The document discusses casteism in India and its portrayal in two literary works - Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand and Chandalika by Rabindranath Tagore. It summarizes the main characters Bakha and Prakriti who are outcasts, and how casteism affects them by restricting their access to public places and denying their human dignity. While they dream of a life of freedom and equality, societal realities of discrimination and hierarchy persist. The document examines how other religions provided hope to escape casteism but the system continues to promote class discrimination in India.

1. Caste System:
Crisis of Religion & Evolution of Self-identity
Presentation By
Sarjina Hossain Trima
Fahmida Khanam

2. The anathema of casteism brings terrible consequences in modern
era, especially in post-colonial society, defining the role and reputation
of society’s people according to their professions. In Untouchable by
Mulk Raj Anand and Chandalika by Rabindranath Tagore, they
criticize casteism in an artistic way. The theme of peace and social
equality are drawn through the picture of Prakriti in Chandalika. Bakha,
on the other hand is the male protagonist in Untouchable that focuses
on the point of alienation and humiliation of being outcasts. But, the
names of Prakriti and Bakha signify the movement of time. This
presentation highlights religious hypocrisy and issues of casteism.

3. Two Main Characters
in the light of Casteism

4. What is caste?
Caste is a traditional Brahmanical thinking about hierarchy , purity and
pollution(Sharma,U.p.33). The word caste is derived from Portuguese word
“casta” meaning pure breed(Sharma,U.p.2). In Indian Language “casta” is
replaced by Varna, which means a type of social organization in which a
person’s occupation and status is determined by the circumstances of
his/her birth.
Key characteristics:
• The concept of purity-pollution
• Inability to alter inherited status.
• Segregation in location of living
areas.
• Restricted access to temple,
and public places.
• Generalized lack of respect for
their human dignity and equality

5. The Glimpse of Bakha
• In Untouchable Bakha is
a scavenger boy.
• He lives with his father
Lakha (Jamader of all
sweepers),brother Rakha
and sister Sohini.
• Bakha comes to us as a
young man of 18,strong
and able- bodied.
• Extra-ordinary quality of
dreaming
The Nature of Prakriti
• Prakriti is a
Chandal(Namosudro)
girl in the dance drama
Chandalika.
• She lives with her
mother Maya who
knows black magic.
• Their occupation relates
to the disposal of
corpses.
• Prakriti possesses self-
identity consciousness
along with the desire for
freedom.

6. Effects of Casteism over Bakha and Prakriti
• Not allowed to touch anyone
especially belonging to higher
Hindu caste ,even by mistake.
• Collect foods which are thrown to
them by higher caste the way a
butcher throws bones to dogs.
• Not allowed to enter the temple in
prospect of polluting others.
• not allowed to mount the platform
surrounding the well used by the
upper castes.
• Not allowed to touch upper
castes .For example, when Prakriti
wants to buy flowers, curd or
bangles, the other higher caste
girls humiliate her by saying “oke
chouna chouna chi,o chandalinir
jhee”(don’t touch….you daughter
of a chandalini ).This scene
clarifies her social position as a
polluted outcast.(It is important to
note that her counterpart Ananda
is an untouchable converted to
Buddhism.)

7. Other Religions providing Probable Solutions
• Buddhism: “It’s a new birth for me, a
new birth, my new birth, my body
awoke with jolt/my soul got conscious
all of a sudden”
• The philosophy of buddhism subsists
in the dance drama Chandalika. For
Prakriti Ananda embodies liberation,
and has shown her way out of
darkness of casteism by asking some
water from an untouchable girl like her.
• On the other hand, the desire for the
love or companionship is indeed her
inner wish to establish her self-hood
like other human being, as it’s a taboo
that an outcaste can never dare to live
with high status and dignity.

