Untouchable

by

Mulk Raj Anand

Scavenger/Sweeper Term Analysis

Scavengers, more commonly referred as sweepers, are in charge of cleaning human and animal waste from latrines and streets. Because of this work, which is considered to be “polluting” by higher-caste Hindus, sweepers are deemed outcastes and denied basic human rights; they struggle to get access to education, to worship, and even to obtain food and water. In Untouchable, Bakha’s status as a sweeper also impacts his social relationships with other outcastes, as his friend Ram Charan—a washer-man—occasionally treats Bakha with disrespect, reminding Bakha that sweepers are considered lowly even by other outcastes. Though the advent of the automated toilet did help minimize the number of sweepers in India, there are still many who are forced to work as sweepers, despite a 1993 nationwide law that banned the occupation. Today, activists like Bezwada Wilson are organizing to eliminate the practice of manual sweeping—which can be deadly in some cases—entirely.

Scavenger/Sweeper Quotes in Untouchable

The Untouchable quotes below are all either spoken by Scavenger/Sweeper or refer to Scavenger/Sweeper. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
).
Pages 3–43 Quotes

[Bakha] had wept and cried to be allowed to go to school. But then his father had told him that schools were meant for the babus, not for the lowly sweepers. He hadn’t quite understood the reason for that then. Later at the British barracks he realized why his father had not sent him to school. He was a sweeper’s son and could never be a babu. Later still he realized that there was no school which would admit him because the parents of the other children would not allow their sons to be contaminated by the touch of the low-caste man’s sons. How absurd, he thought, that was, since most of the Hindu children touched him willingly at hockey and wouldn’t mind having him at school with them. […] These old Hindus were cruel. He was a sweeper, he knew, but he could not consciously accept that fact.

Related Characters: Bakha, Lakha
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

“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: Bakha (speaker), The Touched Man, The Rickshaw Driver
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:
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: Bakha (speaker), Charat Singh
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:

How [Bakha] had smarted under the pain of that callousness and cruelty. Could [Lakha] be the same father who, according to his own version, had gone praying to the doctor for medicine? Bakha recalled he had not spoken to his father for days after that incident. Then his grief about his unhappy position had become less violent, less rebellious. He had begun to work very hard. It had seemed to him that the punishment was good for him. For he felt he had learned through it to put his heart into his work. He had matured. He had learned to scrub floors, cook, fetch water […]. And in spite of the poor nourishment he got, he had developed into a big strong man, broad shouldered, heavy hipped, supple armed, as near the Indian ideal of the wrestler as he wished to be.

Related Characters: Bakha, Lakha
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 105–139 Quotes

Bakha felt thrilled to the very marrow of his bones. That the Mahatma should want to be born as an outcaste! That he should love scavenging! He loved the man. He felt he could put his life in his hands and ask him to do what he liked with it. For him he would do anything. He would like to go and be a scavenger at his ashram.

Related Characters: Bakha (speaker), Mahatma Gandhi/Mohandas K. Gandhi
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:

‘When the sweepers changed their profession, they will no longer remain Untouchables. And they can do that soon, for the first thing we will do when we accept the machine, will be to introduce the machine which clears dung without anyone having to handle it - the flush system. Then the sweepers can be free from the stigma of untouchability and assume the dignity of status that is their right as useful members of a casteless and classless society.’

Related Characters: Iqbal Nath Sarshar (speaker), Bakha, R. N. Bashir
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:
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Untouchable PDF

Scavenger/Sweeper Term Timeline in Untouchable

The timeline below shows where the term Scavenger/Sweeper appears in Untouchable. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 3–43
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Nature vs. Society Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...colony, several rows of public latrines. This is where the leather-workers, washermen, grass-cutters, water-carriers and scavengers live, all deemed outcastes from Hindu society. (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
For 18-year-old Bakha, the son of Jemadar (head scavenger) Lakha, this colony is almost intolerable. After having spent some time working as a servant... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
...from the latrines half an hour later, Havildar Charat Singh is surprised to see a sweeper be so clean. At first Charat Singh sneers at Bakha, the familiar gesture of high-caste... (full context)
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Bakha knows that smoking is considered presumptuous for a sweeper, but he wants to smoke like rich people do. Fortunately, a nearby Muslim shopkeeper gives... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
Bakha continues sweeping, announcing himself as he goes: “posh, keep away, posh, sweeper coming.” But though he shows outward humility, inside, Bakha is seething. As he replays the... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
...life. Again, Bakha notes that Muslims and British people show none of the cruelty towards sweepers that other outcastes and higher-caste Hindus do. Bakha continues his work, though he feels self-conscious,... (full context)
Pages 43–73
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...out of the temple, while the worshippers fret that they have been polluted by the sweeper. But the Pundit is even more panicked, asserting, “I have been defiled by contact.” (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Nature vs. Society Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...overwhelmed. Eventually, Bakha finds a house, and he calls up asking for “bread for the sweeper.”  (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...street as they will not have time to clean the indoor privy that day—and “the sweeper will clear it away.” As the little boy relieves himself, the local woman throws bread... (full context)
Pages 73–105
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Nature vs. Society Theme Icon
...“gentreman” as per usual. But when Ram Charan tries to give Bakha a sugarplum, the sweeper will not accept it unless Ram Charan throws it to him—the first time Bakha has... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
...of coal for his hookah, a task most high-caste Hindus would not entrust to a sweeper because it would be seen as “polluting” the coal. This trust makes Bakha feel overjoyed,... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
...still, when Charat Singh’s servant brings him tea, he offers some to Bakha, instructing the sweeper to drink from the same pan that the sparrows use. Bakha drinks his tea quickly,... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...out, terrified that her son is dead. Immediately, she accuses Bakha of being a “dirty sweeper” and blames him for the incident, even when the elder brother explains what really happened.... (full context)
Pages 105–139
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
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.... (full context)
Inequality, Harm, and Internalization Theme Icon
Coming of Age and Inherited Prejudice Theme Icon
Nature vs. Society Theme Icon
Bodies and Cleanliness  Theme Icon
...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,... (full context)