The term Untouchable is a label. A signifying label by which people are treated as filthy and defiling. What the Untouchables do to escape from the ‘label’ is to take names borrowed from myths or historical characters to hide the identity. By a mere change of name, e.g. as the the Chamar call themselves Ravidas or the Bhangis renaming themselves as Valmikis would not changed the lived-in world for them. Even a lofty condescending term of ‘Harijan’ i.e., the children of God would still keep them within the folds of Hinduism. So, he designed salvation as an escape from Hinduism through
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Ambedkar Conversion 3
