Section 2

Equality and Inclusion

Can We Change This?
ereat people
people differently based on their caste, creed or skin colour? Have you
wetreat
Dien ced or
DO ienced or witnessed
witne discrimination of any kind? Here are some experiences of
experier
ho has been a victim of untouchability.
who
ounggirl
a ulhen II was studying in class three, I hadn't yet heard people speak openly of
w a s stuo
/hen
hability. But I had already seen, felt, experienced and been humiliated by
untouchabilit

whatit is.

home om
school one day, an old bag hanging from my shoulder.
from
valking
of the Pallas and came to my street, the street of the Parayas. In
/was

the s t r e e t
Naickers watched the proceedings,
I c r o s s e d

eshing floor had been set up, and the

corner,.
were hard at
a of sacking.spread over a stone ledge. Our people
seated on
a piece
cattle in airs,
round and round, to tread out the grain from the straw.
driving
work themselves to the straw. Istood
animals were muzzled° so that they wouldn't help
The fun.
watching the
for a while there,
bazaar holding
elder of our street came along from the direction of the
hust then, an

Pallas people of a particular upper caste

Parayas people of a particular
a parcel to a particular
the landlord, the term also refers
lowercaste Naicker (here) series of actions t muzzled (here) animals had
upper caste * "proceedings
a
or feeding
mouths to prevent them from biting
guards on their

75
 The manner in which he was walking made me
want to double upb. I wanted to shriek with
laughter at the sight of such a big man carrying
a small parcel in that fashion. I guessed there

was something like vadai or green banana

bhaji in the packet, because the wrapping
paper was stained with oil. He was holding out
the packet by its
string, without really touching
any part of the parcel itself. I stood there
thinking to myself, if he holds it like that, won't
the package come
undone, and the vadais
fall out? The elder went
straight up to the
landlord, bowed low and extended the packet
towards him, cupping the hand
that held the
string with his other hand. Naicker
the parcel and opened
began to eat the vadais.
After I had watched all
this, Iwent home. My elder brother was
story all its comic detail. Ifell about with
in there. Itold him the
an elder at that, laughter at the memory of a big man, and
making such a game out of carrying the
amused. Annan told me the man parcel. But Annan was not
wasn't being funny when he
that. He said carried the package like
everybody believed that Naickers were
not touch upper caste, and therefore must
anything touched by Parayas. If
he had to carry the they did, they would be polluted. That's
package by its string. why
When I heard this, Ididn't want to
laugh any more, and I felt
they believe that it was disgusting if a Paraya held terribly sad. How could
that
though the vadai had been first wrapped in a banana package in his hands, even
Ifelt so provoked and angry leaf, and then
that wanted
to gO touch those wretched
and parcelled in paper?
myself, straightaway. vadais
Why should we fetch and carry for these peop I
,
wondered.
Such an
oursgoes off meekly to the shops to fetch snacks and hands eminent elder ofof
eminent an
bowing and shrinking, to this fellow who just sits there and ct them
deverover reverently10
How them into
tly10 reverently
The thought of it infuriated" me. was it that these hicmouth.
fellows
themselves? Was
Fdouble up laugh so hard that one bends
thought so much of
coated
vervadai
with batter and a snack made from
it because they bhaji a snack; vegetables deep
elder brother*reverently showing respect fried
infuriated madeAnnan Tamilpulses
had scraped four word for
extremely angry
76
 What
oinstogether? What
other? did it mean
when they called
'Paraya'? Had the name beme
us
t h ao
ene? But
t bscene?
we too are
human beings. Our people should never run thee
petty
tothese fellows. We should work in their fields, take home our
e r r a n d sf o

that
wage' atd
t at
eave

.andmothers worked as servants for

Both
In the case of one
Naicker
families.

of them,
whenshe was working in the fields, even tiny
born theother day, would call her
children, by
me and order her about, just ecause
because
belonged
to the Naickerecaste. And this
rhey
andmoti
they
ther,like all the other labourers, would
h e little boy Ayya, Master, and run about to
allthe
bidding. Itwas shameful to
them do see
his
do
way they were given their
this.
Even the drinking
was
disquieting2 to watch. The Naicker
water

amen would pour out the water from a height

women w o u r

feet, while
Paatti" and the others
it with cupped hands held
rexeived and drank
receiv

otheir mouths. Ialways felt terrible when

watched this.

uy nther Paatti was the same. As soon as dawn broke, she would go to the Naicker
houses, sweep out the cowshed, collect up the dung and dirt and then bring home
the leftover rice and curry trom the previous evening. And for some reason she would
behave as if she had been handed the nectar of the gods.

t was a long time before I realized that Paatti was bringing home the unwanted food
that the Naickers were ready to throw away. One day, I went with Paatti to the Naicker
house. After she had finished all her filthy chores, Paatti placed the vessel that she had
brought with her, by the side of the drain. The Naicker lady came out with her leftovers,
leaned out from some distance and tipped them into Paatti's vessel and went away
Her vessel, it seemed, must not touch Paatti's; it would be polluted. Sometime later,
sard to Paatti she should not lay herself open to such behaviour; it was ugly to see.
What Paatti said to me in return was this: These 12disquieting inducing felings of anxietyor
people are the maharajas who feed us our rice. worry 13Paatti Tamil term for grandmother
 wnout them, how wil we survive? Haven't they been upper caste from gene.

gereration, and haven't we been lower caste? Can we change this? eratin
My elder brother, who was studying at a university, came home tor the holidaye
He would ohten go to the liprary in our neighbouring village in order to borrowb
He was on his way home one day, walking along the banks of the irrigation tank. n
Or
f the Naicher men came up behind him. He thought my Annan looked unfamila
and so he asked, "Who are you, appa4, what's your name?" Annan told him his
irmmediately the other man asked, "Thambi5, on which street do you live?" The t
of this was that if he knew on which street we lived, he would know Our caste too

