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Pages 73–105
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Untouchable, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice
Nature vs. Society
Bodies and Cleanliness
Summary
Analysis
Bakha sits down, putting in his head in his hands and giving in to a sense of defeat. After a while, he is interrupted by Colonel Hutchinson, head of the local Salvation Army, who asks Bakha if he is alright. Hutchinson is well known in the area for dressing in (his idea of) Indian clothing; he spends most of his time talking to the Untouchables about Jesus Christ and trying to get them to convert. In Hutchinson’s early years, he was handsome and well-groomed, but now, he is balding and his mustache is drooping. Everyone in town knows that his wife has grown to resent him.
When Bakha and his friends try to dress like the English, it suggests the ways they have internalized colonial hierarchies. By contrast, even though Colonel Hutchinson tries to dress in Indian garments, he still retains his belief in his own cultural superiority (as his attempts to convert others demonstrate). Thus, even the British people who present themselves as charitable or generous enforce the harmful ideologies of colonialism.
Themes
Hutchinson has tried to learn Hindustani (Hindi), and he carries Hindi translations of the Bible with him wherever he goes. But despite his best efforts, the Colonel never really succeeds at speaking this other tongue. For his part, Bakha is both confused by this strange man, always going on about someone named Yessuh Messih, but he also endows Hutchinson with some of the respect and glamour he associates with the other sahibs.
Tonally, there is a measure of comic relief in Hutchinson, who—in his own ridiculousness—shows just how unfounded this English worship really is. The phrase “Yessuh Messih” is likely Bakha mishearing the phrase “Jesus Messiah,” which Hutchinson frequently uses whenever he refers to Christ.
Themes
The narrator reflects on the somewhat “hackneyed” efforts Hutchinson makes to connect with the villagers. The Colonel lectures Bakha about how he is different from the other sahibs because he sees himself as much less vulgar and haughty. But this does not mean much to Bakha—to him, all that matters is that Hutchinson is a sahib and that he is touching him, asking him kind questions. Bakha wonders if he really should seek guidance from this odd figure.
For most of the novel, the narrator has remained removed and impassive, leaving all opinions to his characters. But here, the narrator weighs in to openly criticize Hutchinson, seeing him as the embodiment of British condescension and hypocrisy. This intervention perhaps signals the narrator’s frustration with paternalistic forms of European colonialism. Separately, Bakha’s joy at being touched by a non-outcaste figure speaks to the depth and pain of his everyday isolation.
Themes
Hutchinson begins to sing songs about how Jesus died for humans’ sins and about how religion is free of charge to everyone. Bakha finds himself moved by these songs, though he does not understand them. And when he asks clarifying questions, trying to understand Christ and Yessuh Messih in terms of Hindu gods like Rama, Hutchinson does not provide answers. Bakha starts to feel bored, reflecting that he only continues walking with Hutchinson “because the sahib [wears] trousers,” and “trousers [are] the dream of his life.”
Even though Hutchinson claims to want to convert the Bulashah locals, he does not show any interest in actually sharing a dialogue with Bakha. But while Bakha finds this Englishman to be exceedingly disappointing up close, he cannot let go of Hutchinson’s English clothing, the symbol of power and social mobility that has become “the dream of his life.”
Themes
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Hutchinson continues, explaining that Christ sacrificed himself “to help us all; for the rich and the poor; for the Brahmin and the Bhangi” (Untouchables). Bakha is intensely moved by this idea of equality, though he still struggles with Hutchinson’s insistence that everyone is born a sinner. Bakha wants to know more about Christ, but Hutchinson just keeps talking about the necessity of conversion and the sin of Hindu idolatry. Bakha gets bored again.
There is a great deal of narrative irony in the fact that this colonial figure, representative of his oppressive government, preaches equality even as he insults Hinduism. But at the same time, the idea that Brahmins and Untouchables could even be on the same plane is novel for Bakha, planting a seed that will grow once Gandhi arrives to town.
