PROBLEM OF ISOLATION 113
Let us now consider which of these classes can be the natural ally of the Untouchables.
Those in Class I form the privileged classes of the Hindu society. The Hindu social order was created by them. They alone benefit by it while the aim of these in Class I is to save it. Neither by community of interest nor by reason of ideological affinity can the two friends and allies disagree.
What about the Criminal and Primitive Tribes ? They have the strongest ground for over-throwing the Hindu Social Order.
What about the Shudras?
The laws of the Hindu Social Order are as repulsive to Class II, the Shudras as they are to Class IV, the Untouchables. It is interesting to know the status of the Shudras in the Hindu society as prescribed by Manu the Law-giver and the Architect of Hindu society. For an easy understanding of the subject, the rules regarding the status of the Shudras are set out below under separate heads:
Manu asks the householders of the Brahmans, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas:
IV. 61 “Let him not dwell in a country where the rulers are Shudras.”
A Shudra is not to be deemed to be a respectable person. For Manu enacts that :
XI. 24. “A Brahmin shall never beg from a Shudra, property for (performing) a sacrifice i.e., for religious purposes.”
All marriages with the Shudra were proscribed. Marriage with a woman belonging to any of three other classes was forbidden. A Shudra was not to have a connection with a woman of the higher classes and an act of adultery committed by a Shudra with her was considered by Manu to be an offence involving capital punishment.
VIII. 374. “A Shudra who has an intercourse with a woman of the higher caste guarded or unguarded shall be punished in the following manner; if she was unguarded, he loses the offending part; if she was guarded then he should be put to death and his property confiscated.”
VIII. 20. A Brahmana who is only a Brahman by decent i.e., one who has neither studied nor performed any other act required by the Vedas may, at the king’s pleasure, interpret the law to him i.e., act as the judge, but never a Shudra (however learned he may be).
VIII. 21. The Kingdom of that monarch, who looks on while a Shudra settles the law, will sink low like a cow in the morass.
VIII. 272. If a Shudra arrogantly presumes to preach religion to Brahmins, the king shall have poured burning oil in his mouth and ears.