Customer Reviews

Untouchable (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

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I do not remember why I first bought this book, but when I was reading it, it sure fired up some long gone memories into my system of the times when I was a six year old boy use to visit my grandparents in a remote village in Punjab, India.

I have always heard of the Untouchables but did not remember how disrespectfully the Indians have been treating their own people known as the Untouchables.

To summarize the book in some sentences -

1 It is an excellent story, which may not be true, but 99.9% of the Untouchables and the rest in India will relate to it.

2 The story also describes very clearly the Context in which these people have/had to work for their Masters (Jats, Brahmins etc.) in the villages of India.

3 If you do not wish to do extensive research on this topic but you want to understand the meaning and get a handle on 'the Untouchablility' existing in India then this book is for you.

4 I have also read an excellent book by John D. Morley called "Pictures from the Water Trade" which describes how a very similar Caste system also flourishing in Japan. My point here is that India is not alone, guilty of subhuman practices. In India there exists, perhaps, a more established hierarchical Caste system structure than any other place, and you will get a clear picture of it after reading the book.

Looking at the title some people might say: "Oh, well, it is another one of those stories about poor, suffering Indians...It is probably just another tearjerker, nothing more...and this and that..." They would be only half-right. Yes, it is another story about unimaginable suffering of out-cast Indians, The Untouchables. Yes, if you call yourself a HUMAN being and have a heart, you WILL empathize with them. However, this book doesn't ask you to pitty its characters and/or cry for them. Instead, it makes you think about them, not only in the context of Indian culture, but in a context of a much larger world. It also forces you to draw parallels to your own culture, whether you like it or not. Today, this book is especially potent, as we no longer live in our "little isolated cultures", separated by endless preconceptions and stupid prejudices about each other. In addition, this book is simply a piece of excellent writing, thanks to the wonderful writing skills and creative methods of its author. The story is narrated through the eyes of a main character, who directly addresses you as a reader, and yet sometimes seems to ignore you completely, while going about his own business (those are particularly interesting moments in the story). So, read this book, follow the lives (actually, try to live their lives with them) of its numerous and vivid characters, not one of whom is like the next one. I garantee that you will learn something new about India and also about yourselves, in the process of reading this book.

Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand, 1933
We thought this was a valuable book because it was motivated by passionate political convictions to inform people about the plight of the `Untouchables' in Hindu society in the 1930s and was well written. We felt that, apart from the contrived ending, the novella worked very well in telling a believable story. We felt that Anand represented the main protagonist of the narrative - a young man called Bakha - as someone to identify with and feel for. He was not a `cardboard' hero but someone pitiable in his eagerness to please and his gratitude for the smallest crumbs of kindness from his superiors. Because there are no chapter headings the readers are drawn on and on to follow him in his path.
The characterisation was considered to be vivid with the story being told in a succession of short `set pieces' entailing dramatic encounters with the friends and the enemies of the Untouchables. The novella covers just one day from sunrise to sunset in the life of the eighteen year old Bakha. It seems to be a day when he `comes to consciousness' in many ways as to his position at the bottom of the social and spiritual hierarchy. We learn that he is imprisoned by an invisible wall of prejudice so that he cannot walk in the streets freely, nor buy food, nor worship or even visit someone's house normally. Through following his sister briefly we learn that Untouchables are even unable to collect water for themselves but must beg others to obtain it for them. Nor is he allowed an education or medical care. Nevertheless Anand portrays him as capable of some happiness. Even in his restricted position he takes some pleasure in his clothes, enjoys part of his hard work and a game of hockey.
Anand provided a contrived ending so as to offer the varied solutions to the problem of Untouchables as put forward by Ghandi, a Christian, a Muslim and a social reformer cum poet. Bakha is left at the end of the day only with the comfort of knowing that his situation has been noticed as something which needs to be addressed.
We thought that it was very much of its time in the sense that Anand cannot conceive of getting Bakha to perform his own liberation. He must be freed by someone else: whether by radicalising Hindus, or becoming a Christian or a Muslim, or by being given flush toilets by western industrialists.
We also felt that society in the UK had treated poorer classes which did dirty jobs - cleaning up after others often - in ways which had some parallels with the situation of Bakha.

Mulk Raj Anand has contributed a timeless and poignant account of the plight of the untouchable of India. Although this is a novelization of untouchable life, it reads like real life. For those beginning their education about the untouchable outcasts of India, this book will give them an immediate, up-close and personal look into the hellish world that was untouchability. The lead character Bakha (a street sweeper) experiences the furious oppression and scorn of being a polluted untouchable, and at the end of the book witnesses the arrival of Mohandas Gandhi, who preached the abolition of untouchability, and wanted to uplift the "harijan", as he called them. Inspired by Gandhi, he hopes to lead a better life, and to escape a life of torment and squalor. This short book is a quick and engaging read for those who wish to have an inside look at what life was like for the untouchables.

