Summary

Imagine this day in your life.

You were rudely woken up to work by your parents, on a day you wanted to sleep a little more. When you got to work and were working hard and sincerely at it, you got abused by your superiors for no fault of yours. Then you had to redo the work several times.

Then while you were on to your next work, you unknowingly committed a mistake and were slapped and abused in a public square due to your profession, by people who believe themselves to be superior. Then your sister was abused by one of these men, but you could not fight back, owing to your profession.

Then depressed when you went back home, your father drove you out of the house for not completing your given work. Angry and sad you walked out to join with friends, your only relief, and there you were accused of killing a child you dearly cared for only because of your profession.

Meanwhile, you have no proper food to eat, you live on stale/leftover food. You wear hand-me-downs from the so-called superior people. Your house in the dirtiest part of the city surrounded by gutters, an area meant for people in your profession.

This was the everyday for Bakha, an Untouchables/Harijans/sweepers/latrine cleaner.

My Review

And yet this boy managed to have dreams, worked hard at his job, found happiness in it, was humble, good-natured, sensitive and intelligent, and had a yearning for education.

The story of untouchable will easily touch your core. Bakha’s hopelessness, frustration, and absolute fury come through brilliantly via Mulk Raj Anand’s powerful writing. His innocence will melt your heart.

Mulk Raj Anand’s descriptive and expressive writing was so poignant that the incident of the woman throwing a piece of roti/bread towards Bakha while her son was relieving himself absolutely broke my heart.

As a Hindu, while reading this book, I felt ashamed of the inhuman treatment meted out to my fellow countrymen by my ancestors.

A Preface by E.M. Forster points out that this book is about the strange business of the human body relieving itself. A topic considered uncouth and not even discussion-worthy.

But my question is, how can it be about a strange business if it was the lifeline of another human being? The book raises some very basic questions and I think every one of us needs to read this book for self-introspection. 

So many people work for us in our houses, in our societies, in our offices. We need to read Untouchables to understand their side of the story.

Top Quotes from Untouchable

“Charat Singh was feeling kind, though he did not relax the grin which symbolized six thousand years of racial and class superiority.”

“How queer, the Hindus don’t feed their cows although they call the cow “mother”!’ Bakha thought.”

“His feelings would rise like spurts of smoke from a half-smothered fire, in fitful, unbalanced jerks when the recollection of some abuse or rebuke he had suffered kindled a spark in the ashes of remorse inside him.”

“Why, why is anyone superior to another? Why are we all sinners?”

“For, although he didn't know it, to him work was a sort of intoxication which gave him a glowing health and plenty of easy sleep.”