12. THE UNTOUCHABILITY AND THE UNTOUCHABLES

The Untouchable group was the last to appear in the Hindu society. These people face untouchability from the rest of society. The untouchability means that some people are considered so heathen that it is forbidden to touch them. Their touch corrupts the Dharma. Their mere touch is supposed to pollute others and render them unfit for mundane tasks. Believe it or not, nobody has so far proven this so called polluting property but it is taken as the scriptural truth! And you cannot beat the scriptures in truthfulness; these were written by the sages, the seers, the Brahmans and the Rishis with the unimpeachable integrity. Do not you believe them? You should believe all their unproven statements and then believed these statement to be pinnacles of facts and the truth; do not any inquiry please. Only then you should able to understand the intricacies of the Sanatana Dharma. Nobody has so far proven the property of purity assigned to some paranormal and cruel Lawmakers. Even the touch of the shadow can corrupt (???) the upper castes; therefore, the provisions were made that these people did not cross the path of the upper castes and if needed interacted with them at a distance. They were excluded from any meaningful parts of the life. Shadow pollutes!!! Must be some geniuses at work for the development of concepts like this one - Rishis, seers, lawmakers - the revered geniuses at par with Newton and Einstein!!! And their souls which have attained the Moksha never convulse out, out of shame or for the foolishness for providing these idiotic, moronic, perverted and morbid concepts. No the cannot be called perverted or morbid in any sense; their high ethical and high moral status prohibits it. So out with any perversion and any morbidity, as far as the high caste people are concerned. But the high castes they seem to be rather proud of achievement of their Rishis or Brahmans. Yes, proud of their exclusivity, after all, they are the pious and pure people! And morbidity? It cannot touch them, by definition. The Untouchables are not the part of the pure Varna society. They are too impure to be included in the divine Varna society. Society does not interact with them but it bleeds their labor dry. (As if the different segments of Hindu society, truly interact with each other.) They have to stay outside the villages out of hatred develop for them in society. The purity is repulsive of extreme impurity. Hatred runs from top to down, but reaching the bottom this hatred becomes extreme, and, wrenches the miseries of the bottom people. The twisted miseries can be quite shuddering. Society consistently reaps this hatred for the benefit of the pure people. The lowest stratum has to earn living by doing the unclean jobs which are considered too dirty and polluting by others including the Shudras. It is easy to see these as simple discriminations and somewhat harmful, but the actual results are shuddering and shaking. This crippling disability is passed off lightly as "some disabilities" and "some discrimination" as though it is of no consequences, by the defenders of Hindu society; these are simple trivia on which the time should not be wasted. And everything is terribly nice.
The untouchability is passed down through heredity. It is birth-attached. There are about two hundred million Untouchables in India forming twenty percent of the Hindu population. The stake of these people in society and country is almost negligible. They are actively deprived of any rights to participate in any beneficial social and economic activities. This crippling and spiritual society could do nothing else. No doubt, it is quite sustainable in the absence of internal opposition, which is so weak that it cannot walk straight. In the absence of any link with the profitable activities, these people remain poor, and live a wretched life. It is simple awarding of the penury by the Dharma Shashtras. Society actively participates in the process which makes them weak, poor, hated, despised, disabled and effectively crippled. It cuts them off from anything beneficial in a bid to keep them in perpetual servitude and submissiveness. This wretchedness forms twenty percent of Hindu society while supreme purity lies at the top forming three-four percent of society. If you add three Varnas then this creams forms eighteen percent of the Hindu population.
The practice of untouchability is an integral part of the traditional Hindu society. It is effective as crippling the lower caste people makes them unable to raise their heads, ever. Most importantly, it asserts the divine purity and superiority of the upper castes. A very big portion of Hindu society belongs to the category of Untouchables. These are the people whose touch or their shadow's touch is enough to pollute a man of higher strata requiring a purification ritual which includes usually taking bath and other atonement activities. Additionally, it also invites use of gross invectives and expletives against fifth stratum people and if desired then a corporal punishment which leaves the victim writhing in pain. It all depends on the mood of upper castes but the punishment is imminent. The mildest form is the reprimand. The severity may also depend on the mood of upper castes and it may include the dishonoring of Untouchable women and the killing of males. The crimes against them are not judiciable in the traditional Hindu society. There is no authority in Hindu society where they can complain. As far as they are concerned the Hindu society is a lawless jungle - the barbarians have not improved. Their complaints are not judiciable in the Hindu society. It seems that the Untouchables have always lived under a low intensity hidden one-sided terror war, which raises its cruel face whenever it wants. It is similar to a war because dishonoring the women and killing the males are the characteristics of a war. They perpetually live under fear and hunger which have induced servility in them. This continuous war in pieces is waged by the landed castes on the behalf of the pure and pious lawmakers and the Dharma. The upper castes are deeply entrenched in religious and social system which sacredly sanctifies the oppression against the fifth stratum. And they sleep soundly with a clear and deep conscience. The dominant castes kill and oppress the poor Untouchables for not doing their biddings. This is an eternal source of happiness for them; thousands of flowers bloom - and smirk. The upper castes live happily under the umbrella of the Dharma Shashtras.
There are some people who argue that the untouchability is not a part of Hindu religion. If it is so then one must be reminded that neither the Varna nor the Santana Dharma was part of the Rig Vedic society. And even before that there was no Rig Veda itself. Hindu Dharma was born with Varna Dharma in later Vedic times and with its paradigm of purity which emphasizes on inherent purity of human beings, it gave birth, logically, to dharmic practice of untouchability, in the due course of time. A great dharmic tradition emerged to keep society purer by keeping the polluted people outside society. Keeping dirty and polluting people outside society, was a definite way to maintain the purity of Hindu society.
When did the practice come into existence? We have a purifier in the Rig Veda but not impure people. The lawmakers are also not there in it. The untouchability existed at the time of the Buddha. However, for our purpose we will turn to Manusmriti which relates to the period prior to entry of temples in Hindu society. Though the word Untouchable (Aspryasya) is not found in Manusmriti, all the signs of untouchability are present in it. The Manusmriti is dated to a period around 200 BC. It is the period when Manusmriti was finalized but it is most probably related to very early Period.
