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Pundit Kali Nath
The touched man is a higher-caste Hindu in Bulashah. When Bakha accidentally runs into him, the touched man flies into a panic, insisting that he has been “polluted” and must wash himself. As the touched man continues to berate Bakha, he draws a crowd, eventually escalating from verbal abuse to a physical shove. For the rest of the day, Bakha cannot stop seeing the touched man’s irrational anger, remembering his bulging eyes and almost disgustingly vicious expression.
The Touched Man Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by The Touched Man or refer to The Touched Man. 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 3–43
Quotes
“Why are we always abused? The santry inspictor and the sahib that day abused my father. They always abuse us. Because we are sweepers. Because we touch dung. They hate dung. I hate it too. That's why I came here. I was tired of working on the latrines every day. That's why they don't touch us, the high castes. […] For them I am a sweeper, sweeper - untouchable! Untouchable! Untouchable! That's the word! Untouchable! I am an untouchable!”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Untouchable LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Touched Man Quotes in Untouchable
The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by The Touched Man or refer to The Touched Man. 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 3–43
Quotes
“Why are we always abused? The santry inspictor and the sahib that day abused my father. They always abuse us. Because we are sweepers. Because we touch dung. They hate dung. I hate it too. That's why I came here. I was tired of working on the latrines every day. That's why they don't touch us, the high castes. […] For them I am a sweeper, sweeper - untouchable! Untouchable! Untouchable! That's the word! Untouchable! I am an untouchable!”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
