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Untouchable
Mulk Raj Anand's extraordinarily powerful story of an Untouchable in India's caste system, with a new introduction by Ramachandra Guha, author of Gandhi
Bakha is a proud and attractive young man, yet none the less he is an Untouchable - an outcast in India's caste system. It is a system that is even now only slowly changing and was then as cruel and debilitating as that of apartheid. Into this vivid re-creation of one day in the life of Bakha, sweeper and toilet-cleaner, Anand pours a vitality, fire and richness of detail that earn his place as one of the twentieth century's most important Indian writers.
'One of the most eloquent and imaginative works to deal with this difficult and emotive subject' Martin Seymour-Smith
'It recalled to me very vividly the occasions I have walked 'the wrong way' in an Indian city, and it is a way down which no novelist has yet taken me' E. M. Forster
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1935
394 people are currently reading
9742 people want to read
About the author
Mulk Raj Anand
175 books238 followersMulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R.K. Narayan, Ahmed Ali and Raja Rao, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an international readership. Anand is admired for his novels and short stories, which have acquired the status of being classic works of modern Indian English literature, noted for their perceptive insight into the lives of the oppressed and their analyses of impoverishment, exploitation and misfortune. He is also notable for being among the first writers to incorporate Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 645 reviews
July 20, 2015
It amuses me to no end how there has been no perceivable ebb in the flow of Holocaust-World War II novels and yet every time a Toni Morrison and an Alice Walker and a Richard Wright and a Ralph Ellison have tried to address the elephant in the room or America's endemic race problem which like a many-headed monster continues to rampage on unvanquished, they have been accused of betraying an overt political mindedness and a violation of that much harped upon maxim of 'art for art's sake.'
"Oh Toni Morrison won the Nobel because she wrote about slavery you know!"
Before you scoff at the above declamation let me mention that I have quoted that statement verbatim.
6 million Jews, 7 years. Unaccounted for anonymous millions, 4 centuries. But alas like every other literary theme on the planet, brutalization of human beings, too, has its color-coded hierarchical positions within the canon.
So slavery. A word which no longer evokes the kind of knee-jerk instinctual horror or pathos that it should and has descended into the realms of banality through repeated use over the years. And yet the word refuses to become just another obsolete dictionary entry with its persistent reappearances before us in myriad new grotesque avatars. Forced prostitution, human trafficking, slavery of illegal immigrant workers, bonded labor and so on and so forth. Our own home-made brand of slavery-segregation went by the label of 'untouchability', another convenient, religion-sanctioned writ flagrantly upheld by authorities. Quote obscure mumbo jumbo from scriptures, invent excuses to justify your irrational bias and manipulate the system into giving 'religion' free reign and tada your status quo has been manufactured.
One can call this work a thinly disguised attempt at political pamphleteering because there is very little literary merit to be found here. No linguistic shenanigans to express apoplectic joy over. No dazzling imagery to wax eloquent about. A book named 'Untouchable' on an untouchable latrine-cleaner can boast of no thematic subtlety either. To add to these causes of botheration, Anand devotes a portion to the exaltation of Gandhi who had initially felt the necessity of vindicating the caste system (probably to forestall criticism of Hinduism) despite championing the cause of the harijan ('untouchable'). If you have read enough Arundhati Roy or are aware of her political views, you probably know what I am talking about. So yes this novel is a product of a time and the awakening collective consciousness of an emerging nation-state. It is unable to reconcile an essentially hostile social milieu to the aspirations of an enlightened new generation and merely musters up a robust optimism for the foreseeable future. But it added to a much needed discourse at a time when it was in short supply. So there.
Of course, caste-based violence is still a regularly resurfacing news item and stigmatization of crematorium/graveyard workers, garbage-collectors and assorted dregs of society has not been completely obliterated. But the normalization of the relentless verbal and physical abuse that Bakha, our 'untouchable' protagonist, is subjected to in the book has long been discontinued.
Unable to love it whole-heartedly as I was, I am still painfully aware of this book's relevance. May we be forgiven for passive participation in the ritual dehumanization of a section of society but may we never forget.
"Oh Toni Morrison won the Nobel because she wrote about slavery you know!"
Before you scoff at the above declamation let me mention that I have quoted that statement verbatim.
6 million Jews, 7 years. Unaccounted for anonymous millions, 4 centuries. But alas like every other literary theme on the planet, brutalization of human beings, too, has its color-coded hierarchical positions within the canon.
The sweeper is worse off than a slave, for the slave may change his master and his duties and may even become free, but the sweeper is bound forever, born into a state from which he cannot escape and where he is excluded from social intercourse and the consolations of his religion.
So slavery. A word which no longer evokes the kind of knee-jerk instinctual horror or pathos that it should and has descended into the realms of banality through repeated use over the years. And yet the word refuses to become just another obsolete dictionary entry with its persistent reappearances before us in myriad new grotesque avatars. Forced prostitution, human trafficking, slavery of illegal immigrant workers, bonded labor and so on and so forth. Our own home-made brand of slavery-segregation went by the label of 'untouchability', another convenient, religion-sanctioned writ flagrantly upheld by authorities. Quote obscure mumbo jumbo from scriptures, invent excuses to justify your irrational bias and manipulate the system into giving 'religion' free reign and tada your status quo has been manufactured.
He realised he couldn't rush even though the Mahatma had abolished all caste distinctions for the day. He might touch someone and then there would be a scene. The Mahatma would be too far away to come and help him.
One can call this work a thinly disguised attempt at political pamphleteering because there is very little literary merit to be found here. No linguistic shenanigans to express apoplectic joy over. No dazzling imagery to wax eloquent about. A book named 'Untouchable' on an untouchable latrine-cleaner can boast of no thematic subtlety either. To add to these causes of botheration, Anand devotes a portion to the exaltation of Gandhi who had initially felt the necessity of vindicating the caste system (probably to forestall criticism of Hinduism) despite championing the cause of the harijan ('untouchable'). If you have read enough Arundhati Roy or are aware of her political views, you probably know what I am talking about. So yes this novel is a product of a time and the awakening collective consciousness of an emerging nation-state. It is unable to reconcile an essentially hostile social milieu to the aspirations of an enlightened new generation and merely musters up a robust optimism for the foreseeable future. But it added to a much needed discourse at a time when it was in short supply. So there.
Of course, caste-based violence is still a regularly resurfacing news item and stigmatization of crematorium/graveyard workers, garbage-collectors and assorted dregs of society has not been completely obliterated. But the normalization of the relentless verbal and physical abuse that Bakha, our 'untouchable' protagonist, is subjected to in the book has long been discontinued.
Unable to love it whole-heartedly as I was, I am still painfully aware of this book's relevance. May we be forgiven for passive participation in the ritual dehumanization of a section of society but may we never forget.
July 4, 2019
Soul crushing. We in the West know nothing about degradation. The strife and misery of this narrative! And yet the writing is captivating, the modulation of emotion through action and image masterful. A novel of people whose very essence, they’ve been told for thousands of years, is defilement. I must read more on caste and how it came to be. It’s incomprehensible to the Western mind.
Bakha, a strong young man, a sweeper of latrines, has spent time at the British barracks, where he was treated as if he possessed no taint. This has broadened his thinking, shown him the imbecility of the millennia-old system he lived under, and made him feel things could be different than they are. Bakha and his kind are, among other indecencies, deprived of education, fed like swine, denied participation in community, and consigned to wretched quarters. As the story progresses, and Bakha is assailed from all quarters with declarations of “pollution, pollution!” That this handsome and industrious young man should on this day, perhaps for the first time, truly feel the proportions of the terrible trap that is his life, makes for a terrible moment.
The Mahatma shows up with a message tailor made for Bakha. It’s a subtle bit of didacticism in which one is reminded of certain harangues of Dostoyevsky. Fortunately it’s brief. Untouchability was prohibited by law some 65 years ago. But it is said that Indian elections still reflect a caste consciousness. How could they not, after millennia under such a system? The book, scatological in the extreme, is deeply moving, mainly due to the rage it evokes in the reader. It is also utterly without parallel in my reading experience. That is, I’ve never read anything else that even touches on the subject in the headlong manner this does.
PS Guess who helped Anand with his novel? His initials are M.G.
PPS If you’re going to read this you must also read B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, fascinating.
Bakha, a strong young man, a sweeper of latrines, has spent time at the British barracks, where he was treated as if he possessed no taint. This has broadened his thinking, shown him the imbecility of the millennia-old system he lived under, and made him feel things could be different than they are. Bakha and his kind are, among other indecencies, deprived of education, fed like swine, denied participation in community, and consigned to wretched quarters. As the story progresses, and Bakha is assailed from all quarters with declarations of “pollution, pollution!” That this handsome and industrious young man should on this day, perhaps for the first time, truly feel the proportions of the terrible trap that is his life, makes for a terrible moment.
