Comprising some 15 per cent of the Indian population, the ‘untouchables’ were confined to professions such as scavenging and leatherwork, which caste Hindus regarded as ‘unclean’. Though technically Hindus, they were not considered part of the varna system, and not allowed to worship in temples, nor allowed to draw water from the same wells as upper-caste Hindus. In some parts of India even the sight of an ‘untouchable’ was said to ‘pollute’ the Brahmins. The economic degradation and social humiliation that ‘untouchables’ in India experienced had no parallel elsewhere in the world.
