"Untouchable" - Mulk Raj Anand

"Untouchable" by Mulk Raj Anand is a story of 148 pages. It is about a teenage boy Bakha who is born in a sweeper's family and is considered an untouchable. Untouchable is a lowest caste in a Hindu caste system (or Indian class system).

The book is based on experiences of a real person (depicted in the picture). The author's goal is to help us imagine that we are Bakha, we are the sweeper, we live in a slum, we freeze to death at our hut at night, we have to get up at 4 of 5 am and go clean public latrines and get scolded every time they are not cleaned on time.

The author writes about Bakha being a normal child who loves to play cricket, wear western clothes and has bright dreams. However his reality and even his family remind him again and again that his whole being and life is only meant to clean toilets, bury dead cows and dogs, sweep the streets and be constantly hated just because he is BORN in a caste of sweepers. 

The thing that shocked me the most in the novel was that a sweeper, when walking down the street, was supposed to shout: "Sweeper coming, out of the way! Sweeper coming, careful!" If the sweeper would touch a person, the person would beat him up for "making him dirty". The sweeper is never free. If he wants to go out to buy ice-cream and on the way there is a dead animal, he has to forget about everything and do what everyone says (bury the animal). So he is in a way a slave of his caste. 

This story definitely has a very deep meaning, it is an eye-opener and makes us think. What if I was a sweeper? Is this right? What about human rights? Why can't a beautiful teenager with dreams be like everyone else? But then are those of higher castes happier? Are British happier? Who really is better, higher? 

Excerpt:

"'Yes,' came the forceful answer. 'Yes,' said Bakha, 'I shall go on doing what Gandhi says'. 'But I shall never be able to leave the latrines?' came the disturbing thought. But I can. Did not that poet say there is a machine which can do my work?' The prospect of never being able to wear the clothes that the sahibs wore, of never being able to become a sahib, was horrible. 'But it doesn't matter,' he said to console himself, and pictured in his mind the English policeman, whom he had seen before the meeting, standing there, ignored by everybody." - Mulk Raj Anand p.147

I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to get a glimpse of the sweeper's life, to try and understand what it feels like to be untouchable and what it feels like to be Bakha. Also, it is a masterfully written book and might help with improving your English vocabulary and learn about how things were in 1930's India.