The Untouchables of India

by Robert Deliège, Nora Scott (Translator)

The subjugation of millions of people in a caste system that is a radical form of apartheid has long had its critics, both from within India and from outside it. Although the government has introduced equal opportunity legislation in an effort to right some of history's wrongs, untouchability is an accident of birth that continues to stigmatize and ostracize more than one hundred and forty million people. Untouchables remain on the bottom of the socioeconomic scale and are found, more often than not, in unskilled, low status occupations. They are forbidden to enter temples, often beg for their food, must leave their chests uncovered and silently endure public humiliations and insults. They remain on the fringes of society and it is even said by some that their shadows pollute passersby.

This excellent book addresses the problem of untouchability by providing an overview of the subject as well as penetrating insights into its social and religious origins. The author persuasively demonstrates that untouchability is a deeply ambiguous condition: neither inside nor outside society, reviled yet indispensable, untouchables constitute an original category of social exclusion. This is reflected in the various social movements they have led over the last century and more.

The situation of untouchables is crucial to the understanding of caste dynamics, especially in contemporary circumstances, but emphasis, particularly within anthropology, has been placed on the dominant aspects of the caste system rather than on those marginalized and excluded from it. This important book redresses this problem and represents a vital contribution to studies of India, Hinduism, human rights, history, sociology and anthropology.

244 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1999

Reviews

[Rakesh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is mainly a repackaging of the ideas of others who have written about caste. There are some interesting points in the repackaged material. It is when the author asserts his own opinions that the book becomes biased and unscholarly.

It begins with the title. The author insists on using the hurtful and outdated term Untouchables despite being told by an Indian scholar that the term was inappropriate. When the author is not using the term Untouchables, he uses the condescending term Harijans while acknowledging that the term is considered paternalistic. He won't use the term Dalit because to him Dalits are all militants. Dalit is a term "that higher castes never use in referring to Untouchables." Just who is this book about? Why are the domineering castes being given control over the language used in the book?

He insists on perpetuating the idea that "caste names are generally considered demeaning or even insulting," again subscribing to the viewpoint of the domineering castes.

If you are interested in the ideas of the authors that have been repackaged in this book, read their original works. The author of this book is an amateur in comparison.

[Robert Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am no expert on the subject but the author painstakingly works his way through his predecessors to give a sense of where he stands. While heavy going in parts, the care and thoughtful comparative reflection on a vast body of anthropological research has made this a strangely significant touchstone for me, in part because of my own memories of a large part of my childhood spent in India , and in part because of my sense that ‘untouchability’ is both very Indian in the religious and cultural setting outlined here, but also universal in some important respects, with echoes in many epochs and places. The chapter on Ambedkar is particularly valuable since its context has been more fully and better explained than most others on this very important and impressive pioneer statesman.