Themes
The two men have arrived at Hutchinson’s home, a former opium distillery that he bought and converted five years ago. While Hutchinson starts singing another hymn, his wife yells out that their afternoon tea is ready. When Hutchinson does not come inside right away, his wife comes out to get him—and scolds him for “going to these blackies again!” Bakha cannot help but notice how unattractive this woman is, even under all her makeup. Bakha cannot understand what the Colonel’s wife says, but he does hear the word bhangi, which makes him blame himself for her anger.
Most of the story has been focused on caste hierarchies, but the Colonel’s wife’s vitriol shows just how many intersecting prejudices Bakha must face: his status as outcaste is compounded by racism and colorism from the British and from lighter-skinned Indians. And like Gulabo, the Colonel’s wife copes with her own disappointment in life by insulting those who are more vulnerable.
Themes
Bakha scurries away, lamenting again that “everyone thinks us at fault.” As he walks, the weight of his sadness causes him to feel nauseous, and he obsessively replays the day’s events. Bakha cannot stop seeing the angry glares of the touched man and the Colonel’s wife, though the latter is the most terrifying to him of all, because he feels that “the anger of a white person mattered more.” Feeling horrible that he might have displeased a white person, Bakha transfers his anger at the Colonel’s wife back to the touched man from this morning.
Bakha’s reflections that the Colonel’s wife’s anger “matter[s] more” than the other abuse he has faced is telling: while Bakha is increasingly able to recognize caste prejudices as misguided, his fascination with English clothing and customs makes it harder for him to parse his internalized racial prejudice. Still, it is important that Bakha chooses to be angry at the touched man rather than blaming himself—slowly but surely, Bakha is learning to shed his shame, replacing it with a burning sense of injustice.
Themes
Bakha arrives near the railway, where there are many beggars and lepers. But just as Bakha, feeling repulsed, is about to turn away, he hears shouting: “The Mahatma has come!” As if by magic, Bakha and the rest of the crowd immediately rush to the spot where the Mahatma is supposed to speak. In their chaos, no one cares about caste, and Bakha ends up brushing arms with people of “all the different races, colours, castes, and creeds.” Once the crowd gathers, Bakha is amazed by the variety in dress and skin tone, by the Muslim and Hindu and Sikh and Christian men and women who have gathered here.
The Mahatma (meaning “the great-souled one”) was a common name used to honor activist Mohandas K. Gandhi. In this telling passage, the excitement the villagers feel about Gandhi—and the Indian independence he so skillfully advocates for—allows a momentary blurring of the social hierarchies, as racism, caste prejudice, and religious prejudice vanish in favor of this unified rush to hear the speech. The tension Bakha notices here—between unity and division, between hierarchy and equality—would define many of Gandhi’s political actions.
Themes
There is not enough room to see the Mahatma—Mohandas K. Gandhi—in the narrow road where everyone is standing. Instinctively, Bakha hops a fence to stand in a field, and the crowd follows him, trampling flowers as they go. As his feet crush the blooms, Bakha reflects that they need to step on everything old (including these flowers) to make room for Gandhi’s new India.
The flowers seem to stand in for caste and tradition, emblematizing the old beliefs and routines that Gandhi is ushering out. In reality, though, Gandhi preached the importance of traditional values, arguing against many new forms of technology and emphasizing the importance of Hindu practice.
Themes
Bakha has heard all sorts of rumors about Gandhi’s amazing power, and for a moment, all he can feel is an almost terrifying sense of devotion. But then Bakha remembers his khaki uniform, which delineates him from all the higher-caste people wearing white. Even as he joins in this moment of shared consciousness with the crowd, then, Bakha cannot transcend the “insuperable barrier” of caste.
Just as quickly as it formed, the social melting pot vanishes. It is vital to note that clothing is one way Bakha experiences caste divides, as his khaki clothes point to his status as an outcaste. No wonder, then, that Bakha turns to clothes—like the British pants and sunhats he loves—as key symbols of power and social advancement.
Themes
Now, Bakha overhears a nearby babu talking to a peasant. The babu is rehashing a newspaper article from that morning, explaining that all of Europe is being wracked by political and economic unrest. The babu insists that only Gandhi can teach Europe to strive for “sense-control,” which the babu believes is the central principle of Hinduism. The peasant is amazed by this speech; to him, Gandhi is less a political figure than “a legend, a tradition, an oracle.” All he wants for himself is to touch Gandhi’s feet, to have some contact with this great man.
