Untouchables in contemporary India / edited by J.Michael Mahar ...[et. al]

Since the attainment of independence in 1947 the Republic of Indial has undertaken one of the most profound reorderings of society ventured. by a democratic nation in modern times. A major break with tradition. is expressed in Article 17 of the Constitution adopted in 1950 which abolished "untouchability," a practice rooted in the social and religious life of India for more than 2,000 years. Estimates of the number of people affected by this change range from 15 to 25 percent of a population rapidly approaching the 600 million mark. Disparities in the enumera tion of "Untouchables," or more appropriately "Ex-Untouchables," are due in part to a variety of terms coined over the years to describe this segment of Indian society. British census commissioners devised the category of Scheduled Castes for census use, while programs developed to ameliorate the Untouchables' lot in life often referred to them as Depressed Castes. Viewed in terms of the orthodox Hindu fourfold divi sion of society, initially stated in a Rig-Vedic hymn of the first millennium B.C., the Untouchables are seen as beyond the pale - a fifth order, or Exterior Caste grouping. Gandhi introduced a new term, "Harijan" (chil dren of God) in an attempt to avoid the disparaging connotation of such vernacular terms as pariah, widely used in daily life.