Untouchable Study Guide

Published in 1935, Untouchable is Mulk Raj Anand’s first major novel. The novel’s
format is very simple—it follows the day in the life of an “untouchable,” a member of India’s
lowest social caste. Despite its simplicity, Untouchable is a powerful work that exposed the
“dehumanizing contradictions” and systematic oppressions inherent in India’s stratified society.
Though intelligent and handsome, the book’s main character, Bakha, is an outcast and forbidden
from improving his life situation because his touch and presence are considered impure and
corrupting. Using Bakha's story as a vehicle, Anand challenges the barriers and rules that inhibit
the lives of untouchables and argues for the education of untouchables.
Considered revolutionary because of how it champions the cause of the untouchables and
exposes India’s social evils, Untouchable was well received and highly regarded both
domestically and abroad. Within India, it caused a generation of educated Indians to think about
how India’s internal colonialism was preventing the country’s progression to a modern civil
society. Outside India, prominent novelists of the age such as E.M. Forster hoisted up Anand’s
novel as having both historical and literary significance. Though India’s caste system is still in
place today, books like Untouchable raised awareness about the crushing inequalities and
injustices the system fosters. This has resulted in the passage of numerous anti-discrimination
laws and affirmative action initiatives along caste lines in contemporary India. Furthermore, the
appearance of one Mahatma Gandhi in the novel explicitly places the book in a distinctive
historical context. Finally, from a literary standpoint, Untouchable stands out because of its
inclusion of Punjabi and Hindu idioms in English.

Untouchable Summary
Set in the fictional Indian town of Bulashah, Untouchable is a day in the life of a young
Indian sweeper named Bakha. The son of Lakha, head of all of Bulashah’s sweepers, Bakha is
intelligent but naïve, humble yet vain. Over the course of Bakha’s day various major and minor
tragedies occur, causing him to mature and turn his gaze inward. By the end of the novel Mulk
Raj Anand, the author, has made a compelling case for the end of untouchability on the grounds
that it is an inhumane, unjust system of oppression. He uses Bakha and the people populating the
young man’s world to craft his argument.
Bakha’s day starts with his father yelling at him to get out of bed and clean the latrines.
The relationship between the father and son is strained, in part due to Bakha’s obsession with the
British, in part because of Lakha’s laziness. Bakha ignores his father but eventually gets up to
answer the demands of a high-caste man that wants to use the bathroom. This man is Charat
Singh, a famous hockey player. At first Singh also yells at Bakha for neglecting his cleaning
duties. The man has a changeable personality however. It isn’t long before he instructs Bakha to
come see him later in the day so he can gift the young sweeper with a prized hockey stick. An
overjoyed Bakha agrees.
High on his good fortune he quickly finishes his morning shift and hurries home, dying of
thirst. Unfortunately there is no water in the house. His sister Sohini offers to go fill the water
bucket. At the well Sohini must wait behind several other outcastes also queued up. Also waiting
for water is Gulabo, mother of one of Bakha’s friends and a jealous woman. She hates Sohini
and is just barely stopped from striking the young woman. A priest from the town temple
named Pundit Kali Nath comes along and helps Sohini get water. He instructs her to come clean
the temple later in the day. Sohini agrees and hurries home with the water.
Back at home Lakha fakes an illness and instructs Bakha to clean the town square and the
temple courtyard in his stead. Bakha is wise to the wily ways of his father but cannot protest. He
takes up his cleaning supplies and goes into town. His sweeping duties usually keep him too
busy to go into town, and so he takes advantage of the situation by buying cigarettes and candies.
As Bakha eats his candies, a high-caste man brushes up against him. The touched man did not
see Bakha because the sweeper forgot to give the untouchable’s call. The man is furious. His
yelling attracts a large crowd that joins in on Bakha’s public shaming. A traveling Muslim
vendor in a horse and buggy comes along and disperses the crowd. Before the touched man
leaves he slaps Bakha across the face for his impudence, and scurries away. A shocked Bakha
cries in the streets before gathering his things and hurrying off to the temple. This time, he does
not forget the untouchable’s call.
At the temple, a service is in full swing. It intrigues Bakha, who eventually musters up
the courage to climb up the stairs to the temple door and peer inside. He’s only standing there for
a few moments before a loud commotion comes from behind him. It’s Sohini and Pundit Kali
Nath, who is accusing Sohini of polluting him. As a crowd gathers around, Bakha pulls his sister
away. Crying, she tells him that the priest sexually assaulted her. A furious Bakha tries to go
back to confront the priest, but an embarrassed and ashamed Sohini forces him to leave. Bakha
sends his sister home, saying he will take over her duties in town for the rest of the day.
Distraught over the day’s events, Bakha wanders listlessly before going to a set of homes
to beg for his family’s daily bread. No one is home, so he curls up in front of a house and falls
asleep. A sadhu also begging for food comes and wakes him. The owner of the house Bakha
slept in front of comes out with food for the sadhu. Seeing Bakha, she screams at him and at first
refuses to give him food. She finally agrees to give him some bread in exchange for him
sweeping the area in front of her house. As Bakha sweeps, the woman tells her young son to
relieve himself in the gutter where Bakha is cleaning so he can sweep that up too. A disgusted
Bakha throws down the broom and leaves for his house in the outcastes' colony.
Back at home, it’s only Lakha and Sohini. Rakha, Bakha’s younger brother, is still out
collecting food. Bakha tells his father that a high-caste man slapped him in the streets. Sensing
his son’s anger, Lakha tells him a story about the kindness of a high-caste doctor that once saved
Bakha’s life. Bakha is deeply moved by the story but remains upset. Soon after story time, Rakha
comes back with food. A ravenous Bakha starts to eat, but then is disgusted by the idea of eating
the leavings of the high-caste people. He jumps up and says he’s going to the wedding of his
friend Ram Charan’s sister.
At Ram Charan’s house, Bakha sees his other friend, Chota. The two boys wait for Ram
Charan to see them through the thicket of wedding revelers. Ram Charan eventually sees his
friends and runs off with them despite his mother’s protestations. Alone, Chota and Ram Charan
sense something is wrong with their friend. They coax Bakha to tell them what’s wrong. Bakha
breaks down and tells them about the slap and Sohini’s assault. Ram Charan is quiet and
embarrassed by Bakha’s tale, but Chota is indignant. He asks Bakha if he wants to get revenge.
Bakha does but realizes revenge would be a dangerous and futile endeavor. A melancholic
atmosphere falls over the group. Chota attempts to cheer Bakha up by reminding him of the
hockey game they will play later in the day. This reminds Bakha that he must go and get his gift
from Charat Singh.
Bakha goes to Charat Singh’s house in the barracks, but cannot tell if the man is home.
Reluctant to disturb him or the other inhabitants, Bakha settles under a tree to wait. Before long,
Singh comes outside. He invites Bakha to drink tea with him and allows the untouchable to
handle his personal items. Singh’s disregard for Bakha’s supposed polluting presence thrills
Bakha’s heart. Thus he is overjoyed when Singh gives him a brand-new hockey stick.
Ecstatic about this upswing to his terrible day, Bakha goes into the hockey game on fire.
He scores the first goal. The goalie of the opposite team is angry over Bakha’s success and hits
him. This starts an all-out brawl between the two teams that ends when a player’s younger
brother gets hurt. Bakha picks up the young boy and rushes him home, only to have the boy’s
mother accuse him of killing her son. Good mood completely destroyed, Bakha trudges home,
where his father screams at him for being gone all afternoon. He banishes Bakha from home,
saying his son must never return.
Bakha runs away and takes shelter under a tree far from home. The chief of the local
Salvation Army, a British man named Colonel Hutchinson, comes up to him. He sees Bakha’s
distress and convinces the sweeper to follow him to the church. Flattered by the white man’s
attention, Bakha agrees, but the Colonel’s constant hymn singing quickly bores him. Before the
two can enter the church the Colonel’s wife comes to find him. Disgusted at the sight of her
husband with another “blackie,” she begins to scream and shout. Bakha feels her anger acutely
and runs off again.
This time Bakha runs towards town and ends up at the train station. He overhears some
people discussing the appearance of Mahatma Gandhi in Bulashah. He joins the tide of people
rushing to hear the Mahatma speak. Just as Bakha settles in to listen, Gandhi arrives and begins
his speech. He talks about the plight of the untouchable and how it is his life’s mission to see
them emancipated. He ends his speech by beseeching those present to spread his message of
ending untouchability. After the Mahatma departs a pair of educated Indian men have a lively
discussion about the content of the speech. One man, a lawyer named Bashir, soundly critiques
most of Gandhi’s opinions and ideas. The other, a poet named Sarshar, defends the Mahatma
passionately and convincingly. Much of what they say goes above Bakha’s head, so elevated are
their vocabulary and ideas. However, he does understand when Sarshar mentions the imminent
arrival of the flushing toilet in India, a machine that eradicates the need for humans to handle
refuse. This machine could mean the end of untouchability. With this piece of hope Bakha
hurries home to share news of the Mahatma’s speech with his father.
 Untouchable Character List
Bakha, son of Lakha
An 18-year-old Indian youth, Bakha is a sweeper and the protagonist
of Untouchable. Strong and able-bodied, he is fascinated by the life and ways of India’s English
colonizers. His position as an untouchable has resulted in high levels of self-deprecation and
depression. Bakha can be judgmental and at times helps perpetuate the very system that keeps
him oppressed. Paradoxically, he still questions the status quo and challenges a caste system that
is supposedly “set in stone.”
Chota
The son of a leather-worker, Chota is one of Bakha’s best friends. Though they are of the
outcaste class, Chota is higher than Bakha in the caste system’s hierarchy. Like Bakha, he is also
obsessed with the English.
Ram Charan
Ram Charan is the washer’s son and Bakha’s other best friend. He is also higher in the
hierarchy than Bakha because his family only washes other people’s clothes (an act deemed
cleaner than clearing refuse).
Lakha, Jemadar of the sweepers
Bakha’s father. A lazy, abusive man that takes advantage of his children. He resents
Bakha’s obsession with the English and urges Bakha to be satisfied with their family’s lot in life
as untouchables and sweepers.
Rakha
Bakha’s younger brother. Somewhat of a foil to Bakha’s character, he is described as “a
true child of the outcaste colony.”
Sohini
Bakha’s younger sister, Sohini is described as nubile and beautiful. Patient and resilient,
she bears the brunt of her family’s frustrations. Her altercation with a member of the high caste is
one cause of Bakha’s existentialist woe.
Havildar Charat Singh
One of Bakha’s heroes, Singh is a famous hockey player. His personality is jocular, his
mood extremely changeable. At the beginning of the novel he harangues Bakha to clean the
latrines but later on he gives Bakha a brand new hockey stick. His willingness to share his
afternoon tea with Bakha illustrates his lack of belief in untouchability.
Ali
A young man of Bakha’s age group, Ali is the son of a regimental bandsman and Muslim.
Bakha asks him questions about Islamic practices and is accused of insulting the religion.
Ramanand
Described by Bakha as a “peevish old black moneylender,” Ramanand is of a higher class
than Bakha. He interrupts Bakha’s morning musings by shouting at him to clean the latrines.
Gulabo
A washer woman, Gulabo is Ram Charan’s mother. She has a superiority complex
because she has a high place in the hierarchy of the low castes/outcastes. She resents Bakha’s
friendship with her sons and hates Sohini.
Waziro
Waziro is the weaver’s wife and prevents Gulabo from hitting Sohini.
Pundit Kali Nath
He is one of the priests in charge of the temple in Bulashah, the town Bakha and his
family live outside of. He sexually assaults Sohini and then accuses her of defiling him.
Lachman
A Hindu water-carrier, he is 26 years old and attracted to Sohini.
Hakim Bhagawan Das
A local doctor, Hakim Bhagawan saved Bakha’s life when he was a small child.
Ram Charan’s sister
Bakha’s childhood crush, Ram Charan’s sister is a symbol of the things Bakha is barred
from because of his low status in the caste system.
Colonel Hutchinson
The chief of the local Salvation Army, Hutchinson is a Christian missionary tasked with
converting Hindus to Christianity. The face of the Christian religion in the novel, he symbolizes
one facet of England’s colonization of India.
Mary Hutchinson
Mary is the Colonel’s irreligious wife. Miserable about their life in India, she constantly
demeans and disparages her husband’s work amongst Indian peoples, who she refers to as
“blackies.”
Mahatma Gandhi
One of several real-life people alluded to/featured in Untouchable, Gandhi was one of the
leaders of India’s independence movement. In the novel his purpose is to offer a religious, moral,
and political denunciation of untouchability
Kasturabai Gandhi
The wife of Mahatma Gandi. Like her husband, Kasturabai was heavily involved with
India’s independence movement. In the novel she accompanies Gandhi during his visit to
Bakha’s town.
Miraben Slade
Another real-life person that makes an appearance in the novel, Miraben was the daughter
of a British admiral. She left Britain to work at Gandhi’s side for India’s independence in 1925.
In the novel, she also accompanies Gandhi during his visit to Bakha’s town.
Iqbal Nath Sarshar
A young poet who defends Gandhi despite his misgivings about the revolutionary’s
political and economic views. Sarshar offers up a Marxist interpretation of the plight of the
untouchables and suggests a Marxist solution.
R. N. Bashir
An Indian lawyer that studied at Oxford. Bashir is highly critical of Gandhi and the
Marxist solution suggested by Sarshar.

Untouchable Glossary
Untouchable The lowest group of the outcaste level in the Hindu caste system. They are below
other outcastes because they clean the refuse of others and are considered polluted. All
untouchables are outcastes but not all outcastes are untouchables.
Outcaste The lowest level in the Hindu caste system. They are considered so low in status that
they are outside of the Hindu system, thus the name outcaste. All untouchables are outcastes but
not all outcastes are untouchables.
Cantonment A military garrison or camp.
Uncongenial Not friendly or pleasant to be with.
Barracks A building or group of buildings used to house soldiers.
Tommies A nickname for British private soldiers.
Dingy Gloomy and drab.
Bulashah The fictional Indian town where the novel takes place.
Gora A term used to describe white people in the Indian subcontinent.
Bazaar A market in a Middle-Eastern country.
Sahib A polite title or form of address for a man.
Exigency An urgent need or demand.
Sepoy An Indian solder serving under British or other European orders.
Puttee A long strip of cloth wound spirally around the leg from ankle to knee for protection and
support.
Solar Topee Also called a “pith helmet,” it is a lightweight hat made from an Indian swamp
plant and often worn by people of European background in the tropics.
Sweeper A person tasked with collecting the refuse of others.
Bakshish A tip, present, or gratuity.
Rupees The current currency of India and other countries in South Asia.
Annas The former currency of India and Pakistan, it is equivalent to one sixteenth of a rupee.
Rigout A person’s attire, particularly if it’s bizarre.
Jemadar A minor official or junior officer; a person that who sweeps homes or offices as a job.
Izzat Honor, reputation, or prestige.
Salaam A gesture of greeting or respect, with or without a spoken salutation, typically consisting
of a low bow of the head and body with the hand or fingers touching the forehead.
Cussedness Stubborn, annoying.
Chronic Piles Diarrhea; frequent bowel movements.
Ji A suffix used with names and titles to show respect.
Alacrity Brisk and cheerful readiness.
Commode A piece of furniture containing a concealed chamber pot.
Twice-Born A term used by the two uppermost castes in Hindu society to justify their
superiority, it means you have earned your high position by doing good deeds in multiple lives.
Huzoor A title of respect.
Mohammedan An archaic term for Muslim.
Shirk To avoid or neglect a duty or responsibility.
Vaporous A substance diffused or suspended in the air.
Ostentatiously Characterized by vulgar or pretentious display.
Ablutions The act of washing oneself.
Dhoti A garment worn by male Hindus, consisting of a piece of material tied around the waist
and extending to cover most of the legs.
Maharaj A title used for a master of a particular skill or craft.
Maidan An open space in or near a town, used as a parade ground or for events such as public
meetings and polo matches.
Bemoan To express sorrow or discontent.
Supple Bending and moving easily and gracefully.
Inauspicious Not conductive to success; unpromising.
Jalebis An Indian sweet made of a coil of batter fried and steeped in syrup.
Cogitations The action of thinking deeply about something; contemplation.
Brahmin One of the upper classes in the Hindu caste system.
Vamp A seductress, temptress, siren.
Cur A contemptible man.
Foxing Faking illness to avoid a responsibility.
Lustre A soft glow or gentle sheen.
Truant A student that misses school without permission or notice.
Burra Big or important.
Babu A respectful title for a man, especially an educated one.
Obviate To remove a need or difficulty.
Betel The leaf of an Asian evergreen climbing plant that is used in the East as a mild stimulant.
Parings of areca nut, lime, and cinnamon are wrapped in the leaf, which is then chewed, causing
the saliva to go red and, with prolonged use, the teeth to go black.
Asafœtida A type of tree sap or gum.
Bania A trader or merchant.
Kalijugs A derogatory title.
Vociferous Clamorous or vehement.
Tonga A light horse-drawn two-wheeled vehicle used in India.
Wallah A person concerned or involved with a specified thing or business.
Benarsi A type of silk used to make saris.
Inculcate To instill.
Espy To catch sight of.
Sadhu A holy man, sage, or ascetic.
Habiliments Clothing.
Gymkhana A day event comprising races and other competitions between horse riders or car
drivers.
Lalla A title of respect, typically used for women.
Bhangis A name for members of the untouchable caste.
Chamars A name for members of the untouchable caste.
Swadeshi An adjective meaning made in India from Indian-produced materials.