 There is absence of temples in Manusmriti along with the absence of code of conduct regarding temple entry by the Untouchables. This issue is sufficiently addressed in the later Smritis. The later Dharma Shastras prescribe the purification if an Untouchable enters a temple then a suitable frightening punishment should be meted out to him. They are not above killing the Untouchable daring to enter the temples. These are only frivolous trivia, nothing much to talk about. They kill them with a clear conscience. There are no holes in their consciousness.
These Untouchables keep on entering anywhere they want! Is there not any Dharma? They try to enter our temples! We are upper castes and have sacred temples. They cannot enter into them. See our God will be polluted. In the entire world, only we have the gods that could be polluted! God can be defiled! You know! We have the most pure God. Even the gods have degrees of purity; if they are defiled, they become less pure and sacred. Nobody else has the defilable gods. We have the best religion in the world because it privileges us with everything with a stable society with a cowering lower part of society which means eternal benefits for us.
A defilable God! A strange concept indeed! There is no such thing as defilable God, if any; God who can be defiled by the simple presence of a poor human being simply cannot exist by definition. The gods are supposed to protect the weak. Such nasty schemes do not exist in Hindu Dharma, here they are supposed to protect the strong - Dharma when protected, protects. The Manusmriti refers to a period when the temples had not come into existence. There were no idols of great Trinity: the Brahma, the Vishnu and the Mahesh. And Vedas were considered to be three in number not four.
We can turn to Manusmriti to find the prevailing notions of impurities and purification. According to Manusmriti a twice-born man has to purify himself in order to carry out his religious duties.
For the untouchability to exist in Manusmriti, it is necessary that the concepts of purity, impurity and a method of purification must exist. The idea must exist that the pollution can spread by mere touch and can be removed.
According to Manusmriti a Brahman should not eat from the vessels which are defiled or contaminated. Here the unclean is different from impure or contaminated. The cleanliness is usually on the surface but the impurity is embedded. The impurity is supposed to get embedded in the vessels touched by Shudras and the Untouchables. The unclean can be cleaned but the impure have to be purified, it cannot be purified by merely a simple act of thorough cleaning. To remove the impure state the rituals are required to purify. The Untouchables are not eligible for going through any Vedic rituals, purifying or otherwise; so they remain the polluting impure. The lower two groups are defined as being innately polluted - the impurity is fused with them - hence no cure. The innate impurity cannot be washed away. Further impurity can be introduced by a simple touch of an ultra super clean Untouchable. But any impurity can be removed from the polluted high caste person since he does not have any innate impurity. The impurity in question has been hoisted upon him. Further, according to the Manusmriti a man can become impure due to births and deaths in his families. Further, a Brahman is prohibited from taking food from a Shudra. This can only be on account on impurities inherent in Shudra because of his divinely impure origin. If impurity does not spread by touch then there is no reason for a Brahman to not accept the food from any of the Shudras. From the impure people comes the impure food which is unsuitable for the superior, pure, pious and paranormal people having the mouth which recites the sacred Vedic mantras on which the divinity dances. The impure food should enter the pure mouth reciting sacred and divine Vedas! Sacrilege, man pure sacrilege - it is pure sacrilege! There is a fear of becoming impure as indicated in Manusmriti and an obsession to maintain the purity of Brahmans. Also it is necessary that the Brahman wives remain really pure and chaste so that the purity of the Brahman husband is not affected. The Brahman girls and wives should be really chaste else the Brahmanical purity would be in danger. At the top, these fears and desires dominate the Hindu society.
 The people from whom a Brahman should not accept food are - a carpenter, a usurer, an outcaste, a tailor, a blacksmith, a stage player, a basket maker, a washer man and the others. If he happens to take food from such persons then he had to purify himself. The method of purification is that he must fast for three days or must perform some other penance. The garlic, onion and mushroom are not to be eaten by a twiceborn because they are impure substances. It may be because they smell foul and mushroom (kukur-mutta) was thought to grow where dogs had urinated.
If a twiceborn eats these things knowingly or deliberately then he has to be made an outcaste. If he does so unknowingly then he only has to purify himself. Therefore, there are conditions under which a Brahman can become impure and has to purify himself.
The obsession with purity is so overwhelming that it made, impure low caste people's life, a living hell. No recourse is given to the lower two groups to remove their embedded impurities. May be it was the superior wisdom of the lawmakers which did not provide such a recourse. If purity has to increase then impurity also has to increase because without impurity there is no purity. The purity repulses the impurity; the higher the purity higher was its repulsive power and higher repulsive power pushed impurity down and own. Pushing down impurity meant pushing down the impure people down and own because impure people and their impurity was the same. You push down the impurity you push down the related people. The average pressure of the networked Brahmans increased and pushed the bottom people down and down. The continuous increasing purity and ostracization led to the development of untouchability.
There are notions of purity and impurity in Manusmriti along with transfer of impurity through touch and the different methods of purification. The method of purification for a Brahman who has seen the impure objects is sipping of water and chanting of sacred mantras. Ah! The sacred mantras turned out to be scarring weapons, indirectly. So merely seeing impure things can be a source of spreading impurities, touching them ought to be very serious and grave. I told you we are dealing with the super geniuses who ruled the traditional society for thousands of years - may be the impurity moves through sound and light waves and these super geniuses knew it since time unknown. You cannot underestimate them. They occupied most of the social space and from there they guided people's destinies.
A Shudra is not allowed touch the dead body of a Brahman. Such an act makes, all the offerings made to the manes, ineffective because they have been contaminated by the touch of a Shudra. Thus, a certain kind of untouchability exists in the case of Shudra also. In the same vein, the presence of Shudra is not required at the Shraadh ceremony because he may accidentally touch the Brahmans invited for such an occasion. Such a touch would contaminate the Brahmans and the offerings made to manes. Further, the outcastes are impure so they cannot be offered the leftovers of offerings made to God. Here they are even ineligible for the certain leftovers! From this position, one can easily reach to untouchability. The untouchability was a logical culmination of Brahmanical assertions of power through the paradigm of purity and ostracization. The denial of rituals was used as a weapon. It was possible because they occupied larger social and religious space above the chieftains or the kings. This in turn was made possible by the mystique of the Yagyas which vested them with the divine powers.
