A thought provoking wonderful prose by Mr Mulk Raj Anand. Untouchability is so deep rooted in the Indian society that we can still see the effects of it on the fringes of modern India. On the face of it everyone acts that they do not discriminate, but where do we go with a century of psyche and conditioned mind that lived in the society where caste system is still rampant.Change is coming but slowly and that is what I liked about this book, the author was able to bring out the subject and show how change comes surely but subtly even in the mind of the victim in this book

Bakha, the son of a sweeper and is form the lowest rung of caste system in India, in times where septic systems were not available and humans who were considered to be born in the lowest rung of caste pyramid, had to do these menial jobs. Bakha, Rakha and their sister were treated badly by society, but they had all the yearnings and desires and ambitions of youngsters of their times. They were born in the era where Gandhiji was trying to bring change to untouchability and its vivid description makes our minds weep for the injustices meted out by one human to the other.

Mulk Raj Anand has used simple english to ask an effective question through the narration of a story. The text probes the readers to question as who were the actual tyrants, the British or our very own people who were socalled 'upper-caste'? The protagonist, Baku encounters various injustuce done to him and he is the depiction of the whole race of the then called 'lower-caste' people. It was a nice read overall!

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand, story about Indian caste system and Untouchability.

Story about plight of the lower caste, how people drowned themselves in ignorance on the basis of castes and how Untouchability has been onus on Hinduism.

An account of one day in Bakha's life who belongs to the lowest caste, was a street sweeper and latrine cleaner. Story about him and his gloomy circumstances which were engulfing his aspirations of being a 'Sahib' slowly. The story ends which a inspiring note where Bakha listened to Mahatma Gandhi about emancipation of the untouchables.

Story is set up in pre independence era where India was infected by caste system, though it still prevails in some parts. Authors writing is very strong and has captured perfectly the plight of lower caste people. I somehow felt that it was more like an awareness story about the caste system which we all have learnt during our school time.
It's sad, depressing and few scenes are quite sickening but I assume that they must be real somewhere. Its a masterpiece in terms of showing the real picture about how the lower castes which treated. Language is easy and understandable. I felt pity and sympathetic towards Bakha many times while reading. I bow down to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who uplifted the lower caste.

I will completely recommend this book because though the Bakha character is fictitious but still he is present somewhere in India.

Where do I even start with this book? It was a brilliant example of the caste system, had some interesting ideas about British colonialism, and even more interesting ideas about religion.
HOWEVER, it took about ten pages to describe a woman getting water from a well? Literally nothing happened until the very end and that felt forced and cut short.
And why was the main character so obsessed with trousers?! I mean I know why! It explained why! BUT WHY IT WAS SO RIDICULOUS!

I have been reading this book for past one year and finished it only today. Reading in between the time when I finished other books and was getting a new one, I had to recall whatever happened till the pages I had read. so we can conclude that this book didn't leave much of an impression on my mind or memory. anyways I read it because I wanted to read a book by Mulk raj Anand and moreover the topic seemed quite a different one than the usual ones. It talks about a day in the life of an untouchable and how he actually sees the world treating himself and finds his answers afetr all the problems he goes through.

We all have bad days and we all look for answers to the big problems we face and how world treats us whether as being a women, being poor, being uneducated, being out of place, being unclued to the topic being discussed or being lonely or like being untouchable. and we all get over it - find some logic or reason to how this happened and learn to cope with it just like Bhakha in this book. So read on because we all are liek Bhakha but in our different social sections or zones.

For some reason, this book reminded me strongly of the story of Roberto, the youngest brother in The Children of Sánchez, perhaps because he too dreamed of escaping the ghetto and becoming someone different, someone better. Much later I discovered that Oscar Lewis was charged with "defamation" by members of the Mexican establishment who wished no one to know about the lives of the silent poor; their Mexico simply couldn't be admitted to contain people quite so thoroughly disenfranchised as the Sanchez family and thousands like them.

Not a lot "happens" in this novel; it is mostly the main character's ruminations about his position in society, his family, and his city--almost an internal monologue. We are never told his actual age; sometimes the author describes him as a strong, muscular "man", only to later give the impression that the sweeper is only a young adolescent. Perhaps the strong body houses a very young and innocent soul. At one point he meets up with an English Salvation Army missionary, who reminded me of so many missionaries I've known personally who are sent into the field after a very short "intensive" language course, and never really learn the language or culture they are sent into. The main character gains no answers to his vital questions (Who IS Jesus, anyway? What do you mean by "forgiveness"?) because the missionary can neither communicate clearly nor understand the young man's needs, being too busy singing and talking to himself. All the young fellow really wants is a pair of secondhand trousers, but he can't get the man's real attention long enough to finish a statement.