Untouchable Themes
You Are What You Wear
Habiliments, known in contemporary vernacular as clothing, play a pivotal role
in Untouchable. For starters, Anand uses characters' clothing to signify everything from religion
to caste level. During the beginning of Bakha’s day, clothing is used to differentiate the many
men that come to use the latrines. The Hindus are naked except for their loincloths. Muslims are
distinct from Hindus because they wear long white cotton tunics and baggy trousers (Anand 32).
Furthermore, when the crowds gather to hear the Mahatma speak, they are separated into their
various castes and religions. The “Hindu lallas,” or high-caste Hindu ladies, are “smartly dressed
in silks” while members of the outcaste colony are dressed in rags (Anand 264).
Clothing as a signifier of religion and caste level is only one aspect of the “you are what
you wear” theme. Through the eyes of Bakha, clothing becomes a metaphor for superiority and
enlightenment. He marvels at the “clear-cut styles of European dress” and considers those that
wear them “sahibs,” or superior people. He thinks that if he were to wear these habiliments, he
would cast off his untouchable status and become a sahib too (Anand 20). To this end, he begs
Tommies for their extra clothing no matter how loosely they fit him. Though seemingly
superficial, Bakha’s musings about clothing reflecting the inner person have a strand of truth. His
own getup, though ill fitting, supposedly “removes him above his odorous world” in the eyes of
the onlooker as he cleans the latrines (Anand 30). The onlookers are perplexed that someone
dressed as Bakha is from the untouchable caste. Here is a clear example of the theme “you are
what you wear.”
Rejection of Indian Roots
The rejection of Indian habits and social customs is a central idea of Untouchable. Bakha
is the best personification of this theme in the novel. We are first introduced to his distaste for
certain Indian habits when he watches the Hindu men performing their morning ablutions. Anand
writes that after working in the British barracks Bakha had become ashamed of the “Indian way”
of washing up (Anand 34). Other Indian habits that Bakha shows contempt for are how some
Hindu men and women relieve themselves in the open on the streets (Anand 36), the Indian
tendency to wear “florid ornaments” (Anand 107), and even the Indian way of drinking tea
(Anand 62). The disapproval Bakha feels for these various habits stem from British feelings
about them. For example, when the British see Hindus relieving themselves on the ground in
public, they say kala admi zamin par hagne wala (black man, you who relieve yourself on the
ground) (Anand 35). These words are a condemnation and something to be embarrassed about, in
Bakha’s opinion. His rejection of Indian ways of life is directly correlated to his embracement of
British ways of life. If the British sahibs dislike something, they must be right, and he must
emulate them in all things.
The rejection of Indian roots is closely intertwined with Britain’s colonization of India
and extends far past Bakha to Indian society as a whole. Bakha is not the only Indian fascinated
by English culture. The presence of the Salvation Army in Bulashah is a testament to this. It
shows that there are some Indians interested in Christianity, the religion of the colonizer. Further,
at the end of the novel it is suggested that accepting the European “machine” (i.e., moving away
from an agricultural economy to an industrial one) might be the path to salvation for
untouchables. Rejecting the Indian way of clearing waste and embracing the European way of
flushing it away without human contact could mean an end to the demands that sweepers satisfy,
which would allow them to seek out other types of work that wouldn’t make them untouchable.
However, things aren’t always so straightforward. An example of this is the British-
Indian penal code the poet Iqbal speaks of near the end of the novel. This code recognizes the
rights of every Indian before the court, which on the de jure level makes everyone equal. And
yet, the Hindu caste system simply adjusted and made profession the determinant of caste level.
Because families typically have the same profession across generations, this did not alter much.
After walking a day in Bakha’s shoes it is clear that the caste system persists despite British
attempts to eradicate it. While certain ways of Indian life have been rejected in the face of
supposed British superiority, others are upheld. Here the push and pull between Indian and
British sociocultural mores can be seen.
Class Struggle
At its core Untouchable is a tale about class struggle. The paralyzing and polarizing
differences between the various caste levels shape Bakha’s day and fuel the narrative. Class and
caste play a role in every interaction Bakha has over the course of his day. When his hero Singh
speaks with him in the morning, it is with a “grin [that] symbolized six thousand years of racial
and class superiority.” When Singh promises to give Bakha a hockey stick, he calls forth a “trait
of servility” embedded in Bakha that he inherited from his forefathers. Bakha is “queerly
humble” and passively content like a “bottom dog” (Anand 31). This is clear example of how
caste levels and what they symbolize about your station in life can be internalized and then
manifested in your personality and demeanor.
Inter-caste inequality is not only about personal interactions. It is fueled by a set of rules
that limits the lives and rights of outcastes, particularly the untouchables. For example, the
outcastes are not allowed to draw their own water from the public well because this would make
the water polluted in the eyes of the upper-caste Hindus. They must prevail upon the charity of
higher-caste people drawing water to share some with them. Particular to the untouchables is the
law of their untouchability. They must take care not to touch those of other castes, and to shout a
warning about their presence wherever they go.
Though the struggle between the caste levels takes precedent in the story, intra-caste
conflict also exists. Gulabo, Ram Charan’s mother, is a great illustration of this. Though she is an
outcaste like Bakha and his family, because she and her family are washer people, they occupy a
higher place within their shared outcaste status than the sweepers. Gulabo uses her higher station
to terrorize Bakha and Sohini. Thus the stratification of the castes isn’t only an “inter” issue but
also an “intra” one.
Charity
Charity occupies an interesting place in the world of Untouchable. The outcastes are
dependent on the charity of higher castes for fresh water (Anand 50), food (Anand 130), clothing
(Anand 20), etc. Oftentimes the begging of the outcastes is met with derision and anger by the
higher castes. This uncharitable reaction is shortsighted when considering that outcastes must
beg for water since the caste system deems them unworthy of drawing their own. The higher
castes are unable to see the poverty of the outcaste is their own doing, not that of the outcaste.
On the other hand, in order to maintain their current status and/or rise in the caste
hierarchy in the next life, Hindus must perform acts of charity. The Brahmins and the Kshatriyas,
the two upper castes in Hindu society, claim they earned their positions because of all the good
deeds they did in previous lives. So in a way the higher castes are dependent on charity as well.
Cyclical Oppression
The suffering of the outcastes is cyclical, generational, and perpetual. This is the idea that
is at the center of Untouchable, the idea that Anand seeks to highlight and criticize. The Hindu
caste system and the stigmas it casts upon the outcastes ensure that they stay poor and destitute
while the other castes maintain their higher standings and better lifestyles. The inability of the
outcastes to draw their own water from the community well or even gather together the funds to
build their own well ensures they will always be dependent on charitable Hindus for water
(Anand 43). Shopkeepers and food vendors charge outcastes higher prices, “as if to compensate
themselves for the pollution they [court] by dealing with outcastes” (Anand 87). This is
nonsensical, making poor people that lack money pay more than rich people with money, and yet
is somehow justified in the eyes of the higher castes. Furthermore, because teachers refuse to
teach untouchables for fear of pollution, most of them cannot read and so must pay to have texts
read to them or letters written (Anand 74). The answer would be teachers that are untouchable,
but who would first teach them? Here we see the cyclical nature of the outcaste’s plight.
The life of the outcaste is cyclical not only because it is perpetuated by corrupt
interpersonal dealings, but also because it is generational. The oppression and terrible life
standards the outcastes face persist across generations. Bakha began working in the latrines as a
sweeper at the age of 6, same as his father, his grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. (Anand 75).
His status and life as a sweeper was inherited and passed down by his forefathers. Unless
untouchability is abandoned, the Hindu caste system eradicated, and the unequal treatment of
outcastes stopped, Bakha’s children will pick up the cross their father bears.
The Untouchable’s Responsibility/Burden
Deeply intertwined with the themes of class struggle and cyclical oppression is the idea
of the untouchable’s responsibility or the untouchable’s burden. Aside from their job as sweeper,
the untouchables are also tasked with ensuring they don’t touch higher-caste people and higher-
caste people don’t touch them. Bakha first mentions this responsibility after he bumps into a
caste man. Surrounded by a mob of angry Hindus, Bakha realizes that “he was surrounded by a
barrier, not a physical barrier… but a moral one. He knew that contact with him, if he pushed
through, would defile a great many more of [the] men” (Anand 92). Instead of the burden being
on the men to make sure they don’t touch Bakha, he is the one that must take care. Bakha
reinforces this idea when he apologizes to the man he bumps into and says, “I have erred now. I
forgot to call. I beg your forgiveness” (Anand 94). The call Bakha refers to is “Posh keep
away, posh, sweeper coming, posh posh…” (Anand 98). Untouchables must shout this as they
walk to notify others of their approach. Not only must they clean up the refuse of others, they
must also protect the cleanliness of others.
The untouchable’s burden is another means of keeping the untouchable suppressed. This
is best illustrated by Sohini’s brush with Pundit Kali Nath in the temple. Here we have a Hindu
high-caste man that willingly touched Sohini in an amorous manner. When she rejected him,
Nath cried “polluted, polluted” and accused Sohini of defiling him (Anand 120). Because she is
an untouchable, Sohini has no means of defending herself. She cannot argue that Nath touched
her of his own volition, because such a defense would make no sense to Hindus that observe the
caste system. Making bodily contact negligence on the part of the untouchable and not the caste
person allows sexual assaults like Sohini’s to be permissible. This is another example of the class
struggles between untouchables and caste people, and another way untouchables are reduced to a
subhuman status.
Religion
Religion is the thread that connects all of the themes in Untouchable. Anand uses
clothing to separate the Hindus from the Muslims from the Christians. The rejection of Indian
roots is in part made manifest by the conversion of Indians from Hinduism to Christianity. The
class struggles between the different caste levels and the cyclical oppression the outcastes
experience is rooted in the hierarchy Hinduism created, as is the need for the higher castes to be
charitable. Furthermore, Bakha sees his responsibility of alerting the world to his presence as a
moral obligation.
There are a few ways that religion acts as an explicit mediator between the characters
of Untouchable as well. Of course Hinduism influences interactions such as Gulabo’s with
Sohini and Bakha’s with the caste man he touches. There are other examples however. Colonel
Hutchinson’s interest in Bakha is fueled by his belief that Bakha wishes to convert to
Christianity. Also, though alienated from his father Lahka, Bakha feels a connection to him when
thinking about how his father, his mother, and their forefathers all worshipped Rama, god of the
Hindus (Anand 244). While religion is a source of the many issues the novel grapples with, it is
also the force that brings our characters into contact with one another.

Untouchable Quotes and Analysis

“Get up, ohe you Bakhya, you son of a pig.” Lakha, p. 23
These words serve as Bakha’s wake-up call; they are the start of his day. With the insult “you
son of a pig,” Lakha shows his abusive nature towards his children but is also unintentionally
funny. Not only does Lakha call himself a pig, he also shows his hypocrisy when he orders his
son to wake up while he remains comfortably ensconced in his bed. This quote is a prime
example of the violent language motif and Lakha’s laziness.
"'A bit superior to his job,’ they always said, ‘not the kind of man who ought to be doing this.”
Unnamed onlookers, p. 29
The “he” the onlookers are talking about is Bakha. They comment on how ill suited Bakha is for
the job of the sweeper. Not because he is too small or incapable, but because the work seems
beneath him. He is superior to the job; he doesn’t deserve to have such a degrading job. With the
phrase “not the kind of man who ought to be doing this,” the onlookers illustrate that sweeping is
a job for certain type of people, people that are inferior to the rest of society. Bakha’s outward
demeanor distinguishes him from other sweepers that (from the perspective of the onlookers)
deserve the punishing life of a sweeper.
“‘Kala admi zamin par hagne wala’ (black man, you who relieve yourself on the ground).”
Tommies, p. 35
Here the Tommies are addressing Hindu people that conduct their bathroom business in the open
areas outside of Bulahshah instead of visiting the latrines. The cultural differences between the
Hindus and the British are thrown into relief in this quote. Bakha believes that Hindus who
relieve themselves in public should be embarrassed and shameful because anyone, especially the
British, can see them and criticize them. Here we see how Bakha uses the opinions of the British
as a litmus test and model for his own opinions. This is a perfect example of the rejection of
Indian roots theme.
“'Keep to the side of the road, you low-caste vermin!’ he suddenly heard someone shouting at
him. ‘Why don’t you call, you swine, and announce your approach! Do you know you have
touched me and defiled me, you cockeyed 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!”
High-caste man, p. 89
The events surrounding this diatribe against Bakha is the climax of Untouchable and the novel’s
major pivot point in terms of plot and literary elements. Bakha’s day and the micro-aggressions
he experiences before his brush with the high-caste man all lead up to this explosive exchange.
Everything that occurs after this point traces back to this run-in at the town square and/or is
impacted by it. In terms of literary elements, several of the novels major themes and motifs are
demonstrated in this excerpt. The high-caste man references the untouchable’s
responsibility/burden when he asks why Bakha does not call and announce his approach. His
aggressive, derogatory language towards Bakha is a clear example of the class struggle theme
and the violent language motif.
“Posh keep away, posh, sweeper coming, posh, posh, sweeper coming, posh, posh, sweeper
coming!” Bakha, p. 98
This is the warning Bakha must shout whenever he approaches an area populated by caste
people. This chant is the epitome of the untouchable’s burden and is a good example of the
literary device repetition. After neglecting to call out and being soundly reprimanded for it,
Bakha begins to call out his warning feverously. At this point he still shaken because of the
verbal and physical attacks he received, but his responsibility to the other castes comes before his
own well-being. It is arguable that the entire existence of the outcastes is one of sacrifice for the
greater good. They are shunned and hated in exchange for clearing away waste so everyone can
have some sort of cleanliness.
“Why are we always abused?” Bakha, p. 98
This plaintive cry of Bakha’s is tragic and rhetorical. He is asking why the rest of Hindu society
singles out and victimizes untouchables. This question is significant because it illustrates
Bakha’s genuine despair and confusion about his life as an untouchable. Furthermore, it shows
that despite what his father says and how society treats him, Bakha refuses to believe that being
an untouchable makes him inferior to others, or deserving of their abuse.
“For them I am a sweeper, sweeper — untouchable! Untouchable! Untouchable! That’s the
word! Untouchable! I am an Untouchable!" Bakha, p. 100
The repetition of “untouchable” in this quote helps to convey Bakha’s anguish and anger
regarding the slap he receives from the high-caste man. After asking rhetorically why he is
abused, he answers his own question by reaffirming his status as a sweeper, as an untouchable.
This quote is significant because in addition to evoking the class struggle theme it also depicts an
eureka moment for Bakha. In this moment he truly realizes that to be an untouchable in Hindu
society is to be a second-class citizen. Before, it was something he knew distantly, something
hovering in his subconscious. Now, following the slap from the high-caste man, his
untouchability is something Bakha knows intimately and consciously.
“It was a discord between person and circumstance by which a lion like him lay enmeshed in a
net while many a common criminal wore a rajah’s crown. ” The Narrator, p. 182
Bakha is the “him” in the quote that the unidentified narrator describes. The narrator points out
the unfairness and randomness of the caste system, a system under which someone like Bakha is
enslaved while worse men than him live like kings. Using the image of the lion in a simile about
Bakha is powerful because it ascribes to Bakha all the qualities of a lion—strength, regality,
pride, etc. Alternatively, the imagery of a criminal wearing a raja’s crown (i.e., a prince’s crown)
brings to mind scoundrels like Pundit Kali Nath who have high positions in society but are
actually the worst kind of men.
“It was with difficulty, however, that he prevented himself from stumbling, for his soul was
full of love and adoration and worship for the man who had thought it fit to entrust him, an
unclean menial, with the job and his eyes were turned inwards.” The Narrator, p. 207
After Charat Singh asks Bakha to fill his smoking pipe with coal, Bakha is filled with awe and
wonder. This is a task most people would refuse to give to an untouchable, for fear of
contamination. The significance of this quote is manifold. One, it shows that not every Hindu
adheres to the rigid laws of the caste system. While Charat Singh doesn’t treat Bakha as an
equal, he also doesn’t treat him as if the young man is subhuman. By doing this Singh is
undermining the Hindu religion in favor of his own morals and beliefs. Two, it shows Bakha’s
paradoxical and complicated relationship to his sweeper and untouchable status. In some
situations Bakha clearly hates being treated different just because he clears waste. In others, such
as this moment with Singh, he shows that he has internalized certain prejudiced thoughts and
stereotypes. For example, in this quote he describes himself as “an unclean menial," even though
he takes such pains to remain clean and presentable. And three, this quote illustrates how starved
Bakha is for respect and kind treatment from the people that populate his life.
“And they can do that soon, for the first thing we will do when we accept the machine, will be
to introduce the machine which clears dung without anyone having to handle it—the flush
system. Then the sweepers can be free from the stigma of untouchability and assume the
dignity of status that is their right as useful members of a casteless and classless society.”
Iqbal Nath Sarshar, p. 302
This passage is Untouchable’s “light at the end of the tunnel.” It paints a picture of a coming
future where sweepers like Bakha and his family will no longer be needed and can perhaps find
different employment. Though the advent of the flush system may not be revolutionary for
Bakha’s generation because they are already untouchable in the eyes of other Hindus, perhaps
life will be different for the generations to come. This passage is connected to the rejection of
Indian roots theme because only by abandoning the current, traditional means of clearing waste
and adopting the modern, mechanized way can untouchables have a chance at liberation from
untouchability.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"The Beginning of Bakha’s Day" and "Sohini Fetches Water"

