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ENG 344 Multimodal Analysis by Yesul Kang
: the practice of unfairly treating a person or group differently from other people or groups of people
This novel is based on a day in the life of an Untouchable named Bakha. As a member of the lowest social class, Bakha faces constant Harassment from everyone around him. Anything he touches is considered "polluted" and he is often blamed for all inconveniences. The cruel treatment Bakha receives, however, often come from older adults and parents of children. What is interesting in these interactions is that the disgust that adults feel about Bakha and the Untouchables aren't always reflected in their children.
The treatment that Bakha receives from the children and adults of higher society makes one wonder why hate towards Untouchables exist. If these children are able to play and interact with the Untouchables without feeling disgusted or contracting diseases, why do the adults believe that these groups of people will bring nothing but terrible things to them?
"The elder of the two was always a very obliging boy. He willingly suffered his mother's abuse for playing with the outcasts" (32).
"... he knew they certainly could not be cheap, certainly not for him, because the shopkeepers always deceived the sweepers and the poor people, charging them much bigger prices, as if to compensate themselves for the pollution they courted by dealing with the outcastes" (38).
Discrimination against the Untouchables come from the long tradition of caste system in India, where families are categorized based on their family name and wealth. As mentioned in the novel, Bakha was born into a family of Untouchables, which means he didn't get to choose this life of sweeping the streets and cleaning the toilets of members of the higher society. In today's world, the caste system still exists for many individuals. Although discrimination against lower caste groups isn't as extreme as they used to be, one research shows that "majorities of all major caste groups say it is very important to prevent inter-caste marriages" (Sahgal et al. 2021).
“black men were considerably more likely to experience job displacement than were white men… and the likelihood of reemployment was substantially lower for black men” (Fairlie et al. 2002).
“females earn about 73% of the total amount earned by males” (Akhmedjonov 2012)
Akhmedjonov, Alisher. “New Evidence on Pay Gap between Men and Women in Turkey.” Redirecting, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2012.04.070.
Anand, Mulk Raj. Untouchable. Penguin, 1940.
Jobs Lost, Jobs Regained: An Analysis of Black/White Differences in Job ... https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0019-8676.00099.
Sahgal, Neha, et al. “4. Attitudes about Caste.” Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, Pew Research Center, 10 June 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/attitudes-about-caste/#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20social%20hierarchy,caste%2C%20regardless%20of%20their%20religion.