Life of the Untouchables

Imagine a world where people believe that all people are unequal. Imagine a land where you are discriminated because you are of the lower class. Well, who are these people? In a world such as this, I wonder how life would be like for these people. How do they get through each day? India is a country that once held such beliefs. In fact, to some extent these values are still evident in today’s era. Over the years, a cultural trend in the caste system has allowed untouchables to have more access to human rights in the society; however, deeply embedded traditional values in the Hindu culture still cannot eliminate the caste system.

Have you ever heard about the untouchables? If you have, it is most likely you have heard about how the upper class mistreats them. Growing up in India, I have heard stories about people who are inferior to the upper class. I listened to many conversations about servants who only work outside of the house and do not have permission to enter inside. I witnessed homeowners separate utensils such plates, spoons, glasses, and things of that nature just for the people who comes to work as a house cleaner or to help around the house. In fact, no one else uses or touches these utensils. I always wondered why this was. It took me years to understand that these people are the untouchables of the society.

Mostly everyone in the society treats the untouchables as if they are less than a human. Anthropologist Siddharth Dube makes the claim that “Untouchables are the lowest caste in the unchanging caste system in India” (1998, back cover). Robert Deliège, in his book The Untouchables of India defines untouchables as "sections of the society that is economically dependent, exploited, victims of various discrimin...

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...s source, I was able to understand the different levels in the caste system and the myth associated with different levels.

Rambachan, A. (2008). Is caste intrinsic to Hinduism?. Tikkun, 23(1), 59-61. 290(1689), 186-

192. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

This source was very helpful because it was from the standpoint of a Hindu author. Since he is part of the Hindu religion, he explained that those in power created the caste system, and it eventually took religious validation. All the other sources that I examined were from researchers examining the caste system from the western perspective because of that the Hindu religion seems to be the cause of the problem. Since Rambachan is a Hindu, it provides a different perspective. At the same time, he could have a biased standpoint in order to defend his religion. Nonetheless, his standpoint seems to be convincing.