International Sociology http://iss.sagepub.

com/

Untouchability in Modern India

Radhamany Sooryamoorthy
International Sociology 2008 23: 283
DOI: 10.1177/0268580907086382

The online version of this article can be found at:

http://iss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/283

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

International Sociological Association

Additional services and information for International Sociology can be found at:

Email Alerts: http://iss.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts

Subscriptions: http://iss.sagepub.com/subscriptions

Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav

Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

Citations: http://iss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/283.refs.html

>> Version of Record - Feb 21, 2008

What is This?

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 P R O B L E M S – A N D S O LU T I O N S ?

Untouchability in Modern India

Radhamany Sooryamoorthy
University of KwaZulu-Natal

keywords: caste system ✦ Dalits ✦ India ✦ social movement ✦ untouchability ✦

Untouchables

Hugo Gorringe, Untouchable Citizens: Dalit Movements and

Democratisation in Tamil Nadu. New Delhi: Sage, 2005, 216 pp.,
ISBN 0761933239, £39.99.
Ghanshyam Shah, Harsh Mander, Sukhadeo Thorat, Satish
Deshpande and Amita Baviskar, Untouchability in Rural India. New
Delhi: Sage, 2006, 398 pp., ISBN 076193507X, £14.99.

Introduction
Lakshman Gaikwad, a school child, once wrote a letter to the then Prime
Minister of India, Indira Gandhi: ‘Is it because of the reason that I was
born as an Uchalya I do not have good clothes, not getting any food, or
not even a good look from others?’ Attired now in beautiful clothes and
enjoying the food that was once denied to him, this Dalit boy was later to
become an eminent Marathi writer, activist and a recipient of the Kendra
Sahitya Academy, a prestigious award for literature in India.
Untouchability, prescribed and practised as part of the age-old institu-
tion of the caste system, is thriving in the largest democracy in the world.
The caste system is a very complex institution consisting of innumerable
Hindu ideas rooted in pollution, purity, social units of jatis, varnas and
dharmas.1 The caste system maintains its hold over the prevailing social
structure and is manifest, both covertly and overtly, in several realms of
social intercourse (Sooryamoorthy, 2006). As a non-comparable form of
racial stratification, the caste system divides the society into permanent
groups that are specialized, hierarchically arranged and separated in matters

International Sociology ✦ March 2008 ✦ Vol. 23(2): 283–293

© International Sociological Association
SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
DOI: 10.1177/0268580907086382

283

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 23 No. 2

of consumption, marriage, sex and ceremonies related to social life – birth,

marriage and death (Dumont, 1970). The essence of caste is varna, dividing
Hindu society into four orders of Brahmana (Brahmin priest and scholar),
Kshatriya (ruler and soldiers), Vaishya (merchant) and Sudra (peasant,
labourer and servant).2 In this categorical division the Brahmana,
Kshatriya and Vaishya are the ‘twice-born’ castes while the Sudras are
‘single’ born. Outside these four varnas are the Untouchables. However,
untouchability is not intrinsic to the caste system but rather an aberration
(Kavoori, 2002). Gandhi (1931), like many of his contemporaries, held that
untouchability is a curse upon Hinduism, and if Hinduism harbours
untouchability it has no place on this earth.
A huge volume of literature on the caste system exists in India and new
additions keep it growing. In fact, Indian sociology has gained a great
deal of energy for its development as a discipline from this unique phe-
nomenon that concerns more than a billion people today. Not only Indian
scholars but also scholars from abroad were enticed into the manifold
dimensions of the caste system and its associated practices of untoucha-
bility that are still unravelling. These two new books by Hugo Gorringe
(2005) and Ghanashyam Shah et al. (2006) unmistakably contribute to
newer understandings of untouchability at the micro- and macro-levels.
Dalits will themselves learn more from these works.
Gorringe’s microscopic study is about the processes of social and politi-
cal change in one of the major southern states in India – Tamil Nadu – and
on issues related to Dalit mobilization. His main argument is that relations
of power are challenged, negotiated and reconfigured at the local level.
Shah and his team’s study, on the other hand, is macroscopic and massive
in its approach, collecting primary empirical data from 565 villages in 11
states across the country.3 Both studies deal with Untouchables and their
living situation in contemporary India, projected as the fastest growing
economic power house. Gorringe looks from close quarters at the political
mobilization of Dalits, an indispensable means for their existence, survival
and struggle. His questions of enquiry are about democracy, Dalits and
protest movements, while seeking an answer as to why Dalits, despite
constitutional safeguards and legislation, engage in protest movements.
Choosing a large (one of the 70) Dalit organizations in Tamil Nadu – the
Dalit Panther Iyakkam (DPI) – Gorringe’s scope is limited but intensive
and detailed. He has his own reasons for calling the DPI a movement
rather than a caste-based collectivity, primarily because it is an organiza-
tion whose membership is drawn from people affiliated to different castes.
Studying the prevailing forms of discrimination, atrocities and indignities
perpetrated against the ex-Untouchables, Shah’s team accomplishes a
remarkable feat in knowledge production that will go a long way in the
understanding of the evil of untouchability. Theirs was not an easy task,