I'm afraid the author lost my attention in the last 10 pages or so, when the main character is swept along with a crowd hoping see and hear Gandhi speak. Like Zaccheus in the Gospel, he climbs a tree to see the man he hopes will save him from his fate; however, the Mahatma's words are drowned by the pontificating of several small-time "intellectuals" holding forth on the ground. There is no closing to the story, other than the main character's desire to go back to the home he's just been told (again) never to return to, and share what he thinks Gandhi's message was. I found myself skimming over the final pages. Perhaps the author was being ironic? Did he think that Gandhi had little to offer the untouchables besides "words, words, words"?

This was an interesting book in terms of its subject, but as another reviewer says, it is very didactic. And also the syle of writing doesn't quite go together with the subject, nor the protagonist. Anand apperas erudite and well read in philosophy and other subjects. It feels like he wants to show this in the book, while the main character would not have those referenses probably. It is the narrator of course, and not the main character who comes out with those thoughts, but it nonetheless takes something away from the authenticity of the narrative.

After a long time I have read a book which transcends my mind to those days when untouchability was at it's peak in India...through protagonist Bakha, author describes the life of a sweeper..what trauma and mental agony he was feeling..how a small gestures of kindness filled his heart with love and gratitude.. unique thing about the writing style of Milk Raj Anand which I find uncommon among contemporary writers is the choosing of characters in a story and their relevance for the theme of the book..every now and then I find books which have unnecessary detailing of characters which have no or very little relevance to the main theme of the story/novel..every character in this book serves his/her purpose of being mentioned in the book..not a single character in book which one could say unnecessary or elaborated unnecessarily..every character has a bearing on the life of Bakha that is the special thing which I admired the most...

Before reading this book, I had known something about the caste system in India, and I had known there was a caste called the Untouchables. But that was about the extent of my knowledge. Anand brings this caste to vivid life in this book, where we see Bahka, an 18-year-old boy destined to spend his life cleaning latrines (in the era before flush toilets) and sweeping the streets. As if that weren't bad enough, any time he touches someone, even accidentally, he "pollutes" that person, who is then required to ritually purify himself to get rid of the pollution. Bakha spends his days cleaning the filth from the latrines and the streets, and being verbally and physically abused by his father and by anyone he comes in contact with simply because of his status as an Untouchable. His sister must wait indefinitely at the water pump for a higher caste member to take pity on her to fill her jug for her. She cannot touch the pump herself because she would thereby pollute the pump and all the water inside. When Bakha becomes tired during his street-sweeping duties, he leans against a house and falls asleep. The housewife wakes him by screaming at him that he has polluted her home. Bakha must even beg for food to eat at each meal, and the housewife whose home he polluted flings bread at him from the upper storey of her home, and it lands in the gutter. Yet he is still expected to eat it and be grateful that she gave him anything.

It's a rather heart-breaking book, and the reader does begin to wonder if the Untouchables felt like Bakha, still optimistic and noticing the beauty of the world, even after being physically and verbally abused, and told that he is worth nothing and that he pollutes everything he touches. Were I in his shoes, I'd end up rather downtrodden and hating life.

I read this for this Post-Colonial English Lit class that I am taking and to be honest, I don't know where this book is when it comes to the topic. Anyway, I'll be writing my essay on this book; I haven't yet decided what particular topic it is that I want to focus on specifically but there were a lot of things that were glaringly wrong with this book. And some others that were right. First, the hindi interspersed with the English confused me. I'm familiar with the language and I insist, that the way it is translated is not in fact the way it is used but whatever. No one listens to me. Also, Bakha was highly romanticized. That turned me off straight away. You are talking about an untouchable, give us the gritty details. Do not paint him to be the diamond in the dust. Which is exactly what Anand did. He didn't represent the entire populace of the Untouchables - just this one boy who seemed to be "superior" to others. This is still perpetuating the idea of hierarchy within humanity - just not of the caste kind and it is still wrong. Then the abrupt shift from the village/simplistic tone and language to something out of Bloomsbury. The language shift is jarring and discordant and I understand its intention but its execution is poor and does not make for a smooth reading. I didn't understand the focus of this book and I give it three stars because it made me realize (however much it tried to obfuscate the details with artistry) the dirty details of an Untouchable's life.

In the Introduction, EM Forester focuses on Anand’s use of shit and the resultant shock of it, which brings attention to the plight of the lowest caste of untouchables in India, the latrine and ditch workers, those who clean up everyone else’s shit, or as one character describes the sweeper caste, “You eater of your masters.”

