C HAPTER 7
WHY LAWLESSNESS IS LAWFUL?
The foregoing discussion must have made clear two things which must be borne in mind. One is the sharp division between the touchables and untouchables, the other is the deep antagonism between the two.
Every village has two parts, the quarters of the touchables and the quarters of the untouchables. Geographically the two are separate. There is always appreciable distance between the two. At any rate there is no contiguity or proximity between them. The untouchables quarters have a distinct name such as Maharwada, Mangwada, Chamrotti, Khatkana, etc. De jure for the purposes of Revenue Administration or Postal Communication, the quarters of the untouchables are included in the village. But de-facto it is separate from the village. When the Hindu resident of a village speaks of the village he means to include in it only the caste Hindu residents and the locality occupied by them. Similarly when the untouchable speaks of the village he means to exclude from it the untouchables and the quarters they occupy. Thus in every village the touchables and untouchables form two separate groups. There is nothing common between them. They do not constitute a folk. This is the first thing which must be noted.
The second thing to note with regard to this division of the village into two groups is that these groups are real corporations which no one included within them can escape. As has been well said the American or European belongs to groups of various kinds, but he “joins” most of them. He of course is born into a family, but he does not stay in it all his life unless he pleases. He may choose his own occupation, residence, wife, political party, and is responsible generally speaking for no one’s acts but his own. He is an “individual” in
This essay has been received from Shri S. S. Rege. It is included here as the title is identical with the earlier chapter and also seems to be continuation of the discussion in the said chapter.—Ed.