summary on untouchability
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Untouchability is a practice in which some lower caste people are kept at a distance, denied of social equality and made to suffer from some disabilities for their touch, is considered to be contaminating or polluting the higher caste people.
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Untouchable , a 1935 novel by Indian writer Muk Raj Anand, centers around one day in the life of Bakha, a young sweeper in Bulashah, a fictional Indian town. Bakha is an Untouchable, a member of the lowest caste in traditional Hindu society. Untouchables are born into the caste and confined to a life of dirty, menial labor those of higher castes will not perform.
Bakha awakes to his father yelling at him to get out of bed and begin work cleaning the latrines of high-caste townspeople. Bakha cleans the latrine of Charat Singh, a high-caste athlete, who tells him to return later in the day to claim a hockey stick as a gift. Bakha returns home thirsty, and his sister, Sohini, goes to draw water from the communal well. She must wait at the very end of the line until a local priest, Pundit Kali Nath, assists her and asks her to clean the temple. She agrees.
Bahka goes into town to sweep the streets and accidentally brushes up against a high-caste man, who is furious that he has been touched by someone like Bahka. The man berates and hits Bahka until a Muslim vendor, who has no regard for the Hindu caste system, breaks it up. Bahka walks to the temple, where he finds the priest accusing Sohini of “polluting” him. Sohini, distraught, tells Bakha the priest sexually assaulted her. Bahka sends her home, promising to take over her duties.
Bahka wanders around town, begging for food and performing menial chores in return before becoming too disgusted with high-caste people’s cruelty to continue. At home, he tells his father about the high-caste man who hit him. His father reminds him that a high-caste doctor once saved Bahka’s life.
Bahka attends the wedding of his friend’s sister. He tells his friends about the high-caste man who hit him, and they ask if he wants revenge. He considers this, but knows it would ultimately be fruitless. Bahka remembers the hockey stick waiting for him at Charat’s Singh’s, and goes to get it. Singh invites Bahka in, allowing Bahka to touch his possessions, a transgression of tradition that moves Bahka. His new hockey stick in hand, Bahka joins a game of street hockey that quickly devolves into a brawl. When he returns home, bruised and upset, his father is furious Bahka has been gone all afternoon. He throws Bahka out of the house.
Bahka wanders away from home, taking shelter under a tree. A white man, Colonel Hutchinson, approaches him. The head of the local Salvation Army, he invites Bahka to church. Bahka agrees, but on the steps of the church Colonel Hutchinson’s wife sees them and pitches a fit about her husband bringing another “blackie” to their church. Humiliated, Bahka leaves. He wanders some more, ending up at the train station, where a crowd has gathered. Mahatma Ghandi, he learns, is in Bulashah and about to speak. Ghandi takes the stage and begins to preach. His speech condemns the caste system and in particular, discrimination against Untouchables. He urges the audience to condemn the caste system, as well.
Afterwards, Bahka hears two educated friends discuss the speech. One, a lawyer, finds Ghandi’s ideas impractical and silly—tradition will win out. The other, a poet, strongly disagrees. Untouchability is a barbaric practice that cannot continue. Though Bahka understands little of their sophisticated conversation, he hears the lawyer mention that flush toilets will soon be brought to India. This invention, he says, will eliminate much of the need for the untouchable class, the only ones permitted to handle human waste. Bahka feels a surge of hope and rushes home to tell his family what he has heard.
At the time of this novel’s publication, the caste system dominated India. In
Untouchable , author Anand humanizes an “untouchable” human for his high-caste readers, imploring them, through his description of Bahka and his family’s suffering, to consider the plight of their low-caste countrymen.
Bakha awakes to his father yelling at him to get out of bed and begin work cleaning the latrines of high-caste townspeople. Bakha cleans the latrine of Charat Singh, a high-caste athlete, who tells him to return later in the day to claim a hockey stick as a gift. Bakha returns home thirsty, and his sister, Sohini, goes to draw water from the communal well. She must wait at the very end of the line until a local priest, Pundit Kali Nath, assists her and asks her to clean the temple. She agrees.
Bahka goes into town to sweep the streets and accidentally brushes up against a high-caste man, who is furious that he has been touched by someone like Bahka. The man berates and hits Bahka until a Muslim vendor, who has no regard for the Hindu caste system, breaks it up. Bahka walks to the temple, where he finds the priest accusing Sohini of “polluting” him. Sohini, distraught, tells Bakha the priest sexually assaulted her. Bahka sends her home, promising to take over her duties.
Bahka wanders around town, begging for food and performing menial chores in return before becoming too disgusted with high-caste people’s cruelty to continue. At home, he tells his father about the high-caste man who hit him. His father reminds him that a high-caste doctor once saved Bahka’s life.
Bahka attends the wedding of his friend’s sister. He tells his friends about the high-caste man who hit him, and they ask if he wants revenge. He considers this, but knows it would ultimately be fruitless. Bahka remembers the hockey stick waiting for him at Charat’s Singh’s, and goes to get it. Singh invites Bahka in, allowing Bahka to touch his possessions, a transgression of tradition that moves Bahka. His new hockey stick in hand, Bahka joins a game of street hockey that quickly devolves into a brawl. When he returns home, bruised and upset, his father is furious Bahka has been gone all afternoon. He throws Bahka out of the house.
Bahka wanders away from home, taking shelter under a tree. A white man, Colonel Hutchinson, approaches him. The head of the local Salvation Army, he invites Bahka to church. Bahka agrees, but on the steps of the church Colonel Hutchinson’s wife sees them and pitches a fit about her husband bringing another “blackie” to their church. Humiliated, Bahka leaves. He wanders some more, ending up at the train station, where a crowd has gathered. Mahatma Ghandi, he learns, is in Bulashah and about to speak. Ghandi takes the stage and begins to preach. His speech condemns the caste system and in particular, discrimination against Untouchables. He urges the audience to condemn the caste system, as well.
Afterwards, Bahka hears two educated friends discuss the speech. One, a lawyer, finds Ghandi’s ideas impractical and silly—tradition will win out. The other, a poet, strongly disagrees. Untouchability is a barbaric practice that cannot continue. Though Bahka understands little of their sophisticated conversation, he hears the lawyer mention that flush toilets will soon be brought to India. This invention, he says, will eliminate much of the need for the untouchable class, the only ones permitted to handle human waste. Bahka feels a surge of hope and rushes home to tell his family what he has heard.
At the time of this novel’s publication, the caste system dominated India. In
Untouchable , author Anand humanizes an “untouchable” human for his high-caste readers, imploring them, through his description of Bahka and his family’s suffering, to consider the plight of their low-caste countrymen.
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