The 'Untouchable' People of India
Changing Fortunes of Dalits in Indian Society
Brief outline of the origin of the 'untouchable' class of Himduism, struggles for its abolition, and how Dalits fare in modern India.
Untouchable - an unthinkable term to describe people in today's world but one still widely used in India. "Untouchabes", or "Dalits" lie at the bottom of the caste pile of Hinduism, the result of a complex social structuring system laid down in the early Hindu epics thousands of years ago. These groupings were then, to an extent, fluid; a group or individual could move up or down a caste, especially in the case of the Kshattriya, or warrior class which had to be flexible to accomodate for invading peoples who settled into Indian society.
The 'untouchable' comes from the jobs that people of the lowest caste held. Road sweepers, garbage collectors or toilet cleaners and so on were looked upon as unclean and so were forbidden to come into contact with members of the higher castes. If contact was made, even accidently, then the 'affected' person had to take a bath to purify themselves. This also appied to houses and temples, many of which are still off-limits to Dalits. Indeed, only yesterday, the "Telegraph" of Calcutta reported that "A Dalit man was allegedly beaten up and abused by a priest for entering a temple in Kanpur district" (The Telegraph, Wednesday 9th January)
The movement to remove untouchability is not a new one, and past efforts have often surpassed the feeble attempts that are made today by vote-hungry politicians. One of the main reasons Gautama rejected Hinduism and later founded Buddhism was his dislike of the caste system, Sikhism also has its roots in opposing untouchability. Along with independence from Britain in the early twentieth century, the removal of untouchability was a cornerstone of Mahatma Gandhi's beliefs and ideas. Such was his poularity with the Indian masses, his fast in the name of anti-untouchability of 1932 brought the struggle of the Dalits to the forefront of the Indian political movement of the day.
Today, Dalits are targets of affirmitive action and governmental posts, places in schools and universities are reserved for members of 'backwards' castes. Entrance exams are sometimes skewed in their favour; the Indian Institute of Managment (IIM) in Calcutta requires a score of 85.12 from members of Scheduled Castes in its CAT admission test, while asking for 98.86 in the 'general category' ("The Telegraph", Wednesday 9th January). Political representation has come slowly too, a voice is struggling to be found and made itself heard, and the largely Brahmin governments across the country (too in Nepal) are realising that there is an extremely large, untapped vote bank out there.
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and politically powerful state in India is now a Dalit, Nayawati Kumari. Her Bahujan Samaj Party often clashes with mainstream Brahmin dominated parties on issues of caste, and "she once campaigned on a slogan which told Dalits to beat upper-caste Hindus four times with their shoes" (BBC News).
The lot of the Dalits has improved, and is improving. Although affirmitive action has lifted many out of poverty and rejection,for people put into governmental positions, universities, the civil service and the like, a stigma will always remain, a glance at any Indian newspaper will remind us of that. Much better to rid the system of the whole idea. But looking across the border to Nepal where even the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is struggling to rid itself of a "Brahmin only" image, it could be a long time coming.
