� are forced to leave the areas where they started their lives afresh fighting against all odds . Doubting Thomases can go and find how nearly 500 families of NC Kirkara started life afresh in a part of Fuhuratali and had already been served notice to clear out of the area .
No one is informed about the “ humanist ” approaches of the Himant Bishwasharma government and for that matter the Central government also . The people of Dhalpur have been asked to live on the dead bed of Brahmaputra 6 / 7 kilometers away . Leave alone arrangements of drinking water , drainage and proper livelihoods , the living arrangements are such that human beings have to share sheds with cattle . Such “ humanist ” acts have turned free peasants into unemployed reserve labours in the interest of the big capital and its new venture in agricultural field .
There are camps of police and paramilitary forces at the eviction site . One can see one or two tractors moving here and there . Proposals to work as wage labourers have been put before the evicted people who will have to walk 6 / 7 kilometers to the workplace . The same people who used to supply food to the citizens of Guwahati and other places are being forced to become slave labourers for palm oil emperors like Adani . But history does not end here . Serious questions are being posed before the people of Assam . Will the Assamese people allow themselves to be used by the so-called ‘ nationalists ’ to sell Assam to the big capital just as Modi is selling India , or real democratic development of Assam will be the future ? At present the conspirators are powerful but cause of democracy will finally defeat the conspiracies of big capital in Assam .
Nothing develops in straight lines . There will be many twists and turns . Let the corporates understand attempts of linear development often become counter-productive . � 12 from page 13 Untouchable ... “ Bhaka was grateful , grateful , haltingly grateful , falteringly grateful , stumblingly grateful , so grateful that he didn ’ t know how he could walk ten yards to the corner to be out of sight of be benevolent and generous Havildar ”. This shows how Mulk RaJ was masterful in his literary narration , particularly analyzing the psychology of an oppressed under dog and his reaction for a simple act of kindness . The ‘ untouchable ’ is a master-piece of literature with a heart sending content about the despicable caste system , as well as in its literary form of narration .
The one day bitter experiences of Bhaka , a young scavenger boy were like this :
In the morning , he was insulted and abused because as he was walking along , a man happened to touch Bhaka and claimed to have been polluted . He gave a blow to Bhaka . A crowd gathered and abused him . The priest in the temple tried to molest Bhaka ’ s sister Sohini and when she screamed in protest he came out shouting ‘ polluted , polluted ’. A woman of the big house in the silver smiths gully threw a chapati at Bhaka from the fourth story . While he was worrying about these insults and decision , a Salvationist missionary , Hutchinson approaches him . He tells Bhaka that Christ receives all men irrespective of caste , but Bhaka has to confess his sins to the missionary . Bhaka didn ’ t like the idea of being called a sinner . He had committed no sin that he could remember . Moreover the missionary cannot tell Bhaka who Christ is . Bhaka gets bored and felt it was no solution to his problems .
The second solution came from Mahatma Gandhi in a public meeting held in the town in the evening to which Bhaka attended . Gandhi too says that all Indians are equal and narrates how a Brahmin boy was doing sweeper ’ s work in his ashram . But Gandhi advices untouchable scavengers that they have to purify their lives , they should cultivate the habits of cleanliness and they must get rid of their bad habits of drinking and gambling and eating Carrion . Bhaka felt that it is unfair on the part of Gandhi in blaming them . Somehow the solution of Gandhi too had not attracted him completely ; but seemed to be hopeful .
Then while he was leaving after the end of the public meeting , Bhaka heard a heated discussion between an England returned barrister , and a modernist poet . The poet says “ since the sociological basis of caste having been broken down by the British- Indian Penal Code , which recognizes the rights of every man before a court , caste is now mainly governed by profession . When the scavengers change their profession , they will no longer remain untouchables . If the machine which clears the dung system without anyone having to handle it – the flush system is introduced then the sweepers can be free from stigma of untouchability and assume the dignity of status that is their right as useful members of a casteless and classless society ”. Though Bhaka couldn ’ t understand everything the poet said , he liked the idea of flush system , so that he could clean the latrines without directly handling the feces . Bhaka returns home thinking of Gandhi and the machine – flush system .
In this way Mulk Raj portrayed vividly the wretched life of a scavenger in pre-independence India imposed by the age old caste-system and discussed the then propounded solutions to the heinous system of untouchability to no avail .
Even after 75 years of so called independence to India , the problem of untouchability and atrocities against out castes- the Dalits , are continuing unabated in various forms .
So the ‘ Untouchable ’ of Mulk Raj Anand is relevant even in the present age of ‘ globalised ’ world under the dictates of imperialist , neo economic policies of liberalization !
It is a very valuable novel for all to understand the problem of untouchability .
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Class Struggle