A fast and easy read, this is a novel about what is probably a typical day in the life of an Untouchable, the lowest caste in the Hindu order. The sole purpose of the existence of these people was to do the jobs that nobody else in society would do, and without an ounce of gratitude. The "dalits" were expected to loudly announce their presence while walking along the street, lest someone accidentally brush up against them ... in which case a humiliating commotion would occur at the indignation of the "polluted" one, involving many more people than the actual incident. Ignorance plays a huge part in Bakha's acceptance of his lowly lot in life.

The book also touches upon the life of Gandhi, whose stop in this town was part of his pilgrimage to spread love, acceptance and national pride across the country, in the years before Independence. At the end of this humiliating day, Bakha chanced upon a gathering crowd, found himself a spot in a tree, and heard the old man they called Gandhi speak ... the same speech that he gave all across India. In his perpetual ignorance, Bakha didn't understand much of it, but what he did understand gave him new hope, of something alien to him, but which probably wouldn't be realized in his lifetime.

In this shocking novel, Mulk Raj Anand brushes an emotional portrait of an `untouchable' in India, a victim of six thousand years of a `religious' caste system (`the old ossified order and the stagnating conventions').

Untouchable
Untouchables are doomed to remain the `scum of the earth, these dregs of humanity, only the grim silence of the death fighting for life prevailed.' Their living conditions of `oppressed under-dogs' generate `a deep-rooted sense of inferiority and the docile acceptance of the laws of fate.'
They are literally `untouchable' (`it is religion which prevented them from touching us'). If they touch something (human bodies of a higher caste, temples), it is `polluted'.
The hypocrisy of these religious conventions is blatantly exposed when a monk touches the breasts of a young `untouchable' girl.

Gandhi
The author put all his hope in the Mahatma: `the old civilization must be destroyed. I regard untouchability as the greatest blot on Hinduism.'
As one voice in the crowd expresses it clearly, `we must destroy caste, the inequalities of birth and unaltered vocations. We must recognize an equality of rights, privileges and opportunities for everyone. When the sweepers change their profession, they will no longer remain untouchable.'

Determinism
A blot on this book is determinism (heredity): `the cumulative influence of careful selection had imprisoned his free will in the shackles of slavery.'
But, the author contradicts himself immediately: `It was a discord between person and circumstances by which a lion (!) like him lay enmeshed in a net while many a common criminal wore a rajah's crown.'

With forceful details (`his dirty face on which the flies congregated in abundance to taste of the sweet delights of the saliva on the corners of his lips') Mulk Raj Anand wrote a gripping human document and a damning condemnation of a blatant disdain of human dignity. Did the caste system disappear since he wrote it so many years ago?

Highly recommended.

N.B. I also highly recommend the movies on the same theme by the great Indian director Shyam Benegal, as well as the `Indian' books of V.S. Naipaul.

This short novel was intensely moving. Written in 1935, it chronicles a day in the life of an Untouchable, a member of the lowest caste in India. As we travel through the main character Bakha's day, we share with him the humiliations he suffers from the upper castes and yearn with him for a different, happier life. Bakha's caste excludes him from both the broad spectrum of humanity in his country and from opportunities to do anything more than clean latrines and sweep streets. His greatest wish is to become a part of a larger world, one which sees him as more than impure and untouchable. We are witnesses to all that he endures, feels, and observes, and fellow travellers on an inner journey, too, to make meaning of the misery his caste has foisted upon him.

A day in the life of Bakha the Jemadar (sweeper), and an untouchable. The heart of the book is about the social stigma of untouchability affecting India during the 1930s - the period when this book was written and also the time setting for the story as well.

I only remember hearing and reading about the phenomenon of untouchability in Hindu society, when growing up in India during the 70s and early 80s. It still exists to a certain extent in parts of India, or at least spoken about, as I have heard mention of it conversation with others in my family. Gandhiji is attributed to saying in this book - `the fault does not lie in the Hindu religion, but in those who profess it'. I couldn't agree any more.

A short story, and a brief glimpse in the life of an untouchable. A difficult issue simply, sometimes touchingly, described in this story by Mulk Raj Anand, one of the first English writing Indian authors.

I've always had a rather vague idea of what India's untouchables were all about. Mulk Raj Anand takes the reader through a day in the life of a latrine-cleaner under the caste system. The year is 1932, just after Gandhi's famous fast in protest of the treatment of the untouchables. This book was first published in 1935.

The protagonist, Bakha, despite his dirty job, is a fine physical specimen with handsome features. He performs his work efficiently and gracefully, and is an excellent hockey player when he can find the time. His sister is unusually attractive as well. But the beauty and good nature of these young people is no protection against the unrelenting insults of society.

Mulk Raj Anand makes you feel the shame of walking the streets shouting, "Posh, posh, sweeper coming!", so that no one will come near you. One touch is considered so polluting that the offended person must immediately bathe and change clothes. An Untouchable is not even permitted inside a school or temple. Merchants will take his money, but only after washing it.

The introduction by E.M. Forster, which I read after the book, is a good analysis of its themes and form.

Untouchable is psychologically astute, beautifully written and steeped in the pungent, vibrant atmosphere of India. I recommend it to readers who appreciate historically important fiction - and an unforgettable story.

This book was rather interesting as it gave insight into the life of a young man in pre-independence India and discussed many trials that the untouchable people may have experienced and may still experience in India.