In-class blog: Untouchable

In the novel Untouchable, we see a world that is based on a racial and cultural ideology. Over the course of the novel, Bakha struggles between family values and their religious believes and his wishes to be and Englishman. The only issue is that the cast division they are living in does not satisfies Bakha and feels anger towards the life that has been given to him. The main character Bakha, experiences several obstacles throughout the novel which affect him morally. On page 46 a Hindu merchant bumped into him and started insulting and describing him as an untouchable. Anand writes “Bakha stood still, with his hands joined, though he dared to lift his forehead, perspiring and knotted with his hopeless and futile expression of meekness” (Anand 46). In this scene Bakha has a realization of the significance of his place as an “untouchable” in the social hierarchy of the 1930’s in India. Although there are no obvious racial or ethnic differences between different classes of Hindus, they live in paradigm of a strict caste system based on religion and labor.