He was part of a consciousness which he could share and yet not understand. He had been lifted from the gutter, through the barriers of space, to partake of life which was his, and yet not his. He was in the midst of a humanity which included him in its folds and yet debarred him from entering into a sentient, living, quivering contact with it. (p. 137)
The Mahatma shows up with a message tailor made for Bakha. It’s a subtle bit of didacticism in which one is reminded of certain harangues of Dostoyevsky. Fortunately it’s brief. Untouchability was prohibited by law some 65 years ago. But it is said that Indian elections still reflect a caste consciousness. How could they not, after millennia under such a system? The book, scatological in the extreme, is deeply moving, mainly due to the rage it evokes in the reader. It is also utterly without parallel in my reading experience. That is, I’ve never read anything else that even touches on the subject in the headlong manner this does.
PS Guess who helped Anand with his novel? His initials are M.G.
PPS If you’re going to read this you must also read B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, fascinating.
March 31, 2017
"He sniffed at the clean, fresh air around the flat stretch of land and vaguely sensed a difference between the odorous, smoky world of refuse, and the open, radiant world of sun. He wanted to warm his flesh; he wanted the warmth to get behind the scales of the dry, powdery surface that had formed on his fingers; he wanted the blood in the blue veins that stood out on the back of his hand to melt."
You know, in a memoir of his first story “Lost child”, Mulkraj Anand mentioned that he dared to show his story to Virginia Woolf. She asked him to read it out in her next home party. Desmond Macarthy, Victoria Sackill West, Edward Garnet, clapped after he read his story.
During that time, in one of her pamphlets, Virginia Woolf attacked many novelists like Arnold Bennet, H G Wells, John Galsworthy, for writing about the characters of sub- world. This shocked Mulkraj because he was planning to write this novel about the untouchable people. He was further demotivated when one of the young poets, after knowing that Mulkraj was going to write about his growing up years among tough boys, sons of bandsmen, washer men and sweepers, said, leave your Cockneys in their sordid world….As we ignore the Russian writer Gorky’s ‘Lower depths’; write like Laurence Hope about flowers in garden Shalimar!
Then coming back to India, Mulkraj wrote this novel under the guidance of Gandhi. Gandhi advised him not to use big english words and to use the local language.
This is story of a sweeper named Bakha, a young and intelligent character.
Through the ordeals and activities of life of Bakha, his family, his friends and other characters writer has given a wonderful but tyrannical imagery of those days when the untouchability was a great challenge in Indian society. He has depicted very artfully the conflicts between the high caste and lower caste people in the society and has finally reached to the argument that the untouchability was inhumane.
Bakha is a representative of down trodden in the pre-independent era of India. He suffers because of his caste and all the lower castes people are suffering because they are by birth outcaste. Writer has depicted the hypocrisy of the upper caste people that men like Pt. Kali Nath enjoy the touch of the lower caste girls, but do not treat lower caste people equally in other matters. He has exposed all this hypocrisy and double standards. Bakha has been portrayed as a universal figure to show the oppression, injustice, humiliation to the whole community of the outcastes in India in this book.
An attractively written story by Anand, proving a fact that social exclusion and exploitation of the subaltern is well rooted in the caste system of India !
An outcast was not allowed to enter into the house of higher caste, even when food was required in utmost urgency…
"For being an outcaste he could not insult the sanctity of the house by climbing on the house on the top floors where the kitchens were, but had to shout and announce his arrival from below.
‘Bread for the sweeper mother bread for the sweeper,’ He called standing in the door of the first house. His voice died down to the echo of ‘thak, thak, thak’, which stole into the alley.
‘The sweeper has come for the bread, mother!” he shouted a little louder.
But it was of no avail.
He penetrated further into the alley and standing near a point where the doors of four houses were near each other, He shouted his call: ‘Bread for the sweeper, mother; bread for the sweeper.’
Yet no one seemed to hear him on the tops of the house."
You know, in a memoir of his first story “Lost child”, Mulkraj Anand mentioned that he dared to show his story to Virginia Woolf. She asked him to read it out in her next home party. Desmond Macarthy, Victoria Sackill West, Edward Garnet, clapped after he read his story.
During that time, in one of her pamphlets, Virginia Woolf attacked many novelists like Arnold Bennet, H G Wells, John Galsworthy, for writing about the characters of sub- world. This shocked Mulkraj because he was planning to write this novel about the untouchable people. He was further demotivated when one of the young poets, after knowing that Mulkraj was going to write about his growing up years among tough boys, sons of bandsmen, washer men and sweepers, said, leave your Cockneys in their sordid world….As we ignore the Russian writer Gorky’s ‘Lower depths’; write like Laurence Hope about flowers in garden Shalimar!
Then coming back to India, Mulkraj wrote this novel under the guidance of Gandhi. Gandhi advised him not to use big english words and to use the local language.
This is story of a sweeper named Bakha, a young and intelligent character.
Through the ordeals and activities of life of Bakha, his family, his friends and other characters writer has given a wonderful but tyrannical imagery of those days when the untouchability was a great challenge in Indian society. He has depicted very artfully the conflicts between the high caste and lower caste people in the society and has finally reached to the argument that the untouchability was inhumane.
Bakha is a representative of down trodden in the pre-independent era of India. He suffers because of his caste and all the lower castes people are suffering because they are by birth outcaste. Writer has depicted the hypocrisy of the upper caste people that men like Pt. Kali Nath enjoy the touch of the lower caste girls, but do not treat lower caste people equally in other matters. He has exposed all this hypocrisy and double standards. Bakha has been portrayed as a universal figure to show the oppression, injustice, humiliation to the whole community of the outcastes in India in this book.
An attractively written story by Anand, proving a fact that social exclusion and exploitation of the subaltern is well rooted in the caste system of India !
An outcast was not allowed to enter into the house of higher caste, even when food was required in utmost urgency…
"For being an outcaste he could not insult the sanctity of the house by climbing on the house on the top floors where the kitchens were, but had to shout and announce his arrival from below.
‘Bread for the sweeper mother bread for the sweeper,’ He called standing in the door of the first house. His voice died down to the echo of ‘thak, thak, thak’, which stole into the alley.
‘The sweeper has come for the bread, mother!” he shouted a little louder.
But it was of no avail.
He penetrated further into the alley and standing near a point where the doors of four houses were near each other, He shouted his call: ‘Bread for the sweeper, mother; bread for the sweeper.’
Yet no one seemed to hear him on the tops of the house."
April 24, 2016
This is only a short book and the first two-thirds are quite interesting - a day in the life of a downtrodden Untouchable latrine cleaner and his rat-eating family. The preaching of the last third rather spoiled it though. It is true that flush lavatories would solve the problem for the toilet-cleaning caste, but it is hardly a solution for the Untouchables, no matter what name Gandhi gave them.
Part of the problem of the Untouchable caste is that it isn't actually a problem at all for anyone who isn't Untouchable, in fact it's desirable to have them. Since they, the pariahs of society, do all the work that no one else wants to do, and at minimum wage, and all this exploitation can be justified as being in the name of religion, in the name of not interfering with the Infinite plan there is no impetus from society to improve these people's lives.
It's not so far from the way the US treats illegal Mexican immigrants. It allows them to stay to do the work that no one else wants to do for those wages in those conditions. They live in fear of everything and everyone. If they are beaten, robbed or raped they have no redress. They daren't complain. So just as with the Untouchables not being a problem if you aren't one, neither are the illegal immigrants.
There are two ways, from a religious point of view, of looking at them. Either they must have done something pretty dreadful in their previous lives to get born an Untouchable and this is Divine punishment, or alternatively, these people must have been really good dogs, cockroaches or whathaveyou to have become human in this life and who are mere humans to interfere with this great Cycle? When looked at in this way, it's a pretty clever organising of society, of religion, to get the work done. Another way of putting it, one more familiar to us, is the richer get richer and the poor live in ghettos and clean the houses, shops, subways and streets for them.
One of the solutions proposed is Christianity, which has the great advantage of not having a rebirth system so a lowly caste becomes a class problem for which education can provide a ladder up and out. Another solution, one partly in effect now, was Gandhi's renaming the caste Harijan, or Children of God, and his movement to include rather exclude them from society.
The third solution isn't sadly as widespread as it ought to be, the flush toilet. The poor who live and sleep on the pavements still shit in the gutter, those living in slums and tenements crap into plastic bags which they launch far into the air earning them the nickname of parachutes and those slightly less poor than that have flush toilets but no running water. So whether its cleaning latrines or cleaning (un)flushed toilets, or sweeping the streets clean of 'parachute' bags, this caste of Untouchables, these Children of God, are still plying their traditional trade.
Sometimes I wonder if everything evil under the sun couldn't find its justification in one religion or another?
I don't like being lectured to, and I don't care what literary device is used to pretend that it's just the story not a didactic excursion by the author, I just don't like it. I would probably never have finished the book but my computer broke down and it took an hour to fix with all the endless waits while it checked files and rebooted. Lucky aren't I, to have a bookshop and only a slightly iffy computer to annoy me rather than having to live with broken flush toilets and crap to clean from the streets?
Heavily revised 24th April, 2016. Originally reviewed Dec. 1, 2011
Part of the problem of the Untouchable caste is that it isn't actually a problem at all for anyone who isn't Untouchable, in fact it's desirable to have them. Since they, the pariahs of society, do all the work that no one else wants to do, and at minimum wage, and all this exploitation can be justified as being in the name of religion, in the name of not interfering with the Infinite plan there is no impetus from society to improve these people's lives.