Summary
The Beginning of Bakha’s Day
Bakha, son of Lakha, begins his day in his family’s one-room mud-walled house. He
lives with his father, who is the leader of their town’s sweepers, his sister Sohini, and his
brother Rakha. Their house is located in the outcastes' colony, a collection of decrepit buildings
situated on the outskirts of Bulashah. The proximity of the colony to the town latrines makes it
an “uncongenial” place to live in Bakha’s eyes.
Before he must get up and begin his day, Bakha lies awake and muses about his friends
and the Englishmen occupying his town. Bakha and his friends are obsessed with the “Tommies”
and try to emulate them in both dress and behavior. The Tommies amazed Bakha in particular
after he worked as a sweeper in their barracks. Lakha however is not impressed by his son’s
interests and abuses him for it, often calling Bakha derogatory names like “son of a pig.” There
is no love lost between the father and son.
And so Bakha lies in bed in between sleep and wakefulness. Before long, the dreaded call
ordering him to get up and clean the latrines comes from his father. Sullen and annoyed, Bakha
annoys his father and remains in bed. His thoughts shift to his dead mother, who doted on him.
Her passing marks the beginning of his father’s early morning wake-up calls and abusive
behavior. As Bakha contemplates if his mother would have a place in his current world
populated by all things English, his father orders him again to get up. And once again, Bakha
ignores him. He dozes off.
Suddenly a new voice demands Bakha to come and clean a latrine. It is Havilar Charat
Singh, a famous hockey player. He calls Bakha a rogue and admonishes him for neglecting his
duties. Bakha apologizes and attacks his job with alacrity. He cleans the latrines swiftly and
easily, without soiling himself in the process. When Singh emerges from his toilet business, the
sight of a clean Bakha contradicts the stereotypes of untouchables as dirty and smelly. Forgetting
his earlier annoyance with Bakha, he promises to gift the young man with a hockey stick later in
the afternoon.
Overcome with gratitude and happiness, Bakha throws himself into his work. Around
him, Hindu and Muslim men come and go to the latrines. They are distinct from one another
because of the particular clothes they wear.
 After working without pause for an untold period of time, Bakha stops and takes in his
surroundings. He looks at his fellow Indians performing their morning ablutions and judges them
for their ostentatious and noisy conduct. He bases his opinions on the Tommie perspective
regarding Indian ways of cleansing. Generally the Tommies condemn the Indian ways and so
Bakha follows suit.
Ramanand, a moneylender, jerks Bakha out of his reverie and demands a latrine be
cleaned for him. Bakha complies and finishes cleaning all of the latrines in the area. Then, he
begins his least favorite part of his job. He shoves all of the collected refuse into a chimney near
his house. This takes around 20 minutes, and yet Bakha does not feel the strain from his toil. The
fire of the chimney seems to give him a sense of power and energy.
After finishing his morning shift, Bakha goes back home and looks for water. He finds
his brother has left to go play, his father is still sleeping, and his sister is trying to start a fire. He
helps her and then discovers there is no water in the house. Sohini, sensing her brother’s
exhaustion and frustration, volunteers to fetch some water from the well.
Sohini Fetches Water
Sohini leaves the house with the water pitcher and heads to the well to fill it. When
Sohini reaches the well she sees outcastes crowded around it, none of whom are drawing water.
If any of the outcastes were to draw water from the well, the high castes would consider the
water polluted. The outcastes cannot afford to have their own well built. Therefore, they must
wait at the foot of the high-caste well for a high caste to come along, take pity on them, and pour
water into their pitchers for them. Unfortunately when Sohini approaches there are ten outcastes
waiting in front of her and not a high caste in sight. Depressed but not discouraged Sohini settles
with the others in to wait.
Among those already waiting is Gulabo, a washerwoman and the mother of Ram Charan,
Bakha’s friend. Jealous of Sohini, even though as a sweeper the young woman is the lowest of
the low within the caste hierarchy, Gulabo begins to bully Sohini. She calls Bakha’s sister a
bitch, a prostitute, and other derogatory names. Sohini, oblivious to Gulabo’s jealousy, laughs at
the abruptness of the older woman’s attack, thinking it a joke. At this Gulabo’s ire increases and
her verbal attacks increase in frequency and vitriol. Soon Sohini realizes that Gulabo’s anger is
very real and wonders what she did to spark the washerwoman’s fury.
Suddenly, Gulabo moves to strike Sohini but is stopped by Waziro, the weaver’s wife.
She calms Gulabo down. Shocked silent, Sohini sits still and thinks about Bakha waiting at home
for the water.
At long last, a sepoy walks by but he pays no heed to the begging outcastes. Luckily for
Sohini and the others, shortly after the sepoy is Pundit Kali Nath, one of the priests in charge of
the town temples. They successfully prevail upon Nath to draw for them. As he draws the water,
Nath is absorbed in thoughts about the source of his constipated bowels. Therefore, when Gulabo
shouts loudly that she has been waiting the longest, he is annoyed. At her words all the other
outcastes besides Sohini claim they were first and jostle amongst each other for the best position
to receive water. Sohini catches Nath’s eye because of her pretty face and her refusal to join the
melee. He tells her to come closer and orders the others to back away. After Nath fills Sohini’s
pitcher he tells her to come clean the temple later in the day. Sohini agrees and leaves to take the
water back to her family.
Back at home, Lakha shouts at Sohini for taking so long. He calls her a daughter of a pig
and commands her to call her brothers into the house. Only Bakha comes inside, as Rakha
escaped from the house earlier in the morning and went playing. Lakha fakes an illness and tells
Bakha to take over his sweeping duties in the temple courtyard and on the main road of
Bulashah. Bakha knows his father is lying about his illness but cannot protest. The work must get
done. He drinks the tea his sister prepares for him, takes up his tools, and leaves his house in the
direction of town.

Analysis
Untouchable eschews the typical chapter-by-chapter division. Instead the book is divided
into vignette-like sections. In these two introductory sections, we learn the book is set in the
fictional Indian town of Bulashah. Because Untouchable is a work of historical realistic fiction,
we can assume Bulashah is modeled after actual Indian towns and society. The allusions to the
Hindu caste system, different Indian habits, and the British occupation of India all serve to place
the book in a specific historical time and place.
The novel opens in the outcaste’s colony located on the outskirts of Bulashah, where our
protagonist and his family live. The omniscient third-person narrator of Untouchable describes
the colony using a combination of the five senses with special emphasis on smell. For example,
the narrator says that the air around the colony is “biting, choking, and pungent.” The narrator
ends their description of Bulashah by pronouncing it an “uncongenial” place to live, a conclusion
shared by the protagonist of Untouchable, Bakha.
The eldest son of Lakha, leader of all of Bulashah’s sweepers, Bakha is an 18-years-old
untouchable. Intelligent and vain, he is obsessed with the habits and dress of the British. This
obsession often leads him to reject his own country’s customs and clothes in favor of those of the
Tommies. The rejection of his Indian heritage is one source of the discord between Bakha and
his father. The other is Bakha’s resentment over his father’s laziness with regards to their jobs as
sweepers. Ever since Bakha’s mother passed away his father has grown increasingly lazy. As a
result, Bakha stepped into the role of head of household, often taking the brunt of the sweeping
work.
Although several circumstances of Bakha’s life (like his complicated relationship to his
father and the fourth-class citizen life he leads because he is a sweeper) make him a sympathetic
character, he is oftentimes difficult to relate to. His naïve, non-nuanced adoration of India’s
British colonizers can seem paradoxical and offensive to modern-day readers. It is important to
keep in mind the escapism motif when considering Bakha’s absorption in British ways. His
obsession becomes more relatable when we understand he does it to escape the harsh realities of
his own life.
 A far more sympathetic character is Sohini, Bakha’s younger sister. A patient, composed,
and peaceful young woman, Sohini does her best to help Bakha with his burdens as the de
facto head of their household. Sohini does a better job than her brother in terms of accepting the
harsh realities of their lives as untouchables, even in the face of Gulabo’s hatred. Although one
would hope Gulabo’s behavior towards Sohini was a caricature of the actual treatment
untouchables receive, at this point there is no evidence to say either way.
Though it is early in the novel, several of Untouchables' major themes and motifs have
already made an appearance. Bakha uses the clothing of the Hindu and Muslim men to
differentiate between them. This is a clear allusion to the "you are what you wear" theme. That
theme and the "rejection of Indian roots" theme are also invoked when Bakha muses about his
love for British “fashun” and habiliments. He enjoys wearing British clothing instead of Indian
clothing because it distinguishes him from his countrymen and creates (in his eyes) a link
between himself and what he imagines the clothes represent. That is, modernity and
sophistication. "Charity," "cyclical oppression," and "class struggle" are also present. In an act of
charity, Charat Singh promises to give Bakha a hockey stick. Bakha’s family is a great example
of oppression that is cyclical and generational. His father was born an untouchable and so he and
his siblings are also untouchables. And finally, class struggle is present in almost every
interaction in this first section of the novel, from Bakha’s and Charat Singh’s to Sohini’s and
Gulabo’s.
Other literary elements used in these two episodes from Bakha’s life are flashback,
anthropomorphism, and hyperbole. When he is lying awake waiting for his day to begin Bakha’s
thoughts flashback to his mother and how she cared for him when she was alive. During
Gulabo’s verbal assault of Sohini, she directs several hyperbolic attacks towards the younger
woman, such as calling her a slut for laughing and “showing her teeth” in the presence of men.
And finally, after Sohini’s conflict with Gulabo, she feels something in her heart “asking for
mercy.” Here Sohini’s heart is anthropomorphized and given the ability to speak.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"Bakha Talks to the Other Colony Boys” and “Bakha Touches a High Caste”
Summary
Bakha Talks to the Other Colony Boys
Taking the lane that connects the outcaste colony to the rest of Bulashah, Bakha notes the
difference between the “odorous, smoky” air and the “clean, fresh air” of the empty space
beyond the colony. He stops, stands in place, and tilts his body towards the sun and revels in the
rays, imagining the warmth of them embracing his body. It takes Bakha a minute to realize that
his brother Rakha and his friends Ram Charan, the washerman’s son, and Chota, the
leatherworker’s son, are watching him. He feels embarrassed that Ram Charan and Chota saw
him because they often make fun of him for his unorthodox ways, even though they also aspire
to emulate the British.
 The boys trade insults and joke amongst each other. Ram Charan announces that his
sister will get married today, which sends a slight pang through Bakha because he likes her.
Chota then asks Bakha where he’s going. Bakha remembers his assignment for the day and tells
Rakha to hurry back and clean the latrines in his absence. Rakha seems to resent his brother’s
orders but heads home anyways. Chota and Ram Charan try to convince Bakha to skip his work
so he can go gambling with him. Bakha refuses because his sense of duty is too strong and he is
afraid of his father’s ire.
Just as Bakha goes to leave, the sons of the burra babu, a caste man, approaches their
little group. At 10 and 8 years old, they are considerably younger than Bakha and his friends.
Bakha greats them respectfully while Ram Charan and Chota ask them impudently if they would
like to join a hockey game later. Because their father is close with the captain of the regimental
hockey teams, the sons of the babu have access to lots of spare hockey equipment. The boys
agree and then the younger one reminds his brother they must hurry to school. At this, Bakha’s
ears perk up. He has a fierce desire to learn how to read but the schools refuse to admit
untouchables. Seizing the opportunity in front of him, Bakha asks the eldest son of the babu to
teach him how to read in exchange for one anna per lesson. Eager for the extra pocket money the
babu’s son agrees and the boys arrange to meet later in the day for their first lesson.
The babu’s sons leave and Bakha’s friends tease him about his forthcoming knowledge.
They jokingly predict that soon he won’t even want to talk to them. Bakha brushes their jokes
aside and continues on towards the town gates, his heart light.
Bakha Touches a High Caste
After he enters the town proper the first thing Bakha sees is a funeral procession. At the
sight of the body, he feels a twinge of fear but shrugs it off. He stops and buys some cigarettes.
He forgets to buy matches but feels embarrassed at the idea of going back to the cigarette vendor.
He sees a Muslim man smoking and asks him for some coal to light his cigarette with. The
Muslim man allows Bakha to light up using the same piece of coal he is already using.
Bakha smokes and walks along the main road. Because his duties at the latrines are so
time consuming it has been almost a month since he was last in town. He takes in all the sights
and sounds avidly. He becomes engrossed in the various products displayed for sale. The sweets
shop catches his eyes, and he goes to have a closer look. At the sight of the candy, Bakha’s
mouth begins to water. He thinks about his father’s anger if he finds out that his son spent money
on candy, but brushes the thought aside, reasoning he has but one life to live. He asks the
shopkeeper for 4 annas worth of the cheapest candy. The shopkeeper cheats Bakha by weighing
the candy for the shortest amount of time possible. Bakha knows he’s been cheated, but is too
timid and shy with people of higher castes to complain. He takes his candy and walks away,
embarrassed but happy.
Munching on his candy and walking along, Bakha pauses in front of the signboards
advertising lawyers and doctors. He’s standing there lost in thought when an angry voice jerks
him out of his reverie. It’s an irate high-caste man that has accidentally run into Bakha. This
unnamed man begins to verbally abuse Bakha, calling him everything from a “cockeyed son of a
bow-legged scorpion” to a son of a bitch (Anand 88). Though the man bumped into Bakha, he
blames Bakha for running into him and for falling to warn others of his approach. Poor Bakha,
though used to this type of verbal attack, is struck dumb and silent. He tries to apologize and
express his humility, but the high-caste man won’t listen.
Soon a crowd is attracted by the man’s aggrieved shouting and gathers around. They join
in on denouncing Bakha, who is stuck in the middle. He cannot move because to escape he
would have to touch the people surrounding them, which would result in their contamination. So
he stands still and absorbs the insults and curses spat him, until a little boy accuses him of
terrorizing the children of the town. At this lie, Bakha smarts and tries to defend himself to no
avail.
And so it goes until a traveling merchant in a horse and buggy comes and scatters the
crowd. The merchant tells the only two people remaining, the high-caste man and Bakha, to
move aside too so he can pass, but the high-caste man ignores him. Instead, he gives Bakha a
slap across the face and storms off. Bakha is stunned. Tears roll down his cheeks while inside he
boils with fury, horror, and indignation. His humility is abandoned; he hungers for revenge. The
merchant, a Muslim man who witnessed the slap, tries to console Bakha. Bakha gathers up his
things and hurries away. As he scurries away, a shopkeeper that was also watching the
proceedings reminds him to announce his presence. Thoroughly chastised, Bakha begins to yell
the untouchable’s chant.
As he walks along, Bakha’s mind furiously turns over his recent traumatic experience. He
asks himself why he was so humble, why he did not strike the touched man back, why he didn’t
remember to shout his approach, etc. Eventually, his thoughts arrive at the question that is at the
center of everything: why are untouchables always abused? He realizes it is his job of handling
dung that makes him anathema to Hindus. In this moment, he fully understands what being an
untouchable truly means. He pauses in the street to fix his turban that the touched man’s slap
unraveled.
Analysis
Though still early on in the novel, this section of Untouchable contains the novel’s
climax. The climax of the novel is when a high-caste person accidentally touches and then slaps
Bakha in the Bulashah town center. This moment impacts all subsequent events and interactions
in the novel. It stays in the forefront of Bakha’s mind for the rest of the book and influences
many of his choices and behaviors. In addition, the climax features two of Untouchables key
themes and motifs. The touched man’s reaction after realizing he touched Bakha is a
fundamental example of the "untouchable’s responsibility" theme. He places the blame for the
accidental touching wholly on Bakha’s shoulders, first accusing Bakha of touching him, then
verbally abusing Bakha for not announcing his presence. Bakha is also tasked with maintaining a
healthy, non-polluting distance between him and the angry mob gathered around to witness the
drama, even though he wants to flee the scene. Again, the responsibility of protecting the
“purity” of the high-caste people falls on the untouchable.
 The motif of violent language is used liberally in the climax of the novel as well. The
touched man and the crowd that gathers to support him verbally abuse Bakha with an array of
colorful language. Some of these insults, such as “cockeyed son of a bow-legged scorpion” are
most likely the transliterated Punjabi to English idioms that Mulk Raj Anand is famous for.
Similar to Sohini’s fight with Gulabo, some of the language and anger of the high castes can be
comical for readers because the grievances of the high castes are overexaggerated. However, for
Sohini and especially for Bakha the violent language the high castes use against them is no joke.
As both experience first hand, the verbal abuse of the high castes can quickly slip into physical
abuse.
Many of the novel’s other themes and literary elements can be found in these two
vignettes. One of the first is the "class struggle" theme. In “Bakha Talks to the Other Boys of the
Colony” we see both intra- and inter- caste conflict. Though Bakha and his friends Ram Charan
and Chota are all outcastes, because Bakha is a sweeper he is an untouchable and lower than his
friends in the caste hierarchy. The difference in social standing amongst Bakha and his friends is
exhibited when the boys discuss the marriage of Ram Charan’s sister. Though Bakha has always
had feelings for his friend’s sister, he could never even dream of acting on them. Besides rules of
the caste system forbidding a marriage between the two, Gulabo, the girl’s mother, would
probably have a conniption. The struggle between the different castes is exhibited when Bakha
thinks about his lack of an education. The fear of his contaminating presence means schools and
professors refuse to admit and teach him. As an untouchable, he is virtually forbidden from
learning how to read, to write, to do math, etc. which puts him at a significant disadvantage to
people of the higher castes.
The barrier to education for untouchables is also an example of the "cyclical oppression"
theme. Because they cannot learn skills and trades in school or in apprenticeships, the
untouchables are unable to rise through the ranks of society by changing their professions.
Without the opportunity for education they are stuck in a cycle of poverty, suffering, and
oppression. Another example of the "cyclical oppression" theme appears just before the book’s
climax. When Bakha buys candy, the shopkeeper cheats him and gives him significantly less
candy than his money is actually worth. This effectively means that the candy was more
expensive for Bakha than it would have been for non-untouchable person. Higher prices for the
untouchables contribute to the perpetuation of their poverty. It is also paradoxical and
nonsensical to have the highest prices for those with the least amount of money.
Finally, the theme of religion is imbedded throughout this section of the novel, starting
with the moment Bakha asks a Muslim man for some coal to light his cigarette. The Muslim man
has no problem with using the same coal as Bakha, a fear that most of the novel’s Hindus would
definitely have. This is a great example of the religious differences that divide India’s populace.
Another example of the religious divisions between Muslims and Hindus vis-à-vis their
treatment of untouchables occurs after Bakha has been slapped. The Muslim merchant that
witnessed the slap is shocked by the touched man’s violence against Bakha, and stops to console
our protagonist. Thus far in the novel, no Hindu person has given an untouchable the kind of
compassion the Muslim merchant gave to Bakha. The fact that Muslims do not believe in
untouchability is one major difference between them and Hindus, a difference that is thrown into
great relief in Untouchable.
Similes and metaphors are used liberally throughout Untouchable. There were a few
noteworthy ones in “Bakha Talks to the Other Colony Boys” and “Bakha Touches a High
Caste.” When Bakha leaves the outcastes' colony he stops to take in the fresh air of the area
directly outside of the colony. He has escaped the “odorous, smoky world of refuse” and all the
burdens that world has for him. Outside of the colony, he can breathe deeply and enjoy the clean
air surrounding him. In this way, air is used as a metaphor for freedom. In that instance, as Bakha
stands in the sun, just breathing deeply and allowing the fresh air to settle in his lungs, he is free
from the weights and responsibilities holding him down. Unfortunately for Bakha, this moment
of freedom is short-lived. “Like a ray of light shooting through the darkness, the recognition of
his position, the significance of his lot dawned upon him.” This simile marks the moment Bakha
is forced to realize that because he is an untouchable, his freedom is limited. Though he is
intelligent, Bakha is also naïve about his place in the world. Until now he believed that if he
dressed like a sahib he would be treated differently than other untouchables. His altercation with
the high-caste man in the Bulashah town square is just the beginning of his fall to reality.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"Bakha at the Temple” and “Bakha Takes a Nap”