Annan's reply was sharp, like a slap in the face, "I am a Paraya from the Cheri Stre
Then he stalkedh off, as fast as he could. Naicker was furious. He thought he hadb
urmiliated. He asked someone else there, "Whoisthis fellow? Look at the way he
tairs This other man explained who Annan was, by mentioning our Paatti, "Oh, the
our Rakamma's grandson.

ne nert
day, when Paatti went to work, the Naicker spoke to her angrily. "How dar
Your grandson talk to me so arrogantly Paatti managed to handle it by saying, "See
AYVa, he's an educated lad; these college boys will talk like that. When Annan heard
this, he just laughed. Apparenthy it was just the same at the librany. They would look
the Paraya lads from Cheri Street in a
a
certain way, with contempt, Once, when Annar
was signing out his
books, he added his title, MA, on a sudden impulse. Immediately th
attendant brought him a stool to sit on, and what's more,
began addressing
him as 's
Annan told all these
things. And he added, "Because we are born into the Paraya
me

jati, we are never given any honour or dignity or respect. We are stripped of all
But if we study and make
that.
progress, we can throw away these
with care, learn all you can. If you are always ahead in
So study indignities ".
your lessons, people will come to
you of their own accord and attach themselves to you. Work hard and learn."
The word:
that Annan spoke to me that day made a very deep impression on me.
And I studied
hard, with all my breath and being, in a frenzy almost. As Annan had urged, I stood first
in my class. And because of that, many people became my friends.

the same story at scnoo, tnougn. Iney äiways spoke ill about
it was
people of our caste.
If ever anything bad happened, tney wouid say immediately, and without hesitation

address Thambi Tamil word for vee

hambi Tamil
general term of address word for younger brother, used here as a term of
a here) a
angry
waliked in proud or
a angry marnner
mariner cotempt
*contempt the feelnn
the feeling that someone is not worth
address
here)
that cause any respect
d

subcaste dage e n e o roifcumstances ne to feel shame or to

a caste or lose one's
dignity

78
 ITERATURE

he
Mmustbe one of the Cheri
ol were Pallar and
children who did it."
About
t h es c h o

Parayar. All the

same, the school
three-quarters of the children in

eryo.
ceemed to think
Harijand' children were
was on
Nadar'0 Street
hesitate
sa Use us for cheap labour. So contemptible22,
But they didn't
hrede carried
plants. We did all the chores that
the plants.
w a t e r
water to the
we
teacher's house, we
class seven. Every day, after
in classWas in
Se
were
needed in the school.
Then
before going home There
school, I would play with the
street

were two or
other children
fo
our
her boys and girls who
three children who were rrelated to
me, a n do ,

ne always played together

as a
group. One day, we w
on the big neem tree in
neem
front of the
school,
After a while, we started on another hanging like bats, upside down from
playine

s
s
brar

touching its tip. The coconut palm

game-running right up the coconut
s / ma n d .

running along
grew slantwise5, at a
convenient
angle.
f y o uc a m e running
along from aa cdistance, at top speed,
you could reach right to its
ach the coconut growing there. Spurred on the
t oa n d by excitement of the first few
managedto
uch
touch the coconut, those who came later
wiho
it and grabbed gave it a twist
imbing
clim
down. By the time I got there, the coconut fell at my touch, dropping
before
ha thud.
thud. It
It wasn't even aa fu
wasn't even fully ripened coconut, just a green one, without so much as
witha
in it. Allthe
the children were frightened and ready to scatter. Everyonesa
in it. All
water
plucked it. Then we
who had
wasl
20Nadar the name of a caste2Harijan group of the lowest
and ran home. social status, traditionally considered to be untouchable *
it there
ust left 22contemptible not deserving any respect at all slantwise atan
angle or in a sloping direction

shown
name. "You have
headmaster
called out my after
yesterday
next morning at
assembly, the c o c o n u t tree
E climbed the
"You inside
a Paraya,"
he said. cannot allow you
rue nature as coconut. We
ur stole a in
and you and insulted
else had gone home, been shamed
y I had
outside."I was
in agony because
and
front of all the children. 79
 All the children eyed me in a strange way and walked off to their classes. I was in such
suet

lived on our street can

shock and pain, I didn't know what to do. Then a teacher who me
and bring a letter from him.
by and advised me to go to the priest, tell him everything, to
whole in detail, and begoe
the headmaster. I went to the priest and told him the story
8ed
permission to go back to school. The priest's first response
was to sa.
him to give me ay,
"After all, you are from the Cheri. You might have done it. You must have done it,"
the priest wrota
The tears started up in my eyes, and I wept. After a long time,
welling e
a note asking that I should be allowed to return to the school.

When I took it to the headmaster, he abused me roundly", using every bad word
that came to his mouth, and then told me to go to my classroom. When I entered
the classroom, the entire class turned round to look at me, and I wanted to shrink
into myself as I went and sat on my bench, still weeping.
roundly in a forceful and clear manner (an extract from Karukk
Bama
s* vwweewwww swwwwwwrwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwvuwwwwvwwwveuwewrvowwwwwwwwwwwwwwauwwwwevwvwwwwwwarwwswuwewewwowwwwwwwwruewwwwwsewv
Bama (1958-) is a distinquished Tamil novellst known for her treatment of Dalit issues in her works.
Her aurtobiographical novel Karukkuwas
her first published work.
AnAAaaaAs

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