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A review by sidharthvardhan
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
5.0
I give you two ideas of dystopias. In the first, there is a world most of humanity is scared of touching even by accident some people - there is no visible reason for it, but the fear is real. Not only you can't touch the person, but you also can't touch things they have touched And this is a source of humiliation for those that can't be touched. In the second, half the population of the world is raised with the idea that the mere sight of their body is an offense to decency. I could go on - and talk about other such worlds - one where guns are left out in open and books are kept in shelves under locks but these whole social issues talk presented as dystopia talk has started boring me already. My point is untouchability is one of those things that should seem too fantastic if it was something imagined and not real - a bit like slavery that way.
Mulk Raj Anand's novella was powerful even for me though, being an Indian, I knew its evils. It shocks me that it is not read more by western readers to whom some scenes would seem really dystopian. The first 70 percent of the novella is quite powerful - even trying to capture its protagonist's stream of consciousness at times. Later, it does turn contemplative though (I have no problem with that but it can be a turn-off for many readers); it seems to conclude that the solutions like conversion to Christianity, Gandhi, or having western toilets can solve the problem.
Unfortunately, that's far from the case. A few weeks back, some upper-caste children at government schools refused to eat food prepared by lower-caste workers. Untouchability had nothing to do with the kind of work people did; it is born of the privileged too willing to think lowly of others in order to think better of themselves.
Mulk Raj Anand's novella was powerful even for me though, being an Indian, I knew its evils. It shocks me that it is not read more by western readers to whom some scenes would seem really dystopian. The first 70 percent of the novella is quite powerful - even trying to capture its protagonist's stream of consciousness at times. Later, it does turn contemplative though (I have no problem with that but it can be a turn-off for many readers); it seems to conclude that the solutions like conversion to Christianity, Gandhi, or having western toilets can solve the problem.
Unfortunately, that's far from the case. A few weeks back, some upper-caste children at government schools refused to eat food prepared by lower-caste workers. Untouchability had nothing to do with the kind of work people did; it is born of the privileged too willing to think lowly of others in order to think better of themselves.