8. Islam
“They don’t mind touching us,the
Muhammadans and the shahibs”
In Untouchable Bakha complains
that because of his untouchability
only the Hindus and the other
outcastes who are not sweepers
always consider him as polluted
and impure.
 The Muslim tonga-wala
understands the problem, and
stands firmly to rescue Bakha.
Metaphorically , he liberate Bakha
from the torture of casteism
Christianity
 The presence of Christian Padri
colonel Hutchinson as an
dedicated,committed chief of
salvation Army( a Christian
missionary organization use to
motivate people to Christinity)
gives some light of hope for the
depressed Bakha.
“Bakha was struck with
coincidence. How did the padri
know he was in trouble”
 He helps Bakha feel honored by
talking Hindustani with him.
 Bakha feels delighted and happy
for having sympathy from him that
he never gets in his own
community.

9. Identity Crisis and the Emergence of a New Light of Hope
The characters of Bakha and Prakriti can be compared to a ray of light shooting
through the darkness. Bakha is a scavenger boy while Prakriti is a chandal
girl. Both are considered as untouchable and the society ignores their
existence. But, they declare a new era of revolution for the outcastes by
 Questioning about their self-existence.
 Raising their voice against hypocrisy of casteism
 Defining the lack of self –identity for the outcasts.
 The pro-Harijan campaign of Mahatma Gandhi in the late 1930s as
manifested in Untouchable is reformative in spirit:
“they should realize that they are cleaning Hindu society ; in order to
emancipate themselves, they have tp purify themselves. They have to rid
themselves of evil habits, like drinking liquor and eating carrion”
So , one can easily find that there still exists a long distance between their
dream and reality.

10. Bakha
Fantasy
 He is caught by the glamour of ‘white man’s
life.
 Understands the art of fashun( wearing
trousers,coat,boots etc)
 He sleeps with the blanket of gora.
 He feels amazed to see their life style( such
as sleeping in low canvas bed, eating eggs,
drinking tea and wine in tin mugs)
 Desires for education, so he requests
Babu’s son to teach him lessons.(because,
if he wants to be shahib, he must go to
school for education.)
 The pro-Harijan campaign seems to give
him a new hope as Mahatma Gandhi told
“I should be so, not as a
Brahmin,Kshatriya,Vaishya,Sudra,but as an
outcaste,as an untouchable”
Reality
 Bakha’s friends cut jokes with him by
calling ‘Pilpali sahib’ that means
imitaion shahib. Its indicates the reality
of Bakha’s life and the truth that except for
his English clothes there was nothing
English in his life.
 Though he desires for going to the school
and getting educated, he was never allowed
to go to school. Because, upper-caste
teachers would never allow an outcaste to
pollute their texts by letting their leaves to
touch it.
 His hopes fall when Gandhi said that the
outcastes had the evil habits like drinking
liquor and eating carrion.

11. Prakriti
Fantasy
 Like other women Prakriti loves to
adorn herself with flowers,
bangles, loves to taste curd.
 Desires for the companionship of
the monk .
 She believes that if she gets the
companionship of Ananda ,she
can ensure her life-long dignity .so
she provokes her mother to apply
black magic to bring back Ananda.
Reality
 Like other women she is not
allowed to buy or touch flowers,
curds or bangles as she is an
outcactes. No one wants to deal
with her in fear of pollution.
 But In reality when Ananda comes
to her life by means of magic,
Ananda is not the same, is
distracted and broken.

12. Present Circumstances of Outcastes

13. Conclusion
It is obvious that with the theme of untouchability both Mulk Raj
Anand and Rabindranath Tagore were making an extremely
bold socio-political statement against the discrimination of
untouchables .But truth is that the system is not removed yet. It
is continuously promoting class discrimination in the name of
religion in this sub-continent.

14. Bibliography
• Anand,Mulk R.Untouchable.New Delhi:Penguin Books,2001.
• Chaudhuri,Sudipta. “Signifying The Self:Intersections of Class,Caste
and Gender in Rabindranath Tagor’s Dance Drama Chandalika.The
Rupkotha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.22 July
2007.
• Ghurye,S.Caste and Race in India,6th
end. Bombay:Popular
Prakashan,1969.
• Gould,H.Politics and Caste.New Delhi:Chanakya Publication,1990.
• Sharma,U.Caste.New Delhi:Vinod Vasistha For Viva Books Private
Limited,2005.
• Tagore,R.Gitabitana.Kolkata:Visva Bharati.