Summary
Bakha at the Temple
Paused in the street, Bakha observes an old brahminee bull meandering by. He watches as
an old Hindu man passes the bull and touches it, a Hindu custom Bakha is familiar with, though
he is ignorant of its meaning. By the by, he continues on his trek towards the temple. He turns
down a narrow street and passes various shops, including one selling cheap jewelry. He
remembers how as a child he wanted to wear rings, but now that he knows the British don’t like
jewelry he finds such accoutrements garish. As he walks, he cries out the untouchables warning
every so often.
Finally, Bakha reaches the temple. Devoid of humans, the quiet and tranquility of the
temple courtyard seems to soothe him. Setting down his tools, he begins to work. After a time he
notices worshipers entering the courtyard. Afraid of repeating the morning’s disaster, he shouts
his presence. He peers furtively at these people as they enter the temple. He, of course, is not
allowed to enter into the actual temple itself, and so is immensely curious about the proceedings.
At length the sound of singing emerges from the open doorway of the temple, which
answers his queries in part. Still, he wonders about the things mentioned in the song. Who is
Shanti Deva? Who is Hari, Narayan? His curiosity overcomes his fear and he approaches the
stairs leading to the temple entrance. Just as he begins to climb the stairs his courage leaves him.
He retreats and resumes sweeping.
 After sweeping up all the garbage, Bakha gathers his will together again and rushes up
the stairs to the very top. Peering into the temple doorway he gazes upon “the sanctuary which
had so far been a secret, a hidden mystery to him” (Anand 115). He observes the priests leading
the worshipers in song and is deeply moved by the sound of the hymns. Unfortunately, the peace
and tranquility of the moment is shattered by the cry of “polluted, polluted!” (Anand 116).
Paralyzed by fear, Bakha collapses prostrate on the stairs. However, this scream about
pollution isn’t about him. Instead, it is his sister Sohini that is the cause of a high caste’s
contamination this time. Sohini and Pundit Kali Nath, the man that filled Sohini’s water bucket
earlier in the morning, stand at the foot of the stairs. Nath continues to accuse Sohini of
contaminating him while she stands silently. The sound of the commotion causes the worshipers
to rush out of the temple. They see Bakha’s proximity to the holy building and throw fits. They
chase Bakha off the stairs, and he and his sister run to the courtyard door.
There, a sobbing Sohini tells Bakha that Nath touched her inappropriately. Nearly blinded
by rage Bakha drags Sohini back to the center of the courtyard and looks for the priest. He is
nowhere to be found. The worshipers recoil in the face of Bakha’s fury. He feels as if he can kill
them all. He fumes at the audacity of the priest, assaulting his sister and them accusing her of
willfully contaminating him. It seems as if Bakha will stay and rage in the courtyard indefinitely,
but Sohini convinces him to leave.
As the brother and sister walk, Bakha’s thoughts are in a frenzied state. He contemplates
getting revenge. However, he cannot “overstep the barriers which the conventions of his
superiors had built up to protect their weakness against him” (Anand 125). And so he curbs his
anger and bites his tongue. Watching Sohini as she walks along, Bakha switches between
wishing she was never born so such disgrace and embarrassment could have been avoided to
feeling tenderness and sadness for her. Taking pity on Sohini, Bakha tells her to go home
because he can collect their food for the day in her stead. Ashamed and crestfallen, Sohini leaves
her brother standing in the town proper.
Bakha Takes a Nap
Bakha walks aimlessly through Bulashah, periodically calling out “Posh, posh sweeper
coming.” He comes to an alley and turns down it, planning on begging its inhabitants for food.
Stray animals and rubbish clutter the street. He approaches the first house and calls out “Bread
for the sweeper, mother. Bread for the sweeper.” But no one comes out. All of the homes on the
block seem deserted, their occupants either out in town or ignoring him. Feeling defeated, Bakha
sits down on a house doorstep and drifts into a half sleep. He has a slew of fantastical dreams,
including a vision of himself boarding a train and at a school observing a lesson.
A sadhu who is making his own food circuit jerks Bakha awake. The cries of the sadhu
bring a housewife to the door Bakha was napping under. The woman has come for the sadhu, but
recoils when she sees Bakha sitting in front of her door. She calls him an “eater of masters” and
says he should perish and die for defiling her house by sitting in front of it. Bakha apologizes but
asks the woman for food. The woman ignores him and goes back into her house for the sadhu’s
food.
 Meanwhile, another woman comes out of her house with food. She gives the sadhu some
rice and kindly gives Bakha a chapatti. The other woman comes back. She gives the sadhu food,
but makes Bakha sweep the gutter in front of her house before she’ll give him anything. As
Bakha cleans the gutter the woman’s young son comes and says he needs to use the bathroom.
She directs him to relieve himself in the gutter because Bakha can clean it up. She then throws
Bakha a piece of bread. He tries to catch it but it lands on the ground. Disgusted by it all, Bakha
picks up the bread, throws his broom aside, and walks off. As he goes the woman remarks to
herself that the sweepers are getting more and more uppity. The scene closes with the woman
instructing her son to wipe his bottom on the ground once he finishes his bathroom business.

Analysis
In “Bakha at the Temple” and “Bakha Takes a Nap” Bakha wallows in the feelings
sparked by his incident with the high caste man in addition to grappling with two new traumatic
events. The first of these events is Pundit Kali Nath, one of the priests of Bulashah’s temple,
sexually assaulting his sister. The other is a high caste woman treating him like scum when he
goes to beg for food. Between his public shaming, Sohini’s assault, and the rudeness of the high-
caste woman, this is shaping into a horrendous, inauspicious day for Bakha. Because these
events occurred in such close temporal proximity to one another he hasn’t had much time to
process them. It feels as if he is wandering the streets of Bulashah listlessly, flitting from one
catastrophe to the next.
Before he learns of Sohini’s assault Bakha does manage to have a moment of reflection
while cleaning the temple courtyard. Surrounded by all the religious iconography and the noise
from the temple service he begins to wonder what it all means. As he approaches the temple door
to spy on the worshipers we witness the internal battle between his curiosity and his fear of
discovery, a fear cultivated by “the dead weight of years of habitual bending cast on him.” This
is a direct reference to the generational trauma and burdens Bakha must grapple with as someone
descending from a long line of sweepers. When he creeps slowly up the stairs he is a “humble,
oppressed under-dog that he was by birth, afraid of everything” (Anand 112). This is another
reference to the cyclical oppression theme. Not only does society condition Bakha to be a
“humble dog,” he already is one by default when he is born. Anand uses a simile about the fixed,
flowing nature of water to further elucidate the connection between Bakha and his ancestors and
how their continued degradation across centuries is considered natural and perpetual in Hindu
society.
When he finds the courage to watch the worshipers and later when he contemplates
getting revenge on Nath for assaulting his sister, Bakha is clearly pushing back against the
conditioning and teachings forced upon the untouchables. Sadly, rarely does his strength and
courage to fight back crescendo and manifest into action. For example, when he plots to confront
the priest it is all for naught because he cannot bring himself to overstep the barriers of caste and
class that separate the untouchables from everyone else in society. The inability of Bakha to
avenge his sister’s honor and Sohini’s inability to defend herself against Pundit Nath’s
accusations are examples of the class struggles and social disparities between untouchables and
the rest of Hindu society. This is especially true for Sohini. Though she was the priest’s victim
she has become the accused because no one would believe the word of an untouchable over a
high-caste person. This is true of both pedestrian people and members of the judicial system and
allows for an array of crimes to be committed against untouchables with little to no
consequences for the perpetrators of those crimes.
The differential treatment untouchables receive extend to the realm of charity as well.
When Bakha and the sadhu beg the high-caste woman for food, she is verbally abusive and
unkind to Bakha but the picture of generosity and politeness to the sadhu. This exposes how
many Hindus view untouchables as lesser humans. Both the sadhu and Bakha were beggars at
that moment, but the woman saw one as deserving of her charity and the other as undeserving.
Some of her deference to the sadhu can be attributed to the sadhu’s ability to give her a religious
blessing in return for the food she gifts him. As an untouchable, Bakha of course doesn’t have
this ability. However, according to Hinduism, by giving him alms the woman is ensuring she
maintains her high-caste position in the next life. So in a way she is also receiving something
from Bakha. Clearly, she does not interpret the situation through that lens though.
To close, the two steps forward, one step back routine Bakha did at the steps of the
temple parallel his overall character development. Earlier with the touched man and Pundti Kali
Nath, Bakha could not find the courage to stand up for himself or his sister. Given the
circumstances, including his tenuous place in his society, Bakha cannot be blamed for his
unwillingness to defend himself. However, he does manage to find the courage to take a stand
later with the high-caste woman. When the woman instructs her son to defecate in the gutter next
to Bakha so he can clean it up, Bakha lets his disgust and anger over the situation rise to the
surface. Rather than following the woman’s orders and providing his sweeper services, he throws
down the woman’s broom and leaves. This type of civil disobedience can be powerful and shows
how Bakha is coming into his personhood. His refusal to clean up after the woman’s son is a step
forward. Time will tell if he takes a step back.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

“Bakha and His Family” and “Bakha and the Wedding of Ram Charan’s Sister”

Summary
Bakha and His Family
Hurrying home to his family, Bakha feels the drama and fatigue from the day taking its
toll on his body. He’s starving and thinks about the measly two pieces of bread he’s bringing
home to his family. He also fears his father’s response when he hears of the day’s events because
he knows his father will side with the high-caste people. Still, there’s nothing he can do but hurry
home and hope for the best.
At home, it’s only Sohini and Lakha. Rahka has gone off to collect food from the English
barracks. Sohini is quiet but Lahka is in a pleasant mood and well rested because of his morning
spent at home instead of working like his children. He asks Bakha what he’s brought to eat,
naming several luxurious foods he’s in the mood to eat. When Bakha reveals his hoard of two
pieces of bread, Lakha is not pleased. He thinks back to the feasts following weddings and his
mouth begins to water.
Bakha tries to defend himself by saying he doesn’t know all the people in town well
enough to beg them for food. His father counters by saying Bakha should begin to know them
well, for he will work for them all his life. Bakha sees his future years of life flash before his
eyes and feels horrified. He pictures himself working at the British barracks cleaning their toilets
and calms down. Lakha notices his son’s strange behavior and asks what’s wrong. At first Bakha
tries to keep the truth from his father, but Lakha is so persistent that he finally confesses what
happened to him earlier in the day with the touched man.
Lakha reacts to his son’s story of degradation with a mixture of anger and pity. Mostly he
is angry with Bakha for forgetting the untouchables' call, but can see his son is upset and so tries
to temper the emotion. He asks Bakha if he tried to retaliate. When Bakha confesses he did not
seek revenge but wanted to, Lakha fears for his son. A part of him recoils at the idea of
challenging high-caste men. He tells his son that the high-caste men are their superiors and they
must respect them. Seeing that Bakha is still grieved and upset, Lakha shares with him an
anecdote from his own dealings with high-caste men.
It was some years ago when Bakha was a young child. He was deathly ill with fever and
Lakha went to a high-caste doctor in town for his help. Because of his untouchability he could
enter the doctor’s home, and so beseeched every high-caste person that passed by to help him.
They all ignored him, too concerned about their own affairs to help a sweeper. Lakha waited for
an hour outside feeling as if a scorpion was stinging him. He had enough money for the medicine
that could heal his son, and yet was barred from accessing it because of his class.
Instead of futilely waiting Lakha ran back home to check if Bakha was still alive. His son
was still breathing, but only barely. Lakha sprinted back to the doctor’s house, ran straight into
the patient reception, and threw himself at the doctor’s feet. The other patients began to scream
and leave the doctor’s house in droves because of Lakha’s contaminating presence. The doctor of
course was furious, but as Lakha began to explain the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his
appearance in the clinic, the doctor’s heart began to melt. The doctor started to write a
prescription for Bakha, but then Lakha’s brother ran into the room and announced that Bakha is
dying. Lakha rushed home to say goodbye to his son. As Bakha’s parents cried over their son,
there was a knock at the door. The doctor had followed Lahka. He “graced” their house by
entering it and saving Bakha’s life.
Bakha is deeply moved by Lakha’s harrowing tale, though he tries hard to mask his true
feelings. The conversation shifts to Rakha’s whereabouts and everyone’s hunger. Bakha resents
his father’s hunger complaints because he stayed at home all morning while his children were
laboring and working up appetites. Before long, Rakha appears looking disheveled and haggard.
He deposits his food haul and immediately begins to eat. Bakha needles him for looking so dirty
and unkempt. Lakha, who loves Rakha more than Bakha, comes to his youngest son’s defense
and tells Bakha to leave him alone. Sohini steps in and tries to get Bakha to calm down by
offering him some bread.
When Bakha reaches into the basket they are all eating from, his hand touches a piece of
sticky, wet bread. The texture of the bread brings to his mind an image of a sepoy washing his
hands over the scraps of his meal before giving it to Rakha. At this mental image Bakha grows
nauseous and loses his appetite. He stands up quickly from his place around the basket, so
quickly that Lakha asks him what the problem is. Thinking quickly, Bakha says he must go to
the wedding of Ram Charan’s sister so he can receive his share of the sweets. This placates his
greedy father and so Bakha makes his escape.
Bakha and the Wedding of Ram Charan’s Sister
As he walks toward the home of Ram Charan, Bakha reminiscences about his
relationship Ram Charan’s sister. As children they once play-acted a wedding together, and the
pair of them got married. Since then Bakha has looked at her fondly and has “always felt proud
of having once acted as her husband.” He thinks about the moment he heard of her engagement,
and how his regret over the news felt as “as if a spring of water had burst like a doleful lyric
melody in the hard rock of his body” (Anand 168). He also recalls various fantasies he’s had
about her, fantasies that put his reputation as a docile, respectable young man at stake.
After a while Bakha comes across a group of washermen working. He watches them for a
moment while thinking about how to find Ram Charan. He is too shy to approach the house
where the festivities were being held. Gulabo’s hatred and meanness is infamous among the
colony dwellers. He walks within ten yards of Ram Charan’s house and stops short at the sight of
his other friend, Chota. The two boys great each other amicably and then stare at the wedding
celebrations. Chota is unafraid and goes to call Ram Charan, who is surrounded by revelers. At
first Ram Charan is too busy stuffing his face with sugarplums to notice them, but eventually
they successfully get his attention. Unfortunately they also attract Gulabo’s attention. The boys
escape to the grassy knoll north of the colony, Gulabo’s furious cries of “illegally begotten” and
“little dogs” echoing in the wind behind them.
As the boys reach the Bulashah Hills, Bakha falls behind and takes in the beauty of the
nature surrounding him. The peace and loveliness of his environment, far from the crowds of
town and the ugliness of the outcaste colony, soothe his soul. At first he is relieved his friends
have gone ahead so he doesn’t have to hear a single human voice. However as he rambles along
he begins to desire some companionship to “humanize the solitary excursion of the stoic in him”
(Anand 179). And yet, he doesn’t want to call Ram Charan or Chota to him. So he continues on
alone, stopping to drink from a natural spring nestled in a valley between two of the hills. He lies
down next to the pool and dozes off.
Bakha has barely dozed off when Chota comes up and begins to tickle his nose. Bakha
jumps out of his light doze with a violent sneeze. His friends begin to laugh at his reaction. Sleep
disrupted and peaceful mood destroyed, Bakha laughs along tensely, the stress from the
morning’s events taking its toil on his typical good sense of humor. Noticing his false cheer,
Chota asks what’s wrong. Bakha brushes aside his concern and asks Ram Charan for his share of
the sugarplums. Ram Charan holds them in a handkerchief and tells Bakha to take one, but
Bakha refuses to take it directly from his hands. He tells Ram Charan to throw one to him.
Both Ram Charan and Chota are aghast. Though they are of different hierarchical levels
within the outcaste group, they had long since abandoned the rules and regulations of caste
amongst their little trio. They ate together, and drank from the some soda bottles during hockey
games. Hence, Bakha’s refusal to touch them directly sends up red flags. At first Bakha tries to
deny anything is wrong but at Chota’s prodding he confesses the events around his slap in the
morning, Sohini’s assault, and the uncharitable woman in town. To each tale of degradation
Chota reacts in anger and sympathy, while Ram Charan remains silent, embarrassed by Bakha’s
narrative. Chota does his best to soothe Bakha’s heart, telling him to be brave and that these
things will happen as they are outcastes. He tries to cheer Bakha up by reminding him of their
hockey game later in the day. Ram Charan chimes in that he must go home briefly if he wants to
be allowed out later for the game. The boys begin to troop back.
As they walk the atmosphere is melancholic and tense. The sympathy and understanding
of his friends relights Bakha’s self-righteous indignation from earlier. He imagines his friends
helping him teach Pundit Kali Nath a lesson for his assault of Sohini. When Chota offers to help
catch “the swine of a priest” one day, Bakha realizes his friend shares his thirst for retribution.
However, he feels as “unequal to [Chota’s] suggestion as he [feels] unequal to his own desire”
(Anand 190). He wonders what would be the use of revenge.
Ram Charan has snuck off while Chota and Bakha were preoccupied with thoughts of
revenge. Chota and Bakha plan to meet up in time for the hockey game, as Chota must go home
and Bakah will go receive the hockey stick Charat Singh promised him. The two boys part ways.