Like James Joyce’s Ulysses, Untouchable centers on a single character, a young sweeper named Bakha, and his actions over the course of a day. Throughout the novel, Anand humanizes the outcasts while demonstrating how destructive and dehumanizing the caste system is. What I find most interesting about the novel is Anand’s inclusivity, which incorporates upper-caste Hindus and British colonials. Anand has issues with systems which produce inequities and lead people to reproduce those inequities, but he seems to believe that people are generally good and compassionate. The novel breaks into three sections: Bakha in the outcast neighborhood and environs, Bakha in the city center, Bakha back home in his neighborhood. Untouchable is a quick bildungsroman, capturing in the course of a day the key moments that allow Bakha to develop a more mature sensibility at a time when the world is in the midst of radical change.

The novel begins in the outcast district, where there is a sense of fellow feeling, of people looking out for one another. This is especially true among the children, who do not differentiate between the castes at all, because they haven’t learned adult prejudices yet. Bakha is the son of Lakha, who works in the city, while Bakha cleans the latrines in the district. He is energetic and efficient, good-looking and muscular. When people complain about dirty latrines, he cleans them immediately. He seems content and has a good work ethic. Bakha is tempted to be truant by his friends, but he resists. Bakha also likes cleaning the local barracks, because the British are clean, and Bakha likes their clothes and dresses like them in admiration and aspiration. Bakha cannot attend school, but he aspires to read and writer, and like Frederick Douglass he contracts with one of his friends who is going to school to teach him. The scene shifts to his sister, Sohini, who goes out to get water. The outcasts cannot draw water from a caste well, and all the wells are caste wells, so they have to wait for a caste member to draw the water for them. Solini is pretty and buxom, and a priest, who comes to the well is attracted to her and invites her to sweep at his temple in the city, which is a great opportunity for the family to make more money. The priest is also suffering from constipation, and Anand spends quite a bit of time describing its effects on his body. The symbolism is pretty obvious. Shit is everywhere, and on everyone’s mind. Lakha harangues his kids, but he is good at heart. He is also feeling under the weather, so Bakha will do his father’s job at a temple in the city, while his younger brother Rakha will do his. Sending two inexperienced and innocent young people into the city starts the plot moving.

The second section of the novel documents Bakha and Solini in the city. Bakha is attracted to and distracted by all the people and hubbub. He buys sweets, a treat that he can barely afford, but which he loves with a gourmet’s sense of taste. Bahka prefers to be simply invisible when he navigates the city, but indulging in all the distractions Bahka does not announce his presence–”Posh. Posh. Sweeper coming.”--as he should, and he bumps into a higher caste Hindu who excoriates him, creating a very public scene of humiliation and finally violence when he knocks Bakha’s turban off. The transcendent moment of the candy gives way to abject objectification. Everyone piles on to humiliate the poor sweeper, until a Muslim cart driver, another outcast, interrupts the piling on and disperses the crowd. Bakha feels both deflated and angry. He can’t do anything, can’t force his way through the crowd, because he is an untouchable. He is disgusted by their disgust, but he cannot do anything: he cannot escape his conflicted existence. Back home in the outcast district, Bakha does not have to deal with so much naked bigotry, but in the city he is overwhelmed by it.

After this incident, instead of being the innocent, hard working kid that he was in his home district, Bakha now proceeds to his temple job with anger and humiliation, warning everyone of his presence on the street. He hates his life and feels the disdain of others sharply. He is now a completely different person than he was at the beginning of the novel: a fascinating transformation and one of Anand’s most notable achievements in the novel. But when Bahka gets to the temple, he has an experience that is not unlike what he experienced with the candy. Bakha hears the call to prayer. He is curious and intelligent, and he is drawn to the beauty of the call, which distracts him. He knows that he cannot enter the temple, but he climbs to the upper step to observe the call to more closely. He is still called out, “Pollution. Pollution.” Bakha has a beautiful soul, a soul moved by beauty, and in a caste-driven world this puts him in great danger.

In the city, Bakha just keeps getting in trouble, which just unravels him emotionally. At the temple where he was supposed to work and where his sister did come to work, he discovers that the priest who called him out had just molested his sister. There is untouchable, and there is untouchable; there is pollution, and there is pollution.. In this milieu of hostile, violent bigotry, Bakha finds himself contemplating killing the priest but represses the urge. As his father would have done, Bakha stops at a street to beg bread, but he is so worn out and frazzled that he falls asleep and dreams, only to wake up being yelled at for polluting someone’s front stoop. Holy men who walk by are treated to food and praise, but Bakha is treated to abuse and little food. The outcasts are treated as scapegoats. People heap their ugliest feelings on them. The son of the upset woman poops in the ditch next to Bakha. She throws the sweeper bread, which ends up in the ditch. By the end of his day in the city, Bakha experiences nothing but abjection.