Now we come to existence of untouchability in the Manusmriti. The untouchability requires that the mere touch of a heathen man can contaminate a pure Varna man which requires his purification. Such a condition is found in the case of Chandals who came to be known as the scavengers in the later times. According to Manusmriti if a Brahman has touched a Chandala then he can become pure by bathing. Logically it implied that a Brahman could not touch a Chandala; and if unknowingly touched he has to purify himself; thus implying the practice of untouchability. The Chandals were the Untouchables. This makes Chandals a representative of the Untouchables in the Manusmriti. The point to be noted is that the purification requires not merely sprinkling of water but a full bath and chanting of sacred mantras. The intensity of purification depended on the gravity of impurity. Further, a Brahman should not stay with the outcastes, Chandals etc., which again is a practice of untouchability. The Chandals and the outcastes were nearly similar to each other in terms of the social treatment meted out to them. The Chandals were offered the remnants of food from a distance which means that going near them was prohibited for the fear of touching them and getting polluted. The food was to be placed at the ground from where they could pick it up. This means that the Brahmans were prohibited from touching the Chandals at anytime. And the Chandals were also prohibited from touching the Brahmans. Great Rishis with great science! But the lawmakers were compassionate enough to throw the food at the ground for them - a grand and gracious act of mercy. To pick up the food the Chandals had to wait until it was no longer in the hands of twice born. The human dogs waited faithfully and with full gratitude for their masters to throw some food on the ground. They were fully indebted and wagged their tails. It is also indicated that a pig, a dog and a Chandala must not look at a Brahman while he is eating. It makes Chandals equal to pigs and dog - they leave no scope for pigs and dogs to complain. Thus, we can conclude that the untouchability existed in the Manusmriti times.
The Chandals were living a life like animals which is not very different from modern times. They were supposed to live outside the villages and that is where they are still living. The Brahmans were not supposed to touch them and still they do not. They were not allowed to wear the good clothes and they are still not. They were not allowed to wear any ornament and they are still not. They were supposed to eat from broken vessels and they are still expected to do it. This is what makes the Manusmriti an authentic source to study the broad social structure of ancient and current Hindu society. And this runs counter to the arguments of many people that the Manusmriti was never relevant. But how can we disagree with high caste people having pure ethics and pure morality? The piousity and purity have to be right all the time - till eternity. And for disagreeing to that the Untouchables would go to hell - as if though it would make any difference!!!
These people were given the name Antyaja meaning the group that was born after all the other groups (Varnas) in the Vedic society had been born or had come into existence. These people, the Untouchables, do not belong to any of the four Varnas though they have the heredity Jati system similar to the four Varnas. When the practice of untouchability emerged, the Vedas had already been finalized and the Purusha Sukta of Rig Veda had become the final word on the origin of the Varnas. The "Word" from the mouth of God himself - indeed! To add these people to Varna system required addition of one more Varna to the Vedic society. However, the number of Varnas had already been restricted to four. Therefore, the creation of fifth Varna required alteration to Vedas and especially to the Rig Veda which no mortal was allowed to do. How could a mere mortal change the Word of God? The Word of God that was created by the man! Nothing strange about it!
But a fifth group had come in existence because of untouchability (as a result of required ritual purification after touching a Chandala and coming into contact with the bad smell etc.) and because of downgrading and separation of certain occupations like butchering, skinning and scavenging to the lower unclean level by the unselfish, pious and pure lawmakers. The creation of the  fifth stratum was an immeasurable measure of the infinite compassion of the lawmakers which resided in their clean, soft and compassionate hearts! Any cruelty never touched them!!! Not by several thousand of miles!! They always had the welfare of all the people in their hearts. And if you think that the Untouchables are human beings - you might be wrong. Just ask them. Or just ask the traditional Hindu society which is in the hands of the caste elites. The Chandals were the Untouchable. Further, when the Brahmans became the most sacred, pious and pure then they could not bear the smell of blood, smell of tannery, rotting garbage and human excreta. Therefore, all the Shudras involved in such activities were downgraded to further lower level - they became unseeable and unapproachable lest any impure smell touches them and corrupt the sacred and pure Dharma. The repulsive factor is in full bloom. However, the Shudras dealing with excreta of cattle remained the Shudras. Further, additions to the Untouchable group were made through the practice of ostracization. The ostracized and disinherited people were straightforwardly downgraded to the fifth stratum. The ostracization meant disinheritance of Varna, its related heredity occupation and of ancestral property. The fifth group consisted of people from higher castes who were made the outcastes and the Shudras whose occupation was downgraded keeping in view the increasing purity of the Sanatana Dharma. All those who were ostracized had to take up the unclean jobs to sustain themselves. These jobs were not done by the twice born or the Shudras. The fifth stratum people were considered different form the Shudras and given the lowest status in society. They were asked to live outside society. This group of occupations and people related to it had to be given a name. They were assigned origin more impure than that of Shudras and hence the lowest status in society. These people were allowed to live at the fringes of villages or out of it; which meant that they were consigned to live at the periphery of society, forever. The Varnas were evolved in a purity wise time sequence; so they were more impure than the Shudras and placed below them. The purest were born earlier (came into existence) than all the other Varna. And the rest followed in the order of purity. Those who were later in the sequence were relatively less pure or relatively more impure. When the purity occupied the decisive social and political space then the impurity (as defined by the pious and pure lawmakers) had to terribly suffer, and the infectious impurity emerged in the form of untouchability. The opposition of purity had to be downgraded as much as possible. The principle of boycotting on the basis of ritual purity led in many stages to the development of untouchability.
Again, one should note that the notion of purity and notion of pollution are distinct from hygiene and cleanliness. The notion of polluting jobs is distinct from the inferior jobs. The upper caste man whose Dharma has been corrupted by touching an Untouchable can be purified through purification rituals but the innate impurity of last two strata cannot be purified through these rituals. The polluting job infuses its doer with the impurity that cannot be cleaned away - these jobs were available to the downgraded people. And the job of a man and man were the same. The provision of ostracization has been used to keep the recalcitrant elements in check thereby increasing the numbers in the fifth stratum.