Again, even as the babu and the peasant seem to be unified in their respect for Gandhi, the two men are actually feeling very different emotions. The babu is thinking in terms of the newspapers he reads and the political theories he debates, whereas the peasant, probably not able to read, views Gandhi as something more natural, understanding him through the lens of the rumors and near-mythic stories he has heard.
Themes
The peasant continues to ask the babu questions, wondering how the canals and courts will be managed if the British are to leave India. The babu has answers for both these questions, but Bakha lets his mind wander to Gandhi’s position on the Untouchables. He has heard that Gandhi is an important advocate for Untouchables’ rights, but he does not understand how Gandhi’s commitment to fasting could help the lower castes. Maybe, Bakha decides, Gandhi is just fasting because he thinks the Untouchables don’t have access to food, and he wants to understand.
Historically, Gandhi was an important voice speaking out against the caste system—but his rhetoric and policy proposals also enforced some of the very caste prejudices he claimed to oppose. Bakha’s comments here, as he wonders how Gandhi’s hunger strikes are at all related to the lived experience of an outcaste, point to the ways in which Gandhi is at once impassioned and out of touch.
Themes
Just then, Bakha hears an official announce that Gandhi has been released from British prison for this speech on the condition that he only talks about “harijans,” (rather than speak about his anti-colonial beliefs). This thrills Bakha, who knows Gandhi uses the word “harijan” to describe outcastes. Bakha links Gandhi’s care for the outcastes to the equality Hutchinson was talking about; he fantasizes about sharing his story and seeing Gandhi publicly reprimand the touched man. But mostly, Bakha is amazed that Gandhi will talk “about us, about Chota, Ram Charan, my father, and me.”
The term “harijan,” which translates to “children of god,” was Gandhi’s attempt to destigmatize the language around outcastes—other anti-caste activists preferred to use the term dalit, which is common today. It is telling that Bakha responds so strongly merely to the fact of being featured in Gandhi’s speech—after so long trying to be invisible, the idea that someone important would talk “about us” is revolutionary to Bakha.
Themes
Bakha sees Gandhi’s motorcar drive up, and though he wants to rush it, he knows he cannot, despite the fact that Gandhi has abolished all caste distinctions for the day. So Bakha climbs a tree, taking in Gandhi’s “saintly” face and “Mephistophelean,” determined chin from a distance; he also notices that Gandhi is dark-skinned (“like me,” Bakha thinks, “but, of course, he must be very educated”).
The word “Mephistophelean,” which stems from the demon Mephistopheles, is often used to describe someone cruel or diabolical. By describing Gandhi as both “saintly” and “Mephistophelean,” therefore, the narrative implies that Gandhi is a contradictory figure, both unbelievably good and somehow calculating or nefarious. Bakha’s reflection that Gandhi has darker skin helps him identify with this powerful figure, though his caveat (“but […] he must be very educated”) reflects Bakha’s own internalized colorism.
Themes
Bakha sees a British guard guiding Gandhi through the crowd, and for the first time in his life, Bakha does not feel impressed by a sahib’s presence. As people join hands to show their respect for Gandhi, Bakha thinks that the sahib looks out of place, as if he represents an old, dying order. Then Gandhi raises his hand and begins to pray, silencing the crowd. The air feels electric to Bakha as Gandhi recites a hymn. Bakha’s mind drifts again, and he wonders why he is struggling to pay attention when everyone else looks so rapt.
Over and over, Bakha and his friends have obsessed over British people and clothing, feeling that the foreign objects have almost mystical power. But now, the sense of spiritual force that Bakha once attributed to the English belongs to Gandhi and his hymn—and so for the first time, Bakha sees British garb not as empowering but as outdated, the relic of a soon-to-be-bygone era.
Themes
At last, Gandhi begins his speech. He discusses the “penance” he has recently suffered at the hands of the British government, and he critiques the English strategy of “divide and rule,” which segments Indian voters by class. But then Gandhi changes his tune: “we are asking for freedom from the grip of a foreign nation,” Gandhi points out, but “we have ourselves […] trampled underfoot millions of human beings.”