284

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 Problems – and Solutions? Sooryamoorthy

however. Investigators completed this study despite the opposition and

hostile attitude of the upper caste, including threats to their lives, which
they faced in several villages. I am sure that many Indians would hang
their heads in shame after reading this book that unravels scores of
heinous acts of untouchability that continue to be observed in modern
India. One would have to have a hard heart indeed if the pathetic stories
about Dalits that abound in this book did not touch one in any way. These
two books leave us to answer a difficult question: when are we going to
consider these 170 million Dalits as fellow humans who have not been
granted even a semblance of dignity yet?

Dalits, the Ex-Untouchables

Untouchability refers to the humiliations imposed, from generation to
generation, on a particular but a sizeable section of the Indian population
(Charsley, 2001). Untouchables are the castes whose touch is enough to
cause impurity and pollution. Gandhi preferred the term Harijan (chil-
dren of God) to Untouchables, who toiled and dirtied their hands for oth-
ers, the Durjan (men of evil). But it was B. R. Ambedkar – the great leader
of the Untouchables and the architect of the Indian Constitution that
legally abolished this practice in any form – who established the word
Untouchables.4
First used in the 1930s and gaining currency in the 1990s, Dalits is the
contemporary and preferred word for Untouchables. Also meaning
‘crushed underfoot’, ‘broken into pieces’ or the ‘oppressed’ (Ghose,
2003), Dalits are those who have been broken and ground down by
those above them in a deliberate and active way (Zelliot, 1996). This
change in the label does not guarantee any real improvement in their
position.
Untouchability, as Gorringe and Shah et al. rightly put it, is the extreme
and vicious aspect of the caste system, prescribing stringent social
sanctions against those placed at the bottom of the caste structure.
Untouchables fall outside the caste structure and hierarchy and their touch
pollutes others, invoking terrible punishments, fatal attacks and atrocities.
Shah et al. infer three major dimensions from the prevailing practice of
untouchability: exclusion, humiliation-subordination and exploitation.
They are excluded from much of social life that includes the sharing of
drinking water sources and participating in religious worship and festi-
vals. Humiliation-subordination is evident in the imposition of gestures of
deference like carrying footwear in the hands, bending forward with a
bowed head and not wearing clean or bright clothes. Impositions of forced,
unpaid or underpaid jobs and confiscation of property are some forms of
exploitation.

