ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the changes that have taken place in the phenomenon of untouchability and in the status of the Untouchables in modern India. It explores the importance of understanding the latter aspects in a more comprehensive view of the problem. The chapter shows that the implications of the fact that untouchability is part of the entire complex of purity/impurity in Hindu society, and of the linked fact that untouchability exists among the Untouchables themselves. Traditionally, in Gujarat as in the rest of India, the upper caste Hindus avoided all contact with members of the Untouchable castes. The slight decline in the rigidity of purity/pollution behaviour in the context of worship among the generality of Hindus explains to a large extent the opposition of the upper castes to allowing the Untouchables into the inner line of religion. In the state of Gujarat there are about 25 Scheduled Castes, i.e., Untouchable castes recognized as such by the Indian Constitution.