Analysis
In these sections of the book, the focus of the novel extends past just Bakha to include
others, including Lakha, Rakha, Bakha’s friends, and the narrator. Through a flashback we learn
in part why the binds of oppression don’t chafe at Lakha as much as they do his children. The
eleventh-hour kindness of the doctor that purportedly saved Bakha’s life is, to Lakha, an example
of the generosity and charity of the higher castes. The rich food the high castes give to the
outcastes during weddings and other special events is another testament to their generosity in
Lakha’s eyes. That’s why Lakha brushes his son aside when Bakha points out the system of
cyclical oppression the sweepers are trapped in (“they think we are mere dirt because we clean
their dirt” [Anand 153]). Rather than hating a system that establishes barriers to healthcare for
certain classes, Lakha curries favors and panders to the main beneficiaries of that system. This
was not always the case. In his anecdote, Lakha says that when he was turned away from the
doctor’s clinic, even though he had enough money to buy the medicine Bakha needed, he felt as
if a scorpion was stinging him. Clearly, he recognized the injustice of the situation and was
tormented by it. Lakha is not blind to the class struggles between the untouchables and the rest of
Hindu society. Nowadays, he simply ignores them.
 Like father, like son is a platitude that comes to mind when considering the character of
Rakha. Like Lakha, Rakha seems complacent with his lot in life. He does not share his brother’s
obsession with British culture and does not understand Bakha’s desire to escape the realities of
their lives. Furthermore, he doesn’t have his brother’s propensity for cleanliness, something
Bakha is derisive of. In this way Rakha is a foil to Bakha. As sons of the head sweeper the
brothers lead parallel lives, but because of their personal decisions and preferences these lives
are mirror images of each other.
Some depth is added to the characters of Ram Charan and Chota as well. When Ram
Charan ignores his mother’s ire and runs off with Bakha and Chota anyways he shows his loyalty
to his friends, even though they are beneath him in the class hierarchy. Neither Ram Charan nor
Chota think nothing of breaking bread with Bakha, which is why they are nonplussed when
Bakha refuses to take the sugar plums directly from Ram Charan’s hands. The boys had all but
eradicated the intra-class barriers amongst their small circle, but Bakha’s traumatic experiences
earlier in the day had erected those barriers anew. Chota demonstrates his sensitive, attentive side
when he wheedles Bakha’s tale of woe out of the recalcitrant sweeper. Despite Bakha’s
protestations Chota intuitively knows there is something his friend needs to confess.
As the book progresses so does Bakha’s character development. For example, some light
is shed on the origins of his obsession with the British. When he “interned” with his uncle at the
British barracks the Tommies treated Bakha like a human being. He was still “the help” and still
an “Indian black man”, but they did not treat him as if he was the scum of the earth like orthodox
Hindus do. They didn’t view him as untouchable or as a corrupting, polluting presence. This fact
helps elucidate why British culture is so important to Bakha. For someone that has been treated
as sub-human for his entire life, it is no wonder Bakha began to idolize the British after they
treated him as a full human being. Thus Bakha’s fascination with and love of British clothes,
social mores, and mannerisms can be interpreted as him seeking out a culture that acknowledges
his humanity. He is rejecting his Indian roots because in some ways they deny him his
personhood. Though on the surface his obsession may appear to be the superficial whimsies of a
vain young man, there is something poignant at work here.
These revelations about Bakha, his family, and his friends are facilitated by the
observations and analyses of Untouchable’s third person omniscient narrator. Though he is
intelligent, Bakha simply lacks the worldview and critical thinking skills required to critically
interpret many of the things happening to him. For a book so deeply imbedded with sociocultural
and sociopolitical meaning this is kind of critical analysis is vital. The narrator
of Untouchable fills that void. A pivotal example of this is the narrator’s breakdown of Bakha’s
“hatred for his own town and [his] love for the world to which he looked out” (Anand 150). The
narrator explains Bakha’s feelings as a type of “the grass is always greener on the other side”
syndrome. He argues that for people the familiar becomes stale and the unknown becomes
fascinating and exotic. In Bakha’s case the familiar isn’t stale inasmuch as it’s unbearable. It’s
unbearable for him to continue living as a fourth class citizen.
 Bakha doesn’t explicitly articulate these feelings. Rather, his dissatisfaction with his life
is related in more subliminal ways. He has hyperbolic ideas such as “he would be unhappy if he
heard even one human voice” which show he doesn’t even want the company of his friends.
Before he shares the day’s events with Ram Charan and Chota he takes refuge in an
anthropomorphized nature that “stretches [it’s hands] out towards him” (Anand 178), a nature
composed of silence and solitude. His discontent causes him to seek out isolation and escape
from the trappings of his life. His gut instinct is still to escape from reality. Only time will tell if
Bakha reaches a point where he can confront his problems head on.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"Bakha Goes to Charat Singh" and "Bakha Leaves Home"

Summary
Bakha Goes to Charat Singh
The barracks where Charat Singh lives are deserted except for two sentries guarding an
infamous solar topee. Many rumors and urban legends circulate about the solar topee and whom
it belongs to. A popular story says it belonged to a white man that shot a sepoy. He was court-
marshaled but because he was white and could not be put behind bars to wait for his sentencing,
his hat, belt, and sword were confiscated as collateral. The man fled in the night anyways and
supposedly left behind his belongings.
The popularity of the solar topee is rooted in the desire of Indian youths to wear Western
dress. And since the boys of the area are all the sons of sweepers, leather workers, washermen,
shopkeepers, etc. buying a complete European outfit is not possible. But to them,
having something European is better than having nothing European. And so the idolatry of the
unclaimed solar topee persists.
Bakha, of course, is one of its most fervent worshipers. During the time he worked at the
English barracks he dreamed up a plethora of plans to get the hat. His schemes ranged from
stealing the hat to outright asking someone to give it to him. As the years passed, however, his
plans lost their forthright and bold elements. Bakha wonders to himself why he lost his
dauntlessness and courage as he grew older. Even now, he struggles with asking the sepoys on
guard about the hat. He fears they will abuse him for asking and so hastens on his way to Charat
Singh’s quarters in the barracks. As he goes Bakha pictures himself wearing the solar topee
while playing hockey, the idol of all the other boys. Then he realizes that you cannot wear a solar
topee while playing such a high contact sport and is embarrassed by his predilection for English
dress.
Reaching Singh’s house he sees that the door is closed. There is no way for him to know
if his benefactor is at home, away, sleeping, etc. because his untouchability bars him from
approaching Singh’s door. He is fearful of shouting for Singh because he might disturb the other
sepoys on the block. With no other option Bakha settles down to wait. Before long, Charat Singh
comes out onto the veranda of his house with his brass jug. He begins to wash his face and is too
absorbed in his ablutions to notice Bakha. Half-embarrassed but half-daring, Bakha calls out to
him.
Singh greets Bakha enthusiastically and asks him why he’s been absent from the official
regimental hockey games lately. Bakha tells him that work has kept him busy, to which Singh
replies “Oh work, work, blow work” (Anand 204). Bakha notes the contradiction between Singh
yelling at him earlier in the day for neglecting the latrines and his dismissal of Bakha’s work
commitments now, but keeps his opinions to himself. Despite this anomaly, he is a big fan of
Charat Singh and thinks “for this man I wouldn’t mind being a sweeper all my life” (Anand 205).
Taking out his hookah, Charat Singh instructs Bakha to fetch him two pieces of coal from
his kitchen so he can light up. Bakha is awestruck. For a Hindu to be fine with an untouchable
handling something he was about to put near his mouth was unprecedented. He feels a thrill of
pleasure run through him and jumps to do Singh’s bidding. As Bakha bustles to the kitchen,
Singh calls after him, “and tell [the cook] to bring my tea” (Anand 206). As he walks, Bakha
swings between disbelief and joy. He wonders if Charat Singh has forgotten he’s a sweeper and
untouchable, but quickly rules that out since they were just talking about his work schedule.
Thus reassured, he walks with a happy step, his soul full of love, adoration, and worship for the
hockey player.
At the kitchen, Bakha gets the coal from the cook, who looks at him strangely but cannot
remember where he’s seen Bakha before. Since the young man is holding Singh’s smoke pot the
cook concludes he must at least be of the grass-cutter caste, a low caste but not an untouchable
one. He gives Bakha the coal and Bakha tells him that Singh wants his tea now. Hastening back
to Singh, Bakha gives him the pot and watches as he lights up his hookah and begins to gurgle
away. Soon the cook comes with a brass tumbler and a jug of tea. Singh points at a pan that the
sparrows drink water from, tells Bakha to grab it and to pour the water out. Then, the hockey
player pours tea from his tumbler into the pan for Bakha to drink. Bakha protests in the typical
way of Indian guests, but Singh insists, saying that Bakha works very hard and deserves the
drink.
The two drink their tea in silence. Once Bakha finishes, Singh gets up from his seat and
goes into his house. He comes out with an almost brand-new hockey stick that looks as if it were
only used once. He holds it out for Bakha to take. Bakha protests at being given such a gift.
Singh tells him to accept the gift and run along. Bakha takes the stick and, overcome with
gratitude, flees the scene. Walking aimlessly, he marvels at this change in his kismet, at his good
fortune. He struts like a proud soldier then realizes what a foolish sight he must be and stops.
Uncomfortable now, he wishes someone would come and relieve his loneliness. He wonders
where his friends and the babu’s sons are. The older one promised him an English lesson.
Perhaps they can have the lesson before the boys' hockey game. And so Bakha’s thoughts drift,
as directionless as his body.
Bakha Leaves Home
Eventually Bakha comes across the younger son of the babu. He has just finished his
meal and is going to fetch the sticks and balls for the hockey game. Bakha feels pity for the little
boy, because he knows the others will not allow him to play. As the babu’s son runs off for the
equipment, Chota, Ram Charan, and other boys that will play arrive. Chota whispers to Bakha
that he has told the other boys he is not an untouchable, so they won’t forbid him from playing.
Bakha agrees that this is sensible and shows off his new stick to Chota. Chota congratulates
Bakha on his good fortune and tells the other boys to get ready. When the babu’s younger son
comes back with the gear, he is devastated to hear he won’t get to play. Bakha tries to comfort
him by entrusting the boy with the care of his prized overcoat.
The game begins. Bakha is a superior player, dribbling, ducking, and dodging between
the bodies of the other boys. He makes it around the opposing team’s line of defense and scores a
point. Upset, the opposing goalkeeper hits Bakha in the leg with his stick. At this, the members
of Bakha’s team all attack the offending goalkeeper. An all out brawl ensues between all the
boys. Chota tells their team to throw stones at the opposing side. In all the pandemonium no one
notices the babu’s youngest son standing in the line of fire. Though most of the rocks sail over
his head, one thrown by Ram Charan hits him square on the head. The little boy falls to the
ground, hits his head, and falls into unconsciousness. All of the other boys rush up to him and
see streams of blood pouring from his head. Bakha picks him up and rushes him home.
Unfortunately the child’s mother, having heard all the commotion, is outside waiting for
them. At the sight of her bloodied, unresponsive son in the arms of Bakha, she goes berserk. She
calls him an “eater of his masters” and accuses him of killing her son. The older son of the babu
tries to tell her it was Ram Charan’s fault, but the woman refuses to listen. She condemns Bakha
for defiling her house, in addition to wounding her son.
Silent throughout this whole display, Bakha hands the woman her child and withdraws.
He wonders miserably why the happiness from Charat Singh’s generosity could only last for half
an hour and why the babu’s wife abused him even though he was helping her son. Similar to his
conclusion following the altercation with the touched man, he realizes the answer to his
questions is his untouchability.
Suddenly, Bakha realizes that he’s been walking alone. All of the other boys have
disappeared. Weary, he clutches his new stick tighter in his hand and turns onto the path leading
to his house. Before he comes into sight of his house he looks for a place to hide his stick
because if his father sees it there will be another abusive argument about laziness. He hides his
stick under a cactus bush and walks into his house. At his entrance, Lakha immediately starts
spewing vitrol. He calls Bakha a son of a pig, a son of a dog, and illegally begotten for being
away for so long. He says the sepoys and sahibs have been shouting and calling for someone to
clean the latrines. He accuses Bakha of being ungrateful and not giving his father some rest in his
old age.
Bakha remains cool in the face of his father’s fury, too weary over the day’s events to
summon up the energy for a response. He goes to pick up his tools and clean the latrines, but
sees that Rakha is holding them. Now Rakha is shouting at him as well, asking self-righteously
where Bakha has been while he slaved the afternoon away. Bakha doesn’t resent his little brother
for his preening and posturing, but cannot stand his impudence and his father’s abuse much
longer. He starts to walk toward the latrines, but Lakha calls after him, “Go away! Get out of my
house. And don’t come back! Don’t let us see your face again” (Anand 229). Normally, Bakha
would bear such abuse quietly and calmly. Today, however, he’d had more than enough. Anger
over the day’s calamities, combined with the endless flow of verbal violence from his father,
fires up his soul. He tears off running across the plain without looking back.