It's not so far from the way the US treats illegal Mexican immigrants. It allows them to stay to do the work that no one else wants to do for those wages in those conditions. They live in fear of everything and everyone. If they are beaten, robbed or raped they have no redress. They daren't complain. So just as with the Untouchables not being a problem if you aren't one, neither are the illegal immigrants.
There are two ways, from a religious point of view, of looking at them. Either they must have done something pretty dreadful in their previous lives to get born an Untouchable and this is Divine punishment, or alternatively, these people must have been really good dogs, cockroaches or whathaveyou to have become human in this life and who are mere humans to interfere with this great Cycle? When looked at in this way, it's a pretty clever organising of society, of religion, to get the work done. Another way of putting it, one more familiar to us, is the richer get richer and the poor live in ghettos and clean the houses, shops, subways and streets for them.
One of the solutions proposed is Christianity, which has the great advantage of not having a rebirth system so a lowly caste becomes a class problem for which education can provide a ladder up and out. Another solution, one partly in effect now, was Gandhi's renaming the caste Harijan, or Children of God, and his movement to include rather exclude them from society.
The third solution isn't sadly as widespread as it ought to be, the flush toilet. The poor who live and sleep on the pavements still shit in the gutter, those living in slums and tenements crap into plastic bags which they launch far into the air earning them the nickname of parachutes and those slightly less poor than that have flush toilets but no running water. So whether its cleaning latrines or cleaning (un)flushed toilets, or sweeping the streets clean of 'parachute' bags, this caste of Untouchables, these Children of God, are still plying their traditional trade.
Sometimes I wonder if everything evil under the sun couldn't find its justification in one religion or another?
I don't like being lectured to, and I don't care what literary device is used to pretend that it's just the story not a didactic excursion by the author, I just don't like it. I would probably never have finished the book but my computer broke down and it took an hour to fix with all the endless waits while it checked files and rebooted. Lucky aren't I, to have a bookshop and only a slightly iffy computer to annoy me rather than having to live with broken flush toilets and crap to clean from the streets?
Heavily revised 24th April, 2016. Originally reviewed Dec. 1, 2011
January 29, 2018
A single event in the life of an untouchable toilet-cleaner, pressed into child labour due to illness in the family. It is stretched into a book, with every detail etched out. Why is it so poignant? Because we know, without it being explicitly told to us, that this is it, this is his life - it is going to be a life of repetitions, of insults piled on insults, of gradual deadening of the senses, of childhood worn away into an early old age, of bitterness and submission, of daily degradation. Until nothing remains other than another faceless untouchable, to be ignored and despised.
Bakha tries hard to rise above his social standing, Mulk Raj Anand exhibiting his trademark humanism, by showcasing the essential dignity of even such a depraved condition. How? By showing us the mind - the human mind in almost any depravity retains its nobility, but only to an extent, it is perhaps hinted... In naive child-like enthusiasm, Bakha dares to dream, but we see how he is going to be worn down every day. We experience a very small bit of his life, and even though he doesn't know it, we can see that the many indignities and outrages he suffer are things he will soon grow immune to and learn to take as his lot. We know that is the problem.
The ironical highpoint of the book is when Mahatma comes to Bakha's village. Mahatma comes to inspire, to uplift. Bakha was even able to catch a glimpse and hear his words. But nothing happens because of this climactic moment. Life continues, and this has been the case - despite much upliftment, the lot of the lower caste has not seen much change over the centuries. They still struggle on, noble in mind or not.
This is a novella with the punch of a compact short story. It hits hard without even taking a swing.
A note on the translation: When"oye, saale!" is translated as "oye, brother-in-law!" no sane Indian reader can avoid a barf. It grows very tiring to keep hearing everyone addressed as "brother-in-law" every few lines. I hope a new edition of the book will just substitute this jarring usage with "saala" and maybe add a footnote to explain the meaning and significance of the word.
Bakha tries hard to rise above his social standing, Mulk Raj Anand exhibiting his trademark humanism, by showcasing the essential dignity of even such a depraved condition. How? By showing us the mind - the human mind in almost any depravity retains its nobility, but only to an extent, it is perhaps hinted... In naive child-like enthusiasm, Bakha dares to dream, but we see how he is going to be worn down every day. We experience a very small bit of his life, and even though he doesn't know it, we can see that the many indignities and outrages he suffer are things he will soon grow immune to and learn to take as his lot. We know that is the problem.
The ironical highpoint of the book is when Mahatma comes to Bakha's village. Mahatma comes to inspire, to uplift. Bakha was even able to catch a glimpse and hear his words. But nothing happens because of this climactic moment. Life continues, and this has been the case - despite much upliftment, the lot of the lower caste has not seen much change over the centuries. They still struggle on, noble in mind or not.
This is a novella with the punch of a compact short story. It hits hard without even taking a swing.
A note on the translation: When"oye, saale!" is translated as "oye, brother-in-law!" no sane Indian reader can avoid a barf. It grows very tiring to keep hearing everyone addressed as "brother-in-law" every few lines. I hope a new edition of the book will just substitute this jarring usage with "saala" and maybe add a footnote to explain the meaning and significance of the word.
November 11, 2024
So worth it!
I like this book for it made me feel the actual anger of the young main character and the different range of emotions which went high and low as he wanted me to experience while he was going through all the abuse, assualt and insults.
This is the story of Bakha, who is an eighteen year old, belonging to a lower caste whose family of sweepers and latrine cleaners.
Brought up by his neglectful and violent father alongwith his two other siblings, Bakha works hard from dawn facing all kinds of harrassment and abusive people belonging to other caste. He had to go through hunger, shame and pain most days.
What was most striking about the story is the way how rational and realistic the young character is inspite of the events that happened to him and the situation he was in, both outside and inside his home.
The story is what you would expect: how the 'untouchables' belonging to lower caste suffered and struggled during those days, facing humiliation all their lives for no fault of theirs.
However, it is not an easy read for me. The writing is easy to follow but it has layers of emotions and expressions that would be subjected to different kinds of reaction from different readers.
The second half became intense as compared to the first half as it turned into political speeches, talks about Gandhi's thoughts on several issues of inequality and destroying caste. It was eye-opening for me and I enjoyed it.
But I wanted a better ending.
Worth the read.
I would say it would be a bit difficult for beginners otherwise give it a try.
Warnings for SA, domestic violence and abuse.
I like this book for it made me feel the actual anger of the young main character and the different range of emotions which went high and low as he wanted me to experience while he was going through all the abuse, assualt and insults.
This is the story of Bakha, who is an eighteen year old, belonging to a lower caste whose family of sweepers and latrine cleaners.
Brought up by his neglectful and violent father alongwith his two other siblings, Bakha works hard from dawn facing all kinds of harrassment and abusive people belonging to other caste. He had to go through hunger, shame and pain most days.
What was most striking about the story is the way how rational and realistic the young character is inspite of the events that happened to him and the situation he was in, both outside and inside his home.
The story is what you would expect: how the 'untouchables' belonging to lower caste suffered and struggled during those days, facing humiliation all their lives for no fault of theirs.
However, it is not an easy read for me. The writing is easy to follow but it has layers of emotions and expressions that would be subjected to different kinds of reaction from different readers.
The second half became intense as compared to the first half as it turned into political speeches, talks about Gandhi's thoughts on several issues of inequality and destroying caste. It was eye-opening for me and I enjoyed it.
But I wanted a better ending.
Worth the read.
I would say it would be a bit difficult for beginners otherwise give it a try.
Warnings for SA, domestic violence and abuse.
April 3, 2012
Forget about Batman, Superman or the Hulk. They are all just comic book super heroes. This is the real deal. Enlarge the picture in the book's cover so you can get a good look at him, the photo courtesy of the India Office Library and Records. A flesh and blood Untouchable with god-given superhuman powers. Here are some amazing things he is capable of:
1. He can part a throng of people with just the words: "Posh, posh, sweeper coming!" as he comes carrying his broom (cf. Moses with his stick, parting the Red Sea);
2. Just by his touch, whether done intentionally or accidentally, another person would become very angry and will call him a dog, a swine, a cock-eyed son of a bow-legged scorpion, an offspring of a pig, and so on;
3. With the same touch, even with his smallest finger, he can defile another person so that even if the latter is on his way to an important appointment and is running late, for example, he'll have to go back home to wash and purify himself;
4. His powers are carried over also by the inanimate objects he touches. If he's buying something from a store, for example, the vendor will first ask him to put his money on a bowl, which shall then be purified by washing it with water, before the vendor shall handle it;
5. He passes on his magical powers to his children; and
6. He can live without hope, be dead inside yet do his predestined chores. Look at him: his bare feet, his shapeless pants, the rags he wears, his cheap turban, his basket where he puts in the dung and dirt he sweeps from the street and collects from latrines. He is not bad-looking, physically, with his athletic built, his height, his finely-shaped nose, full lips--but look at his eyes. A lifeless pair, turned into stone by the misery of his fate. He is the lowest of the low-caste Untouchables of India; street-sweeper, latrine-cleaner, collector of human and animal waste.
