ABSTRACT
If you ask whether there is a limit to untouchability, then there is not. You said that in the village where you stayed there was only one glass [not separate glasses for Untouchables]. If you think that means there is no untouchability that is not so. Even if there is one glass at the teashop things are not equal: in the administration of the village; in the Panchayat elections; in the allocation of common assets; the Panchayat meetings to resolve village problems, common resources, the pond, the temple. Who is given the lease to catch fish in the pond? How is water distributed? The downtrodden do not have rights to administer these common resources . . . From the President’s residence to the teashop, untouchability persists. Untouchability is not only things like two tumblers, cycle [prohibition to ride through Caste Hindu areas], sandals [prohibition to wear] and so on, nor even like in Allallaberi where they had to bear the death news, prepare the body and dig the grave. These alone do not exhaust untouchability – they are the oppressive aspects of untouchability . . . But this untouchability is everywhere . . . In the name of caste, many economic opportunities are denied to them, their economic rights are denied . . . Now we also wish to breathe the wind of Independence which blew through the rest of India.