The notion of purity itself comes from the scriptures. The need to purify comes straight from the Rig Veda where water is considered as great purifier. All the religious objects and activities are sacred in nature which is the level above the most pure. The source of purity in Hindu society is in the sacredness of the Vedas. The Word of God is considered as pure and sacred, undoubtedly! Chanting the Vedic mantras makes the mouth purer and purer. The Vedas are the most sacred elements of the Hindu religion. Even the sacred temples and sacred idols of the gods are of later origin. The temples are considered to be manmade but not the Vedas. To handle the sacred and most pure Vedas one has to be pure otherwise we know that the impurity spreads through touch like infection. Please, find the bacteria responsible for this and justify the scripture; and after doing all that you would find that the Hindu scripture already knew that! But what if such a bacteria could not be found?
What if the divine purity itself could not be found? What if the purity was self-created by the Brahmans?
There is an implicit belief that the impurity can spread through mere touch. Therefore, an unclean Brahman cannot touch or recite the Vedas. The uncleanliness of any Brahman is treated as temporary impurity, not the inherent and fused impurity. It is a case where temporary purity has been superimposed on the permanent inherent and fused purity. Thus, the unclean Brahman has to remove his temporary impurity or purify himself in order to recite the Vedas. The temporarily impure people cannot handle the Vedas though they can be inherently pure! In addition those who are preserving the Vedas (or Dharma - otherwise Dharma would not remain pure and its supremacy would be questioned along with the supremacy of Brahmans.) have to be pure, verily the purest of them all. The presence of the notion of purity is not sufficient for untouchability to exist. It also requires the notion of pollution, and a process of purification, and the principle of boycott on the basis of purity (defined in the righteous Hindu way).
The polluting jobs are separate from the inferior jobs. The polluting jobs have inherent quality to degrade the persons engaged in them. The impure jobs make their performers impure. Here, the crucial precaution is taken by the pious and pure people - the impure jobs are kept reserve for others - the master stroke. The children of Untouchables get the impurity and loathsome polluting quality in inheritance. Perhaps the notion of polluting jobs, as separate from the pure job of reciting the sacred Vedas, came into existence with the introduction of agriculture in the Vedic society. The physical smell separates the divine purity from the earthy impurity. The purity follows from the Vedas which are divine; and the impurity comes from the body secretions and the stinking material; and the notion that a man and his job are not separate. How do metaphysical and physical are able to contact each other is anybody's guess. You will not find any clarity on this issue. It happens so it happens - that is their word - and the pollution spread by touch, by shadows, by presence, by seeing etc. - that is the virtuous and great thinking of the pure pious wise and intelligent men which are believed by the less pure and the less intelligent men. Period.
 The less intelligent men never thought it proper to put these ideas to litmus tests. Well, one can be lucky for thousands years while facing foolishness!
The tilling of the land was known as the occupation of the defeated people; additionally it was physical work involving heavy physical secretions. And all secretions are bad in Hindu Dharma. The Vaisyas were engaged in agriculture but it did not mean that they owned the land; they did not. The land was owned by Brahmans and the Kshatriyas. The agriculture words have been imported into Aryan languages from the languages of the native people. The agricultural words are very scarce in the Rig Veda. And the few words which are there may indicate that the grain was plundered from the native farmers. This shows that the natives were more conversant with the agriculture than the Rig Vedic people. We know that the Aryans, mixed or unmixed, were the ultimate winners in the struggle between native societies and Vedic societies for the political supremacy in the upper north India. It created a mixed society of winners and losers, the superiors and inferiors, the higher and lower, the pure and degraded. The agriculture being the occupation of defeated people was degrading in nature. The impure nature of agriculture is evident in the impure origin of Vaisyas in Purusha Sukta of Rig Veda. Let us recall that the Vaisyas were born from the thighs which are impure being below the naval - it was below the parts excreting the urine and excreta, so they were impure and the same goes for the Shudras born from feet - that is the view of extremely venerated people. The impure people doing the impure jobs were assigned the impure origin - this is also called harmony; a group's nature is in harmony with the job it is doing. Thus, agriculture was a degrading job and this notion developed further with the spread of Vedic culture. Many more jobs were to be classified as degrading or impure under the dominant doctrine of purity. When the main activity was declared impure then how could the minor activities be left behind? Minor activities also had to follow the course and became degrading. Thus, all the activities involving manual labor and excreta of man and also of animals became impure. And some were downgraded to still lower level of Untouchable or polluting. This is the principle of boycott (or disconnection) on the basis of scripture defined purity - the more impure face more boycotts, and the most impure or polluting, face the most extreme boycotts. Over a period of time even the Vaisya level activities of agriculture and cattle rearing in later Vedic times were degraded to the Shudra level. The pure Brahmans cannot take the food from the impure Shudras. The impurity of Shudra is evident in their impure origin from feet and lack of eligibility for thread ceremony. So they were boycotted but not intensely.
The degrading is also evident from degrading of onion and garlic from eatable to non-eatable category; it is smell and taste based; the smell is bad and the taste is pungent. The same is the case with beef eating. In Rig Vedic times, it enjoyed the place of pride in the food. Even in later Vedic period, a guest had to be honored by offering him the beef. However, with passage of time it was degraded to non-eatable category. Its consumption by any of the four Varnas came to be punishable by ostracization. And the Untouchables could eat carrion only. Strange are the ways of Sanatana Dharma. Now it is difficult to deny that the dharmic crystallization of Varna system was not taking place.
A further degradation of jobs gave birth to the fifth category that later came to be known as the Antyajas or the Untouchables. This group was not known in later Vedic times but came into existence in later times. They were in existence in the Buddha's time. These people dealt in butchering, dead bodies, skinning, garbage cleaning, and lower level jobs then tilling and cattle rearing. These groups were butchers, skinners and scavengers etc. The butchers deal in selling the meat; the skinners or Chamars dispose the dead bodies of animals; the scavengers or Bhangis clean the city and village streets, and dispose excreta. The jobs of Chamars (tanning the animal skins) and Bhangis (disposing human excreta) smell very badly and are really unclean. No one can stand in their workplaces for a long time. These jobs are considered as really despicable jobs. These are the jobs shunned by people. And shunned are the people engaged in them as the job of a man and the man are the same.