This is a novel about this superhero named Bakha (quite appropriate: "Baka" in Tagalog is cow, and cows are the holiest of animals in India). But this is more than just a story of a day in his life. This is a novel about a superhero written by another superhero:, Mulk Raj Anand--he who has this other super power called Compassion. He could not have seen Bakha for what he really was, and write about him with controlled fury, if he did not have this divine gift.
The most extraordinary feats in human history are achieved not by the strong but by those with Compassion.
1. He can part a throng of people with just the words: "Posh, posh, sweeper coming!" as he comes carrying his broom (cf. Moses with his stick, parting the Red Sea);
2. Just by his touch, whether done intentionally or accidentally, another person would become very angry and will call him a dog, a swine, a cock-eyed son of a bow-legged scorpion, an offspring of a pig, and so on;
3. With the same touch, even with his smallest finger, he can defile another person so that even if the latter is on his way to an important appointment and is running late, for example, he'll have to go back home to wash and purify himself;
4. His powers are carried over also by the inanimate objects he touches. If he's buying something from a store, for example, the vendor will first ask him to put his money on a bowl, which shall then be purified by washing it with water, before the vendor shall handle it;
5. He passes on his magical powers to his children; and
6. He can live without hope, be dead inside yet do his predestined chores. Look at him: his bare feet, his shapeless pants, the rags he wears, his cheap turban, his basket where he puts in the dung and dirt he sweeps from the street and collects from latrines. He is not bad-looking, physically, with his athletic built, his height, his finely-shaped nose, full lips--but look at his eyes. A lifeless pair, turned into stone by the misery of his fate. He is the lowest of the low-caste Untouchables of India; street-sweeper, latrine-cleaner, collector of human and animal waste.
This is a novel about this superhero named Bakha (quite appropriate: "Baka" in Tagalog is cow, and cows are the holiest of animals in India). But this is more than just a story of a day in his life. This is a novel about a superhero written by another superhero:, Mulk Raj Anand--he who has this other super power called Compassion. He could not have seen Bakha for what he really was, and write about him with controlled fury, if he did not have this divine gift.
The most extraordinary feats in human history are achieved not by the strong but by those with Compassion.
November 26, 2024
One of the most depressing novels that I have read in my life. You think class conflicts in Steinbeck novels are depressing? You have not read a Mulk Raj Anand novel.
I read some other reviews saying this novel is about an interesting topic but it is not written in the right way. Well, there is nothing sexy about Indian poverty. It is the most desperate poverty in the world, full of squalor. It is insufferable. It is everywhere. No Bruce Springsteen songs to romanticize it. No Charles Bukowski novels filled with crazy individualists. Danny Boyle did his bit for the urban Indian poor. But Indian poverty goes on and on. Even the richest of Indians have felt like Bakha, every once in a while. You could be the most privileged Indian. But you might find yourself in situations Bakha finds himself in.
That scene in the novel in which Bakha is sexually attracted to his own sister, while feeling offended that the upper caste men in the village are also eyeing her ..... I don't know what to say. Not many writers can be that honest and devastating. Decades later, the situations in this novel still exist all around me.
I read some other reviews saying this novel is about an interesting topic but it is not written in the right way. Well, there is nothing sexy about Indian poverty. It is the most desperate poverty in the world, full of squalor. It is insufferable. It is everywhere. No Bruce Springsteen songs to romanticize it. No Charles Bukowski novels filled with crazy individualists. Danny Boyle did his bit for the urban Indian poor. But Indian poverty goes on and on. Even the richest of Indians have felt like Bakha, every once in a while. You could be the most privileged Indian. But you might find yourself in situations Bakha finds himself in.
That scene in the novel in which Bakha is sexually attracted to his own sister, while feeling offended that the upper caste men in the village are also eyeing her ..... I don't know what to say. Not many writers can be that honest and devastating. Decades later, the situations in this novel still exist all around me.
March 26, 2025
This book follows Bakha, on a typical day for him, although a surprise awaits him at the close of day.
Bakha is an “Untouchable”. He and his family are regarded as “unclean” because their job was to clean latrines and sweep refuse off the streets. They were not permitted to lay a hand on the clean people or touch any of their belongings. India had the ultimate caste system. I didn’t realize how hard their life was till I read this book. Bakha was treated with scorn and revulsion by anyone higher up than him and being at the very lowest of the low, that was everyone. The day that I followed him was an especially bad day for him. This book was published in 1935, just about the time that Gandhi was coming forward. For Bakha, rising above his station seems hopeless and yet all he dreams of is dressing like a European and learning to read.
This was an illuminating, albeit depressing book.
Published: 1935
Bakha is an “Untouchable”. He and his family are regarded as “unclean” because their job was to clean latrines and sweep refuse off the streets. They were not permitted to lay a hand on the clean people or touch any of their belongings. India had the ultimate caste system. I didn’t realize how hard their life was till I read this book. Bakha was treated with scorn and revulsion by anyone higher up than him and being at the very lowest of the low, that was everyone. The day that I followed him was an especially bad day for him. This book was published in 1935, just about the time that Gandhi was coming forward. For Bakha, rising above his station seems hopeless and yet all he dreams of is dressing like a European and learning to read.
This was an illuminating, albeit depressing book.
Published: 1935
July 1, 2023
Written in 1935, and set around the same time, this book seeks to demonstrate the plight of the untouchables of India. This story follows just one day in the life of Bakha, a young man in the sweeper caste. He lives with his father, his younger brother and younger sister, and cleans the latrines, while his father sweeps streets and the temple courtyard.
The day we follow, begins positively enough for Bakha when, after having cleaned the latrines fo the fourth time, he is promised a second hand hockey stick from Havildar Charat Singh. From there it is all downhill. His father feigns an injury and sends Bakha to perform his own sweeping duties, and events unfold from there.
I enjoyed this book while it was following Bakha's day, but I thought it lost form at the end where Gandhi makes an appearance to give a public lecture. Here it becomes a lecture to the reader, one that the main character himself only understands a small amount of.
For me the end of the book didn't give closure - I won't go into detail, as there would be spoilers, but the story just sort of ran out of steam.
3 stars.
The day we follow, begins positively enough for Bakha when, after having cleaned the latrines fo the fourth time, he is promised a second hand hockey stick from Havildar Charat Singh. From there it is all downhill. His father feigns an injury and sends Bakha to perform his own sweeping duties, and events unfold from there.
I enjoyed this book while it was following Bakha's day, but I thought it lost form at the end where Gandhi makes an appearance to give a public lecture. Here it becomes a lecture to the reader, one that the main character himself only understands a small amount of.
For me the end of the book didn't give closure - I won't go into detail, as there would be spoilers, but the story just sort of ran out of steam.
3 stars.
November 11, 2024
‘Posh! Posh! Sweeper coming through!’ ‘Posh! Posh! Sweeper coming through!’
This is the cry of the latrine cleaner/road sweeper as he navigates his way through the crowded streets warning of his approach so people can avoid being touched and thereby polluted, requiring immediate and extensive cleansing and purification.
For Bakha the latrine cleaner cannot touch or be touched. He is an untouchable. He lives with his widowed father Lakha, sister Sohini and younger brother Rakha. They clean the latrines and sweep the road for the local regiment. Importantly they are treated by the soldiers not as pariahs, but people employed to do unpleasant menial work.
Bakha’s family is well established in the community, so they know the sahibs, sepoys and the other untouchables. Although I had something of an idea of what untouchable meant this story opened my eyes to the all-embracing nature of this Hindu brand of slavery cum segregation, full of abuse and insults and impossible to escape, at least in 1935, when the book was published.
Bakha’s younger sister Sohini goes to the village well to collect water for the family, but must wait in the heat for others to draw their supply, and indeed cannot draw the water herself, but must rely on a person from a higher caste to draw the water on her behalf. It’s a long wait. Sohini is picked on by an older jealous woman, food is thrown and Sohini is rescued by a priest at the temple only to be molested.
It should be noted that Bakha and his sister are beautiful people: young, strong, healthy and attractive, but this does not help them, in fact it probably makes the way they are treated worse. One of the Indians at the barracks, Havildar Charat Singh, of a higher caste, is a famous street hockey player who gives Bakha an old hockey stick, which would otherwise be out of his reach. While filled with gratitude, Bakha soon realises that people will think he stole it.
A terrible tale of organised repression: the saddest aspect being the inevitability of Bakha becoming inured to his lot as he ages and his youthful buoyancy deflates.
This is the cry of the latrine cleaner/road sweeper as he navigates his way through the crowded streets warning of his approach so people can avoid being touched and thereby polluted, requiring immediate and extensive cleansing and purification.
For Bakha the latrine cleaner cannot touch or be touched. He is an untouchable. He lives with his widowed father Lakha, sister Sohini and younger brother Rakha. They clean the latrines and sweep the road for the local regiment. Importantly they are treated by the soldiers not as pariahs, but people employed to do unpleasant menial work.
