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Charat Singh
Chota, the leather-worker’s son, is Bakha’s best friend and a close friend of Ram Charan’s. Chota shares Bakha’s love of English clothing and outdoor adventures in the bright sun, though Chota lacks some of his friend’s natural grace and strength. Unlike Ram Charan, who sometimes shies away from confronting the harsh realities of outcaste life, Chota provides crucial support to Bakha after the events with the touched man and the local woman. Like Bakha, Chota questions the brutal hierarchies of caste, even expressing a desire for revenge against the higher-caste Hindus who abuse them.
Chota Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by Chota or refer to Chota. 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
The hand of nature was stretching itself out towards [Bakha], for the tall grass on the slopes of Bulashah Hills was in sight, and he had opened his heart to it, lifted by the cool breeze that wafted him away from the crowds, the ugliness and the noise of the outcastes’ street. He looked across at the swaying loveliness before him and the little hillocks over which it spread under a sunny sky, so transcendently blue and beautiful that he felt like standing dumb and motionless before it. He listened to the incoherent whistling of the shrubs. They were the voices he knew so well.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
What had [Bakha] done to deserve such treatment? He loved the child. He had been very sorry when Chota refused to let him join the game. Then why should the boy's mother abuse him when he had tried to be kind? […] ‘Of course, I polluted the child. I couldn't help doing so. I knew my touch would pollute. But it was impossible not to pick him up. He was dazed, the poor little thing. And she abused me. I only get abuse and derision wherever I go. Pollution, pollution, I do nothing else but pollute people. They all say that: “Polluted, polluted!” She was perhaps justified though. Her son was injured. She could have said anything. It was my fault and of the other boys too. Why did we start that quarrel? It started on account of the goal I scored. Cursed me! The poor child!’
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Chota Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by Chota or refer to Chota. 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
The hand of nature was stretching itself out towards [Bakha], for the tall grass on the slopes of Bulashah Hills was in sight, and he had opened his heart to it, lifted by the cool breeze that wafted him away from the crowds, the ugliness and the noise of the outcastes’ street. He looked across at the swaying loveliness before him and the little hillocks over which it spread under a sunny sky, so transcendently blue and beautiful that he felt like standing dumb and motionless before it. He listened to the incoherent whistling of the shrubs. They were the voices he knew so well.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
What had [Bakha] done to deserve such treatment? He loved the child. He had been very sorry when Chota refused to let him join the game. Then why should the boy's mother abuse him when he had tried to be kind? […] ‘Of course, I polluted the child. I couldn't help doing so. I knew my touch would pollute. But it was impossible not to pick him up. He was dazed, the poor little thing. And she abused me. I only get abuse and derision wherever I go. Pollution, pollution, I do nothing else but pollute people. They all say that: “Polluted, polluted!” She was perhaps justified though. Her son was injured. She could have said anything. It was my fault and of the other boys too. Why did we start that quarrel? It started on account of the goal I scored. Cursed me! The poor child!’
