Q: What are the various forms of untouchability in India ? Critically examine.

Model Answer:

Type of Untouchability in India

Untouchability, rooted in notions of purity-pollution, persists despite de jure abolition via Article 17 and the PoA Act (1989). It has mutated from overt traditional bans into covert modern exclusions.

Traditional and Modern Exclusions

• Ideology vs. Economics: Spatial segregation persists. While Louis Dumont views this ideologically, Joan Mencher argues untouchability historically ensured a subjugated, cheap agricultural labor force.
• Intersectionality: Sharmila Rege observes Dalit women face a “triple burden,” while Uma Chakravarti notes Brahmanical Patriarchy uses sexual violence to brutally police caste boundaries.
• Market-Mediated Bias: Sukhadeo Thorat’s CV audit studies reveal subtle hiring discrimination against Dalit applicants in urban private sectors.
• Intra-Dalit Divisions: B.R. Ambedkar’s framework of Graded Inequality explains how untouchability is paradoxically practiced even among marginalized castes.

Rising violence against Dalits (NCRB data) reflects dominant-caste backlash against subaltern assertion. Additionally, Gopal Guru highlights an invisible “architecture of discrimination” in modern universities, tragically epitomized by institutional suicides like Rohith Vemula’s.

Conclusion

Untouchability has shifted from explicit ritual practice to subtle structural discrimination. Achieving genuine equality demands dismantling the caste-class-patriarchy nexus and realizing B.R. Ambedkar’s vision in Annihilation of Caste.