Bakha’s family is well established in the community, so they know the sahibs, sepoys and the other untouchables. Although I had something of an idea of what untouchable meant this story opened my eyes to the all-embracing nature of this Hindu brand of slavery cum segregation, full of abuse and insults and impossible to escape, at least in 1935, when the book was published.
Bakha’s younger sister Sohini goes to the village well to collect water for the family, but must wait in the heat for others to draw their supply, and indeed cannot draw the water herself, but must rely on a person from a higher caste to draw the water on her behalf. It’s a long wait. Sohini is picked on by an older jealous woman, food is thrown and Sohini is rescued by a priest at the temple only to be molested.
It should be noted that Bakha and his sister are beautiful people: young, strong, healthy and attractive, but this does not help them, in fact it probably makes the way they are treated worse. One of the Indians at the barracks, Havildar Charat Singh, of a higher caste, is a famous street hockey player who gives Bakha an old hockey stick, which would otherwise be out of his reach. While filled with gratitude, Bakha soon realises that people will think he stole it.
A terrible tale of organised repression: the saddest aspect being the inevitability of Bakha becoming inured to his lot as he ages and his youthful buoyancy deflates.
September 5, 2023
Fantastic, powerful, thoughts-provoking. I highly recommend this one.
September 29, 2016
I almost feel guilty for not liking this book.
It's about my country and one of the gravest problems it has faced (and continues to), the atrocious caste system and from which arose the worst possible outcome - untouchability. I did feel pitiful and sympathetic towards the character but I did not like the book which is mostly because I didn't like the narration so much. The writing, at best, is average and the story just tumbles down somewhere in the last 20 pages.
This book does its job of rousing emotions and making the reader aware of the problems but that's about it. The Indian setting and culture is described but not well enough. If I weren't an Indian, I don't think I would've understood them completely. Also, the dialogues had a larger impact on me when I mentally translated them in Hindi, that is an area the writer cannot alter and I understand that.
I was highly recommended this book and I'm a little let down, this book I think has a such a huge influence because it was written at a controversial and important time. Rather than concentrating on the aspects I didn't like I would instead like to give kudos to the author for raising an issue nobody was during that era.
It's about my country and one of the gravest problems it has faced (and continues to), the atrocious caste system and from which arose the worst possible outcome - untouchability. I did feel pitiful and sympathetic towards the character but I did not like the book which is mostly because I didn't like the narration so much. The writing, at best, is average and the story just tumbles down somewhere in the last 20 pages.
This book does its job of rousing emotions and making the reader aware of the problems but that's about it. The Indian setting and culture is described but not well enough. If I weren't an Indian, I don't think I would've understood them completely. Also, the dialogues had a larger impact on me when I mentally translated them in Hindi, that is an area the writer cannot alter and I understand that.
I was highly recommended this book and I'm a little let down, this book I think has a such a huge influence because it was written at a controversial and important time. Rather than concentrating on the aspects I didn't like I would instead like to give kudos to the author for raising an issue nobody was during that era.
February 4, 2025
My first book of 2K17 & first from Mr. Mulk Raj Anand.
His Thoughts were far high and beyond than his time. Realizing the truth about the Harijans in that era of British Raj seems to be as the worse among whole period. The Brahmans were actually the root cause of such conditions in Indian Society. Discrimination among the humans in regard of the castes started with them only. No shudra can enter the temple, can't touch anybody. From the perspective of Dalits at that time, it seems to be very irritating and frustrating. These things were exist in some other cultures also, say, Burakumin in Japan; but still the condition here in India was worst.
Caste is the biggest back-bone breaking step taken by British by instilling this system in Hindus of India. Dividing Hindus in micro-level statuses basis on their work and then further bifurcate it into more drastic societal status-quo manner.
And what Gandhi did? Nothing .. just expanding more gaps in-between the existing castes. In the name of Equality he did nothing but just igniting the fire between upper and lower castes, as defined in the Indian society by British. And why not?, After-all Gandhi was customarily planned back in India from Africa after he made sure there, for British Empire, that Whites could rule over African blacks. Same way here in India he expand the gaps between people by highlighting their castes and made them believe that the people who are living along with them in society hate them only because they did some usual generations back work which eventually titled by British as lower level job of society. However, in their Christian country of Britain they even allow Janitors to attend churches but here they broke our harmonious society. Can't imagine the humility one can feel when he/she get the leftover of some other person and how does it feel when someone give you any edible item by throwing it on the streets.
Mr. Anand had really done a great job with his pen. Exposing the conditions of untouchables of that time was in itself a very brave and bold act. He reminds me of 'Raja Ravi Varma', who had gifted with his art, to the people of lower caste, the way of worshiping the GOD (idolaters).
However the story drafted was an act of fiction but still its reflecting the realistic thoughts and realism in society at that time. Very well written, this work of fiction gives immense peace while reading it, even when, I myself, comes from the Upper (Unreserved General Category) caste in the present society system which started/titled with this discriminating system far back.
For me its: 4.5/5.0
His Thoughts were far high and beyond than his time. Realizing the truth about the Harijans in that era of British Raj seems to be as the worse among whole period. The Brahmans were actually the root cause of such conditions in Indian Society. Discrimination among the humans in regard of the castes started with them only. No shudra can enter the temple, can't touch anybody. From the perspective of Dalits at that time, it seems to be very irritating and frustrating. These things were exist in some other cultures also, say, Burakumin in Japan; but still the condition here in India was worst.
Caste is the biggest back-bone breaking step taken by British by instilling this system in Hindus of India. Dividing Hindus in micro-level statuses basis on their work and then further bifurcate it into more drastic societal status-quo manner.
And what Gandhi did? Nothing .. just expanding more gaps in-between the existing castes. In the name of Equality he did nothing but just igniting the fire between upper and lower castes, as defined in the Indian society by British. And why not?, After-all Gandhi was customarily planned back in India from Africa after he made sure there, for British Empire, that Whites could rule over African blacks. Same way here in India he expand the gaps between people by highlighting their castes and made them believe that the people who are living along with them in society hate them only because they did some usual generations back work which eventually titled by British as lower level job of society. However, in their Christian country of Britain they even allow Janitors to attend churches but here they broke our harmonious society. Can't imagine the humility one can feel when he/she get the leftover of some other person and how does it feel when someone give you any edible item by throwing it on the streets.
Mr. Anand had really done a great job with his pen. Exposing the conditions of untouchables of that time was in itself a very brave and bold act. He reminds me of 'Raja Ravi Varma', who had gifted with his art, to the people of lower caste, the way of worshiping the GOD (idolaters).
However the story drafted was an act of fiction but still its reflecting the realistic thoughts and realism in society at that time. Very well written, this work of fiction gives immense peace while reading it, even when, I myself, comes from the Upper (Unreserved General Category) caste in the present society system which started/titled with this discriminating system far back.
For me its: 4.5/5.0
November 11, 2024
Today, if you could get a chance,
to be in their shoes,
to do what they do,
to hear what they hear,
to see what they see,
to feel they what they feel,
Would your world remain
the same you'd perceived it to be?
to be in their shoes,
to do what they do,
to hear what they hear,
to see what they see,
to feel they what they feel,
Would your world remain
the same you'd perceived it to be?
September 21, 2022
Written in the 1930s, this short novel follows one day in the life of a teenage "sweeper" who, by accident of birth, inherits the family occupation and the designation as an "untouchable".
With an afterword by E.M. Forster, this powerful work grapples with outsized issues of prejudice, religion, destiny, and offers some insight into tactics to overcome the system. The 2014 introduction provides important context for developments since the time of the novel. Gandhi is discussed in the forward, and appears in the novel. Apparently he was an influence on Anand.
Most of the novel closely follows the sweeper Bakha, who cleans latrines and sweeps refuse from the streets. Bakha is uneducated — because he is not permitted to attend school (where he would pollute the other students). Bakha is confused by religion — because he is forbidden to enter a temple (because of pollution, etc.)
Late in the book, in a moment of turmoil, Bakha encounters a Christian missionary who has adopted elements of native dress and attempted to learn the language: "But the edge of his tongue was like a pair of scissors which cut the pattern of Hindustani into smithereens as a parrot snips his food into bits."
The missionary provides an excuse to explore the power of Christianity to improve the lives of the underclass, but Bakha is left confused. Next up, Gandhi.
The text in the late stages diverges from a clean focus on Baker's life into a muddy exploration of philosophy, and that somewhat detracts from the literary merit of the novel. What else to do, though? How else to impose this important discussion on the reader?
With an afterword by E.M. Forster, this powerful work grapples with outsized issues of prejudice, religion, destiny, and offers some insight into tactics to overcome the system. The 2014 introduction provides important context for developments since the time of the novel. Gandhi is discussed in the forward, and appears in the novel. Apparently he was an influence on Anand.
Most of the novel closely follows the sweeper Bakha, who cleans latrines and sweeps refuse from the streets. Bakha is uneducated — because he is not permitted to attend school (where he would pollute the other students). Bakha is confused by religion — because he is forbidden to enter a temple (because of pollution, etc.)
Late in the book, in a moment of turmoil, Bakha encounters a Christian missionary who has adopted elements of native dress and attempted to learn the language: "But the edge of his tongue was like a pair of scissors which cut the pattern of Hindustani into smithereens as a parrot snips his food into bits."