285

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 23 No. 2

Dalits Today
Dalits constitute about 170 million people, 17 percent of the Indian popu-
lation. Over three-quarters of them live in rural areas of India.5 This num-
ber is more or less equal to that of the upper-caste Hindus in rural India
who suppress, oppress and subjugate Dalits relentlessly. Dalit settlements
are usually located west of the main village where the sun sets. The cul-
tural geography of the Indian village, as Gorringe quotes, is laid out to
assign to Dalit dwellings the lowliest and least desirable areas such as
those close to the most polluted areas.
Shah et al., covering a large sample, find that Dalits make up about 27
percent of the people living below the poverty line in rural India as
against 10 percent of the upper caste in the same category. Remaining
poor, they lack essential resources to accumulate wealth and are to be
engaged in low-paid and low-mobility occupations. Shah et al. call this
‘occupational segregation’, a consequence of their social segregation.
Low-paid or underpaid jobs do not assure them regular employment
either. Compared to any other social group in India, Dalits have one of the
highest rates of unemployment in the country.
Drawing the forms and types of untouchability from the list of the Anti-
Untouchability Act and the Protection of Civil Rights Act, which range from
the denial of access to public places to non-supply of goods from general
shops, Shah and his team capture the more overt and observable forms of
untouchability. The team judiciously chose the forms of untouchability in
three main spheres, namely, the secular public sphere, the religious-cultural
and personal sphere, and the economic sphere. Untouchability is firmly
grounded in economic and political inequality and consistently perpetu-
ated by the ideology of Hinduism and its caste hierarchy. It is expressed in
a wide diversity of forms as they appear in the Dalit–non-Dalit relationship,
which is shaped by both material and non-material factors. Shah et al. select
five pertinent factors for their analysis: economic and political relations
between different social groups; competing cultural values; resistance to
discrimination by Dalits; legal prohibitions and perceptions about untouch-
ability; and the degree of social legitimacy that the practices command.
Investigations by Shah and his team show that untouchability is exten-
sive and practised mostly in the interpersonal and cultural-religious
spheres, such as discriminatory prohibitions on entry of Dalits into the
homes of non-Dalits (in 70 percent of the villages studied), on food shar-
ing and temple entry and ill-treatment of Dalit women by non-Dalit
women. In 30–40 percent of the villages Dalits are refused entry to shops
or are seated separately in teashops and restaurants. They are not allowed
to enter village shops in at least one-third of the villages, or they cannot
come close to a shop-counter but have to stand away from it even if they

286

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 Problems – and Solutions? Sooryamoorthy

are permitted to make a purchase. To avoid direct contact with Dalits,

commodities are kept on the ground for them to collect and leave the
money there. In more than a quarter of the villages, Dalits cannot enter
police stations to register their complaints or the public distribution out-
lets through which the government-subsidized food is supplied.
When Dalits want to draw water from a public source there are
protests, fights and the loss of lives. Washermen and barbers either refuse
to serve or discriminate against Dalits in about 47 percent of the villages.
Dalits are not expected to wear footwear, but have to carry footwear in
their hands while using upper-caste neighbourhoods and thoroughfares;
nor are they supposed to unfold their umbrellas in the rain or in the hot
sun. If they are on bicycles, they have to dismount instantly. Dalit youth
cannot wear sunglasses or fashionable clothes for fear of being humiliated
by reprisals, beatings and violence.
Entry to places of worship is the most contested arena of conflict and
violence, given the importance ascribed to religion in the lives of Indians.
Any attempt to enter such premises that are used by the upper caste trig-
gers resistance that ultimately ends in caste flare-ups, violence and
deaths. In 64 percent of the villages this remains the case, with a few
exceptions in Kerala. Denial of access to public cremation/burial grounds
is normal in half of all the villages.
In the labour market, Dalits are offered the worst kinds of jobs that they
do not want to do. The caste system prescribes certain occupations for
specific castes and the Untouchables were always given the unclean occu-
pations associated with death (removing carcasses) and human waste
(cleaning sewers, carrying headloads). As the study confirms, this contin-
ues to be the practice in all the states, where Dalits manually, and often
with bare hands, remove human waste from public and private dry
latrines. Alternative technologies for waste management are available but
because Dalits are there to do this work it is perpetuated.
The case of Narayanamma, who works in the Anantpur municipality
(a government institution) in Andhra Pradesh, is both disgusting and
demeaning to humanity. It is her daily job to collect faeces with her broom
onto a metal plate and then transfer it to her basket, which she carries on
her head. She says that the odour of faeces never leaves her body even after
washing or bathing. It remains in her hair, on her skin, in her clothes and
the smell even permeates the food she eats. People like Narayanamma have
no option but to carry on with similar occupations as they are powerless
and unable to find alternative means. But the youngsters, to escape from
these menial jobs and the stigma attached to them, migrate to towns and
cities. In 80 percent of the villages in Tamil Nadu, also the location of
Gorringe’s study, only the Dalits perform these unclean occupations of
removing carcasses, digging graves and clearing garbage.

