Friday, January 27, 2017
Cleanliness in "Untouchable"
In Untouchable, cleanliness is a symbol of status. To the upper castes, the simple touch of an untouchable would "taint" a public facility, rendering it useless until someone of a higher caste was able to come clean it. If an untouchable touched a person of an upper-caste, the person would have to clean themselves, "Now I will have to go and take a bath to purify myself" (37). In the novel, people who were able to keep themselves immaculately clean were seen as superior, whereas people who did not have access to clean themselves properly, like the untouchables, are seen as inferior. However, even though Bakha keeps himself clean despite his dehumanizing job of cleaning other peoples' feces, he is still seen as disgusting and literally untouchable. "And though his job was dirty he remained comparatively clean. He didn't even soil his sleeves, handling the commodes, sweeping and scrubbing them. 'a bit superior to his job,' they always said, 'not the kind of man to ought to be doing this.'...Here was a low-caste man who seemed clean!" (9). Nonetheless, to Bakha, cleanliness, like his eclectic English-Indian wardrobe, is a symbol of escape from his position in the caste system. Cleanliness represents hope, defiance, and suppresses Bakha's sense of inferiority to other castes.
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I often doubt that the people from higher castes actually believe that the touch of one dirty person can taint an entire facility. However schooling is limited. It seems crazy that they will not even touch these people or allow them to drink from the same water source, but then again these are very spiritual people who have been following the tradition for generations.
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