Untouchability | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Dalit Summary

Untouchability

Untouchability is an Indian phenomenon based on degrees of pollution and purity probably unrelated to race. Sometime around the fifth century CE castes evolved that were ranked below the fourfold varna (caste) system of Brahman (priest), Kshatriya (warrior and king), Vaishya (merchant), and Sudra (laborer or craftsman). In earlier texts the term chandala referred to the attendants of the burning ghats, who were despised as unclean because they handled the dead. The range of castes who work with leather or rope, clean night soil, play drums, or attend death sites developed later. Specific names indicate specific, large untouchable castes. Bhangis or valmikis are scavengers; camars or chamarkars work with leather; pariahs were traditional drummers; andmahars were all-around servants of the village. Approximately 12 percent of the population of India belong to one of the Scheduled Castes (former untouchables), and over four hundred such castes exist, each usually limited to one language area.

Names Denoting Untouchability

The titles of untouchables as a group indicate the history of the phenomenon. Avarna (without caste) was a traditional name. In a speech in 1908 the maharaja Sayajirao (1875–1939) of Broda, India, was the first to use the term "untouchable" in this context. The phrase "depressed classes" came into use when reform began in the early part of the twentieth century. Mohandas
K. Gandhi (1869–1948) coined the word "harijan"(people of god) in the early 1930s to indicate his concern, but Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) a mahar and the chief organizer of untouchables, rejected that term as patronizing and unrealistic. "Scheduled Castes" came into use in 1935, when the government of India created a schedule or list to indicate which castes were eligible for benefits and for reserved places in parliamentary bodies. "Dalit"(downtrodden, ground down), a proud term indicating that external oppression rather than any polluting quality is responsible for the inferior status of untouchables, has gained currency since 1970. Some cultural developments have incorporated the term, such as the Dalit Panthers, a militant group in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, and Dalit literature, a burgeoning field of poetry, prose, and drama. The use of the term "Dalit" usually suggests a politically awakened group of untouchables or writing by others that recognizes that awakening. "Harijan" remains in use, especially among Gandhians and some groups of rural untouchables in the south of India. The nineteenth-century word "outcaste" is inaccurate, since untouchables are within castes even though they are outside the classical Hindu varna system.

Discrimination and Political Activism

Restrictions on untouchables have included exclusion from Hindu temples, homes, and Brahman rituals; prohibitions against using the village well or studying in the village school; and a prohibition against touching any Hindu or any material or food that could convey the untouchables' supposed pollution. In some areas untouchables could not own land, although in other areas some castes held some land as part of their village contract. They were generally confined to traditional occupations and agricultural labor.

The first voices of untouchables came from the bhakti (devotional religion) movement, which brought Nandanar of the Tamil Vaishnava movement into a circle of saints in the seventh century CE and Tirupan Alvar into the Shaivite legends of piety a little later. Cokhamela, of the Marathi-speaking area, and his entire family are featured in hundreds of songs performed by the devotees of the god Vithoba in Maharashtra. Their fourteenth-century voices contain notes of distress and protest as well as joyous devotion. In the fifteenth century Ravidas, who lived in the Hindi-speaking area of the north, told of his low-status leather work as well as his faith. The British brought some change in terms of servant positions in British homes, recruitment into the army, and later new kinds of work on the railways, in the mills, and on the docks. Social reform, however, did not begin until the end of the nineteenth century. When army recruitment stopped and pensioned soldiers pleaded for readmission, efforts at education and social betterment were made within the untouchable mahar caste itself and among such high-caste Hindu religious reform groups as the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, the Arya Samaj in the Punjab and the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), and the Depressed Classes Mission in the former province of Bombay. A Buddhist movement among untouchables in Tamil Nadu in south India became an awakening force, and beginning with Ambedkar in 1956, conversion was widespread.

A number of untouchable leaders appeared in the second quarter of the twentieth century, and Ambedkar was chief among them. His voice for political representation in all government institutions, educational opportunities, and a general awakening initiated massive changes. India reserves places for Scheduled Castes in all elected bodies, in government institutions, in educational institutions, and on the teaching staffs of colleges and universities run by the government. Among the important untouchable political parties is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP or the party of the majority) founded by Kanshi Ram(b. 1934), an untouchable Sikh from the Punjab. With Mayavati (b. 1956), a camar woman, as its chief voice, that party is very powerful in Uttar Pradesh. The Republican Party founded by Ambedkar just before his death in 1956 holds some power on the local level in Maharashtra and a few state and national seats when it combines with other political parties. Tamil Nadu also has a strong political movement. As untouchables become politically and socially active, however, they frequently face violence. A report by Human Rights Watch in 1999 entitled Broken People indicates that acts of rape, arson, and murder committed against untouchables have increased since independence. If one Dalit over-steps what is expected, runs off with a caste Hindu girl, or challenges higher castes economically, the entire Dalit section of the village may suffer revenge. Another persistent show of anger at Dalit actions is attacking the ubiquitous statues of Ambedkar found everywhere in untouchable quarters and, in recognition of his importance, in city centers. Nevertheless, the progress among Dalits in some areas is remarkable, and because of the reservation system, a sizable literate middle class has emerged.

Eleanor Zelliot

An elderly "untouchable" man and children in Mysore, India, in 1929. (E. O. HOPPE/CORBIS)