287

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 23 No. 2

Daltis are invariably paid less than the market wage or the non-Dalit
wages (in 25 percent of the villages). Delayed payments, receiving wages
from a distance or having them thrown at them to avoid direct contact, phys-
ical abuse and violence at workplaces are common. Enterprising Dalits who
try to own and cultivate agricultural land are faced with the hostile and
aggressive attitude of the upper caste in the same way as when the public
land is used for building colonies for them. In about one-third of the villages,
Dalits cannot sell any goods in the local markets and are excluded from the
sale and purchase of essential commodities like milk (47 percent of the vil-
lages). Dalits are denied space along with non-Dalit vendors, particularly
when they are selling the same products. The authors note that these are the
upper-caste techniques to profit from the vulnerability of Dalits.
Women are the worst affected among Dalits even though they have
relatively greater autonomy in their homes than their upper-caste counter-
parts. Both studies devote space to examining the position of women in
the society and in movements. Women make up the majority of landless
labourers and scavengers. They are the ‘oppressed of the oppressed’. In
addition to the sufferings that any Dalits in modern India are subjected to,
Dalit women live under the patriarchal power of both the upper caste and
their own men, while being exposed themselves to specific forms of
untouchability including sexual oppression. Women are always an easy
target for the upper caste; they are brutally raped and killed at the slight-
est provocation of conflict. For the same job, women are paid less than
men. Often they are given the hardest work. In the workplace, a clear divi-
sion between Dalit and non-Dalit women is obvious; they sit and eat
separately, and are careful not to touch any non-Dalit women because this
might spark a stream of verbal abuse and humiliation.
Dalit women report that non-Dalit women, as against non-Dalit men, are
more rigid in practising untouchability. Sharing their experiences, a few
women in Kerala revealed that while working in the households of the
upper caste they had to give in to upper-caste men’s sexual urges. In Bihar,
while Dalit women sell bamboo products from door to door, upper-caste
men waylay them and propose a price not for their goods but for sexual
favours. Ironically, pollution due to contact is not an issue at all when Dalit
women are exploited for the sexual needs of the upper caste. Women in
Tamil Nadu and Kerala are used to adopting a humble demeanour: bend-
ing their heads, speaking in a low voice and posing in submission, before
the upper caste. Like their men, Dalit women face restrictions on entering
public places like temples, hotels, eating places and shops. In the political
realm too, their presence is deliberately prevented. Elected Dalit women are
excluded from caste councils and village panchayats. On those rare oppor-
tunities of getting government employment, women are still discriminated
against by their colleagues and the public alike.

288

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 Problems – and Solutions? Sooryamoorthy

