Caste System Turns into A Social Curse and Social Discrimination: A Study of Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable in the Perspective of Post-independence Bangladesh

Abstract

The caste system roots in the heart of Hinduism and falls apart Hindus into touchable and untouchable. The sweepers are regarded as untouchables and are given no choice and access to their social life. The caste system in Hinduism and, therefore, in the Hindu-majored nation in India is a strong social discriminatory hierarchy that has been exercised for more than two millenniums. Mulk Raj Anand, with a firm belief in the dignity and equality of all human beings, attempts to project a panoramic scene of the caste system by beckoning a single day from the diary of Bakha, an untouchable boy who is a sweeper in profession. The present paper attempts to address the curse and discrimination triggered by the caste system, which is prevalent in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. Though the scenes of the novel belong to a small, interior town in Punjab, the happenings are pan-Indian in nature. This paper also argues how the caste system paves the way for inter-caste conflict and exploitation and, apart from several caste discrimination, why changing the upper caste’ outlook is the sole way out to wipe out the stigma of the caste system.