Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

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Recommended: Essays on Indian caste system

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

"In their struggle to come to terms with their world, what did one or two characters in one of the texts [listed above] discover about themselves and others?"

"Untouchable", a novel by Mulk Raj Anand, is a fictional story depicting the real life struggles that are experienced by the victims of the caste system in India - the outcastes of society. Bakha is one of these unfortunate people; born into the lowest segregation of the lowest caste, he desperately attempts to seek refuge from his inevitable destiny as a sweeper, only to discover throughout a series of revelations that he cannot escape his organised victimisation.

The book begins with an almost too detailed and too accurate a description of the squalid living conditions in which the Untouchables are forced to reside in. Most have come to accept such an unpleasant and unhygienic location as their abode; but Bakha, a pioneer in his own right, is apparently the first individual to see his home, unobstructed by the veil which covers the sight of the majority of those of the exterior castes...

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