Untouchables Quotes

“Caste system is the most brilliantly administered scam in history.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“I stood knocking at the doorsteps of heaven as I died… “Who are you…?” I was asked. “My entire existence on earth could not tell me who I was… And that is what I have come to ask you…”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“It was a pleasure to watch them eating jalebis, always entreating the other to eat some more—the beauty of love that had mellowed in the evening of life.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“The story of the ugly duckling and its scornful brethren holds special significance for the Dalits. I wonder how many swans waste their lives thinking of themselves as ugly ducklings, trapped and punished by the inequities of our caste system.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“It is an unfortunate truth of our society that whatever heights a man might scale, his caste is never cast off; it remains an inseparable part of his identity. His caste always remains a cause for scorn or contempt. Only the type of humiliation changes.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“For the millionth time I asked myself why they couldn’t judge me on where I stood. Why did they always have to judge me on where I came from.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“There is no better place or time to be philosophical than when you are airborne. Suspended between heaven and earth, introspection becomes inevitable. The plane may be traveling at supersonic speed but the mind travels faster than light—seemingly without a sense of direction, but almost always with a definite purpose.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“We, the women, who rule thatif you make a scholar out of your wife, you will need another wife to do the daily chores.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India

“We, the women, who rule the house
But ours is not to question why…
Ours is but to do and die and
Husband never to defy.”
― Narendra Jadhav, Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India