In the third section, Bakha returns home to the comfort of the outcast district and tells the stories of all the affronts. His father, Lakha, is more sympathetic than angry with him. He shares his own experience of having polluted an upper caste doctor when he tried to get medicine for Bahka when he was very sick as a young boy. Lahka speaks what I assume to be Anand’s position when he attributes all the caste cruelty to religion, whereas people can be kind. Lakha worked very hard to melt the doctor’s heart, and he succeeded, for the doctor actually comes to the outcast’s house, daring pollution, to bring medicine for Bakha. Bakha feels a little better after his father’s story. The younger brother, Rakha, returns with food. Some of the leftovers are wet, though, and Bakha feels nauseous as he remembers how people will run water over leftover, often rotting food. The untouchable world is an abject one, and Bakha cannot return to the innocent, hard-working person he was that morning

Still feeling restless and emotionally prickly, Bakha feels the need to escape family and home, and he goes to his friend Ram Charan’s house to see his sister’s wedding. He’s looking for solace but instead feels some jealousy, because when he was a child he played with the sister, played her husband, and now she is out of his reach. Ram Charan’s family is not high caste, but it is a higher caste than Bakha’s family. The children of the lower castes don’t differentiate. They play together. They are innocent. But society at large and the adults differentiate. Charan’s mother is upset that Bakha has come to the wedding and that her son is running off with him, to eat sweets. But here, unlike in the city, the mother cannot rile up others in support of her derision, and Ram can rebel against her. Bakha wanders the hills around the outcast’s district with his friends. He appreciates the beauty of nature, begins to calm down, and he tells them about his ugly experiences in the city, after which they offer him support and comradely bravado.

Bakha then has three experiences that open him up to hope. He goes to the local military base to find the soldier who had offered to give him a field hockey stick. The soldier sends him to the kitchen to get a light for his pipe and tea. Bakha is afraid but nothing happens, and then the soldier drinks tea out of the same receptacle as Bahka. Shocking! Anand then balances this moment of hope. Bakha plays in a pick up game of hockey, in the course of which there is a brawl, and a small boy is hurt. Bakha takes the boy home, and the mother blames Bakha simply because he is an untouchable. No good turn goes unpunished. Still agitated and restless, Bakha wanders on and encounters a Salvation Army captain who serves in the outcast district and preaches that everyone is equal in front of the lord. Bakha understand the message but then he encounters the captain’s wife, who is a raging bigot and complains to her husband that she hates living amongst all the “blacks.”

Only at the end of Untouchable does Anand tip the balance. Still walking, Bakha finds himself at a rally featuring Mahatma Gandhi, who has just been released from jail. As a condition of his release, Gandhi can’t speak against the government. Instead he inveighs against the Hindu attitude toward untouchables. If British colonialism exploits the Indian people, in India the untouchables have been exploited for far longer. The audience is huge, enthusiastic, and diverse with all castes represented, all dressed differently, Indian clothes and foreign clothes. Despite this show of coming together, Bahka still feels uncomfortable and won’t touch anyone. After a number of nasty experiences during the day, Bakha has had a few hopeful ones as counterweight. He decides to return home to tell his father what he has learned. For Anand, there are certainly bad actors, but their antipathy is not the result of some kind of deep personal animus. Rather, they are caught in a social and religious system that leads them to believe and/or act as bigots. Just as Lahka found hope in the doctor who voluntarily came to the outcast district to treat Bakha when he was a boy, so does Bakha now find hope.

Untouchable is an interesting peek into the life of one "untouchable", Bakha, through his eyes during the time span of a single day. To say his life is rough and pretty much hopeless would be an understatement. He cleans latrines and spends his days working very hard and begging. Anand shows the reader the many trials and travails these folks faced, and it's painful. In one instance, Bakha inadvertently touches someone from a higher caste, and the tumult that ensues is just awful. Sort of the way I might react if I encountered a big hairy tarantula on my face.

The book was a four star read for me until the end. I really empathized with Bakha and found his plight interesting. Anand shares his inner thoughts, and I found this very helpful when it came to seeing thing through his eyes.

Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed and while it was supposed to be hopeful, I definitely didn't find it emotionally moving. I don't want to spoil it, but it read quite differently than the rest of the tale, and for me, wasn't really uplifting, and also felt like a whole lot of "telling" as opposed to showing the reader how Bakha benefited from his encounters with Ghandi, a missionary, and a poet. Poorly conceived ending to an interesting book.