Long Essay on Untouchability in English / Untouchability in India

Questionpur
February 13, 2022

What is Untouchability

Untouchability

Untouchability: The problem of Untouchability has been widely recognized in India. It is not a simple matter of economic deprivation but it is also an extreme form of social oppression and economic exploitation. "It is true that the term 'Untouchables' designates a social group that owing to their association with death, organic waste and evil sprites are permanently polluted." The term 'untouchable' can be referred to in modern times as those sections of Indian society which has been economically and socially exploited by the higher class.

They always faced discrimination since ancient times. According to the census of 1981, India's untouchable population had touched about 16% and their population is growing faster. However, the Untouchables' literacy rate is significantly lower than that of the rest of the population.

They are split into hundreds of castes and dispersed in the whole country. Due to fragmentation, they could not organize as a single power and no party could claim to represent the Untouchables as a whole. This type of fragmentation is a curse for Untouchables because their less numerical strength makes it impossible for them to play any significant role in Indian politics such fragmentation is an essential feature of Indian Untouchables".
Long Essay on Untouchability in English Untouchability in India Daily Preparation

In India, Untouchables are divided into numerous castes and sub-caste and they also act like higher caste to lower sub-caste. They also avoid contact with other lower sub-castes. However, all Untouchables play a very important role as they carry out all menial tasks. They don't have agricultural land that's why they worked on farms as labourers. They made to settle out of the villages because higher caste people wanted to avoid them and keep their distance even from their shadow.

Meaning of untouchability:

In the view of Ambedkar, "untouchability is a notion of defilement, pollution, contamination and the ways and means of getting rid of that defilement".However, the generic term Untouchables is not entirely satisfying. In Sanskrit literature, we find equivalent words for the Untouchables. For instance, 'chandala' signifies that he was impure and was not allowed to reside in the village and town. His main duty was to carry the corpses and cremation.

 Sanskrit literature stressed that he should eat their food from the broken vessels and avoid any contact with higher castes. In this context, Basu said that untouchability is basically related to the idea of segregation based on the notion that physical touch would bring about pollution, defilement and contamination. But Robert Deliege said that everyone in Indian society is ritually impure. He mentioned that "A Brahmin mourning for a close family member or a Banaras funeral priest is in a sense untouchable."

Impurity 'and untouchability are indeed relative and Robert Deliege also accepted it. Indian Government also accepted that untouchability is purely a Sociological term and that's the reason why the Indian Government replaced the word untouchable with scheduled caste and recognized them as a separate class. It is true that "scheduled caste" is a euphemism for untouchables. British Government used the term "depressed class" for untouchables. Gandhi used the word 'Harijan' but Ambedkar rejected it and was in favour of the term "scheduled caste".

 Significantly, the untouchability in Hindu society was permanent. There was no way out for them. Untouchables to purify themselves in their whole life. By sheer death, they would be free from this curse. In this context, Ambedkar said "The Hindus who touched them become polluted and after that, they have to undergo purification ceremonies to become pure again.

But there is nothing that can make the untouchables pure. They are born impure, they are impure while they live, die and give birth to children. It is a case of permanent hereditary stain which nothing can cleanse." Untouchability is of permanent nature in Hindu society. Ambedkar, in this context, said "Hindus will not live in a quarter of the Untouchables and will not allow the untouchables to live inside Hindu quarter. This is the fundamental feature of untouchability as it is practised by the Hindus."

Untouchables of India:

According to the Hindu varna system in India, there are four castes - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Soldiers, Shudras etc. Those who belong to the Hari-Jana caste means the suppressed caste are called untouchables. Untouchables are not counted among the castes of the Hindu Varna system. Untouchables are considered a person of the excluded caste.

The untouchables are not counted in the caste system of the Hindus. The Untouchable Varna A separate five-fifth character is established. In ancient times, people who used to do substandard work or people of a lower caste who used to work for nine taxes were criminals and people who had contagious diseases lived outside the country.

People who used to be civilized used to call those people untouchables. To protect others from such people, they were thrown out of the state because the disease was caused by touching. At that time, people with contagious diseases were very harmful to other people.

At that time there was no cure for this disease, due to this reason, fingering people were sent away from that state to keep others healthy so that the disease would not be passed on to anyone else. Untouchability was a form of punishment given to those people. The person who broke the laws made by the state created an obstacle in the system of society.

Those who belonged to the untouchables were called Dalits. They are called by this name because those who used to have relations with untouchables are also considered untouchables. Cleanliness, leather, sanitation, and removal of dead bodies are considered untouchables.

Efforts to remove untouchability:

Untouchability has been accepted by society as an evil, and since ancient times, efforts have been made to remove it. Many men have raised their voices against untouchability, but this problem remains the same. Mahatma Buddha had raised a strong voice against it.

An attempt was also made to end this discrimination by showing the Ramayana. They were told to reconcile with Shri Ram's Guhrajas, Shabri and Bhils. First of all, Dayanand ji took responsibility to eliminate untouchability. On the one hand, he made the original Hindus Hindu, on the other, he was embraced as an untouchable.

