speaks to the Seth with great contempt and sullenness. He opens his own factory and forces the two labourers to work in his factory. He also picks up a quarrel with the neighbours, the Todar Mals. He spreads the rumour that Prabha has lost the good will of the editors and he has become a bankrupt. The rumour spreads like wild fire the creditors flocked and his factory is sold. He lost his business. Hence he brought ruin in the life of Prabha, Munoo and others. All this is happened at Ganpat’s instigation and due to his wickedness.

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