Analysis
The story picks up at the barracks where Charat Singh lives. The story of the solar topee
is a testament to the deferential treatment white colonizers received on the Indian subcontinent. It
also makes Bakha aware of the ridiculousness of his English clothing obsession. Even he realizes
that desiring to wear a solar topee while playing hockey is absurd. Bakha’s ability to be self-
critical and self-reflective show how much he’s grown in this long, arduous day.
The meeting with Charat Singh is perhaps the high point of that day thus far. From the
hockey player, Bakha receives one of the things he’s starved for in his life—humane treatment
from his fellow Hindus. When Singh shows no qualms about allowing Bakha to touch his
personal items or sharing libations with Bakha, it fills the young sweeper’s soul with “love and
adoration and worship” for Singh. He thinks that he would gladly be a sweeper for Singh for the
rest of his life. The fact that Singh simply treating Bakha as a person sparked this hard and fast
devotion illustrates how harshly being treated as a pollutant has impacted Bakha. He would
happily remain swept along by the cyclical tide of a sweeper’s life in exchange for better
treatment from the higher castes. This revelation supports the claim that beneath his vanity and
superficiality Bakha really just wants to be treated as a human being by other members of his
society.
Besides alluding to the themes of "charity," "class struggle," and "cyclical oppression,"
Bakha’s interaction with Charat Singh also makes use of the "religion" theme and paradox.
Through the way Singh treats Bakha, from allowing the sweeper to touch an item he’ll
eventually put near his mouth to gifting Bakha a hockey stick for a babu’s son, he shows that
though he is Hindu, he does not adhere to every facet of the religion’s beliefs. In this way, Charat
Singh opens the door for a debate about how truly necessary untouchability and the entire caste
system are to Hinduism. The paradoxical element of Singh’s and Bakha’s exchange occurs when
Singh brushes aside Bakha’s sweeping duties, telling him to “blow” his work, when Singh
himself shouted at Bakha earlier in the morning for not cleaning the latrines quickly enough.
Bakha too is perplexed by his idol’s contradictory behavior but takes it in stride. For the reader
this is an example of Anand’s comedic touch.
Unfortunately for Bakha his glee from his meeting with Charat Singh and his happiness
while playing hockey do not last long. Even before the game starts, Chota dents Bakha’s felicity
by telling him the other boys believe he is a sahib’s bearer, and thus not an untouchable. Bakha
understands the necessity of masking his real identity, but nonetheless feels a pang at the news.
His class level will always be a factor in everything he does. Still, during the game Bakha is an
all-star, scoring the first, and, as it turns out, only goal. When the son of the babu is caught in the
crossfire of the hockey fight, Bakha forgets the caste rules, so eager to help the little boy. His
reward for his compassion is a sound verbal thrashing from the little boy’s mother, who jumps to
conclusions and blames Bakha for her son’s injuries. Even when her other son tells her Ram
Charan is the culprit, the woman’s prejudice against untouchables renders her deaf and blind to
the truth. This is an example of the untouchable’s burden—they must lead lives above reproach
lest people accuse them of crimes. And even then, as we see in Bakha’s (and Sohini’s) case, they
may still be condemned as criminals, as menaces to society. The accusations of the babu’s wife
completely destroyed Bakha’s high after meeting with Charat Singh. The screaming of his father
and holier-than-thou behavior of his brother bring him even lower.
The highs and lows of Bakha’s day have cracked Untouchable’s protagonist wide open in
these two vignettes. The kindness and decency he receives from Charat Singh build him up, but
the anger and accusations of the babu’s wife send him tumbling down again. These two
polarizing incidents, coupled with his father’s eviction and Rakha’s conceitedness, cause Bakha
to flee from his life, both metaphorically and literally. Throughout the book Bakha takes mental
flights of fancy, often daydreaming and falling into trance-like musings. He escapes what’s
happening all around him by blocking it out with his own thoughts. Oftentimes when he’s
preoccupied by his internal self dialogues his body just drifts aimlessly and directionless. In
“Bakha Leaves Home” we see Bakha actively, physically running away from his life. Normally
he remains calm in the face of his father’s fury and insults. The calamities of the day, however,
depleted his quota of patience and placidity. His father screaming at him and “evicting” him is
the last straw. Before, the escapism motif appeared only in metaphorical iterations. Now, Bakha
is attempting to escape his world by literally running away from it. The question now is where
(or what, or who) will he run to?

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"Bakha and the Christian Missionary"

Summary
After running for a few minutes, Bakha begins to slacken his pace. He asks rhetorically
what he’s done to deserve such an unlucky day. He realizes he is homeless, something he’s
familiar with since his father frequently threatened him and his brother in that way. As he muses
about his horrible day, he spies a pipal tree and sits under it.
Resting under the tree, Bakha longs for a sympathetic person to come and comfort him,
but thinks such a person will not pass by. He is wrong. Colonel Hutchinson, chief of the local
Salvation Army, is never far from the outcaste’s colony, much to his wife’s chagrin. Her
husband’s efforts to convert untouchables amongst the rubbish heaps and latrines of Bulashah do
not impress her. In his 25 years working in India, the Colonel has only converted five Indians to
Christianity, making his mission here a waste of time in Mrs. Hutchinson’s eyes. Still, Colonel
Hutchinson persists.
 The Colonel comes across Bakha sitting under the pipal tree. He surprises Bakha by
touching his shoulder and asking him in broken Hindustani what’s wrong. Both the touch and the
language shocks Bakha, so rare it is to find Englishman that deigned to learn the native tongues
of India. Bakha feels flattered that he is the recipient of the Englishman’s pity and sympathy. The
two go through the typical pleasantries of asking about each other’s health before the Colonel
pronounces himself as a “padre” whose God is Yessuh Messih. He quotes some Scripture, telling
Bakha “come all ye that labor and I will give you rest” (Anand 243).
Perking up at “labor” and “rest” Bakha asks who Yessuh Messih is. Colonel Hutchinson
says he will explain, and begins to drag Bakha with him towards the church. As he leads the way
the Colonel begins singing Christian songs about Jesus, which confuses Bakha because he cannot
understand a word. He wonders how the Christian God is different from Rama, the God his
father and their ancestors worshiped. He tries to ask the Colonel to explain, but the man is caught
up in his singing and rambling. Any questions he manages to ask simply sparks another round of
hymn singing. Bakha is bored by the proceedings but is happy and proud to be walking with a
white man, so he suffers through the boredom.
Eventually though it grows too tiresome even for the English-loving Bakha. He followed
the Colonel because the priest wore trousers and trousers were his dream. For Bakha, interacting
with Colonel Hutchinson had conjured up visions of himself wearing trousers and speaking
English. But now, Bakha begins to think maybe he should try sneaking off by telling him he
needs to go clean the latrines. Just as he is about to make his escape, the Colonel notices Bakha’s
lagging interest and tries to engage him in conversation. He tells Bakha that Yessuh Messih is the
Son of God and died for their sins. Noticing that this bit of information didn’t grab Bakha’s
attention, Hutchinson adds that Yessuh Messih sacrificed himself for the Brahmin and the
Bhangis, and sees them as equals.
At this, Bakha is captivated. But then the Colonel loses him again by saying they are all
born sinners and must confess their sins in order to be saved. Not only does Bakha take offense
at being called a sinner, but he also doesn’t understand the concept of confessing your sins. At
this point, he only continues to follow the Colonel in hopes the man will give him a pair of cast-
off trousers.
The pair finally reaches the compound containing the church and the Colonel’s
bungalow. Before they can enter the church, the shrill voice of the Colonel’s wife pierces the air.
She screams that the afternoon tea is ready, to which the Colonel replies automatically, “Coming,
coming” (Anand 254). He is afraid of his wife and doesn’t know if he should go meet her or take
Bakha into the church. Before he can decide, it’s too late. His wife comes out their house and at
the sight of Bakha begins to shout again. She scolds her husband for “going to [those] blackies
again,” even when he is met with derision and violence. In the face of her anger, Bakha tries to
slip away, thinking he is the cause, but the Colonel tells him to wait. At this, Mary
Hutchinson says she refuses to wait for the Colonel while he “messes about with all those dirty
bhangis and chamars” and goes back inside (Anand 256).
 All this time Bakha hadn’t understood the argument between the Colonel and his wife,
but at the words bhangis and chamars he grows fearful. He quickly says goodbye to the Colonel
and runs away, as the Colonel stares forlornly after him.

Analysis
The final two movements (discussed in this and the next section) in Bakha’s story are
vastly different from the rest of the novel. For most of the novel, it is clear that Bakha is the main
character. He plays an instrumental role in many of the book’s events. Apart from a short sojourn
with Sohini, the third-person narrator relates Bakha’s trajectory through the day.
During “Bakha and the Christian Missionary,” however, it feels as if Bakha is a mere
spectator in his own life. He is mute and inactive during the Colonel’s argument with Mary
Hutchinson, even though it appears he is the source of their feud. In Bakha’s defense, he didn’t
fully understand what was happening since he does not speak their language. The shift in the
storytelling in the last two vignettes reminds us that while Untouchable is a story of someone’s
life, it is also a novel of social commentary. It is somewhere between a bildungsroman and the
work of a muckraker.
Other elements of “Bakha and the Christian Missionary” remind us that Untouchable is a
political, sociocultural piece of writing. For example, the tug of war between Christianity and
Hinduism that occurs. First seduced by Colonel Hutchinson’s whiteness, Bakha is eventually
convinced to accompany the Salvation Army chief when he says that Yessuh Messih can give
him rest from his labors. Though he doesn’t want to convert, Bakha is intrigued and slightly
swayed when he hears that Yessuh Messih sees no difference between himself and the Brahmins.
Because the argument between the Colonel and his wife scares Bakha off before the
Colonel can explicitly bring up converting, we do not know what the young sweeper would have
decided. However, this scene is important because it is an allusion to the real-life conversion of
untouchables from Hinduism to other religions in order to escape caste prosecution. This tug of
war between Hinduism and Christianity is just another manifestation of the "religion" theme
that’s prevalent throughout the whole novel.
Though Bakha remains ignorant of the deeper social and political issues that impact and
govern his life, it is obvious he has grown and matured over the course of his long day. He is still
enamored with the British and their ways of life, but his obsession is tempered by self-
awareness. He now knows that sometimes he takes his predilection for the British too far.

Untouchable Summary and Analysis of

"Bakha and Two Great Speakers"

Summary
Bakha walks along and talks to himself. “Everyone thinks us at fault,” he says, thinking
of the various Hindus over the course of the day that blamed him for various deeds to the
Colonel that called him a sinner to the Colonel’s wife who was furious at the sight of him. He
walks, feeling heavy and oppressed by his memories from the day. He thinks back to the look of
hatred on the touched man’s face, and how it mirrored the look on the face of the Colonel’s wife.
But, the fury of the wife was “a hundred times more terrible than the fear inspired by the whole
tirade of abuse by the touched man” (Anand 260).
The sight of a begging black leper jerks Bakha out of his musings. He looks up and sees
that he has wandered to the Great Trunk Road near the Bulashah railroad station. Suddenly, he
hears the rumbling of an incoming train and a chorus of voices crying, “Mahatma Gandhi ki-jai!
The Mahatma has come! The Mahatmas has come!” (Anand 263). The shouting people are all
dressed in white and are heading to the golbagh, where the Mahatma will speak. Bakha is caught
in the crowd and swept along by their eagerness at the word “Mahatma.” He too is drawn like a
magnet by the word. Luckily for him no one notices he is an untouchable because he doesn’t
have his broom and basket. Thus he is able to stand amongst the crowd without a fuss.
The crowd at the golbagh is a myriad of races, colors, castes, and creeds. Bakha uses the
clothes of the people to tell them apart, noting for example that the Kashmiri Muslims are
wearing white cotton, while the Hindu lallas are dressed in fine silks. There are even some
Europeans in the mix. The one thing everyone has in common is the pressing, urgent desire to
see and pay homage to Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi.
Bakha looks ahead and sees he still has a long way to go before reaching the golbagh.
Swerving into a little marsh, he forges a shortcut. The crowd behind him follows, trampling the
flora populating the patch of green. Beyond the marsh was the oval where the speech would take
place. Rather than joining the thousands milling on the concrete, Bakha leans against a tree. He
wanted to remain detached. He felt connected to the emotions fueling the mob of people that had
come to see Gandhi, but had been reminded of his place in the world. His dirty khakis, when
compared to the pristine white clothes most of the crowd was wearing, made him remember the
barrier of caste separating him and the rest of humanity. Still, Gandhi united all of them,
however fleetingly. And so he waited for the Mahatma’s arrival.
Next to Bakha, a lalla and babu discuss Gandhi, speaking of his past struggles with the
Indian government, his recent release from prison, and his ability to change the world in its
current age of political upheaval. Much of what the men say goes over Bakha’s head, but it
makes him remember his own nugget of information about the Mahatma. He recalls hearing that
the man wanted to uplift the untouchables, and had even fasted for the sake of the bhangis and
chamars. Bakha doesn’t completely understand how Gandhi thought he could help the
untouchables by fasting, but appreciates the gesture.
Then, from where he is standing, Bakha watches the crowd surge towards a motorcar that
has just pulled up. He realizes he cannot rush with them even if the Mahatma himself says
untouchables are fine. He decides to climb up the tree he was leaning against to get a better view.
From above Bakha can view everything. He sees Gandhi, swathed in a milk-white blanket, with
his protruding ears and glinting glasses. The feature that registers the most with Bakha is
Gandhi’s skin, which is as black as Bakha’s. With the Mahatma are two women, an Indian
woman and an Englishwoman. Bakha hears another person crouched in the tree say that the
Indian woman is Gandhi’s wife and the Englishwoman is the daughter of an English admiral.
As the crowd chants his name, Gandhi goes to and sits on a platform in the center of the
oval. He raises his arm and blesses the crowd with a gentle benediction. As a result, silence falls
rapidly over the crowd. Ready to begin, Gandhi closes his eyes and begins to pray. As he recites
a Hindu hymn, every person present is transfixed, including Bakha, who feels the horrible details
of his day wash away. And then, the Mahatma begins his speech, his voice a soft whisper
through a loudspeaker. He first speaks of his time in prison, where he paid penance for going
against the British government and their rule of India. He says one of the agreements of his
release is that he won’t speak negatively about the government. So he will focus his speech on
the plight of the untouchables. The Mahatma points out that while Indians are seeking release
from British rule, they themselves have oppressed and ruled over millions of people for centuries
without any remorse. In his opinion, untouchability is the greatest blot on Hinduism.
At this, Bakha’s ears perk up. Gandhi goes on to share a personal anecdote from his
childhood when he was confused about why he needed to wash himself after accidentally
touching a boy named Uka that cleaned his family’s latrine. He then confesses that he loves to
scavenge, and that he wishes to be reborn as an untouchable, as an outcaste, in the next life. At
these words Bakha is thrilled to his core. He forgets to pay attention to Gandhi’s speech because
he is so happy at the Mahatma’s admissions. When he tunes back in, he hears Gandhi say that the
untouchables must purify their lives and rid themselves of gambling, drinking, and eating
carrion. These remarks seem unfair to Bakha, who believes Gandhi is blaming them. But then the
great speaker instructs untouchables to refuse the leavings from the plates of high-caste Hindus,
and to accept only good, sound grain. If they do all of this, says the Mahatma, they will be
emancipated. These words are more to Bakha’s liking. He feels them like a balm in his soul. He
thinks, “If only [Gandhi] could go and tell my father not to be hard on me!”
Gandhi finishes his speech by declaring that all public wells, temples, roads, schools, and
sanatoriums must be made open to the untouchables. He tells the crowd that if they love him,
they will spread his message of ending untouchability. With that, he blesses the crowd again and
begins to depart. Spellbound, Bakha is frozen in the tree and so sees the Mahatma pass by right
under him.
The crowd Gandhi leaves in his wake is full of good cheer and brotherhood. One man
declares that the Mahatma has made Hindus and Muslims one. Another suggests they “discard
foreign cloth” and soon enough people begin to throw their felt caps, silk shirts, and aprons into
a pile and light it on fire. Among the throng, there is only one dissenting voice that wasn’t
impressed by Gandhi’s speech. He calls Gandhi a humbug, a fool, and a hypocrite. This man is
Muslim, dressed in a fine English suit and wearing a single monocle in his eye. His companion, a
young man dressed in flowing Indian robes like a poet, tells him it is unfair to abuse the
Mahatma. The poet says that Gandhi may have his faults, but he is the greatest liberating force of
the age.
 As the two intellectuals enter into a debate, Bakha comes down from his tree and moves
away from them while staying within listening distance. The two men continue to argue
passionately about Gandhi and India’s place in the world. The poet argues that India is one of the
richest countries in the world because of its abundant natural resources and knowledge of life’s
secret flows, a flow that India’s British slavers are ignorant of. He says that unlike the British,
India will not become slaves to gold and will see life steadily and wholly. When the poet, who a
spectator identifies as Iqbal Nath Sarshar, finishes his harangue, the crowd he and his
companion, a barrister named Mr. R. N. Bashir, attracted falls silent.
Bashir returns by attacking Gandhi’s views on untouchability. At this Sarshar is amused,
saying that Gandhi’s views on untouchability are his most logical. Sarshar goes on to trace
untouchability to its origins, describing it as system devised by “wily Brahmins” who
misinterpreted the philosophical idea of karma for their own gain. As such, untouchability is a
man-made system, one that can be easily dismantled since all men are actually equal. Sarshar
finishes by saying that since the British-Indian penal code broke the legal and sociological basis
of caste, the only remaining determinant of caste is profession. Once India accepts and installs
the flush system, a way of clearing dung without human handling, sweepers can change their
profession and leave behind the stigma of untouchability.
To this, Bashir has no response. He complains about the heat and urges Sarshar to leave
and find some shade. The two men depart, the crowd surrounding them following in their wake.
Bakha stands still. He only understood bits and pieces of what the men said. He is most intrigued
by the machine the Sarshar described, the one that can remove dung without anyone needing to
handle it. He wishes the lawyer hadn’t hurried the poet away, so he could have asked him more
about it. Around Bakha, the fires of sunset “blaze on the horizon.” He feels at a lost, unsure of
what to do or where to go. The day’s misery and anguish begin to creep back over him.
Suddenly, the Mahatma’s parting prayer, “May God give you the strength to work out your
soul’s salvation to the end” resounds in his ears. He wonders what the Mahatma meant by these
words. No answer is forthcoming, but Bakha still draws strength from the words. He resolves to
try and follow Gandhi’s instructions. On the outside, he is calm as he walks, though the conflict
in his soul over his commitment to Gandhi’s message and the realities of his own life is fierce.
The sun sets. Bakha emerges from the grassy area that housed the tree he sat on during
the Mahatma’s speech onto the dusty road. As the Indian twilight flashes through the sky he
comes to a decision. “I shall go and tell father all that Gandhi said about us… and all that the
poet said,” he whispers to himself. And so Bakha turns his feet homeward.