In some villages, notably in Kerala, signs of change are visible. Some

Dalit women have married upper-caste men. They are obtaining increased
access to public spaces through their participation in decentralized
programmes. Participation in politics and protest movements is a mani-
festation of the growing rejection of their subservient status. It is surpris-
ing that Gorringe makes no reference to women in Kerala while he
draws material from other states to compare and support the position of
women in Tamil Nadu. Kerala is a close neighbouring state with a lot of
similarities.
Violence against Dalits is widespread and cruel. When Dalits are com-
pelled to resist the intolerable forms of untouchability they face the risk
of social and economic boycotts by the upper caste. Instances of brutal
acts of inhumanity (walking them naked in the street, forcing them to
eat excreta, raping their women, gouging out the eyes and lynching) are
regularly reported from different parts of the country. Shah et al. exam-
ine these atrocities in the context of Dalit assertions and provisions by
the state to protect them from the upper caste. The number of reported
cases, which shows only the tip of the iceberg, is rising year after year:
285,871 cases of various crimes (murder, rapes, grievous hurt, kidnap-
pings and robberies) against Dalits were reported during 1990–2000.
Shah and his team’s empirical study also concurs with this extensive
nature of atrocities perpetrated by the upper caste against Dalits in the
form of physical abuse, humiliation, sexual exploitation, residential seg-
regation, social boycott and discriminatory treatment. Even during
Gorringe’s field work, violence was unleashed against those who chal-
lenged caste dominance and they were eventually murdered, beaten or
raped. Viramma asks Gorringe, ‘if we are cut do we not bleed? Is our
blood not as red as yours?’
Dalits are quite aware that their position on the lowest rungs of the eco-
nomic and social hierarchy is due to the dominance of Brahmins and other
upper castes. Resistance to the injustices meted out to Dalits takes the form
of passive resistance to militant retaliation. Dalit movements such as DPI
time and again address these issues and raise them as human rights issues
to get a universal resonance. They compare their unending struggle with
the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa, and their imprisoned lead-
ers with Nelson R. Mandela. The long incarceration of Nelson Mandela
and his final triumph against the oppressive regime is always a source of
inspiration for them to sustain their struggles. Gorringe makes a very valid
point here when he notes that only through systematic and concerted
political action are Dalits able to expand the sphere of political participa-
tion and place their concerns on the political agenda. Unfortunately, Dalit
movements in Tamil Nadu, like many other political parties in India, are
riven by factionalism, personalism and contradictions.

289

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 23 No. 2

Being conscious of their position in the current social hierarchy, Dalits

have sought ways and means to upgrade their social standing. Shedding
their caste identities and adopting upper-caste and western names, simi-
lar to Srinivas’s concept of Sanskritization, form part of their strategy in
this regard. Consumerism too facilitates the equalization of status and
social mobility. However, these attempts are not tolerated by the upper
caste and those who control power and resources. When Untouchables
switched their traditional occupation in Andhra Pradesh, they were
abused and beaten (Venkateswarlu, 1990). Migration from their native vil-
lages to cities, towns and even the Gulf States and Asian countries where
their original identity as a Dalit is no more a burden or a stigma, offers
them the freedom to choose the life and occupation of their choice.
Ambedkar’s call to ‘educate, organize and struggle’ has an unrelenting
impact on the minds of the Dalits today. As shown in the study, none of
them have questioned the need for educating their children. Instead, they
have high expectations for their children, hoping that they will make their
lives more liveable in the near future.
Dalit self-assertion and unity is expressed in their formation into groups
and organizations. These are found all over the country at state, district
and village levels, to foster the interests of their women, men and youth.
Formation of political parties and their active participation in electoral pol-
itics have been influential in improving their living conditions. Dalit move-
ments today competently challenge the power of the dominant castes at
the local level, and have conscientized and politicized people to fight for
their rights and dignity. But, as Gorringe points out, Dalit movements are
often reduced to voicing grievances rather than campaigning proactively
for social change. They struggle for human dignity, social inclusion and
equality of access to social spheres that are enshrined in the Constitution.
But the positive measures in the Constitution, such as the reservation sys-
tem, are more impressive than in its substance. Alienated from resources
including land, the skills of Dalits are culturally demeaned. Land reforms
have not brought them succour as a majority of them do not own any land
but depend on others for employment. Their struggles, as in the case of
Dalit movements in general, are therefore caught in the double bind of
poverty, which is both an inspiration for and a hindrance to active politi-
cal participation. Poverty perpetuates subordination and shuffles their col-
lective efforts. Movements lack adequate resources to carry on with their
agenda.
Their belief in the Indian judiciary to redress their grievances is
strengthening, as is evident from their increased use of the justice system.
Networks established in the police and administration also work in their
favour. This is a turnaround for them from the past, in which their com-
plaints against upper-caste people fell on deaf ears in the police or met

290

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 Problems – and Solutions? Sooryamoorthy

with violence. Being aware of the existence of laws that protect them from
discrimination and violence, Dalits are taking to peaceful legal means.

