The Village is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R.K...

 first published in 1939. This book was the first of a trilogy that included Across the Black Waters and The Sword and the Sickle

The Sword and the Sickle

The Sword and the Sickle is a novel by Mulk Raj Anand first published in 1942. Like his other novels, this one also deals with the topic of social and political structures, specifically, the rise of Communism. The title for the book was given to Anand by George Orwell. The novel was in keeping with...

. The plot centers around India's political structure, specifically the British rule and the independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

. The novel revolves around Lal Singh a peasant in the Punjab, his antics going against social norms while in the village, his subsequent enrollment in the army and his troubles in the army, culminating in his return to the village.