"Debate Resumes on Law's Limits in Ending Untouchability"
Untouchability
a social practice of excluding a group seen as ritually 'impure' from shared public resources and spaces.
Purity-pollution paradigm
caste hierarchy based on ritual notions of purity and impurity attached to birth-based groups.
India's Constitution directly addresses the practice of untouchability. Article 17 abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form. This means no one may be denied access to wells, temples, roads or public spaces because of caste. Parliament made this rule stronger through the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 (originally the Untouchability Offences Act). Later, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 added stronger penalties for caste-based violence and humiliation.
This legal system grew from a long and contested debate within the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi treated the removal of untouchability mainly as a moral campaign. He founded the All India Anti-Untouchability League (later renamed the Harijan Sevak Sangh) in the early 1930s. B.R. Ambedkar took a sharper position. He argued that caste itself, not only untouchability, had to be destroyed. The disagreement came to a head over separate electorates for the 'depressed classes' (the term then used for Dalits). The Poona Pact (1932) replaced separate electorates with reserved seats for depressed classes in joint electorates. This compromise shaped the reservation system independent India later adopted. Parallel movements also pushed the same cause. The Self-Respect Movement was led by E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) in the Madras Presidency. The Vaikom and Guruvayur temple-entry struggles in Kerala also fought for the same goal. These movements worked outside the Congress-led mainstream.
The All India Kisan Sabha was a peasant organization. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati founded and led it. He championed agrarian reform alongside anti-caste movements. Gandhi included Harijan upliftment as a formal part of his political programme after the Poona Pact. This agreement resolved the dispute with Ambedkar over separate versus reserved electorates.
Untouchability is not one single act of discrimination. It is a layered social practice. Sociologists point out that untouchability has three dimensions: exclusion, humiliation-subordination and exploitation. Exclusion means being barred from shared wells, temples or public spaces. Humiliation-subordination means being treated as ritually inferior in everyday interaction. Exploitation means being forced into unpaid or underpaid labour. All three together separate untouchability from the milder subordination faced by other 'touchable' lower castes.
The early reformers disagreed on how to remove this practice. Gandhi believed that ending untouchability was a project of changing individual conscience among caste Hindus. …
Consider the following pairs:
Movement/Organization — Leader
1.All India Anti-Untouchability League — Mahatma Gandhi
2.All India Kisan Sabha — Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
3.Self-Respect Movement — E. V. Ramaswami Naicker
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Subsequent to which one of the following events, Gandhiji, who consistently opposed untouchability and appealed for its eradication from all spheres, decided to include the upliftment of 'Harijans' in his political and social programme?
'Caste system is assuming new identities and associational forms. Hence, caste system cannot be eradicated in India.' Comment.
Consider the following pairs:
Consider the following statements regarding India's legal framework against untouchability: 1. Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability and makes its practice in any form a punishable offence. 2. The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 was originally enacted as the Untouchability (Offences) Act. 3. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was enacted before the Protection of Civil Rights Act. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Poona Pact of 1932 was an agreement between Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar on which of the following issues?
The Vaikom Satyagraha, a landmark movement for temple-entry rights and against untouchability, was held in which present-day state?
Which of the following is NOT considered one of the three core dimensions of untouchability as identified in sociological analysis of the caste system?
Want the full note, Prelims Facts & MCQ answers?
Create a free account — takes less than a minute.
Create free account