Untouchable

Name denoting certain jatis who were
considered so impure that their very
presence was polluting to caste
Hindus, that is, Hindus belonging to
the four varnas (major social divisions). Jatis are endogamous social
subgroups—groups in which members
are forbidden to marry outside of their
particular group—that were often
defined by the group’s hereditary occupation. Untouchability usually stemmed
from occupations considered impure or
debased, such as working with leather,
in the case of the Chamars, or the
groups whose hereditary occupation
was to remove night soil, often by carrying it in baskets balanced on their heads.
In traditional society, untouchables
were subject to numerous restrictions
and prohibitions on where they could
live, work, draw water, and even move
about. In many cases they had to
announce their presence to allow caste
Hindus to remove themselves from the
area. Although untouchability has been
illegal since independence, social attitudes supporting it persist, and in a
country in which one’s name often conveys one’s jati, such discrimination is
difficult to escape. In many places these
people are still underprivileged and
desperately poor, as a legacy of the past.
In recent years they have become more
militant—among other things, adopting
the name dalit (“oppressed”) to describe
themselves—and have begun to
exercise their power at the ballot
box, trying to take advantage of their
considerable numbers.