The English strategy of “divide and rule” references the early years of the British Raj, when the English used the census to formalize and harden the caste system. By pointing out how caste and colonialism intersect—and by acknowledging how hypocritical it would be to protest one but preserve the other—Gandhi introduces a kind of intersectional thinking that Bakha has not yet dared to consider.
Themes
Gandhi begins to tell a story about his childhood friend Uka. Uka was a scavenger, and if Gandhi ever touched Uka, his mother would force him to perform ablutions afterwards. But from a young age, Gandhi insists, he saw the belief that any person could be “polluted” as sinful and wrong. Today, Gandhi concludes, his friendship with Uka has motivated him to fight for the Untouchables. Bakha is moved by Gandhi’s genuine sympathy, especially when Gandhi announces that if he were reborn, he would like to be born as an outcaste.
Gandhi’s story about Uka is revealing for several reasons. First, Gandhi’s use of this tale for political purposes suggests that narrative is a form of activism—a belief certainly shared by Anand and many of his peers, all members of the leftist, South Asian Progressive Writers’ Movement. But second, there is also something a little manipulative in the way Gandhi brings up Uka, identifying himself with the outcastes while also distancing himself from them. It is perhaps these sorts of tactics that make Gandhi somewhat “Mephistophelean” even as he is sometimes truly “saintly.”
Themes
But Gandhi then shifts again, instructing outcastes to “purify their lives”; he implies that some outcastes are unclean, or that they refuse to read the Hindu scriptures, or that they give themselves over to drinking and gambling. Bakha does not like this part of the speech, as he feels that Gandhi is unfairly blaming the outcastes for circumstances out of their control. When Gandhi starts talking about how outcastes should no longer have to eat higher-caste people’s leftovers, however, Bakha feels better. He wishes that Lakha could hear the speech and see how much the Mahatma sympathizes with their plight.
Gandhi’s patronizing rhetoric here reflects the real historical figure, who was considered—especially by more radical anti-caste activists like rival B. R. Ambedkar—to be more focused on condescending to outcastes than on being their actual ally. Yet despite these flaws in Gandhi’s speech, Bakha still wants his father to hear Gandhi’s message. After all, Gandhi might be the only person powerful enough to cut through the morass of Lakha’s internalized sense of inferiority.
Themes
Lastly, Gandhi declares that Hindus are misinterpreting their own scriptures. To correct this problem, he argues, India must open all of its schools and temples and hospitals to Untouchables. Gandhi concludes his speech, and the crowd scatters. Bakha marvels that the Mahatma could seem to know him so intimately, while other members of the crowd, inspired by Gandhi’s words, rally to burn their British clothing or show newfound tenderness to each other.
At the beginning of the narrative, Bakha would have balked at the idea that any precious British clothing might be burned. But now, faced with the potential to gain access to the things right in front of him—like temples and schools and hospitals—Bakha no longer needs to escape to this fantasy of British life.
Themes
Even as most of the crowd rejoices, though, Bakha hears one man dissenting. The man complains that Gandhi’s commitment to orthodox Hinduism is in conflict with his anti-caste sentiment. Having read Rousseau and Hobbes, the man (R. N. Bashir) thinks Gandhi needs to pay more attention to democratic philosophy. Bakha is going to sneak away, but before he can, the man summons him (“eh, black man”) to fetch a bottle of soda water. Bakha takes in the man: he is Muslim and dressed in a beautiful English suit. Bakha cannot tell if the man is Indian or British.
Though not actually an historical figure, Bashir is still meant to symbolize a particularly contradictory strain of the Indian independence movement. On the one hand, Bashir preaches total democratic freedom and equality for India. On the other hand, he cites European authors, wears British clothes, and engages in casual colorism as he orders low-caste Bakha around.
Themes
Bashir shifts his attention to his friend, a handsome poet (Iqbal Nath Sarshar). The poet has a more nuanced take on Gandhi, arguing that he is a great liberating force but that his refusal to accept modern technology (like the sewing machine) will prove problematic. The man in the suit is pessimistic, believing that peasants will never adapt themselves to an industrialized society. But the poet is firm that “it is India’s genius to accept all things.”