The term untouchability was also used in Arya Samaj. He himself went and lived in a Harijan colony, which means God's lovely person. Bhima Rao Ambedkar did a very uplifting work for the people living in Harijan, it can never be forgotten.

The views of the youth are being changed and changes are being made gradually in all things. Modern education and globalization are also changing the thinking of the youth, this religious and traditional approach has not changed the thinking.

When the Constitution was drafted, it was determined that provisions will be made in the Constitution for the elimination of backward castes to eradicate the evil spread in the society. Keeping this in mind, Article 17 was made in the Constitution.

Discrimination against untouchables:

Dalits of India are discriminated against a lot according to NCDHR. No one can have food with untouchables. No one can marry a member of a different caste. The tea shops in the villages have separate utensils for untouchables.

Untouchables cannot go to temples. Untouchables are forbidden to walk on public roads. Untouchable children are seated separately in schools. There are separate utensils for the untouchables to sit in hotels and to eat. There is a separate arrangement for the untouchables to sit and eat at village programs or festivals.

When untouchables refuse to do their work, they are boycotted by society. Untouchables are prohibited from wearing umbrellas and wearing slippers in front of upper-caste people. A separate crematorium has been built for untouchables. No other cast member can befriend them.

Due to the persistence of untouchability in the present era: 

Even today in our society, discrimination between caste and birth is still practised. Even today, we can see that untouchability is treated among the people of villages and towns. Even in today's era, untouchables are prevented from going to the pan ghats and temples. Their living space is also given separately.

After all, how has this practice remained so far? People who pick up garbage in cities are also seen from the eyes of untouchables. Evil has reached the depths of the people of Hindu society, that is why even after independence, this problem remains in the society in different ways.

Legal action is taken against those who believe in untouchability as laws have been made against untouchability. Even by doing this, the problem of untouchability is not ending. The main reason for this practice to continue till now is the lack of proper education in our country. People who are considered untouchables are still uneducated and conservative.

The light of other knowledge has not reached them yet. We often see that Harijan people who get an education improve their economic condition and are not considered untouchables. The economic condition of untouchables is also a very important reason for the problem of untouchability.

Effects of untouchability: 

Social, political, religious and cultural side effects of untouchability are very common in the whole world. In today's era, our country is moving forward, but due to the problem of untouchability, a large part of the country has not yet been introduced to the amenities.

Those who live in Harijan village have very few facilities to live life. Untouchability is also a cause of poverty in our country. Until untouchable people find a place in the mainstream of society, the country can never develop properly.

Our country has become independent many years ago but to date, the Harijan class has not been able to become politically, economically and socially independent. Time demands from us that untouchability should be abolished. In ancient times people believed that if untouchables touched them or if their shadow fell on them, they would become impure and they had to bathe in the Ganges water to become holy again.

Types of Discrimination with Dalits or Untouchables

According to the National Campaign of Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), various types of discrimination against Dalits are carried out in India which are as follows:
  • Eating with other people is prohibited.
  • Prohibition of marrying a member of any other caste.
  • Separate glasses of tea for the Dalits in the villages of tea.
  • Differentiation in seating arrangement in hotels and separate utensils for eating.
  • Separate arrangements for seating and eating at festivals and events in villages.
  • Prohibition on entry into temples.
  • Prohibition on wearing slippers on feet and putting umbrellas in front of persons of governed caste.
  • Prohibition to walk on public roads in villages.
  • Separate crematorium (where dead persons are burnt.).
  • Separate seating arrangement for Dalit children in schools.
  • Facing social boycott by the ruling castes for refusing to do their jobs.
Conclusion:
Ambedkar gave an inspiring self-confidence to the untouchables who were socially blind, deaf and dumb. He began movements to give an identity to the untouchables. Ambedkar observed that the reformers among the high-caste Hindus were enlightened intellectuals, who confined their activities to abolishing the enforced widowhood, child marriage, etc.; but they did not feel the necessity to agitate for the abolition of castes nor did they have the courage to fight for them.

Ambedkar felt that High caste Hindus would never do anything for the lower caste; this was the reason that Ambedkar initiated the movement for the abolition of caste. He had an ample idea that the caste system in India would cease all the opportunities of the depressed classes and there wouldn't be any feeling of fraternity amongst the people.

Ambedkar criticized the Hindu social order which was giving importance to the higher caste only and protecting their interests in the society. This social organization was based on chaturvarna; which meant the division of society into four classes. According to the chaturvarna system, God has created the Shudra to be the eternal slave.

Ambedkar wanted to break this type of social order. To annihilate untouchability, Ambedkar did not rely on the Congress and its leaders because their main aim was to mobilize the lower caste for their own political benefit and use them in the political movement against the British. But about the internal slavery, there was complete silence.

इसे भी पढ़ना ना भूलें -

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