The missionary provides an excuse to explore the power of Christianity to improve the lives of the underclass, but Bakha is left confused. Next up, Gandhi.
The text in the late stages diverges from a clean focus on Baker's life into a muddy exploration of philosophy, and that somewhat detracts from the literary merit of the novel. What else to do, though? How else to impose this important discussion on the reader?
January 15, 2019
It is comfortably easy to argue against the practice of untouchability when one isn't at the receiving end. Mulk Raj Anand erases that gulf and puts the reader right into the uncomfortable and worn down ammunition shoes of Bakha, an eighteen year old manual scavenger. The book is relatively short, accounting for only a day in Bakha's life. And Anand ensures that a single day is enough.
The arguments against the practice normally revolve around the socio-economic (and sometimes, political) aspect of the oppression. But 'Untouchable' takes a step closer to the individual from the collective and highlights the psychological scars that are inherited by every new generation of the outcastes's community. Bakha isn't your typical fierce, fearless and determined protagonist in spite of the fact that he has the potential to be one. There are multiple instances where his instinctual repulsion to the social setup around him, that includes him in its fold only to trample upon him and others like him, becomes obvious and painfully thwarted by a faulty reasoning that convinces him of his 'destined' place in the society. With everyone around him refusing to let him have a shred of dignity and self-respect (except of course, his sister and friends), he has little to go on and till the point he hears Gandhi's words, he appears to be spiraling downwards from a high point of apathetic acceptance in the beginning to an anguished defeat at the hands of his 'fate' of being a latrine cleaner all his life, surviving on food picked up from the streets and the sahibs' leftovers, forcefully excluded from any chances to play hockey (something he is exceptionally good at), to be educated (at the hands of two little upper caste boys) or any stray chance to raise his head high without an inexplicable shame and hesitation weighing him down.
The misery of Bakha hits all the more strongly when the reader follows his thought process in which he constantly questions his so-called 'fate' and end up with unjustifiable yet, valid realizations of his social standing. He is a perfect example of a wasted potential which never fails to mark its presence and yet, never evolves.
I don't know if any other book reveals the hypocrisy of an orthodox Hindu society better than Anand's 'Untouchable' but nonetheless, the book is a great read. Anand's writing style is easy and poetic with beautiful vivid description of both pictures as well as emotions.
The arguments against the practice normally revolve around the socio-economic (and sometimes, political) aspect of the oppression. But 'Untouchable' takes a step closer to the individual from the collective and highlights the psychological scars that are inherited by every new generation of the outcastes's community. Bakha isn't your typical fierce, fearless and determined protagonist in spite of the fact that he has the potential to be one. There are multiple instances where his instinctual repulsion to the social setup around him, that includes him in its fold only to trample upon him and others like him, becomes obvious and painfully thwarted by a faulty reasoning that convinces him of his 'destined' place in the society. With everyone around him refusing to let him have a shred of dignity and self-respect (except of course, his sister and friends), he has little to go on and till the point he hears Gandhi's words, he appears to be spiraling downwards from a high point of apathetic acceptance in the beginning to an anguished defeat at the hands of his 'fate' of being a latrine cleaner all his life, surviving on food picked up from the streets and the sahibs' leftovers, forcefully excluded from any chances to play hockey (something he is exceptionally good at), to be educated (at the hands of two little upper caste boys) or any stray chance to raise his head high without an inexplicable shame and hesitation weighing him down.
The misery of Bakha hits all the more strongly when the reader follows his thought process in which he constantly questions his so-called 'fate' and end up with unjustifiable yet, valid realizations of his social standing. He is a perfect example of a wasted potential which never fails to mark its presence and yet, never evolves.
I don't know if any other book reveals the hypocrisy of an orthodox Hindu society better than Anand's 'Untouchable' but nonetheless, the book is a great read. Anand's writing style is easy and poetic with beautiful vivid description of both pictures as well as emotions.
January 5, 2011
A day in the life of Bakha the Jemadar (sweeper), and an untouchable. The heart of the book is about the social stigma of untouchability affecting India during the 1930s - the period when this book was written and also the time setting for the story as well.
I only remember hearing and reading about the phenomenon of untouchability in Hindu society, when growing up in India during the 70s and early 80s. It still exists to a certain extent in parts of India, or at least spoken about, as I have heard mention of it conversation with others in my family. Gandhiji is attributed to saying in this book - ‘the fault does not lie in the Hindu religion, but in those who profess it’. I couldn’t agree any more.
A short story, and a brief glimpse in the life of an untouchable. A difficult issue simply, sometimes touchingly, described in this story by Mulk Raj Anand, one of the first English writing Indian authors.
I only remember hearing and reading about the phenomenon of untouchability in Hindu society, when growing up in India during the 70s and early 80s. It still exists to a certain extent in parts of India, or at least spoken about, as I have heard mention of it conversation with others in my family. Gandhiji is attributed to saying in this book - ‘the fault does not lie in the Hindu religion, but in those who profess it’. I couldn’t agree any more.
A short story, and a brief glimpse in the life of an untouchable. A difficult issue simply, sometimes touchingly, described in this story by Mulk Raj Anand, one of the first English writing Indian authors.
December 19, 2023
Untouchable tells the story of Bakha, a young untouchable, who is an outcast in India’s caste system. I went into this extremely uneducated, largely due to the British education system’s whitewashed and selective history topics but also my ignorance, so if like me, you are not aware of what the caste system is, it is a system as debilitating as an apartheid. This led to untouchability.
This novel is short but impactful. I am not sure of the intentions beyond raising an issue that very few, if any, individuals were largely discussing at a distressing and controversial time but it does the job indeed. However, perhaps due to ignorance again, it is quite difficult to follow if you do not have an understanding of or even experience of India and its culture. I think for any reader who is perhaps not as educated as they could be, this will be a very middling read. It is incredibly interesting and emotive but the lack of description and narration that offers deeper insight meant that I could not love it as much as I would have liked due to this - which was a huge shame.
This novel is short but impactful. I am not sure of the intentions beyond raising an issue that very few, if any, individuals were largely discussing at a distressing and controversial time but it does the job indeed. However, perhaps due to ignorance again, it is quite difficult to follow if you do not have an understanding of or even experience of India and its culture. I think for any reader who is perhaps not as educated as they could be, this will be a very middling read. It is incredibly interesting and emotive but the lack of description and narration that offers deeper insight meant that I could not love it as much as I would have liked due to this - which was a huge shame.
January 29, 2018
Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable is a novel about a day in the life of one of India's lowest untouchables, sweepers who clean up the excreta left by the poor who do not have access to toilets or even outhouses. From the point of view of a sweeper, contact with Brahmins and other higher cast Hindus is fraught with peril, as accidentally touching a Brahmin can cause a riot, and in this book almost does at two points, once involving the hero, Bakha, and once involving his sister.
Untouchable was written in English and published in 1935, while India was still a British Crown Colony. Bakha is drawn to the English and likes to imitate them, admiring their openness in dealing with a mere sweeper.
This book is an eye-opener to one who, like me, has never been to India. The whole concept of people in lower castes contact with whom can pollute you and require prayers and ablutions leading to purification ... such a concept is so alien to me. If the condition of these Dalits, as they are also called, is still the same more than 80 years after this book, then India has a difficult task ahead adjusting to more egalitarian cultures.
This is a superb book and deserves to be read, both as a work of literature and an impassioned plea for lightening the load of millions of Hindus in the lower castes.
Untouchable was written in English and published in 1935, while India was still a British Crown Colony. Bakha is drawn to the English and likes to imitate them, admiring their openness in dealing with a mere sweeper.
This book is an eye-opener to one who, like me, has never been to India. The whole concept of people in lower castes contact with whom can pollute you and require prayers and ablutions leading to purification ... such a concept is so alien to me. If the condition of these Dalits, as they are also called, is still the same more than 80 years after this book, then India has a difficult task ahead adjusting to more egalitarian cultures.
This is a superb book and deserves to be read, both as a work of literature and an impassioned plea for lightening the load of millions of Hindus in the lower castes.
February 22, 2016
It's a great book. It is about a day in the life of an untouchable - Bakha. Halfway through the book the story seems ordinary, but the unthinkable ending takes it to another level.
Although, for the ones who are reading Mulkh Raj Anand’s book for the first time will be sort of disappointed. The author is known to use Hindustani words in his novels. But in this novel he has translated literal meanings of some words. So while reading, you will come across characters calling 'brother-in-law' to others. It’s a turn off for those who don’t know Hindi. It would have made a good difference if the author had chosen to use the hindi word 'Saale' instead.
All in all, it’s good enough to get you to explore more of Mulk Raj Anand's world.
Although, for the ones who are reading Mulkh Raj Anand’s book for the first time will be sort of disappointed. The author is known to use Hindustani words in his novels. But in this novel he has translated literal meanings of some words. So while reading, you will come across characters calling 'brother-in-law' to others. It’s a turn off for those who don’t know Hindi. It would have made a good difference if the author had chosen to use the hindi word 'Saale' instead.
