The 'Ex-Untouchables' of India: Equal in Law, But Not in Fact

Harold R. Isaacs, India's Ex-Untouchables. New York; John Day Company, 1965, $4.50.

Under the laws of India, Untouchability no longer exists; it went out en self-government came in with the adoption of the Constitution of 9. But, as Harold R. Issacs new book makes clear, the monstrous tradition persists, a huge and melancholy w in India democracy and Indian nationhood.

Of all the problems-religious, renal, linguistic-that so agonizing- divide India, Untouchability is perhaps the most massive. Reviled, for thousands of years, as a people whose ch contaminates, the Untouchables upied the absolute bottom of a solemnely which perfected the arts of soc elevation and degradation. Today, both men and women called Scheduled state by the government, called Hari- (children of God) by many follow- of Gandhi, called simply ex-Untouchables by Isaacs, are still at the bottom. There are 65 million of them-one Indian in seven.

is surprising that a book like Indian's Ex-Untouchables was not writ before, but it is not at all surprising that Harold Isaacs wrote it. Isaacs long been a careful observers of the an scene. As part of his inquiry in-what he calls "the interaction between political change and group identity," he has written four books, including this one.

Although he holds an academic title (senior research associate at M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies), Isaacs is basically a reporter, with the good reporter's inquisitive ear, skeptical eye and impartial attitude toward the facts. His book is journalism of a high order, clearly written sensibly organized and unpretentious.

It was a difficult book for which to gather facts: in spite of the Indian government's large expenditures on behalf of the ex-Untouchables, New Delhi has made little effort to gather meaningful statistics about them. Most of Isaac's information is drawn from about 50 interviews with educated ex-Untouchables, and by using direct quotation the author lets his subjects write much of the book themselves. The depth-interview technique, which Isaacs used to successfully in his important study, The New World of Negro Americans, reduces (or should one say elevates?) abstract Untouchability to the level of concrete human experience.

As Isaac notes in his preface, the parallels between Indian ex-Untouchables and American Negroes are clear enough without being spelled out. The Indian government has taken fairly substantial steps, including preferential hiring, to alleviate the lot of the ex-Untouchables. But as Isaac point out, anti-Negro discrimination is at variance with America's egalitarian ideology, while Untouchability in India is sanctioned by millenia of tradition, custom, holy writ and backwardness itself.

Of all the problems-religious, renal, linguistic-that so agonizing- divide India, Untouchability is perhaps the most massive. Reviled, for thousands of years, as a people whose ch contaminates, the Untouchables upied the absolute bottom of a solemnely which perfected the arts of soc elevation and degradation. Today, both men and women called Scheduled state by the government, called Hari- (children of God) by many follow- of Gandhi, called simply ex-Untouchables by Isaacs, are still at the bottom. There are 65 million of them-one Indian in seven.

is surprising that a book like Indian's Ex-Untouchables was not writ before, but it is not at all surprising that Harold Isaacs wrote it. Isaacs long been a careful observers of the an scene. As part of his inquiry in-what he calls "the interaction between political change and group identity," he has written four books, including this one.

Although he holds an academic title (senior research associate at M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies), Isaacs is basically a reporter, with the good reporter's inquisitive ear, skeptical eye and impartial attitude toward the facts. His book is journalism of a high order, clearly written sensibly organized and unpretentious.

It was a difficult book for which to gather facts: in spite of the Indian government's large expenditures on behalf of the ex-Untouchables, New Delhi has made little effort to gather meaningful statistics about them. Most of Isaac's information is drawn from about 50 interviews with educated ex-Untouchables, and by using direct quotation the author lets his subjects write much of the book themselves. The depth-interview technique, which Isaacs used to successfully in his important study, The New World of Negro Americans, reduces (or should one say elevates?) abstract Untouchability to the level of concrete human experience.

As Isaac notes in his preface, the parallels between Indian ex-Untouchables and American Negroes are clear enough without being spelled out. The Indian government has taken fairly substantial steps, including preferential hiring, to alleviate the lot of the ex-Untouchables. But as Isaac point out, anti-Negro discrimination is at variance with America's egalitarian ideology, while Untouchability in India is sanctioned by millenia of tradition, custom, holy writ and backwardness itself.

is surprising that a book like Indian's Ex-Untouchables was not writ before, but it is not at all surprising that Harold Isaacs wrote it. Isaacs long been a careful observers of the an scene. As part of his inquiry in-what he calls "the interaction between political change and group identity," he has written four books, including this one.

Although he holds an academic title (senior research associate at M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies), Isaacs is basically a reporter, with the good reporter's inquisitive ear, skeptical eye and impartial attitude toward the facts. His book is journalism of a high order, clearly written sensibly organized and unpretentious.

It was a difficult book for which to gather facts: in spite of the Indian government's large expenditures on behalf of the ex-Untouchables, New Delhi has made little effort to gather meaningful statistics about them. Most of Isaac's information is drawn from about 50 interviews with educated ex-Untouchables, and by using direct quotation the author lets his subjects write much of the book themselves. The depth-interview technique, which Isaacs used to successfully in his important study, The New World of Negro Americans, reduces (or should one say elevates?) abstract Untouchability to the level of concrete human experience.

As Isaac notes in his preface, the parallels between Indian ex-Untouchables and American Negroes are clear enough without being spelled out. The Indian government has taken fairly substantial steps, including preferential hiring, to alleviate the lot of the ex-Untouchables. But as Isaac point out, anti-Negro discrimination is at variance with America's egalitarian ideology, while Untouchability in India is sanctioned by millenia of tradition, custom, holy writ and backwardness itself.

Although he holds an academic title (senior research associate at M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies), Isaacs is basically a reporter, with the good reporter's inquisitive ear, skeptical eye and impartial attitude toward the facts. His book is journalism of a high order, clearly written sensibly organized and unpretentious.

It was a difficult book for which to gather facts: in spite of the Indian government's large expenditures on behalf of the ex-Untouchables, New Delhi has made little effort to gather meaningful statistics about them. Most of Isaac's information is drawn from about 50 interviews with educated ex-Untouchables, and by using direct quotation the author lets his subjects write much of the book themselves. The depth-interview technique, which Isaacs used to successfully in his important study, The New World of Negro Americans, reduces (or should one say elevates?) abstract Untouchability to the level of concrete human experience.

As Isaac notes in his preface, the parallels between Indian ex-Untouchables and American Negroes are clear enough without being spelled out. The Indian government has taken fairly substantial steps, including preferential hiring, to alleviate the lot of the ex-Untouchables. But as Isaac point out, anti-Negro discrimination is at variance with America's egalitarian ideology, while Untouchability in India is sanctioned by millenia of tradition, custom, holy writ and backwardness itself.