34 pages • 1 hour read
Mulk Raj AnandUntouchable
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Inequality
At the time of the novel's writing, the caste system had been in place for over two thousand years. It divides society into four tiers of privilege. The highest ranks comprise the wealthy, the intellectuals, and other positions of power. The Untouchables are actually even lower than the lowest caste, comprising a fifth class outside of rank, and is seen as filthy, even to the point of being able to pollute upper caste members through their touch. Early in the novel, Sohini goes to the well to fetch water. Water is a necessity to survive and should be available to all. The cruelty of the caste system is well-illustrated by the line of Untouchables waiting at the well, but who cannot step forward and draw their own water, no matter how thirsty they might be. Without water, the Untouchables cannot live, but they depend on the mercy of the upper Hindus to draw water for them. This system is cruel, but also illustrates how interdependent the society is.
The Untouchables are often described by vile names, and Bakha's father reminds his son frequently that the Brahmins are their superiors. In order to survive, Bakha must beg for food, which is thrown at him.
After Gandhi's speech, Bakha overhears the poet say: “‘Take a ploughman from the plough, wash off his dirt, and he is fit to rule a kingdom’ is an old Indian proverb. The civility, the understanding and the gravity oft the poorest of our peasants is a proof of that. Go and talk to a yokel and see how kind he is, how full of compliment, and how elegantly he speaks. And the equality of man is no new notion for him’” (154). The people in power are the ones with the easiest ability to create change. But in Untouchable, it is those who experience inequality—the Untouchables—who understand the blight that inequality is upon society. That is why Gandhi urges the Untouchables to stop accepting the unequal treatment, and to act as if they are worthy of more respect. At the end of the novel, the reader is left to question what would happen if all Untouchables rose up and refused to perform their duty of waste-managers. Soon, the flushing toilet will perform that act for them.
Religion
The caste system was created as part of Hindu doctrine. It is therefore ostensibly in place because of a divine decree that separates all Hindus into four castes: The Brahmins (priests and teachers), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (farmers, traders, and merchants), and Shudras (laborers). The Untouchables are not even represented on the body of Brahma, the Hindu god whose various body parts gave rise to each caste. The members of each cast are born into their station through the doctrine of predestination: they are each where they should be, according to Hinduistic dogma, and moving between castes is an affront to the gods. To aspire to a status beyond that of Untouchable is a sin for Bakha and his family.
Colonel Huchison, the Christian missionary, appears to offer a religion that is more tolerable. When he tells Bakha that the Christian God is the God of all men, not just of the whites, Bakha is confused, but he is intrigued: a God for all men would ostensibly be a God that was interested in equality for all men. Ironically, this God seems to see all people as equally low and sinful, and so it is untenable to Bakha.
Religion is also used by the author as an opportunity to show that the appearance of righteousness does not guarantee righteous action. After a man slaps Bakha and knocks off his turban in front of the mob, it is a man of the Muslim faith, who by his faith is considered as outcast as an Untouchable, who protects him and helps him put his turban back on. The doctrines of Islam and Hinduism are opposed to each other in doctrine, but the man's actions show that he is comfortable mingling with people who Hinduism considers outcasts. The priest at the temple, a highest-class Brahmin, assaults Sohini knowing that his status as a religious authority figure gives him license to commit heinous acts.
Generational and Cyclical Oppression
Late in the novel, Bakha's father, Lakha, reminds him that "You have got to work for them all your life, my son, after I die" (77). Before his sons were born, Lakha also did the work of an Untouchable. At the time of the novel, the cycle of the caste system has been repeating itself for many centuries in India. Lakha wants his son to be happy, but he knows that encouraging him to have greater aspirations than being a street sweeper is unrealistic: Bakha cannot escape his fate any more than his father was able to escape his. Children born into the Untouchable class are made aware of the fact that they are inferior as soon as they are able to understand the reality of a hierarchy. The caste system is an ancient tradition that was also legally enforced in India until 1948. Not only is Bakha unable to aspire to upper class status, it is against the law for his to do so.
When the attorney speaks about the difficulty—or the impossibility, in his view—of changing an ancient tradition, he is not being cynical. He refers to history itself as being resistant to the reform of deeply embedded norms.