We shall not forget, in any condition, that in the Hindu society a man and his job are the same; that is the implicit notion of the Hindu society. Therefore, high caste people cling to their jobs and deny entry to low caste people. The most polluting people face the extreme boycott. In addition, since the jobs degrade the man to their level, if carried down from generation to generation, the people engaged in such jobs are degraded and also shunned - without their knowledge. Pure people go through a purification process after they come into contact with them. And boycott them. The Brahmans could add to the group of boycotted people by boycotting some specific people - that was their underlying power - note. These people were added to excommunicated outcastes and Chandalas. As a result a fifth category was born called the Untouchables. Generally, these excommunicated and polluting pollutants (people?) were forced to live at the southern end of a village or a city. This arrangement was perfect to maintain the purity of village, city and people belonging to the higher Varnas. The Untouchables were not allowed to stay within the city; after their work was over, they had to go back to their dwellings outside the village or city. It is noticeable that mainly those people were classified as Untouchables were the people whose services were not directly needed by the pure and pious lawmakers, the Brahmans. If required these activities were performed by the Untouchables without touching the upper castes - from a distance. Or the upper caste could bring in Shudras to talk to them.
The untouchability cannot be traced back to the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu scriptures, but it gives a very prominent place to water as a purifier. A purifying process, after a contact with an Untouchable or his shadow, generally involves taking a bath, sprinkling sacred water on body and on sacred inanimate objects along with the chanting of the Vedic mantras. The impurity that passes on through any contact can be removed by using water, but not the birth-attached impurity of the Untouchables; a man and his traditionally inherited job were the same, non-differentiable or fused. They were the inextinguishable source of birth-attached polluting pollutants.
It is already mentioned that all the excretions of the body are considered impure in the Hindu Shashtras. All the secretions of body have bad smell. Therefore, anything that stinks or smells foul is impure. Therefore, a Brahman after completing a nature's call becomes temporarily impure and hence temporarily ineligible to teach the scriptures. To again become eligible to perform the sacred acts he has to purify himself by cleaning himself and sprinkling sacred water on his body and chanting the Vedic sacred mantras.
Another contributory factor for the development of the untouchability was the need to continuously maintain the increasing purity of the pious Brahmans, the lawmakers, who were constantly in touch with the sacred scriptures and guided society, with least efforts. The Brahmans repulsed away the impure people. If they got polluted then they were not eligible to chant or read the Vedas. Therefore, to make themselves eligible to chant and read Vedas and to remain equal to other pure Brahmans, they had to purify themselves continuously. If they did not purify themselves then their status within the Brahman community became seriously questionable. Thus, it was necessary for them to purify themselves every time they became contaminated by the touch of any impure person. One efficient and less cumbersome way out of these frequent purification was to direct the impure people to not to come in touch with them and ask the king and the main society to keep a safe distance from them. Or repulse them away or boycott them - the easy way out for the resourceful people. This light work could be done against the resourceless people doing lower level jobs; this could be done with the help of paranormal power, state power and societal power at the command of pious and pure people. The extremely impure people were branded as Untouchables. The Sanatana society was stretching itself at both the ends under the process of maximizing superiority and minimizing inferiority. Those at the bottom had no resource to minimize their inferiority. The right to accumulate the resources had been taken away from them which made their efforts at self improvement worthless. Under the dominant doctrine of Varna system, the further segmentation led to the development of endogamous and graded caste system. In the same manner the dominant doctrine of purity led to development of the untouchability; it is clear from the fact that even the poor Shudras practice it.
The Brahman being the most pure cannot eat impure eatables because impurity flows from the impure to pure not in the opposite direction; purity does not flow from the pure to impure. Therefore, he cannot eat food given by a Shudra fearing that the food coming from an impure person is bound to be impure. This directly affected the innate (birth-attached) purity of the lawmakers. The implicit notion is that a mere touch of an impure person can make the food impure. The repulsive nature of Brahmans is pretty evident here. It is difficult to believe but such are the repulsive, scientific, time tested and the realized ways of the Hindu society. Thus, the impurity spreads by touch which is a cultural and civilizational fact. The inherent (birth-attached) impurity of the Shudras and the Untouchables cannot be removed by any known process of purification - only cleanliness can be superimposed on their inherent impurities. The impurity of the Untouchables more than the impurity of the Shudras on account of their unclean jobs. In fact, the Antyajs are the polluting pollutants, spreading pollution by their very presence and suffering most. The pollution due to Untouchables also spreads through touch like the polluting of food by the mere touch. Their presence is polluting due to their breathing and exhaling of air which gets mixed with the impurity present in their bodies. Yes, even the air is treated as polluted and we should not forget the shadows. It is not a piece of fiction. It is a social fact.
Another major contributory factor to development of untouchability was the system of ostracization. The system of ostracization was put in place to keep, the recalcitrant members of society, in check; the masters of society needed this ghastly instrument for their complete control. It was a controlling device of society without the presence of police. There were double or multiple power centers in the Hindu society. There was a king; there were scriptures; there were lawmakers who were spiritual and priestly heads; and the most powerful at village level were the ghastly and cruel caste Panchayats (the village caste-based councils).
The system of ostracization enabled the local caste Panchayats (or Sabhas) or the village level caste councils to impose the fines and corporal punishments on the recalcitrant members of the caste or if required then to ostracize them. Their decisions were binding on all the members of the particular caste in the village. The members not following the Panchayat's dictum run the danger of facing the boycott themselves. These Panchayats worked on the principle of Varna Dharma to conduct their proceedings. There are times when the caste Panchayats award the death penalties. This is the unofficial India.
