Dominant Culture in Untouchable

In Untouchable, we can see that people in 1930s’ India were living in a dominant culture. They were living under their caste system, which was divided by they belief and race. In the Indian people only respect the upper class, which shows their dominant culture. For example, Brahka’s sister was almost raped by a priest. However, because she was in a lower class, nobody cared about what happened to her. In fact, people just believed the priest without conditions: ”The crowd on the temple steps believed that he had suffered most terribly, and sympathised, for it had seen he sweeper-boy rush past him”(Anand 62). We can see that how dominant culture was in deeply the Indian people’s mind by their behaviors. No one trusted Bahka’s sister when she screamed. On the contrary, they believed that the priest was polluted.

         Reading the Untouchable, the words are not that hard for me, but it’s hard to read the Indian people’s miserable life. I think there’s one more thing in the book that shows dominant culture. Even though people in 1930s’ India were suffered from the British’s colonization. They don’t like the colonizer’s behaviors, but they still want to be them, they wanted to dress like an Englishman, act like an Englishman and talk like an Englishman. “acquire in pursuance of his ambition to live like an Englishman”(Anand 22). Bahka wanted to be a real Englishman, so that he can get rid of the shadow of the lower class in the caste system. It reminds me the Apple Factory Suicide tragedy happened in my city several years ago. I would like to share it with you guys in my next blog.