Conclusion
The works of Gorringe and Shah et al. agree with the current literature on
Dalits that emphatically remind us that despite constitutional provisions
and legislation they are still savagely attacked in the vast rural courtyards
of India (Ghose, 2003). This socially, economically and politically powerless
people are the targets of the upper caste and thousands of them are killed
every year as a result of atrocities. Dalits continue to engage in inhuman
occupations. Despite being a criminal offence under the law, untouchability
is practised widely. A ‘two-glass’ system in teashops is not the exception but
the rule. Dalits have not gained the basic freedom to wear clothes or
footwear whenever they want to. Access to public spaces such as roads,
common lands available in the villages, cremation and burial grounds and
water points, available to any other citizen in the country, has not been
granted uniformly in rural India. Thorat’s (2002) explanation that it is the
continued belief of the upper-caste Hindus in the sanctity of the caste sys-
tem and untouchability and the continuity of the traditional social order
that govern the thought process and behaviour of the majority of the
Hindus makes sense. The words of one of the respondents in Gorringe’s
study are enough to portray the present situation of Dalits in India today:
We are still suppressed. We have not been liberated or granted our independ-
ence yet . . . Gandhi got everyone independence but he didn’t give any to us. It
has been 50 [sic] years since Indian independence but we still do not know
what it means. (p. 72)

The continuing isolation of Dalits in separate localities, as Gorringe rightly

finds, is a denial of equal citizenship. The states where the studies have been
carried out, Kerala in particular, are in the league of ‘major’ states in India.
Kerala is known for its historical track record of socio-political movements
and 100 percent literacy. Gorringe too acknowledges education as the
weapon for Dalits to escape from the conditions of servitude and to make
them more confident and assertive. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned
from these states that could be emulated to eradicate untouchability.
Efforts of Ambedkar, Gandhi, Jyotirao Phule, Ramasway Naicker,
Christian missionaries of all hues, and numerous organizations under the
leadership of social reformers have had a great impact on their lives. They
now have political parties, contest elections, share power in whatever form,
and put up a brave front against discrimination, atrocities and exclusion.
Dalit activists call for their entering ‘into every field, computers, the pro-
fessions, the arts, the media and business’ (cited in Omvedt, 2004). The

291

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 International Sociology Review of Books Vol. 23 No. 2

Nadars of Tamil Nadu and the Ezhavas of Kerala have successfully blurred
the boundary of untouchability.
Dalits are now becoming confident in asserting their rights. Heightened
awareness about injustice and their incessant resistance, protests, struggles
and political participation have resulted in substantial improvement of
their position in India. Human rights organizations and NGOs extend sup-
port to them. Dalits are now able to demand services from priests, washer-
men or barbers that were once denied to them. In one instance, the village
priest did not agree to do a pooja at the home of a Dalit. When the priest
needed the same Dalit to remove a dead animal, the Dalit refused but
agreed on the condition of the priest performing the pooja at his home.
No one would disagree with the authors, who conclude that the pres-
ence of untouchability in society is a crime against humanity. Like
Dhanalakshmi in Gorringe’s study, there are thousands of Dalits who are
convinced that their ‘day will come, and not in the distant future . . .when
we will gain our independence day . . . our freedom day’ (p. 20).