The threat of ostracization was like a hanging sword on the head of any potentially rebelling members. The ostracization of a man meant, as we know, the disinheritance of one's Varna, land, property and money. And it also meant the stoppage of any social and economic transactions with such people. This also meant snatching away his occupation and thus his livelihood. No one from any of the four Varnas could sit, walk, talk or associate with an outcaste in any manner. This puts the outcaste in the tattered economic conditions. His Varna was snatched from him. He could not marry anybody from his Varna or any other Varna. He could, also, not profess his Varna occupation. He could not own any land. He could not get any protection from the king. He could not perform the Vedic rites or undergo them. For all the practical purposes, he did not have any Varna then he descended to the level of landless Avarna and ultimately became one of them. The same were the conditions of the Untouchable. Nobody was willing to sit with him and eat with him. And atonement was required if somebody unknowingly set with him or did any other barred activity. Thus, touching him was not allowed since sitting with him was disallowed itself. This was, in fact, a practice of untouchability. The untouchability is inherited or birth-attached extreme boycotts implemented by society. His conditions were equivalent to Untouchables that forced him to join the last stratum and take up its jobs.
The pure people are extremely conscious of their dignity and purity. The dignity followed from purity and paranormal powers; for others the dignity followed from purity and state power; for others the dignity followed from purity and money power; and the rest were left to fend for themselves without any resources. The dignity and purity undergo a trial whenever any upright Untouchable walks past them. Such an Untouchable leaves them aghast. What astounding sensitivity! For creating this trouble, the Untouchable in question would have to go under trouble sometime.
There are commandments for the Untouchables culled out from the Dharma Shastras and the traditions. These are not straight in the scriptures but have to be culled from them. We work upon the premise that the opposite of Dharma is aDharma, and the opposite of aDharma is Dharma. And whatever is punishable dharmically, is adharmic, and, is judiciable. Any such activity which is adharmic becomes a desisting commandment for the Untouchables. They should desist away from such activities or bear the cost. All the while, others laugh at or look on with embedded antipathy and sadism.
They shall stand in a servile manner or sit on the ground in the presence of the high caste persons. They shall not make eye contact. They shall speak only when spoken to. Otherwise, they shall keep their dirty mouth shut in the presence of high caste people - the pure people. They should not speak on their own. Their insolency is not tolerable in this pure, pious and sacred land beaten by the cow-eating invaders and the cow-eating colonizers. A kind view of everything is taken in this sacred land so they should not complain. Hold your tongue and not one word against Dharma. The caste discipline or protocol shall be maintained. Have you forgotten traditional protocol which has been practiced for thousands years and given in the scriptures? If you do not follow the caste protocol then blood would be shed in volumes, yours - heathen people. A pool should be made of it where your desires and dreams are drowned. Your lousy wishes and lowly ambitions can be absorbed by your broken bones and broken psyches so that they never come out. Filthy things! Are not these? Not required, at all, in a pure society. A beautiful world indeed it is.
The traditions tread majestically on the destinies of the Untouchable leaving behind eternally crumpled and tattered destinies. Hardly, something to bother about! Why should somebody bother when somebody is getting his just dessert? Remember the false hypothesis of disconnecting Karma. Pure and pious people! Are not they? And gruel!
They shall wear only the dirty and torn clothes. They shall eat only gruel. They shall not walk ahead of upper caster people and avoid any contact unless absolutely necessary. They shall not talk back. They shall not make eye contact or look back. They shall not show any insolent behavior. They shall lower down their neck and shoulders when facing the upper castes. They shall sit on ground in their presence. They shall not sit on a place higher than the upper castes. They shall not draw water from village water well. They shall not retort. They shall not wear sleepers while passing by an upper caste house. They shall calmly take any insults which are thrown on them and their caste. They shall never raise their voice in the presence of upper castes. They shall take all the beating humbly - and of their caste-people. They shall keep quiet when their womenfolk are molested. They shall look other way when their womenfolk are raped or dishonored. Any resistance means insubordination and hence aDharma which needs to be punished further. They shall not object to any kind of beating, insult, atrocity or oppression - because they were born for it. They shall never complain.
Dharma looks on brazenly at the sight of the plight of the wretched Untouchables while humanity weeps in ditches. It is bereft of any pretence of nuances. It smiles benignly at the pure people, and crassly at the impure people. Dharma rocks. And the social harmony is joyous.
And what a life the Untouchables live! The following is only a tip of the iceberg.
A life of dark future - with hanged desires, hungry bellies and insults, it is. It is an insulted and empty-bellied life from birth to death. A life of despondency without a pause, the pause comes sometimes in the form of atrocities. This appalling and hideous pause accentuates the beauty and the unity of the Hindu society along with the social harmony; the social fabric becomes finer and finer, and firmer and firmer. No doubt, it is a holistic society. Expunge these doubts if you have any. After making its mark, the pause goes away leaving behind devastated polluting people. The despondency gets its rightful place again. The joyous harmonization takes its place again.
An Untouchable child asks for food, and its father looks away with all the dignity he can muster in all his insulted life and lets the tears roll down his face. He knows that when the child grows up he would know that why his father could not manage food for it - the incompetent and insulted father. The child's fate would be the same - it cuts across the generations. A dirty, filthy toddler cries for milk and mother looks blankly in the air then up in the sky and then looks down and weeps. There is nothing she can offer - she herself has been hungry for two days. A child in tattered clothes asks for something to wear; father and mother try desperately to look for something in the crumpled rags; they have to find something and give it to the child if it is there; - the clothes can be managed only when the hungry bellies are not crying. A famished child looks at the sunken face of the mother and defers its demand - its maturity grows fast for its years if not the frail body. It knows that its family is hapless; and so are others in his known circle; and there are grown up people who would thrash him if he goes near them - the high castes. It knows it has to move bare footed in all the seasons because the sleepers cannot be afforded. It is winter and all the ragged clothes are joined together to ward off the cold and frail and famished children are shivering while mother and father look haplessly, they know it is the fate awarded to them. It pours and everybody is drenched in the water seeping through the hut roof and valiant efforts are being made to save the grains, if any are there, from being soaked. The ragged and crumpled clothes are passed from one to another child when they grow up. A child's eyes are never happy; he has not seen really happy pairs of eyes except of the high castes who thrash him as and when they want. He knows society's love for him which taunts him through forbidden water, insulting eyes, forbidden roads, expletives and through whacking sticks, hands and shoes. The poverty looks through the tattered rags and the Untouchable family puts up with it. It is all predestined. The toys, a child can only see in dreams. The other things which can only be seen in his dreams are the respect, an environment without fear, good clothes, tasty foods, an untaunted life, a bed to sleep on, the clothes that can save him from the winter cold, the shade which can save him in scorching sun.  The scorching sun which he has to face when under scorching sun while his family is working on field. All the family is working and he cannot be left at home alone. A sense of fear always follows them as if though the insulted lives and hungry bellies were not enough.