All in all, it’s good enough to get you to explore more of Mulk Raj Anand's world.
June 11, 2022
I give you two ideas of dystopias. In the first, there is a world most of humanity is scared of touching even by accident some people - there is no visible reason for it, but the fear is real. Not only you can't touch the person, but you also can't touch things they have touched And this is a source of humiliation for those that can't be touched. In the second, half the population of the world is raised with the idea that the mere sight of their body is an offense to decency. I could go on - and talk about other such worlds - one where guns are left out in open and books are kept in shelves under locks but these whole social issues talk presented as dystopia talk has started boring me already. My point is untouchability is one of those things that should seem too fantastic if it was something imagined and not real - a bit like slavery that way.
Mulk Raj Anand's novella was powerful even for me though, being an Indian, I knew its evils. It shocks me that it is not read more by western readers to whom some scenes would seem really dystopian. The first 70 percent of the novella is quite powerful - even trying to capture its protagonist's stream of consciousness at times. Later, it does turn contemplative though (I have no problem with that but it can be a turn-off for many readers); it seems to conclude that the solutions like conversion to Christianity, Gandhi, or having western toilets can solve the problem.
Unfortunately, that's far from the case. A few weeks back, some upper-caste children at government schools refused to eat food prepared by lower-caste workers. Untouchability had nothing to do with the kind of work people did; it is born of the privileged too willing to think lowly of others in order to think better of themselves.
Mulk Raj Anand's novella was powerful even for me though, being an Indian, I knew its evils. It shocks me that it is not read more by western readers to whom some scenes would seem really dystopian. The first 70 percent of the novella is quite powerful - even trying to capture its protagonist's stream of consciousness at times. Later, it does turn contemplative though (I have no problem with that but it can be a turn-off for many readers); it seems to conclude that the solutions like conversion to Christianity, Gandhi, or having western toilets can solve the problem.
Unfortunately, that's far from the case. A few weeks back, some upper-caste children at government schools refused to eat food prepared by lower-caste workers. Untouchability had nothing to do with the kind of work people did; it is born of the privileged too willing to think lowly of others in order to think better of themselves.
July 16, 2013
Written in 1935, this novel is told from the perspective of Bakha, a sweeper, of the lowest level of the outcaste Untouchables. It has a message that gets presented through a sensitive and nuanced portrayal of Bakha as a complex human being with limits and aspirations. He clearly strives to attain a life beyond his station, adopting Western dress from the second-hand and discarded motley of British military clothing that he wears and even his style of sleeping. Still, the attitudes and behaviors of his position are woven into his everyday thoughts and actions. The humiliation and physical abuse that come when forgetting his place or seeking to take liberties beyond it are always imminent, there to remind him. Several such episodes of this are dramatized in the plot of the book, set in a single day: Bakha absent-mindedly brushes against a man who makes a spectacle of berating him and later causes a commotion when he approaches too close to a Hindu temple to observe the liturgy taking place. Mulk Raj Anand depicts him experiencing a wide range of emotions - exalted upon receiving a used field hockey stick, resentful at the favoritism his father shows his younger brother, curious but confused in an encounter with a Salvation Army colonel - in an unsentimental way that reinforces how much Bakha is like anyone else, if not for the plight that keeps him from being as full a person as he might be. The end of the novel features an interesting succession of figures - including an appearance by Gandhi himself - who offer reflections about the problem of untouchability and the future of India, slipping politics in explicitly but not obtrusively. I hadn't known anything about this author before but now am inclined to check out his novel "Private Life of an Indian Prince" and the autobiographical novels mentioned in the author bio.
October 28, 2014
I have been reading this book for past one year and finished it only today. Reading in between the time when I finished other books and was getting a new one, I had to recall whatever happened till the pages I had read. so we can conclude that this book didn't leave much of an impression on my mind or memory. anyways I read it because I wanted to read a book by Mulk raj Anand and moreover the topic seemed quite a different one than the usual ones. It talks about a day in the life of an untouchable and how he actually sees the world treating himself and finds his answers afetr all the problems he goes through.
We all have bad days and we all look for answers to the big problems we face and how world treats us whether as being a women, being poor, being uneducated, being out of place, being unclued to the topic being discussed or being lonely or like being untouchable. and we all get over it - find some logic or reason to how this happened and learn to cope with it just like Bhakha in this book. So read on because we all are liek Bhakha but in our different social sections or zones.
We all have bad days and we all look for answers to the big problems we face and how world treats us whether as being a women, being poor, being uneducated, being out of place, being unclued to the topic being discussed or being lonely or like being untouchable. and we all get over it - find some logic or reason to how this happened and learn to cope with it just like Bhakha in this book. So read on because we all are liek Bhakha but in our different social sections or zones.
September 3, 2021
4.3*
The story Mulk Raj Anand weaved 86 years ago, continues to speak to the India today.
The writing is wonderful and the way the author has occasionally peppered it with humour is brilliant. Otherwise, it would have been thoroughly painful to read a book with such a depressing theme. The protagonist Bakha was also a likeable creation.
Whether an indian or not, I think everyone should read this book atleast once. It shall let you know how ignorance can turn humans into heartless fanatics and show you a picture of Indian society which hasn't really undergone much improvement.
The story Mulk Raj Anand weaved 86 years ago, continues to speak to the India today.
The writing is wonderful and the way the author has occasionally peppered it with humour is brilliant. Otherwise, it would have been thoroughly painful to read a book with such a depressing theme. The protagonist Bakha was also a likeable creation.
Whether an indian or not, I think everyone should read this book atleast once. It shall let you know how ignorance can turn humans into heartless fanatics and show you a picture of Indian society which hasn't really undergone much improvement.
May 16, 2011
Just 157 pages and one day in the life of eighteen year old Bakha, a "sweeper" in charge of cleaning three rows of public latrines on the edge of his town. He is an Untouchable.
Bakha starts his day working "earnestly, quickly, without loss of effort". He dreams of the day he will be able to do the work of his father, the head of all the local sweepers and who is responsible for cleaning the streets of the town and the temple courtyard. His wish is fulfilled that very day when his father becomes ill, and he sends Bakha to do his job.
The actual horror of the position of an Untouchable emerges as we see Bakha's sister wait in line with others of her caste for a kind hearted upper caste person who will take the time to fill her water jug; as we watch Bakha, overwhelmed by the sights on the street, forget to call to warn of his approach and accidentally touch a high-caste man. The "Lalla" proceeds to vilify Bakha: "Do you know you have touched me and defiled me, you cock-eyed son of a bow-legged scorpion! Now I will have to go and take a bath to purify myself. And it was a new dhoti and shirt I put on this morning!" And Bakha's day does not improve. He is thrown off the steps of the temple where wandered to listen to the prayers and try to see into the temple although he knew his presence would "pollute" the temple and it would then have to undergo a purification ceremony. He must then go to a row of houses to beg for bread for his family. When finally some is thrown to him, it falls to the ground where he picks it up to bring it home to his father, sister and brother.
Bakha actually displays a love of life that is momentarily depressed by these events, but which rises to the fore over and over. At the end of the day, Bakha is mystified by a Christian missionary who tries to "save" him from his untouchability through Jesus, an unexpected opportunity to hear (but not understand) the great Mahatma Gandhi expound his ideas for changing Indian society, and a local dandy explaining the ultimate solution to the problem of the untouchables--flush toilets. Bakha ruminates on the meaning of it all. Hopeful again, he turns for home to tell his father about Gandhi and the new machine--the flush toilets.
"Untouchable" was a contemporary story. It is still a stirring account of the basic humanity of those members of the lowest castes of Indian society, and the wretchedness of their lives.
Bakha starts his day working "earnestly, quickly, without loss of effort". He dreams of the day he will be able to do the work of his father, the head of all the local sweepers and who is responsible for cleaning the streets of the town and the temple courtyard. His wish is fulfilled that very day when his father becomes ill, and he sends Bakha to do his job.
The actual horror of the position of an Untouchable emerges as we see Bakha's sister wait in line with others of her caste for a kind hearted upper caste person who will take the time to fill her water jug; as we watch Bakha, overwhelmed by the sights on the street, forget to call to warn of his approach and accidentally touch a high-caste man. The "Lalla" proceeds to vilify Bakha: "Do you know you have touched me and defiled me, you cock-eyed son of a bow-legged scorpion! Now I will have to go and take a bath to purify myself. And it was a new dhoti and shirt I put on this morning!" And Bakha's day does not improve. He is thrown off the steps of the temple where wandered to listen to the prayers and try to see into the temple although he knew his presence would "pollute" the temple and it would then have to undergo a purification ceremony. He must then go to a row of houses to beg for bread for his family. When finally some is thrown to him, it falls to the ground where he picks it up to bring it home to his father, sister and brother.
Bakha actually displays a love of life that is momentarily depressed by these events, but which rises to the fore over and over. At the end of the day, Bakha is mystified by a Christian missionary who tries to "save" him from his untouchability through Jesus, an unexpected opportunity to hear (but not understand) the great Mahatma Gandhi expound his ideas for changing Indian society, and a local dandy explaining the ultimate solution to the problem of the untouchables--flush toilets. Bakha ruminates on the meaning of it all. Hopeful again, he turns for home to tell his father about Gandhi and the new machine--the flush toilets.
