Book Review: The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

 

Ambedkar says that the Hindu civilization produced three social classes. These include the criminal tribes, the aboriginal tribes and the untouchables. The number of these classes is about 85 million. Among these the Untouchables are about 50 million. The author is of the view that Hindu civilization gauged in the light of these social products could hardly be called civilization. Furthermore, he says that the Hindu does not regard the existence of these classes as a matter of apology or shame and feels no responsibility to inquire into its origin and development. The existence of such classes should be more a cause of shame than pride.

The author says that today all the scholarship is confined to Brahmins. They could not rise against the doctrines in which they were brought up. In this book the author advances a thesis on the origin of Untouchability. He himself considers it a novel thesis. It comprises that there is no racial difference between the Hindus and the Untouchables. Untouchability has no racial basis and it also has no occupational basis. The distinction between the Hindus and the Untouchables in its original form, before the advent of untouchability, was the distinction between Tribesmen and Broken Men from alien Tribes. It is the broken men who subsequently came to be treated as Untouchables.

According to the author Untouchability sprung from two things. One was the hatred of the Broken Men as Buddhists by the Brahmins. Second was the continuation of beef-eating by the Broken Men after it had been given up by others. Ambedkar concludes that Untouchability was born some time about 400 A.D. It was born out of the struggle from supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism which has completely molded India’s history. The study of which has been sadly neglected by the students of Indian history.