At the sight of angry high castes the fear leaps out of sunken eyes of Untouchables; the throats dry up; the tongues stutter and the frail bodies tremble. And they give way to mightiest power they have ever seen on the earth. Haughtily, the bravery pounces on the famished people with delightful vengeance. They are delighted to get the easy targets. Showing the heathen their place without suffering any harm themselves is a great victory for higher caste people.
The Untouchables are wretched and crippled people. Their desires, dreams and freedom are buried as soon as they are born. The scissors of system shrivel them to suit their insulted born status. The harmony requires that. Else, the ferocity of Dharma would fall on them. The unshaken conscience of scrupulous of pure hearts need not be doubted. The unscrupulous and malicious intentions do not reside in the pure hearts of high caste people. Do they?
Crumpled clothes, crumpled skin, crumpled ego, crumpled bellies and crumpled face - that is the attire of an Untouchable. The benign Dharma stands unfazed and Karma treads majestically – both of them are happy since no competition in the traditional India. All of it rocks. Choice, liberty and freedom of speech are crushed and buried six feet under. Anyone who raises his voice runs the risk of walking with a body six inches shorter.
And the honor of the Untouchables is meant to be devoured. The heaven's conscience never seems to be troubled by the plight of the Untouchables. It seems that it never intends to do any measly thing about it.
Nobody can see the turbulent turmoil of inner minds of the transcendental people when they watch a low caste man with upright shoulders. Only a man with drooping shoulders can understand it when he has been beaten into submission by the fury of turbulent transcendental minds. A small show of magnanimity in the forms of kicks and blows puts the order back into the system. The indolent low caste people need to be shown their place. In all the graciousness and compassion - the transcendental order is in order. The place of pure people is safe along with their honor. Everything is all right. What else do you want?
If you bore holes in the superior psyches then somebody would have to pay for that.
Just get out of the way, the Untouchables and modern thoughts. And do not insult higher level people by looking at them. Lower your eyes pick up your slippers in hands and move past. You should know your value which is near about the value of the dustbin.
Their lives go from bad to worse and from worse to worst. A simply logical course, which no one, who is dharmic, should mind. The good life is not meant for them, even momentarily. It is reserved for the high castes, the pure people - the exalted people. The mental disposition of pure people has a very high fragile health. Their mental health goes through a thorough lynching, so a physical lynching is in order for whoever causes it. Only then, their mental disposition comes out of the intensive care unit.
Impure people, what do you know about the pious and pure people? You know only insults from birth till death. What do you know respect is, since you have never tasted it! You low level demons, you have not realized your actual worth in society. Anyway, it is equivalent to the material in the dustbin, you scum! Nonchalantly, the system grinds their lives to dust. It is inhuman for a subhuman to dress smartly and trample upon the fragile egos of the ultra sensitive upper caste people. It is inhuman to hurt the ultra sensitive people - no matter what they do. Got it? If impure people do it then they do not have any mind at all and if they do not do it, again they do not have any mind at all - it is a lose-lose situation. In any case, the impure people have to lose. Two sides of the coin are the same.
What? Treat the subhuman as people? Next you would bring fairness; next you would bring equality; next you would bring honesty… What! You want to bring an end to this great culture and civilization? How low can you fall? Is there any limit? You lowly scum!
Why do you want to bring all these poisonous things? You want to kill Dharma - the sacred Dharma! Surely, you are going to take birth as lizards, worms and canines in your next life. But you will never take birth as cow! Got it? I do not know where from these cows come? Anyone with bad karmas cannot be born as a sacred entity and those with no bad karmas attain the Moksha. And cows from where?
Loyalty to their birth-attached status, destiny and humility is their Dharma. They should live for the cause of Dharma in tattered clothes. Long live Dharma! After all, Dharma sustains the world for us.
Only sensitive people can feel the inner turmoil the upper castes go under whenever they come across a disobedient lower caste person. It is a huge blot on their ego! And some low caste people wear this insolence as medal. Great aDharma! Where is the promise made in the Gita?
The filled up bellies of impure people cause undue and totally avoidable harassments and pain to the pure castes. It is a cause of worry for which a solution can easily be found in Dharma that can be put to good and dharmic use!
The appalling and grisly act of looking into the eyes of pure people murders Dharma. It gores their hearts which bleeds internally. The immutable Dharma, it is. Their pain can be removed but it can be accomplished only by seeing the tears and helplessness in the eyes of famished, impure and crippled people. And it is a great achievement. It is no mean task to put defenseless people in this humiliating situation. The clouds of happiness bulge out and burst. So do the clouds of sadness on the other side of the fence.
The insults fill up their lives from birth till death. Not a moment is without the thorns, which anyway is rib tickling for the high castes.
The bouquet of expletives greets the Untouchables, said and unsaid. The unsaid are embedded in his birth-attached insulted status. Certain insults are to be understood.
The wretched lives of Untouchables come with timeless guarantee. Nobody can assure that but you do not know Hindu society? Do you? The wretchedness prevails without a pause. Dharma can vouch for it.
A damp despondency prevail all their lives. Barely a moment is lived without it. Hardly worth mentioning!
In case of any atrocity the cruel cries of violence smear the landscape leaving behind the Untouchables frozen with fear. The fear enforced harmony must prevail.