As a character, Iqbal Nath Sarshar is likely intended to be a composite of many members of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. Interestingly, while Bashir focuses on ideas, Sarshar is more interested in “all things” related to daily experience. In other words, unlike either Gandhi or Bashir, Sarshar believes in practical, tangible remedies to the harms of caste because he seems to understand that so much of the pain of outcaste life lies in the details of their daily encounters with natural waste.
Themes
Sarshar believes that the British, obsessed with commodity, have lost sight of what really matters—but Indians have always been realists, “believing in the stuff of this world, in the here and now, in the flesh and the blood.” Therefore, Sarshar argues, Indians can see more clearly than their “enslavers.”
Now, Sarshar links his focus on daily experience to his own broader anti-colonial philosophy. While the British fixate on money and intellectual debate, Sarshar believes that feelings, technologies and quotidian actions are the most important units of change.
Themes
Sarshar goes on, accusing Bashir of copying everything from the British, from his philosophical ideas to his English clothes. As Bashir gets more and more irritated, Sarshar continues, positing that everyone is basically equal and that the caste system is a result of Brahmin greed and manipulation. To prove his ideas, Sarshar points to the eloquence and poetry of Indian peasants’ speech. And if all this is true, Sarshar concludes, there is nothing to do but abolish caste completely.
Strangely, Sarshar’s words echo the rhetoric Colonel Hutchinson was using about total equality in the eyes of Christ. For Bakha, hearing these two suggestions on the same day introduces him to ideas he had never before considered. And rather than imagining himself into the British clothes Sarshar now mocks, Bakha is at last starting to imagine a world without caste or colonialism, a political dream—and call to action—instead of a sartorial one.
Themes
Bashir cannot imagine how such a radical shift could ever be possible. But Sarshar points to the newly-invented mechanical “flush system”—soon, excrement will be cleared away “without anyone having to handle it.” Sarshar thinks this new invention will lead to “organic” change, even if Bashir disagrees with him. With that, the two men walk away, leaving Bakha—who has stood at some distance to listen—to ponder these words. Bakha wishes the “gentreman” had not pulled the poet away so soon.
Many times throughout the story, Bakha has encountered situations that remind him how much of his life is determined by the single fact that he has to work closely with human waste. And more than any philosophy, the thing that will impact his life is distancing himself from the foul smells and substances that high-caste Hindus force him to deal with (and then hold against him). By having Sarshar voice this logic outright, Anand is echoing the language of Ambedkar, who believed that industrialization was the single fastest cure to caste brutality.
Themes
The sun begins to set, and Bakha feels the intense colors of the sunset echoed in his own confusion. He does not know where he should go now, though he takes courage from the Mahatma’s speech. Finally, knowing that Gandhi respects scavengers, Bakha resolves to go on cleaning the latrines. He only hopes that one day soon, this flush machine will relieve him of this labor. Bakha wonders if he will ever get to wear sahib clothes. But then the image of the British guard at Gandhi’s speech pops into his head, and suddenly, Bakha doesn’t know if he even wants to dress like a sahib anymore.
Only a single day has passed—the story began as the sun rose and now ends with it setting, a natural parallel to Bakha’s own journey. But even though minimal time has elapsed, so much of Bakha’s worldview is radically different. Instead of freezing under an English blanket, Bakha questions if he even admires British clothing anymore. Rather than dreading an eternity of latrine-cleaning, Bakha allows himself to hope for a world of mechanized toilets. The next time the sun rises, the novel seems to imply, Bakha’s hopes and goals will be different, more focused, more practical—a miniature coming-of-age journey.
Themes
Night falls quickly, and Bakha resolves to return to Lakha and his siblings. “I shall go and tell my father all that Gandhi said about us,” Bakha vows, filled with conviction; “perhaps I can find the poet someday and ask him about his machine.” And with that, Bakha heads home.
Once again, the novel emphasizes the flush toilet—and technology—as more integral to the anti-caste movement than any rhetoric could be. Bakha’s decision to return home suggests that, rather than letting caste hierarchies deform even his most intimate relationships, Bakha will redirect his focus: for the first time, he and Lakha could be an “us,” finding solidarity and hope in the coming political movements.
Themes
