Bakha is an 18-year-old sweeper and the novel’s protagonist. He is Lakha’s son, Sohini and Rakha’s older brother, and a good friend of both Chota and Ram Charan. Bakha is handsome and…
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Lakha
Lakha is the father of Bakha, Sohini, and Rakha, and the Jemadar (head sweeper) of Bulashah. Though Lakha was once a patient and ebullient man, his wife’s death has changed him…
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Sohini
Sohini is Bakha’s younger sister and Lakha’s youngest child. She is very beautiful, lusted after by men across town and even by Bakha himself. Having lost her mother at a young age, Sohini…
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Rakha
Rakha is Bakha’s younger brother and Lakha’s middle child. Though Rakha also works as a sweeper, he is less motivated than Bakha either to complete his tasks or to escape the punishing…
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Mahatma Gandhi/Mohandas K. Gandhi
Mohandas K. Gandhi, also known as the Mahatma (or “great-souled one”), was the historical figure most responsible for India’s successful independence movement and the end of the British Raj. Gandhi was famous for his hunger…
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R. N. Bashir is a British-educated, Muslim Indian man, who enters the narrative when Bakha overhears him loudly critiquing Gandhi’s speech. Bashir, who has been heavily inspired by western theorists of democracy like Rousseau…
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Iqbal Nath Sarshar
Iqbal Nath Sarshar is a poet, likely serving as an amalgamated representation of the various writers in the leftist South Asian Progressive Writers’ Movement (which Mulk Raj Anand was himself a part of). Sarshar agrees…
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Uka
Uka is the childhood friend that Gandhi cites in his speech about untouchability. Uka was a sweeper in Gandhi’s hometown; because of Uka’s work, Gandhi’s mother prevented him from playing with his young friend…
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Charat Singh
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…
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Chota
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…
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Ram Charan
Ram Charan, a washer-man, is Gulabo’s son and one of Bakha and Chota’s best friends. Though Ram Charan is an outcaste, he has more access to fine things than his friends do…
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Gulabo
Gulabo is Ram Charan’s mother and a washer-woman in Bulashah. Though she was very pretty in her youth, time and physical work have aged her, and now she resents Sohini both for her sweeper…
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Colonel Hutchinson
Colonel Hutchinson is a middle-aged British settler in India, the leader of the Salvation Army in the Himalayan region. Though Hutchinson prides himself on his selflessness, comparing himself favorably with the local Tommies, Untouchable…
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The Colonel’s Wife
The Colonel’s wife is one of the few white women (“mem-sahibs”) in Bulashah. She is frustrated with Colonel Hutchinson for his willingness to spend so much time with the outcastes, and she…
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Pundit Kali Nath
Pundit Kali Nath is a Brahmin and one of the most prominent priests (hence his title “Pundit”) in Bulashah. Despite his high caste status, he is depicted as ungenerous, lecherous, and consumed with bodily feeling…
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The Touched Man
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…
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The Rickshaw Driver
The rickshaw driver is a Muslim, meaning that he exists outside the hierarchies of Hindu caste. When he ends up driving through Bakha’s confrontation with the touched man, the rickshaw driver is…
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The Local Woman
The local woman is a higher-caste mother in the town of Bulashah. Though she is eager to share her food with the holy man who passes by, she berates Bakha for sitting on her…
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The Elder Brother
The elder brother is one of the wealthier boys in town, the son of a babu and the older sibling to the younger brother. Perhaps because of his youth, the elder brother appears to…
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The Younger Brother
The younger brother is one of the wealthier boys in town, the second son of a local babu (and the younger sibling of the elder brother). While the younger brother boasts about going to…
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The Hakim Sahib
A Hakim Sahib is a doctor. In Untouchable, the Hakim Sahib of Bulashah appears when Lakha recounts Bakha’s potentially fatal illness as a young baby. At first, the Hakim Sahib denies Lakha medicine…
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Lachman
Lachman is a young Brahmin who lives in the village of Bulashah. He is attracted to Sohini, and the two often engage in a mutual flirtation—but Pundit Kali Nath, wanting Sohini for himself…
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