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Charat Singh is a Havildar, or Indian officer in the British army. He is also a well-respected hockey player, admired around town for his high-caste status and physical dexterity. More than the novel’s other high-caste characters, Singh is a study in contradiction: though he scolds Bakha to clean the latrines more quickly, he is also open about his own struggle with “piles” (hemorrhoids), treating Bakha less as a “polluting” monster and more as a servant. Later in the day, Singh gifts Bakha a hockey stick and even shares his tea with Bakha, a rare gesture of high-caste kindness that touches Bakha deeply. Still, Untouchable implies that Singh’s generosity serves a purpose. When Singh treats Bakha with a morsel of respect, it makes Bakha feel that he “wouldn’t mind being a sweeper all [his] life,” if people would only show him these brief moments of warmth—suggesting that Singh’s kindness preserves the caste hierarchy even as it appears to disrupt it.
Charat Singh Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by Charat Singh or refer to Charat Singh. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pages 73–105
Quotes
[Bakha] walked away without looking back, lest he should prove unequal to the unique honor that the Hindu had done him by entrusting him with so intimate a job as fetching coal in his clay basin. For a moment he doubted whether Charat Singh was conscious and in his senses when he entrusted him with the job. ‘He might be forgetful and suddenly realize what he had done. Did he forget that I am a sweeper?’ […] He was grateful to God that such men as Charat Singh existed. He walked with a steady step, with a happy step, deliberately controlled […]. It was with difficulty, however that he prevented himself from stumbling, for his soul was full of love and adoration and worship for the man who had thought it fit to entrust him, an unclean menial, with the job.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Charat Singh Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by Charat Singh or refer to Charat Singh. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pages 73–105
Quotes
[Bakha] walked away without looking back, lest he should prove unequal to the unique honor that the Hindu had done him by entrusting him with so intimate a job as fetching coal in his clay basin. For a moment he doubted whether Charat Singh was conscious and in his senses when he entrusted him with the job. ‘He might be forgetful and suddenly realize what he had done. Did he forget that I am a sweeper?’ […] He was grateful to God that such men as Charat Singh existed. He walked with a steady step, with a happy step, deliberately controlled […]. It was with difficulty, however that he prevented himself from stumbling, for his soul was full of love and adoration and worship for the man who had thought it fit to entrust him, an unclean menial, with the job.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