Analysis
As mentioned in the previous Summary and Analysis, the final two movements in
Bakha’s story are vastly different from the rest of the novel. For most of the novel, it is clear that
Bakha is the main character. He plays an instrumental role in many of the book’s events. Apart
from a short sojourn with Sohini, the third-person narrator relates Bakha’s trajectory through the
day.
 During “Bakha and the Christian Missionary” and “Bakha and Two Great Speakers,”
however, it feels as if Bakha is a mere spectator in his own life. The relegation of Bakha to the
sidelines returns during Gandhi’s speech and the debate between Sarshar and Bashir. Although
all three men speak Hindustani, their advanced ideas and speech sail above Bakha’s head. He
isn’t so much listening to the men speak, as he is a medium through which information is
funneled to us, the readers. It feels as if Anand uses Bakha as a means of explicitly telling the
reader his opinions about the political issues Untouchable raises, including the fate of the
untouchables. The shift in the storytelling in these last two vignettes reminds us that
while Untouchable is a story of someone’s life, it is also a novel of social commentary. It is
somewhere between a bildungsroman and the work of a muckraker.
Other elements of “Bakha and Two Great Speakers,” as in the last section, remind us
that Untouchable is a political, sociocultural piece of writing. It is no coincidence that when
Bakha runs away from the Christian missionary (in the last section), he stumbles upon the speech
of Mahatma Gandhi. A symbol of revolution and reform, the Mahatma represents a new
interpretation of Hinduism, an interpretation that does not include the subjugation and
untouchability of sweepers. Gandhi recognizes that unless Hinduism wishes to continue losing
its believers to Christianity, it must change its relationship with the lowest of those followers.
This tug of war between Hinduism and Christianity is just another manifestation of the "religion"
theme that’s prevalent throughout the whole novel.
The debate between the lawyer Bashir and the poet Sarshar is another element that
demonstrates Untouchable’s roots as a political work. Over the course of the debate, the two men
reference everything from colonization to modernity to the corruption of religion. Sarshar in
particular is passionate as he describes India’s current place in the world and speculates about the
heights to which it can climb. As Sarshar pontificates, the reader gets the sense that Mulk Raj
Anand himself is talking directly to the reader about his fears and hopes for India and the
untouchables. This sense is aided by the distinct lack of mental interjections from Bakha as the
two intellectuals volley back and forth. We are told nothing about Bakha’s reactions to or
feelings about the men’s words. All of this evidence supports the claim that this final scene is an
exposition mostly for the reader’s benefit. The only thing Bakha gleans from the men’s lively
discussion is that there is a machine on the horizon that can clear away dung without human
contact. He doesn’t understand when Sarshar says the arrival of this machine in India hinges on
the country’s acceptance of industrialization. The deeper nuances of the men’s talk, including
Britain’s role in all of this, is lost on Bakha.
Though Bakha remains ignorant of the deeper social and political issues that impact and
govern his life, it is obvious he has grown and matured over the course of his long day. Though
he continues to reject his Indian roots, it is possible that Gandhi’s speech instilled in him a sense
of pride and belonging. Judging from his reactions whenever he receives a modicum of kindness
from high-caste Hindus, part of the reason Bakha rejects his Indian heritage is because he feels
like India rejects him, his family, and other untouchables. Gandhi calling for the abolition of
untouchability and Sarshar’s news of the flush toilet raises the question of whether Indians will
be able to accept untouchables as one of their own after all. The uplifting image at the book’s
denouement, of Bakha silhouetted in the Indian twilight going home to share with his father
stories of a machine that will unequivocally change their lives, gives a glimmer of hope.

Untouchable Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Clothing (Symbol)
Bakha’s obsession with European dress is deeply rooted in the "you are what you wear"
theme and proof of the symbolic role clothing plays in Untouchable. The clothing of Europeans
and Indians are often juxtaposed, with the former symbolizing modernity and progress, and the
latter symbolizing tradition and backwardness. Bakha supports this conclusion when he describes
“the clear-cut styles of European dress… [with their] stark simplicity [as] furrowing
his old Indian consciousness” (Anand 19). The simple, clear-cut styles of Europe are
dichotomous to the ostentatious, loosely flowing saris and dhotis of Indian dress.
Bakha’s Tools (Symbol)
The relationship between the worker, the products of his labor, and his tools of
production has long been a topic of interest for philosophers and writers. Anand is no different.
Bakha’s status as an untouchable hinges on his handling of other people’s refuse. He is
considered dirty because the product of his labor, the removal of feces, makes him dirty. The
tools he uses to clear dung are paradoxically the means of his livelihood and his suffering. While
the tools allow Bakha to make a living for himself and his family, they simultaneously make
living extremely difficult for them. The paradoxical nature of Bakha’s tools is symbolic of the
contradictions of untouchability and the overall Hindu caste system.
Violent Language (Motif)
Anand uses violent language in Untouchable for comedic yet ironic effects. The violent
language also reveals the brutality of Bakha’s society. For example, it is both funny and tragic
that Bakha’s father calls Bakha the “son of a pig” (Anand 23). Evidently Lakha is so possessed
by ire that he doesn’t mind calling himself a pig. This is funny, but also sad because it illustrates
the strained father-son relationship between the two men.
The brutal nature of the violent language is depicted during Gulabo’s unrelenting
haranguing of Sohini. The washerwoman calls Bakha’s sister a bitch, a prostitute, an “eater of
dung,” and a “drinker of urine” with no provocation. She attempts to add to her diatribe of Sohini
by hitting the young woman, but is stopped by the weaver’s wife. This is a prime example of
how violent action quickly escalates to violent actions in the novel. However, besides Gulabo’s
attempt to strike Sohini and the slap Bakha receives from the caste man he accidentally touches,
physical violence is in short supply in Untouchable. This is a somewhat perplexing when
considering the real-life mob violence the untouchables have experienced throughout history.
Perhaps the recurring violent language in the book is intended to be a stand-in for real-life tactile
violence. In any case, violent language is pervasive throughout Untouchable and used to great
rhetorical effect.
Hockey Stick (Symbol)
One of the positive points of Bakha’s day is when Charat Singh gifts him a hockey stick.
This stick represents not only the theme of charity, but also Singh’s personal feelings about
untouchability. Unlike other Hindus, he does not view Bakha as contaminated, as being worth
less than the filth the young man clears away everyday. The hockey stick also symbolizes a life
that is beyond Bakha’s reach. Despite being the best in the colony at hockey, Bakha cannot even
dream of playing professionally like Charat Singh. His status as an untouchable bars him from
many avenues, many paths. The hockey stick, while uplifting for Bakha, is a tacit reminder of his
constrained life trajectory.
Escapism (Motif)
The desire to escape the harsh realities of life is a major motif of Untouchable. Many of
Bakha’s quirks and character traits, such as his obsession with the English and their culture, are
grounded in his fervent wish to escape his own life and circumstances for a time. Though he
knows he is untouchable and will be his entire life, a part of him seeks to escape that life by
dressing like the English and adopting their social mores. Still, Bakha’s escapist tendencies
aren’t limited to his adoration of the English. His fixation with hockey and his desire to learn to
read can also be interpreted as attempts at avoiding his reality.
Lakha, Bakha’s father, is another example of escapism in the novel. To Bakha’s chagrin,
he often “foxes” out of his sweeper work and sends his children in his stead. Instead of being
confronted daily with his life as an untouchable and a sweeper, Lakha prefers to stay at home so
he can receive “salaams” from people. If he avoids contact with the world outside of the
outcaste’s colony he can escape the trappings of his actual life and live in a fantasy world of his
own creation.

Untouchable Metaphors and Similes

Bakha’s Father (Simile)
Anand makes liberal use of similes in Untouchable. One of the most effective of these is
a simile comparing the voice of Bakha’s father to a bullet searching for its target. This simile is
particularly striking because of the violent language Lakha uses with his children. The simile
shows how the delivery of Lakha’s words is a mirror of the words’ mean-spirited, aggressive
content.
Bakha’s Work Ethic (Simile)
A plethora of similes are used to describe Bakha’s work ethic when he is cleaning the
latrines. His active engagement with his task is likened to the constant flow of water from a
spring. His muscles when working “seem to shine forth like glass,” and his disposition is “as
easy as a wave sailing away on a deep-bedded river” (Anand 29). In all of these examples Bakha
is light and easy. Taken all together, these three similes suggest that while Bakha may hate
aspects of his life as an untouchable, he derives some level of pride and pleasure from his job.
Others may look down upon his job as a sweeper and persecute him for it, but Bakha doesn’t
necessarily think that the act of sweeping warrants such derision and hatred.
Ancestral Connections (Simile)
When thinking about his “countless outcaste ancestors,” Bakha imagines the connection
between himself and them as “fixed, yet flowing like a wave, confirmed at the beginning of each
generation” (Anand 127). This simile suggests that the connection is primordial, natural, and
enduring, something that has withstood the passage of time. It alludes to Bakha’s and his
siblings’ inherited untouchability, a status that is fixed and confirmed at the beginning of each
generation by the Hindu caste system.
Burning the Refuse (Metaphor)
The burning of refuse is a metaphor for the power to eradicate and destroy. After
collecting the refuse from the latrines, Bakha must take it to a pyre for burning. As he burns the
waste, Bakha feels powerful. He thinks, “the burning flame seemed to ally itself with him. It
seemed to give him a sense of power, the power to destroy. It seemed to infuse into him a
masterful instinct” (Anand 39). This passage suggests that when he is burning the waste, Bakha
believes he can be a figure of destruction, imbued with the ability to destroy anything that stands
in his path.
Trampling Blades of Grass (Metaphor)
After Gandhi’s speech, the crowd disperses and walks over patches of garden bowers.
Anand describes this grass as being planted by the Hindu kings but henceforth neglected and
now trampled under the feet of Gandhi’s progressive listeners. This grass is a metaphor for the
facets of traditional Hindu society and civilization that “must be destroyed in order to make room
for those of the new [civilization].” By trampling the grass, the crowd is crushing “everything,
however beautiful or powerful, that lay in the way of their achievement of all that Gandhi stood
for” (Anand 266). The implication is that one of these beautiful and powerful things is the Hindu
caste system, a system central to Hindu society since the time of the kings but now something
that prevents the progression of the Hindi.

Untouchable Irony
Bakha’s Father
Bakha’s father is a prime example of the novel’s irony. For example, he calls his children
lazy and yells at them for neglecting their sweeper duties whilst he is the one faking illnesses and
pains so he can shirk off working (Anand 61). It is also a comical type of irony when Lakha
reprimands and insults his children by calling them sons and daughters of pigs because in effect
he is calling himself a pig.
Pricing of Goods for Outcasts
When Bakha buys sweets with his pocket money, we see a glance of the unjust and ironic
pricing of goods for outcastes. The shopkeepers charge sweepers and other poor people much
higher prices, “as if to compensate themselves for the pollution they courted by dealing with the
outcastes” (Anand 87). Not only is it discriminatory that the poor pay higher prices than the
wealthy, it is also ironic that the people with the least amount of money are made to pay the
most.
Educating the Untouchable
From a young age, Bakha has had the burning desire to go to school and get an education.
In particular, he wishes to learn how to read so he can read classic Hindi and Punjab works.
However, no schools would admit him because the parents of other children refused to “allow
their sons to be contaminated by the touch of the low-caste man’s sons” (Anand 75). Bakha notes
the absurdity and irony of this situation when he thinks about all the Hindu children that
willingly play contact hockey with him and thus are already “contaminated” by him.
Sohini’s Assault
In addition to being one of the novel’s major plot points, Sohini’s assault by Pundit Kali
Nath is also an example of the corrupt Hindu caste system and Untouchable’s irony. The caste
people purportedly live in fear of an untouchable’s touch. And yet, here is a high-caste man
willingly touching Sohini in a salacious manner. Rather than repudiating physical contact with an
untouchable, Nath is actively seeking it out. Sohini, accustomed to people shying away from
physical contact with her, must now defend herself against unwanted physical advances from the
unlikeliest of sources. Furthermore, when Sohini spurns him, Nath goes on the defensive and
accuses her of defiling him. These three ironic elements of Sohini’s assault exist because of the
rigid Hindu caste system that says contact with untouchables is anathema.

Untouchable Imagery
The Outcast’s Colony
Untouchable opens with a shot of the outcaste’s colony. Anand gives us a thick
description of the home of Bulashah’s outcastes by describing not only the visual appearance of
the colony, but also the types of people that live there and their living conditions. For example,
besides the sweepers, the colony is also home to “the scavengers, the leather-workers, the
washermen, the barbers,” etc. They live in “mud-walled” houses near a fetid, rank brook filled
with the filth of the public latrines (Anand 16).
The smells of the colony are also described in explicit details. The air is polluted by “the
odour of the hides and skins of dead carcasses left to dry,” the dung of various livestock “heaped
up to be made into fuel cakes,” and human waste. As the reader reads on it's as if the “biting,
choking, pungent fumes ooz[ing]” from the colony is constricting their breathing in addition to
the characters' (Anand 16).
Morning Ritual
Anand uses a multitude of gerunds to craft a mental image of how the Hindu and Muslim
peoples perform their ablutions. For example, they are “crouching by the water, rubbing their
hands, with a little soft earth; washing their feet, their faces; chewing little twigs bitten into the
shape of brushes”(Anand 34). The morning routines of the different people are so similar that
Bakha uses their clothing to tell them apart, which is a direct reference to the "you are what you
wear" theme. The "rejection of Indian roots" theme is also present when Bakha judges his fellow
Indians for their loud “gargling and spitting” with the gaze of a condescending Englishman
(Anand 35).
Bakha vs. the High-Caste Man
Bakha’s altercation with the high-caste man in Bulashah’s square is the climax
of Untouchable and therefore is painstakingly depicted. The onlookers that gather around to
contribute to Bakha’s public shaming belie the anger of the touched man. Their combined shouts
and jeers come together in a cacophonous, mob-like scene. This is juxtaposed with Bakha’s
mortification, humility, fear, and general paralysis. In the face of everyone’s anger, he is
paralyzed. The narrator offers us a window into Bakha’s inner turmoil, into the “queer stirring”
of the boy’s heart and his feeling that every second of the incident was an “endless age” (Anand
95).
The actual moment the high-caste man slaps Bakha is “seen” through the perspective of a
passing Muslim merchant. The man hears a “sharp, clear slap” pierce the air. After that, we flash
back to Bakha so we can witness his reaction. Not experiencing the slap from Bakha’s point of
view creates a bit of distance between the reader and the event. For example, we aren’t privy to
Bakha’s physical pain from the strike, only to his psychological and emotional pain. We don’t
feel the red-hot pain on his cheek, but we can feel the red-hot rage “smouldering… in his soul”
(Anand 98). This is important because it shifts the attention from the physical implications of the
slap to its metaphysical import.
Gandhi’s Speech
There are a myriad of sights, sounds, and feelings during Gandhi’s speech. The very air seems to
tingle with “electric shocks” pulsing through it (Anand 280). Words and phrases like “mass of
humanity” are used to illustrate the sheer overwhelming size of the gathered crowd (Anand 280).
Similarly, Anand uses specific language to detail the sounds of Gandhi’s address. Particular
attention is paid to the reverent silence of the crowd and the “faint whisper” of Gandhi’s voice
(Anand 282). Finally, several figures of speech are used to describe Bakha’s feelings during the
speech. For example, the moment when Gandhi confesses he loves scavenging, Bakha feels
“thrilled to the very marrow of his bones” (Anand 287). Of course, this is not meant literally, but
rather that Gandhi’s confession strikes at Bakha’s emotional core deeply.

