142 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
temple or tank. If he does so, purification becomes necessary. Even while using the public road, if he sees his lord and master, he has to leave the ordinary way and walk, it may be in the mud, to avoid his displeasure by accidently polluting him. To avoid polluting the passerby, he repeats the unpleasant sound, “O, Oh, O”—In some places i.e. Palghat, one may see a Cheruman with a dirty piece of cloth spread on the road side, and yelling in a shrill voice, “Ambrane, Ambrane, give me some pice and throw them on the cloth”. His position is intolerable in the Native States of Cochin and Travancore, where the Brahaman influence is in the ascendent, while in the Palghat Taluka the Cherumans cannot, even to this day enter the bazaar. In Malabar it is stated that ** “The man of high caste shouts occasionally as he goes along, so that the low caste man can go off the road, and allow him to pass unpolluted. And those of the lowest castes shout, as they go, to give notice of their Pollution bearing presence, and learning the command of the man of high caste, move away from the road. It is common to see people of inferior caste travelling parallel to the road, but not daring to go along it”.
What a degradation for these unfortunate souls who have been turned by this Hindu Civilization into social lepers! To be called an Untouchable is enough of a misfortune. But to require an Untouchable to proclaim by his own mouth his shame that he is an Untouchable is a cruelty to which in my opinion there is no parallel. What would an Untouchable say of this Hindu Civilization ? Would it be wrong if he said that it is felony and not civilization?
That the condition of the Primitive Tribes, of the Criminal Tribes and of the Untouchables is the result of fundamental doctrines of Hindu Civilization there can be no manner of doubt.
Why have there been no missions to bring these Primitive Tribes into the Hindu fold?
Why has crime become an occupation for certain tribes ? Why have certain classes been treated as unfit for human association, as Untouchables ?
The answer to each of these questions will have reference to some basic principle of the Hindu Civilization.
To the first question the answer is that the caste system prevents the Hindu Religion from becoming a missionary religion and caste is a fundamental part of the Hindu Civilization. To the second question the answer is that the system of Chaturvarna limits the opportunities which a person can have for earning an honourable living. All learned are the preserve of the Brahmins; all warlike services are the monopoly
**Thurston—Tribes and castes of Southern India, Vol. 5, p. 196.