Notes
1. The caste system is not unique to Hindus but is common among Muslims,
Christians and Jews with their own variants. The traces of it can be seen in
other societies too: the Spartan division into citizens, helots and slaves; patri-
cians, plebeians and slaves in the Roman empire (Kroeber, 1930); caste-like
groupings in China and Madagascar (Bayly, 2000); seven classes of outcastes in
Burma under the Burmese monarchy (Hutton, 1946); warriors (samurai), com-
moners, merchants and untouchables in Japan (Bayly, 2000); outcaste classes of
Tomal, Yebir and Midgan in Somali, East Africa; and groups of Tussi, the Hutu
and Twa in Rwanda and Burundi (see Sooryamoorthy, 2006).
2. Theories on the origin of the caste system abound in the literature. To take a
sample, the varna theory postulates that the four varnas originated from differ-
ent parts of the body of the deity while another explanation finds a basis in the
occupation of the caste (Hutton, 1946; Nesfield, 1885). Racial theories observe
that the touchables were ‘white’ Aryans who invaded and conquered the black,
native race (Risely, 1908).
3. The sample states are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and
Bihar, representing all regions of India.
4. Gandhi and Ambedkar were at opposing poles in regard to the question of the
Untouchables. Gandhi, for whom Hinduism and the caste system were not
negotiable, believed that untouchability is an evil within Hinduism, to be
reformed by Hindus. Ambedkar rejected both Hinduism and the caste system
and wanted caste to be completely purged from Hinduism (Keer, 1990, cited in
Ghose, 2003).
5. Dalits are in most states. For instance, as per the 1991 Census, they are in
Punjab (28 percent), West Bengal (24 percent), Uttar Pradesh (21 percent), Tamil

292

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014

 Problems – and Solutions? Sooryamoorthy

Nadu (19 percent), Rajasthan (17 percent), Andra Pradesh (16 percent) and in
Maharashtra (11 percent).

References
Bayly, S. (2000) Caste, Society, and Politics in India. New Delhi: Cambridge
University Press.
Charsley, S. (2001) ‘“Untouchable”: What is in a Name?’, Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute (new series) 2: 1–23.
Dumont, L. (1970) Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. London:
Vikas Publications.
Gandhi, M. K. (1931) ‘The Future of India’, International Affairs 10(6): 721–39.
Ghose, S. (2003) ‘The Dalit in India’, Social Research 70(1): 83–109.
Hutton, J. H. (1946) Caste in India: Its Nature, Functions and Origins. London:
Cambridge University Press.
Kavoori, P. S. (2002) ‘The Varna Tropic System: An Ecological Theory of Caste
Formation’, Economic and Political Weekly 23 March: 1156–64.
Kroeber, A. L. (1930) ‘Caste’, in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, pp. 254–6. New
York: Macmillan.
Nesfield, J. C. (1885) Brief View of the Caste System of the North-Western Provinces and
Oudh. Allahabad: North-Western Provinces and Oudh Education Department.
Omvedt, G. (2004) ‘Untouchables in the World of IT’, Contemporary Review
284(1660): 286–8.
Risley, H. (1908) The People of India. London: Thacker and Co.
Sooryamoorthy, R. (2006) ‘Caste Systems’, in Thomas M. Leonard (ed.)
Encyclopedia of the Developing World, Vol. 1, pp. 252–6. New York:
Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
Thorat, S. (2002) ‘Oppression and Denial: Dalit Discrimination in the 1990s’,
Economic and Political Weekly 9 February: 572–8.
Venkateswarlu, D. (1990) Harijan-Upper Class Conflict. Delhi: Discovery.
Zelliot, E. (1996) From Untouchable to Dalit. New Delhi: Manohar.

Biographical Note: R. Sooryamoorthy is associate professor in the Sociology

Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. His major
works include Managing Water and Water Users (co-editor) (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2003); Climbing Up (Tamil Nadu: PWDS, 2000);
NGOs in India (co-author) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001); Consumption
to Consumerism (New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company, 1997) and Science in
Participatory Development (co-author) (London: Zed Books, 1994).
Address: Sociology Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College
Campus, Durban 4041, South Africa. [email: sooryamoorthyr@ukzn.ac.za]

293

Downloaded from iss.sagepub.com at Malmo Hogskola on November 20, 2014