In the presence of Untouchables who dare to look back into eyes the hearts of pure people are roasted alive. How come any sensitive and sensible people put them in such an agonizing state? How brutal you can be? You do not have any limits? The people who are supposed to survive with leftovers and cow dung grains are not supposed to look back! It pierces the heart of Dharma and the hearts of high caste people. Lower your eyes and behave your status. Don't you dare to put the divine Dharma in trouble! You do not know what kind of mental agony you are putting Dharma into? The pure and sacred Dharma! You, the people whose caste name itself implies insults, should pay for it. For roasting the heart of pure people, you shall be roasted in hell. Get ready for an atrocious treatment. That is what you deserve o' impure man.
The clouds of atrocities hover over the heads of the Untouchables and ready to burst to uphold the Dharma. A fine system indeed! It was never in doubt.
Any Untouchable with self-respect excruciates the minds of pure people. The turbulent minds of pure people need some succor. So the standing terror moves devastatingly leaving an aftermath of destruction - if not now then whenever the time comes. Some people call it atrocity. Some call it a minor deviation in a harmonious society - how nice of them! Anyway, it is a time tested system.
A swift malicious whisper reaches every event in which Untouchables tend to benefit. And the events end then and there - sometime with silence and sometimes with a loud stunning sound. All Dharma Shashtras are the malicious whispers against the lower strata written in Sanskrit.
The environment is made so suffocating that they grasp for breath and then at that somebody smiles. Hindu society never runs out of smiles in this way.
The Untouchables live many types of lives some of which are the skinned lives and the guttered lives. Much obvious if one looks deeper.
Anyway, you cannot say that there is no escape - the death comes to their succor when they can no longer bear it. Definitely, the death is there to help them out of this world. There is a light in the form of death. Nothing peculiar, it just happens. Who can stop death? All the arrangements have been made by the pure people for its early arrival. Oh no, sorry, by the divine people full of wisdom. The compassionate wisdom has been fully utilized to curb the anti-social rebellious tendencies among the lower strata. They have been buried under the heap and heaps of disabilities. The disdainful attitude is matter of crux. The disparaging ways are the righteous ways of life. There are spiritual minds in the spiritual world. So nobody should feel bad about it. Just a way of life, it is.
They are born insulted and die insulted. Who says that the death is a great equalizer? This thought would simply hide itself into dust in the Hindu society. A supremely great culture!!
The pile of shit on the heads of scavengers sends the hope into stupor and mind into frenzy. The sweat mixes with human excreta and drips down on the skin of face. The bundle of freshly skinned skins on the heads of skinners dashes all the hope and dignity. The sweat mixes with blood and drips down the skin of face. The hope goes into wilderness along with self-respect. Any complaint about lack of smoothness in Untouchables' lives should be thrown out, with retrospective effect. Away with it! The liquids are smooth! Do not you know? The reeking sweat mixed with human excreta or animal blood is smooth. Is it not? So out with rough lives of the Untouchables. Perish the thought. The caste system is divinely benign.
As implied in the Gita, one should do his caste-duty (swa-Dharma.) Do not run away from your dharmic submissive duties! It is meant for you heathen Untouchables, also!
A state of despair is ever engulfing the minds of the Untouchables. The Untouchables bear the folly of being born in lowest insulted stratum. The assignment of insulted status is astounding and can beat the finest brains but not the deft pure brains. And there are brains covered with pithy ignorance. The denseness of brains is staggering.
The Untouchables experience the sinking feeling that goes with the fused insulted status, forever.
If they walk in hazardous uptight posture then a hazard would certainly pay a cruel visit upon them. If they wear dangerously decent clothes then the danger would also pay a cruel visit to them. If they speak in a firm tone then the firmer blows would fall on them. No mercy. See, they are simply asking for it. It is not the fault of upper castes! Is it? No, not by a mile!
The memories of insults since birth scar their psyches forever. The fear stalks all their lives silently but sometimes it makes a thundering sound.
Heel men, lower your eyes, bow your frail bodies and shiver your egos because the impure egos of impure people are not supposed to exist in the first place. You do not know this logic of purity? What an abysmal knowledge!
They are not lost in wilderness because they live in the abusive chamber created by the casteism. All the gates which lead outside are closed, they know it. They know their actual place with acute pain and exactness. The eternal torture chambers are in the hands of the eternal tormentors.
They make peace with their humiliation. They make peace with their tattered clothes. They make peace with the closed gates. They make peace with their subhuman and insulted status. Thus, the peace prevails in society. And prevailing of peace is called the harmony. It is the harmony that dwells in hearts of pure people and not anywhere else. Long live the deadly and insulting peace!
The trouble can always walk over them. And happiness can never come near to them. The social fabric has to be maintained.
The cries of bottom are suppressed by the top of the heap with everything at its command. The suppressed cries bleed inside.
The lame cries crawl and never reach the oasis in the cruel desert of apathy. They die. The desert absorbs them. Graciously. Well, the apathy rocks. Hindu Dharma is superb. It tolerates no nefarious activity.
A screaming lie renders itself into a screaming dharmic truth if given in scripture. You must know it.
To oppose all these one needs bravery for which certain preconditions are necessary.
Who can be brave under grossly deprived and crippling conditions? Amassing bravery in the famished and dismal conditions is nearly impossible task. The brute enforced penury can take the stings out of the trampled and battered egos.
The Untouchables live all their life in a third degree mental torture chamber. Anything less would be an affront to the skills of the lawmakers. It is the unofficial India.
Who gave you the right to criticize Dharma and the traditional ways? Who gave you the right to talk back? Who gave you the right to deviate from servility? Who gave you the right to speak your mind? Who gave you the right to walk in an upright posture? Who gave the right to wear decent clothes? Who gave you the right to amass wealth? Who gave you the right to be happy? Who gave you the right to dignity? Who gave you the right to defend yourself? Who gave you the right to feed yourself fully? Who gave you the right to cry when you suffer due to high caste pure people? Who gave you the right to sob? You can sob within your hut where nobody hears you. The only thing you can do is writhe in pain; you cannot cry in pain; make no sound; got it! Above all, who gave you the right to complain against the high caste people? This is the traditional Hindu society remember. Period.

Writhing in pain is all that allowed!

And this is only the tip of the iceberg!
 And the purity of the Brahmans still remains to be proven. It is only hearsay. No litmus test. No poof. Strange! Or it is a piece of fiction. It is a supreme truth, in the absence of honesty.