Overtime I have learned plenty
about racism between different races, but I never put much thought into the
possibility that a specific race could have classes and stereotypes among their
own people. In a novel that I recently read, Untouchable, I learned the different class systems that took place
in India during the 1930’s. The novel Untouchable
highlights the issues of racial formation by showing us how India has let
caste systems determine people’s importance in society. The author tells his story through Bakha, a
teenage outcaste living in the slums of India. Bakha is seen as an
“untouchable” in the society’s caste system. Being an outcaste came with the
baggage of labor that was to be done, sweeping and cleaning the latrines were
duties that Bakha was destined to due to his class system. His filthy profession was a reminder of the
human status Bakha was condemned to from birth. The conflict in the novel
between Bakha and his oppressors demonstrates to readers the importance for his
emotions. On one hand he doesn’t
question the paradigm he lives in; on the other, knowledge on the Englishmen’s
way of living arouses questions and feelings within him that make him question
the paradigm he lives in. Based on
Bakha’s hate, resentment, and anger shown all throughout the book we learn that
his emotions are what draw him to the Englishmen way of living. These emotions
draw him to the English way of living because he has hope in escaping his
lifestyle. His experiences help me understand his confusion for the way he’s
treated and his confusion for the restrictions he faces in living the way he
would like to.
Throughout the book I see experiences that
Bakha goes through that grow into the resentment he has towards being an outcaste.
His emotions turn cold in a specific scene in the novel Bakha is roaming around
the town and accidently bumps into a Hindu merchant. This is beyond an insult
to the merchant and he begins to yell out racial slurs, “Keep to the side you
low caste vermin! Why don’t you call you swine, and announce your approach! Do
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” (Anand 46). This is a
perfect example of the treatment he goes through due to his role in society.
Experiences like these are what contribute to Bakha’s hate for being an
outcaste. Watching the way English men live is what draws Bakha to their
lifestyle and makes him start question the way that he lives. He begins to
wonder why he has to do things that Bramines, higher caste people, aren’t
entitled to do. He wishes he could go for a walk around town and enjoy a jalebi
without having to worry about warning others, walking around, of his coming. If
he were an Englishmen he would get the pleasure of eating his jalebi without
having to ever worry about being embarrassed or harassed. Witnessing how easy
the Englishmen have it influence Bakha to want to dress like then. The clear
cut styles of European dress impress his outcaste mind. Bakha wished to be a
“tommy.” When he first lived at the British regimental barracks with his uncle
he got a glimpse if the British lifestyle. He carefully watched “of the life
the Tommie’s lived, sleeping on strange, low canvas beds covered tightly with
blankets, eating eggs, drinking tea and wince in tin mugs, going to parade and
then walking down the bazar with cigarette in their mouths and small
silver-mounted canes in their hands” (Anand 11). He was filled with an
overwhelming feeling to live their lifestyle. Bakha felt that if he dressed
like them then he too would be a sahib. Her had hope in becoming like them so
much that he tried to copy then in everything they did. He sacrificed many
comforts like sleeping warm in blankets for the sake of “fashun” Luckily Bakha
had a pair of trousers given to him by a tommy and a pair of boots and puttees
given to him by a Hindu sepoy. From time to time he would go to rag-sellers
shops with money he saved to buy some items and “Red Lamp” cigarettes for his
enjoyment. Bakha’s desire to live like the Englishmen took over him and was an
escape from his miserable reality. He was wrapped up in being a Tommy that very
often he would forget his role in society.
Bakha’s emotions towards his outcaste
lifestyle make him cling to the idea of being a Christian. When Colonel
Hutchinson, chief of the local Salvation Army, brings up Christianity to Bakha
it opens the door to becoming an Englishmen. Bakha gets drawn to the Colonel’s
words on Yessuh Messih. He likes the fact that Colonel Hutchinson being a sahib
sees himself as an equal to an untouchable. Although he didn’t care much about
who Yessuh Messiah was he still listened to the sahib because he wore trousers
and to Bakha those trousers meant much more than being a sahib. To him dressing
like an Englishmen and practicing the same religion meant he would also be seen
as one. Bakha being vulnerable to his lifestyle listens to Colonel Hutchinson
as he speaks of Yessuh Messiahs’ love for all “He sacrificed himself for us,
for the rich and the poor, for the Brahmin and the Bhangi” (Anand 129). If
being a Christian meant that Bakha would be one step closer to living like an
Englishmen then he was in. Another scene where Bakha’s emotions shift is when
Gandhi speaks to all the classes. When Gandhi points out how the government has
tried to alienate the “untouchables” from Hinduism by trying to give them a
spate legal and political status Bakha is touched by this. It was interesting
to see how he pointed out the hypocritical way of thinking of the higher caste
people and in some way tore down the paradigm that the untouchables lived in.
Bakha admires Gandhi’s words and for once hears what he’s wanted to for so
long. His hope in becoming an Englishmen almost seems unnecessary after what
Gandhi says. After years of being angry and ashamed of being an untouchable,
for once he felt that he could walk the same streets as Englishmen one day
without having to be one.
It’s important to understand
Bakha’s emotions throughout the novel because his frustrations on being an
outcaste are what draw him to the Englishmen’s lifestyle. His cruel experiences
are what push him to finding ways of escaping his lifestyle. Bakha’s role in
society and unhappiness reminds me of people in our society who are unhappy
with where they are. Most people who are unhappy with their position in life
let their emotions lead them to wanting to desperately be something else. It
was shocking to learn how people from the same country could be so different
all because of their status in society. The separation created among the people
in 1930’s India reminds me of America now. Although we are all living in the
same country its astonishing to see how limited our opportunities can be
depending on our status. All throughout history status has been what others pay
attention to in order to acknowledge how significant you are. A society where
social status is a non factor is a society that I would like to live in. A
society where everyone is happy with where they are and have no one to look up
at because we are all at the same level is a society that I hope we can someday
attain.
