Untouchable describes a single day in the life of Bakha, a teenage lad who belongs to the caste of sweepers. His father is the jamadar (head) of the sweepers in the cantonment outside of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. They live in the outcastes’ colony that is situated away from the town as well as the cantonment across an open field, a place without drains, light or water. The day begins with his father scolding him awake as he shivers in the cold, and ends with him listening to a speech by Gandhi.

The story takes place somewhere between 1933 and 1935, following Gandhi’s release from jail and the signing of the Poona Pact. In those days, one imagines that caste and the idea of emerging out of the caste system would have become the popular talk of the town. Untouchable was published in the same year that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar wrote ‘The Annihilation of Caste’. Untouchable, in that context, is a novel that in the span of a single day tries to bring out all that a dalit person endures each and every day. More than that, it also tries to understand what goes on in the mind of this person as this life is cruelly thrust upon him, his own attitude towards caste and those of others around him. In the present day and age, a Hindu kshatriya trying to write about the pain and thoughts of a dalit is itself fraught with outraging certain sections of the society. Yet in 1935 when this book was published and the voices of the dalits were few, this book accomplished exactly that with finesse.

Bakha cannot touch anyone around him who doesn’t reside in the outcastes colony, for his touch is seen to be polluting. Even some of the other castes such as the dhobis (washermen) regard him as an untouchable. When he wants to buy something with his hard-earned money, the shopkeepers point him to place the money on the ground, and then proceeds to pour water on it before picking it up; when he begs for food on the streets that he has swept clean, ladies of the house hurl food at him from the upper floors of their houses rather than give it to him; he is publicly humiliated for brushing past a passer-by. Yet, this system doesn’t prevent the high-caste brahmin from molesting his younger sister, highlighting the hypocrisy behind the notion of caste. Bakha is at an age when he revolts against the idea of being relegated to the life of a sweeper. He yearns to be able to read, but there are no teachers who would take him. He wears discarded clothes of the the tommies because they do not treat him the way Indians do. He wants to become a sahib and wear a sola hat and a uniform and to be respected by those around him. The book tries to evoke in the reader a disgust for the caste system by portraying the cruelty that is inflicted by the caste system on the dalits. The audience for this book at the time of publication would have been restricted to English-educated Indian elites and Europeans.

While, on one hand, Bakha has high ambitions for himself, his father has fully given in into this system and rationalises his own status: “They are really kind.” He further theorises, “We must realise that it is religion which prevents them from touching us.” Bakha, on the other hand, is disgusted by this system. His friend, Chota, is somewhat of a similar streak. His other mate, Ram Charan, though himself an untouchable for virtually everyone, takes pride in the fact that there is someone below him. On the other hand, there is Charat Singh the hockey player who seems not to mind the notion of pollution. He recognises the hard work that Bakha does in the latrines and gives him a hockey stick that is brand new in Bakha’s eyes. He allows Bakha free access to his house and kitchen. In the cruel world all around, he represents the kind of people who do not pay much heed to the notion of caste.

The narrative is well-paced. It tends to follow the rhythms of Bakha’s mind. The narrative moves in turns, sometimes working vigorously alongside Bakha and at other times it lingers around his thoughts during moments of rest. There is subtlety in unexpected places.

However, Anand sees the problem with caste system in 1930s as arising out of the needs of the society. He believes the introduction of the toilet flush system would deal a blow to this social system. This simply turns out to be untrue. The idea of caste is so ingrained, it is carried even across the oceans to wherever the subcontinental diaspora is found on the globe, and it continues across generations today. The idea of caste grants a sense of power and dominance to a certain section of the society, a function which is independent of the occupational needs of the society. When you are taught since birth that you and your family are superior or inferior from others, it forms the bedrock of your personality and it is not easily let go.

Anand misses out on the voice of the dalits themselves. The book steers clear from the ideas of Dr. Ambedkar. However, as this the focus is on the actual experience of Bakha, rather than the political mobilisation around caste, perhaps Anand was bound by the scope of his book to restrict himself. Yet the appearance and lecture of Gandhi in the end seems like deus ex machina, but yet too fitting. It was, after all, only the message of Gandhi that for a moment binds the crowd together. It is only Gandhi who would not be attacked for questioning the idea of caste; only Gandhi whose message is understood, which percolates down to Bakha and gets digested, not that of the proselytising missionary.