In class blog about Untouchable

       Untouchable is a novel about young Bakha in 1930s’ India. Bakha is a “strong and able-bodied” young man who came from the lower caste. Bakha’s father was a sweeper who cleans the toilet. Therefore, even though Bakha’s family was living in the outcaste’s colony liked other lower caste, they were discriminated by others. However, Bakha is a young man who had his own dream. He had his own “fashun” style, dressed like “Tommies” (Englishmen), and he wanted to play hockey. Bakha;’s dream and “fashun” was laughed by his friends, because they thought Bakha was trying to be a person that he could never be.  In 1930s’ India, the lower caste couldn’t even get a bottle of water from the upper caste, if they touch the upper caste accidently, they would be punished. All of these unfair situations made Bakha realized that he was an untouchable, he screamed in his mind,”For them I am a sweeper, sweeper—untouchable. Untouchable! Untouchable! That’s the word! Untouchable! I am an untouchable!” (Anand 52) he wanted to change the unfair caste system. Young Bakha‘s dream was hard to reach. Because the caste system in 1930s’ India was basically a power system controlled by the upper caste.

     Just like racism or so-called class system in nowadays, caste system is always related to power. In Untouchable, Anand shows us that young Bakha, who was from the lower caste, was not only discriminated and excluded by the upper caste, but also by people who from the same caste. On my opinion, I think that caste or class system actually is the power system.

      The upper caste people are using the system to maintain their power, control the lower caste people’s mind.

      For example, we’ve all known that race doesn’t exist biologically, but the upper class people defined it, made the lower class people identify ourselves by their skin color, and believed they are not brilliant race if they are colored skin. This is the way how upper class passed their ideology to the lower. Once the lower class people accepted the ideology, they’ve lived in the racism culture, or we could say, the colony culture.  We can see that in Untouchable, Bakha was  always trying to learn how to be a “Tommie”, he learned how to dress like them. It’s because the English’s colony culture was in his mind forever. The Englishmen colonizer was trying to control people by making them accepted that English culture is the best, and theirs are not.