Untouchability and Social Exclusion in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997)

The unjust and malice treatment meted out to theuntouchables in India has been a matter of great concern.Since times immemorial, they have been suffering severehumiliations at the hands of the upper sections of thesociety. Even after attaining political autonomy, there hasbeen no improvement in their status. ‘Caste’ still continuesto play a highly important role in shaping the lives of themasses. Today there are about 250 million Untouchables.Although the Government has banned the Castediscrimination since 1950, but prejudice continues.Postcolonial Indian society has managed to achieve onlypolitical liberation, and not the social freedom; though thelater certainly needs to be invoked in an active way.Because caste has got the inherent capacity of positioningoneself, it can be, at once, both beneficial as well asdangerous, to the people who practice it. The emergence ofso many regional political parties in India has only magnifiedthis problem. They have made the ‘untouchables’ and othercastes occupying the lower hierarchy in the society a politicaltool through which they construct their own identities.Caste, then, can be highly paradoxical, especially when weview it in the context of the Indian society.