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Bharat mein Asprishyata: ek Aitihaasik Adhyayan (in Hindi) (Untouchability in India: a Historical Study) by C. L. Sonker Allahabad: Kitab Mahal, 2010, pp 372+xvii, Price Rs 220/-
While going through the title of the book under review, I recall the lines of the report of Navsarjan Trust and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights entitled, "Understanding Untouchability", which goes like this-As India emerges as the world's largest democracy, the practice of untouchability remains, instark contrast to the image of progress that the Government of India seeks to promote tothe international community. The issue of untouchability is one of the most divisive issuesin the country's history and a lived experience of all people in India, including both Dalits,who number over 164 million, and non-Dalit perpetrators and witnesses. Despite growing domestic and international concern, a Constitutional prohibition, and a legal enforcement regime, as well as international human rights protections, the daily life of many Dalits is unchanged from the time before such prohibitions against the practice of untouchability existed.
Caste-based discriminations and untouchability are the most complex human rights issues being faced by our country which are deeply rooted in our social system itself. The term untouchability is not defined in the Indian constitution and in any of the statutes. It conveys a sense of impurity and defilement. It implies certain socioreligious disabilities. It includes customs and practices sanctioned by the rigid Indian caste system whereby persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes were debarred from entering Hindu temples, public places, streets, public conveyances, eating places, educational institutions etc. Since time immemorial, the practice of untouchability has marginalized, terrorized and relegated a sector of Indian society to a life marked by humiliation and indignity. Study by C. L. Sonker dealing with such issue in the form of a voluminous work reflects years of work to compile comprehensive and reliable historical data and documents exposing the state of untouchability, or castebased discrimination, against Dalits ("untouchables") in historical perspective....