Untouchable Overview of the Hindu Caste System

One of the last remaining formal systems of social stratification in the world, the Hindu
caste system is the central topic of Untouchable. It dates back to 2,000 BC and consists of two
core concepts, varna and jāti, which roughly mean “class” and “birth” respectively (“Philosophy
312”). The caste system follows a basic tenet: all men are created unequal; men are different, and
fit well into different aspects of society. Ancient Hindu literature and texts have typified these
aspects into four varnas (the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Shudras). Each of
these varnas have traditional duties or roles to play within society. The Dalits, more commonly
known as the untouchables, exist outside the caste system (O’Neill, paragraph 3).
According to the Rig Veda, an ancient Hindu text, the world was formed from Purusa (the
originator of all life) as follows:
 The brahmin was his mouth, his two arms became the rajanya (kshatriyas), his thighs are
what the vaisya are, and from his feet the shudra was made.
The placement of each varna on the body of Purusa symbolizes their function or job
within Hindu society. From his mouth came the Brahmins who serve as the middlemen between
the gods and mankind. They are the priests, teachers, and preachers. Purusa’s arms became the
Kshatriyas, also known as the warrior class. They are the protectors of society and today those
that compose the ruling class (i.e., politicians, the military, lawmakers). The Vaishyas were made
from his thighs because like the thighs on the human body they help support the entire system.
They are the producers, the farmers, the artisans, and the merchants. Finally, at the bottom are
the Shudras, who came from Purusa’s feet. Similar to how the feet serve the rest of the body, the
Shudras serve the other three varnas as unskilled laborers (“Philosophy 312”).
This primordial being supposedly does not claim the Dalits because they are considered
“too impure, too polluted to rank as worthy beings.” As such, they exist outside of the caste
system at the very bottom. Their work options are usually restricted to cleaning toilets, sweeping,
or scavenging.
Jātis are complex social groups defined by a myriad of factors, including birth, tribe, job
function, food habits, dress, and language. While there are only four varnas, there are thousands
of jātis, which are roughly divided amongst the four varnas (Smith, “Varna and Jāti”).
Historically the caste system was enforced by four major factors: heredity, caste rules,
marriage, and preferential treatment.
 Heredity: As we see in Untouchable, the varnas are passed from generation to
generation. Children inherit their caste from their parents and pass it on to their children.
In this hereditary system, individuals are not allowed to change their caste.
 Caste Rules: These rules ensured that the different varnas performed their respective
duties. For example, the Brahmins were expected to read and interpret the holy texts
while the Kshatriyas had to dispense justice. Each varna had different rules and
regulations, though the higher ones enjoyed privileges that the lower ones did not.
 Marriage: Wedlock between people of different varnas was prohibited in order to prevent
miscegenation, or inter-mixing of the castes.
 Preferential Treatment: The three upper classes were given privileges far above those
given to the Shudras. In addition, the laws of the time were discriminatory in terms of
rewards and punishments. Shudras received harsher punishments than the other three
classes for the same crimes. The punishment for a Shudra might be physical torture or
death whilst for a Brahmin or a Kshatriya might only have to pay a fine or perform a
purification ceremony (Jayaram V).
While most of these methods of enforcing the borders carved out by the caste system
have been outlawed, they have left their mark on modern Indian society. The exploitation of the
lower castes by the upper castes (a process established by the unbalanced caste rules and
enforced by the preferential treatment of the upper classes in the law) is the root of the many
social injustices and inter-caste violence plaguing India today. Though the concept of
untouchability is forbidden and there are government initiatives in place to help improve the
lives of the lower castes (especially the Dalits), the stereotypes, stigmas, and hatreds created by
the caste system still prevail. Many still refuse to touch Dalits, allow them to draw water from
public wells, or use the same eating utensils. And, as in Untouchable, the Dalits continue to be
the targets of violent hate crimes like rapes, lynching, and gun-assisted murders (O’Neill para.
4). As a result, there are several Dalit-led grassroots organizations that advocate for the rights
and the protection of untouchables like Bakha and his family.

Untouchable Literary Elements

Genre: Realist Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Commentary, Investigative Journalism
Setting and Context: The mythical yet realistic town of Bulashah in early 20th-century India
prior to India’s independence from Britain. At this time in the novel, Mahatma Gandhi is actively
campaigning for India’s independence and for an end to untouchability.
Narrator and Point of View: The book is written in the third-person omniscient point of view.
The narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the book. Also, the
narrator’s thinking and commentary is far more insightful and nuanced than the novel’s
characters. The differences between the characters and narrator results in a novel that is part “day
in the life” story and part critical, anthropological analysis of the Hindu caste system, an analysis
most untouchables are ill equipped to provide.
Tone and Mood: The tone and mood are comedic yet depressing, and tragic yet hopeful. Many
times in the novel, Anand handles the unsavory job of the sweepers with a comedic touch. The
“chronic piles” of Charat Singh is one example of this humor. The man yells at Bakha to hurry
and prepare a latrine for him because he has chronic diarrhea and can’t “hold it in.” This instance
of bathroom humor illustrates Anand’s at times comedic tone towards the untouchable’s life
(Srivastava 184). However, the mood of the novel at this point is tragic as the reader feels
Bakha’s caution and resentment in the face of Singh’s ire and demands. The tone of the novel
slips into depressing when Bakha contemplates his lot in life. However, the mood ends on a
hopeful note after Sarshar and Bashir speculate about the fall of untouchability with the advent
of the flush toilet. Life for the untouchables may not improve within Bakha’s lifetime, but there
is hope on the horizon.
Protagonist and Antagonist: The protagonist of the novel is Bakha, a young male sweeper.
While there are several antagonistic characters in the novel, including Gulabo and Pundit Kali
Nath, the major antagonist of the novel is the Hindu caste system that allows for the unjust
treatment levelled at untouchables.
Major Conflict: The major conflict of the novel is the daily struggle of the untouchables and
other outcastes within the oppressive and unjust society the Hindu caste system created and
maintains.
Climax: The climax is the moment when the high-caste man strikes Bakha for brushing against
him in the Bulashah town square. Though we are given glimpses of the inequality and suffering
of outcaste life, this event is the crowning moment of injustice. The rest of Bakha’s day (and
hence the rest of novel) is spent coping with and analyzing this moment of senseless violence.
Foreshadowing: After the Mahatma’s speech, Iqbal Nath Sarshar and R.N. Bashir have a heated
debate about the topics the Mahatma mentions. During their discussion, Sarshar speculates about
a time when the untouchables can leave behind their unsavory professions and lives of drudgery.
He mentions the flush toilet and foreshadows that it will be a revolutionary machine for
untouchables as it negates the need for human contact with waste. Furthermore, the arrival of the
flush toilet would mean the arrival of industrialization and machines in other aspects of Indian
life. Thus, Sarshar alluding to the flush toilet foreshadows the sweeping economic, political, and
social changes about to overtake India.
Understatement: After Gulabo verbally abuses Sohini, Bakha’s sister thinks to herself, “but I
haven’t done anything to annoy her” (Anand 47). This reflection is a gross understatement, as all
Sohini did was sit down with the other outcastes by the well before Gulabo began her attack.
Allusions: As a work of realist, historical fiction Untouchable is saturated with historical, social,
and literary allusions. The novel is about the actual Hindu caste system and the life of drudgery
and oppression it creates for outcastes and untouchables. Allusions abound to aspects of
Hinduism, including Rama, the God of Hindus (Anand 244). Bakha refers to famous Hindi and
Punjab novels when thinking about his desire to learn how to read (Anand 74). And finally,
several real figures make appearances in the novel, including Mahatma Gandhi, one of the
leaders of the Indian independence movement and a staunch supporter of ending untouchability.
Imagery: See “Imagery” section of the guide.
Paradox: It is paradoxical that Lakha defends the Brahmins and Kshatriyas when Bakha tells
him about the Brahmin man that slapped him in the street. As a father, Lakha should have taken
his son’s side, and yet Lakha tells his son to relax and that the Brahmins are their superiors and
masters (Anand 154). Clearly the caste system has indoctrinated Lakha into believing it is the
natural ordering of the world.
Parallelism: The two sons of Lakha lead parallel, mirror-image lives from one another. They
both entered life as untouchables and will most likely leave it as untouchables. And yet, the paths
they take in their untouchable lives are diametrically opposed. Bakha is obsessed with mimicking
British aesthetics and ways of life. He is preoccupied with his appearance, particularly
cleanliness. These quirks illustrate Bakha’s attempts to escape the harsh realities of his outcaste
life. Rakha is the polar opposite of his older brother. He is “a true child of the outcaste colony,
where there are no drains, no light, no water… where people live among the latrines of the
townspeople and in the stink of their own dung scattered about here, there, and everywhere”
(Anand 162). From this excerpt, it’s clear that Rakha does not give special attention to staying
clean or adhering to British ways of life. Unlike his brother he is an inhabitant of the outcaste
colony through and through.
Metonymy and Synecdoche: N/A
Personification: Chance, luck, and fate are treated as living entities and given the pronoun “he”
when Sohini and the other outcastes are waiting for someone to draw water from the well.
Because outcastes are forbidden from using the public well they must wait “for chance to bring
some caste Hindu to the well, for luck to decide that he was kind, for Fate to ordain that he had
time—to get their pitchers filled with water” (Anand 43).

Untouchable Links
Website of the Navsarjan organization
http://navsarjan.org The website of a grassroots Dalit (untouchables) organization that is
committed to human rights for all.
India's Dalits Still Fighting Untouchability
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-18394914 A 2012 article from the BBC about the
contemporary lives of untouchables in India.
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
http://www.ncdhr.org.in The website of a forum committed to the elimination of discrimination
based on caste led by Dalit activists.

Untouchable Essay Questions

1. What purpose does Sohini’s assault serve in Untouchable? Why did Anand think it
important to include her assault in the novel?
Sohini’s assault, an event that draws on the themes of "class struggle," "the untouchable’s
burden," and "cyclical oppression," serves two major purposes. First, it shows how vulnerable
untouchables, particularly female untouchables, are in India. The restrictions placed upon and the
prejudices against them make them easy victims of crime and violence. As we see time and time
again in the novel no one believes the word of an untouchable. Unfairly characterized as liars
and thieves, they hold no sway in society or in the courts. Because of this, it is futile for Sohini to
lodge a public complaint against her assaulter. No one would believe her over a priest. It is also
futile for her brother to seek revenge for her. Avenging Sohini would most likely mean Bakha’s
imprisonment and/or death. Pundit Kali Nath and other caste men are aware of this, and take
advantage of the unjust system.
The second reason Anand included Sohini’s assault in the novel is because it grounds the
novel in reality. The reality is that during the time Anand wrote Untouchable and in present-day
India, untouchables are victims of numerous violent crimes, including rape. In historical, realistic
novels it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the connections between the fictional stories the
author crafts and the real events that inspire those stories. Sohini’s assault is an attempt to
prevent a myopic interpretation of Untouchable and the stories contained in its pages.
2. Whiteness, in the form of the British and other Europeans, has an elevated status
in Untouchable’s India. Why is whiteness so highly regarded? What are some
examples of white supremacy in the novel?
By colonizing India, Great Britain established itself as the top dog on the Indian
Subcontinent. When tides of British immigrated to India for various pursuits, including
missionary work, they brought with them British and European culture, goods, machines, and
ideals. These ideals hoisted up the British way of life as correct and modern while the Indian way
was put down as wrong and backward. In this way, England’s colonization of India was not
purely economical and political—it was a type of cultural imperialism as well. And while
Lakha’s generation are resentful of the British, most likely because they can remember a time
before colonization, Bakha’s generation idolize them.
Examples of white supremacy in the novel occur at two levels—the systematic and the
personal. The two levels are linked and impact one another, but the former is primarily about
governments and courts, while the latter is about the individual. An example of systematic white
supremacy is the story of the solar topee’s fabled owner. In the story the Tommie kills a sepoy,
another human being, but “since he was a white man [he] could never be put behind the bars” of
barracks holding cell (Anand 194). Because he was essentially free while he waited for his day in
court, the man was able to flee and escaped his punishment. This is one example of the different
laws governing white people on the Indian Subcontinent.
An example of white supremacy at the individual level is Bakha’s reaction to the anger of
Mary Hutchinson, the wife of the Salvation Army chief. For him, the few words of anger “she
had uttered carried a dread a hundred times more terrible than the fear inspired by the whole
tirade of abuse by the touched man” (Anand 260). Even though his altercation with the touched
man tore at Bakha’s pride and soul, “the anger of a white person mattered more.” Bakha says it
himself:
The mem-sahib (Mary) was more important to his slavish mind than the man who was
touched, he being one of his many brown countrymen. To displease the mem-sahib was to him a
crime for which no punishment was bad enough.
For Bakha, the regard of the white woman is more important than that of his fellow
brown Indians. This is a prime example of white supremacy.
3. In Untouchable Bakha is constantly daydreaming and falling into trance-like states.
What role do his dreams and trances play in the novel?
Bakha’s dreams and trances are the principal way he escapes mentally from the realities
of his life. The dreams he has when he takes a nap while begging for food are particularly
escapist. He sees himself in a classroom, achieving his dream of learning how to read. He also
witnesses himself leaving Bulashah via a freight station wearing a solar topee (Anand 133). Both
of these scenarios are ones he hopes for but are at present beyond his reach. And so they occur
only in his dreams.
4. Though a serious and at times tragic work, Untouchable is also known for its
comedy. Analyze several instances Anand uses comedy in the novel.
Comedy in Untouchable comes from two major sources—the violent language used by
some of the novel’s characters and the hockey player Charat Singh. Many of the insults directed
at Bakha, his family, and his friends are transliterated Punjabi and Hindu idioms. All of them are
deeply offensive, but some of them, such as “cockeyed son of a bow-legged scorpion,” are
hilarious in their creativity. The seriousness and anger with which the users of the insults hurl
them at their victims add to the hilarity. Sohini’s brush with Gulabo at the well comes to mind.
Even Bakha’s sister laughs at the woman’s passionate, heartfelt cussing.
Charat Singh and his “chronic piles” are another source of mirth in the book. Infamous in
the colony for his frequent cases of diarrhea, Singh is an example of the bathroom humor typical
to Untouchable. Later on the in novel his recommendation that Bakha should “blow off” his
work is as funny as it is paradoxical considering he shouted at Bakha earlier in the day for
neglecting his sweeping duties. Part of Charat Singh’s comedic flair is his unpredictability. One
moment he yells at Bakha, the next he makes jokes and gives him gifts. You never know what to
expect.
5. The inclusion of Mahatma Gandhi helps place Untouchable in a particular temporal
and physical setting. His speech, though largely incomprehensible to Bakha,
contains a plethora of political and social commentary on India. Analyze Gandhi’s
speech. What are the points he is trying to articulate?
Gandhi has three main points in his speech. He first addresses the hypocrisy of Indian
society as a whole. He points out that while India is fighting for independence from Britain, India
herself has stripped the freedoms of “millions of human beings without feeling the slightest
remorse for [its] inequity” (Anand 283). By millions of human beings he of course means the
untouchables. Gandhi’s second point is his condemnation of untouchability. He believes it to be
Hinduism’s greatest blot and behooves his audience to no longer acknowledge it. This point is
the easiest to understand given the content and overall message of Untouchable. The last point of
the Mahatma is that untouchables are not only blameless victims. In his opinion, they too must
change their habits in order to be accepted.

Biography of Mulk Raj Anand

Mulk Raj Anand was an Indo-English writer born in Peshawar, British India (now
present-day Pakistan). After graduating from Khalsa College in 1924 Anand moved to England,
completed his undergraduate studies at University College London, and went on to earn a PhD in
Philosophy from Cambridge University in 1929. While in university he became friends with
members of the Bloomsbury Group (also known as the Bloomsbury Set), a loose collective of
influential English writers, intellectuals, and philosophers. Among their members was the
English realist novelist E. M. Forster, who became a close friend of Anand.
Family tragedy sparked Anand’s career as a writer. One of his aunts committed suicide
after being excommunicated by her family for sharing a meal with a Muslim woman. This
violent, explicit, and personal consequence of Indian’s uncompromising caste system led Anand
to write his first prose essay. His first main novel, Untouchable, followed shortly after and is
considered a seminal work for its inclusion of Punjabi and Hindustani idioms transliterated into
English. A character study of a member of India’s untouchable caste, Untouchable earned Anand
the moniker “India’s Charles Dickens.”
Following this early success Anand continued to be a prolific and socially conscious
novelist. During the 1930s and 1940s he bounced between India and England penning
propaganda on the behalf of India’s independence movement. Simultaneously he supported
movements for freedom around the world, most notably the Spanish Civil War. He traveled to
Spain to volunteer for the conflict as a journalist. During World War II he worked as a
scriptwriter for the BBC in London, became friends with George Orwell, and published in
1942 The Sword and the Sickle, a novel about the rise of Communism. At this point Anand was
renowned as a pioneer of Indo-Anglian, or Indian writing in English, literature.
After the end of the Second World War Anand returned to India. From a village in
Western India he continued to craft a range of literature on a plethora of topics, including poetry,
autobiographies, essays, and novels. The Private Life of an Indian Prince, one of his most
celebrated works, was penned during this time. During this period he also founded a literary
magazine, Marg, with the intention of creating a “loose encyclopedia” of Indian arts. Today it is
a quarterly magazine and a publisher of books on the arts. Besides Marg he was also a founding
member of Progressive Writers Association, a national organization that was highly influential
during India’s struggle for independence.
For his rich collection of works and the substantial role he played in India’s literary and
sociopolitical spheres Anand received the International Peace Prize from the World Peace
Council, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Leverhulme Fellowship, among other awards and
accolades. Today Mulk Raj Anand is remembered for his seventy-five-years-long literary career
that mirrors the trajectory of India’s search for a just, equitable, and progressive society. He died
of pneumonia in Pune, India at the age of 98.