War on untouchability

Press, 18 December 1976, Page 8

War on untouchability

By RAMESH PANDE, of United Press International, through NZPA.

New Delhi Helped by a newly-enacted law, India has stepped up its war on untouchability, a social evil that has plagued and persecuted millions of lowly, sub-caste Hindus for centuries.

j The protection of the Civil 'Rights Act, an overdue and ' highly-desirable piece of '■ legislation, came into force on November 19. The act guarantees equal-' ity for Untouchables, and' provides for a more deter-! rent punishment for offences! relating to “untouchability.” The Untouchables are the lowest of the four “varnas” (colours) into which Hindus are divided according to the Code of Manu — written around 100 to 300 A.D. to define the rules of domestic conduct and ceremony. The four classifications are: Brahmins (priestly I caste), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (farmers and tra- ■ ders), and Shudras (UntouI chables). I By tradition, the so-called I Untouchables are restricted 'to such occupations as labourers, scavengers, cobblers, taxidermists, and launiderers. Since India’s independence in 1947, the caste system has been gradually breaking down in urban areas. But it is still practised in the counitryside, despite con- ! stitutional guarantees of human equality. In some rural districts of northern India, Untouchables have been banned by the old religion from entering Hindu temples or drawing water from public wells. Devout and diehard Hindus believe they would be polluted if an Untouchable touched them, or even if a Shudra’s shadow fell on them. A special committee reIport submitted to the Pariia|ment before amending exist|ing laws to curb untouchability, listed an assortment I of continuing cases of disi crimination against the socalled Untouchables: ] Persecution in the state of

.Assam drove 150 low-caste 'girls out of Hinduism. i Barbers in villages near Delhi refused to cut the hair of Untouchables. Wedding processions held by Untouchables were forced to detour around highercaste villages. In north-west India, Untouchables’ children were

not allowed to share class- . rooms with higher-caste < Hindu children. i Indian newspapers frequently publish reports ofi (arson in Untouchable areas and murder and rape of Unitouchables in predominantly ■ Hindu villages. For the religious Hindu, however, caste is not primarily social. It is the functioning of karma, the grand cosmic law of cause and effect. According to karma, the inequalities among men are not a divine caprice. They are the result of Man’s own doing as worked out through the process of reincarnation. One is born into this life — into a higher or lower caste, or even into an animal form — as one has lived in a past life; one will be reborn into a future life as one behaves , in this one. But most modern, educated Hindus- condemn the caste system as a social evil i which should have been i eradicated centuries ago. ; They have no taboos in eat- : ing,’ working, or living with . the Untouchables. Even intercaste mar- : riages are encouraged in modern urban Hindu society, ’ and public schools observe > no discrimination against ad--1 mission of low-caste stui dents. Gandhi, the first Indian leader to defend the Untou--1 chables, condemned all I Hindus who shunned “God’s -'people” as he called them, r The Prime Minister (Mrs i Indira Gandhi), like her late father, Jawaharlal Nehru, - and Mohandas Gandhi, has - also denounced the practice - of untouchability from time . to time. t But, despite all this, un- ■ touchability has failed to die - in the countryside. This has been mostly attributed to f the vague laws of the past,

So far, certain Hindu temples have kept their doors closed to Untouchables. The new law makes the practice of untouchability punishable “even in privately-owned places of worship where public generally has access.” And in the countryside, where the Untouchables are persecuted most, the act calls for collective fines on all the inhabitants for an offence relating to untouchability.