"Untouchable" was a contemporary story. It is still a stirring account of the basic humanity of those members of the lowest castes of Indian society, and the wretchedness of their lives.
April 15, 2018
Excellent book!
The book is an account of a boy named Bakha, son of lakha, being a sweeper he was not allowed to be entered into the temples and other Hindu religious places as well as the homes of upper caste Hindus. Bakha liked to play hokey and dress like Sahibs and white people of the England, in suit and pants, but he wasn’t allowed to do such things. His father abused him a lot and the family of four people used to fed over the left-overs of the weddings or the breads lying near the filthy sewers.
Their life was utterly miserable!!
The book is based upon the idea of untouchability and emphasises on the abolition of it.
There are many such instances in the novel where you’ll get disillusioned about the Indian society during the English era.
The book is an account of a boy named Bakha, son of lakha, being a sweeper he was not allowed to be entered into the temples and other Hindu religious places as well as the homes of upper caste Hindus. Bakha liked to play hokey and dress like Sahibs and white people of the England, in suit and pants, but he wasn’t allowed to do such things. His father abused him a lot and the family of four people used to fed over the left-overs of the weddings or the breads lying near the filthy sewers.
Their life was utterly miserable!!
The book is based upon the idea of untouchability and emphasises on the abolition of it.
There are many such instances in the novel where you’ll get disillusioned about the Indian society during the English era.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
February 27, 2020Yet another example of the postcolonial novel about what is to be done, this time dealing with the untouchables of India, which I tend to read more as a way of understanding a time and a place in an intuitive fashion than for literary merit. And I mean Mulk Raj Anand isn't a terrible writer, he's just very much of a time and a place, and very much in debt to 19th Century English and Russian fiction, what with the journey of the individual as he learns the world within a day, complete with a long dialogue at the end between various intellectuals that kinda smacks you over the head with its message. If you have a strong interest in India, it's probably worth your time, but I'm a bit hesitant to recommend it across the board.
April 23, 2020
Many years ago I came across the author's name on a Thai paperback entitled จัณฑาล [presumably transliterated from Chandal (p. 92)] on some occasions in those Bangkok Book Fairs but I hadn't read and rarely heard of him. Later I have eventually known him as an eminent Indian fiction writer in English, a contemporary of R. K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali (Pakistani) and Raja Rao (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulk_Ra...) whose pioneering English novels based on Indian rural life and plight started to gain international readership around 1930s-1960s. As for me, I have long known and read only R. K. Narayan due to probably his literary popularity and availability of his new reprints or second-hand books in Thailand. Coming to think of giving the others more credit and attention, I think I would read him more as well as Ahmad Ali and Raja Rao whenever I can find their interesting works.
I found reading this fiction illuminatingly entertaining and objectively narrated since it has explored the life of an 18-year-old Indian outcaste named Bakha, an Untouchable in the Indian caste system, who works as a sweeper and latrine-cleaner. We can see that such menial toil is bitterly despised due to its filthiness, disgrace and dishonor, in other words, people tend to look down upon them as those in the low society or the lower class; they thinking they are in the high society or in the upper class. However, the author has amazingly revealed his literary expertise by means of his narratives tinged with his sense of humor in which we can enjoy reading with some tongue-in-cheek words in the extracts that follow:
He shivered as he turned on his side. But he didn't mind the cold very much, suffering it willingly because he could sacrifice a good many comforts for the sake of what he called 'fashun', by which he understood the art of wearing trousers, breeches, coat, puttees, boots, etc. as worn by the British and Indian soldiers in India. (p. 12)
Almost a model 'gentreman', Bakha thought him, the kind of person he admired and wanted to imitate. (p. 39)
And he had felt a burning desire, while he was in the British barracks, to speak the tish-mish, tish-mish which the Tommies spoke. (p. 44)
Moreover, his text also include an unexpected usage of word like 'attack' denoting Bakha's action in the context, rather than an attempt to cause damage to enemy (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/attack... such a usage surprisingly being rarely found in other novels, especially the third excerpt in which I couldn't help wondering at first reading how he 'attacked' the package in question or if it's Dr. Anand's satire-like sense of humor, for instance:
He hardly realized that he had lapsed into activity, so vigorously did he attack his job. (p. 23)
He was a bit scared by the sudden unwinding of the wheel. Then he pulled himself together and renewed his attack. (p. 32)
His mouth was watering. He unfolded the paper in which the jalebis were wrapped and put a piece hastily in his mouth. The taste of the warm and sweet syrup was satisfying and delightful. He attacked the package again. (p. 52)
In conclusion, this novel is arguably worth reading due to its exceptional writing style, seemingly realistic plot as well as amazingly appropriate word choices in which you can enjoy and enrich your lexicons while reading on and on. Decidedly, I would find his other books and look forward to reading them more.
I found reading this fiction illuminatingly entertaining and objectively narrated since it has explored the life of an 18-year-old Indian outcaste named Bakha, an Untouchable in the Indian caste system, who works as a sweeper and latrine-cleaner. We can see that such menial toil is bitterly despised due to its filthiness, disgrace and dishonor, in other words, people tend to look down upon them as those in the low society or the lower class; they thinking they are in the high society or in the upper class. However, the author has amazingly revealed his literary expertise by means of his narratives tinged with his sense of humor in which we can enjoy reading with some tongue-in-cheek words in the extracts that follow:
He shivered as he turned on his side. But he didn't mind the cold very much, suffering it willingly because he could sacrifice a good many comforts for the sake of what he called 'fashun', by which he understood the art of wearing trousers, breeches, coat, puttees, boots, etc. as worn by the British and Indian soldiers in India. (p. 12)
Almost a model 'gentreman', Bakha thought him, the kind of person he admired and wanted to imitate. (p. 39)
And he had felt a burning desire, while he was in the British barracks, to speak the tish-mish, tish-mish which the Tommies spoke. (p. 44)
Moreover, his text also include an unexpected usage of word like 'attack' denoting Bakha's action in the context, rather than an attempt to cause damage to enemy (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/attack... such a usage surprisingly being rarely found in other novels, especially the third excerpt in which I couldn't help wondering at first reading how he 'attacked' the package in question or if it's Dr. Anand's satire-like sense of humor, for instance:
He hardly realized that he had lapsed into activity, so vigorously did he attack his job. (p. 23)
He was a bit scared by the sudden unwinding of the wheel. Then he pulled himself together and renewed his attack. (p. 32)
His mouth was watering. He unfolded the paper in which the jalebis were wrapped and put a piece hastily in his mouth. The taste of the warm and sweet syrup was satisfying and delightful. He attacked the package again. (p. 52)
In conclusion, this novel is arguably worth reading due to its exceptional writing style, seemingly realistic plot as well as amazingly appropriate word choices in which you can enjoy and enrich your lexicons while reading on and on. Decidedly, I would find his other books and look forward to reading them more.
May 17, 2019
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand, story about Indian caste system and Untouchability.
Story about plight of the lower caste, how people drowned themselves in ignorance on the basis of castes and how Untouchability has been onus on Hinduism.
An account of one day in Bakha's life who belongs to the lowest caste, was a street sweeper and latrine cleaner. Story about him and his gloomy circumstances which were engulfing his aspirations of being a 'Sahib' slowly. The story ends which a inspiring note where Bakha listened to Mahatma Gandhi about emancipation of the untouchables.
Story is set up in pre independence era where India was infected by caste system, though it still prevails in some parts. Authors writing is very strong and has captured perfectly the plight of lower caste people. I somehow felt that it was more like an awareness story about the caste system which we all have learnt during our school time.
It's sad, depressing and few scenes are quite sickening but I assume that they must be real somewhere. Its a masterpiece in terms of showing the real picture about how the lower castes which treated. Language is easy and understandable. I felt pity and sympathetic towards Bakha many times while reading. I bow down to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who uplifted the lower caste.
I will completely recommend this book because though the Bakha character is fictitious but still he is present somewhere in India.
Story about plight of the lower caste, how people drowned themselves in ignorance on the basis of castes and how Untouchability has been onus on Hinduism.
An account of one day in Bakha's life who belongs to the lowest caste, was a street sweeper and latrine cleaner. Story about him and his gloomy circumstances which were engulfing his aspirations of being a 'Sahib' slowly. The story ends which a inspiring note where Bakha listened to Mahatma Gandhi about emancipation of the untouchables.
Story is set up in pre independence era where India was infected by caste system, though it still prevails in some parts. Authors writing is very strong and has captured perfectly the plight of lower caste people. I somehow felt that it was more like an awareness story about the caste system which we all have learnt during our school time.
It's sad, depressing and few scenes are quite sickening but I assume that they must be real somewhere. Its a masterpiece in terms of showing the real picture about how the lower castes which treated. Language is easy and understandable. I felt pity and sympathetic towards Bakha many times while reading. I bow down to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who uplifted the lower caste.
I will completely recommend this book because though the Bakha character is fictitious but still he is present somewhere in India.
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