Q. How far do you think ‘Untouchable’ as a novel has been successful enough
to accentuate the problem of untouchability and manual scavenging afflicting
the Indian society?
Mulk Raj Anand, acclaimed as the ‘Charles Dickens of India’, focused on the everyday
problems of pre-independence and post-independence India. He is especially known to shed
light on the lives of lower caste people who are treated with great bias and unfairness in
India. Almost all of his stories and novels like Untouchable, Coolie, The Big Heart, Two
Leaves and a Bud, etc., touch the problems of political structure, oppression of classes,
untouchability, etc. Untouchable was written in 1935 and revolves around a day’s
consequences in the life of Bhakha, a sweeper and an untouchable.
The caste system in India is perhaps the world’s oldest social hierarchy. It is a system of
stratification in which a person’s occupation and social status are determined by birth. The
terms “untouchables” or “Dalits” or “the oppressed” refers to individuals who belong to the
lowest social order. Dalits have suffered centuries of abuse, discrimination, prejudice and
violence. This “hidden apartheid” is also practised in other parts of the sub-continent.
In this novel, Anand reflects a social milieu that gives prominence to the caste system. The
novel depicts the anguish of Bhakha, a sweeper boy, who belongs to the category of social
outcasts. After independence, untouchability was abolished by the Constitution as it prohibits
any discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste, sex or place of birth. The government
started developing policies directed towards social equity. Democracy has empowered the
depressed classes to work towards their development, spearheading a cultural revolution, so
as to broaden the society’s outlook.
Although untouchability has vanished in urban areas to a great extent, it continuous to have a
conspicuous presence in rural areas. Untouchability is not as dominant now as it was in the
earlier times in India. But there is a little doubt, whether works like Untouchable helped to
bring the issue to a level of awareness where echoes to call for its end were present. Anand
was aware of the sufferings, illiteracy, poverty and humiliation of the Indian people. So, his
aim as a novelist was to focus attention on the sufferings and problems of Indian and
especially outcaste. No on in India had yet dealt with these subjects because of their crude
realities.
