Book Review: Untouchables (Escape From Indian Caste System)

Book Review:
Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System

Not really what I expected, I was looking for a better understanding of the caste system.,April 20, 2011
By Dan K "DPK"
This review is from: Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System, An International Best Seller (Paperback) I'm Indian but I grew up here in the US and I wanted to learn about the caste system as I was raised Christian and my family does not believe in this backwards tradition. I've heard stories about the caste system but I thought this book would give me a better understanding of it's origins and ideology. 

The book is actually very easy to read and you could finish it off in a day or two. The language is easy to understand and it flows very well. The story being told is the author's translation of his parents recollections during the early 1900's under the caste system in India. The book starts out well and hooks you immediately. The beginning story of how the author's father was beaten and treated as less-than-human really helps you to see how cruel the system is. Unfortunately that is really the only part in the book when you are able to see the cruelness of this system. The rest of the book reads more like a narrative. Somewhere in the middle, I started to lose my interest because I was expecting to see more of this cruel injustice but the author started discussing how his parents were walking on the beach, having kids, and traveling back and forth to Mumbai. That didn't sound like oppression to me. As an Indian, I've visited India and I have seen low caste people get treated like garbage and it breaks my heart because, as Americans, we just can't understand that in this society. I was expecting to understand why they do this in India but I didn't get that in this book. Actually, the first thing that came to my mind was that the way the author portrayed the caste system wasn't nearly as bad as what African-American's had to go through here in the US not so long ago. In reality, I know the caste system in India is far worse and inhuman but the author simply did not portray it as such. 

Sure, the author's parents fought to stand up for what is right and vowed to give their kids a better life but there are countless other people in India who's story is very different. I was thinking I was going to get some insight into that. It's great that the author wrote a book about an untouchable who succeeded and rose above the oppression but I think the story would have been so much more effective if we understood more about what the caste system is all about, why people still believe in it, and why India just can't get rid of it. 

Overall, it was a decent read but I didn't come away with a good understanding of the caste system after reading it. Maybe if you are not Indian, this might be a good starting point but if you are buying this book to understand the Indian caste system, you will be disappointed. 

Also, the epilogue which is written by Jadhav's daughter really didn't add to the book as it seemed more like she was gloating about her accomplishments. I know she was trying to portray that she, living in America, does not have to deal with the injustices that her grandparents had to but it just didn't come across as such. 

I'd borrow this book first. 

Poverty of philosophy

Across the length and breadth of Pakistan, amongst journalists, politicians, generals and even judges, there is a poverty of philosophy that is crippling the development of a stable state and responsible society. From the personal to the political, from the ridiculous to the sublime, this poverty manifests itself everyday in reckless outbursts of remarks, statements and comments that obfuscate issues instead of clarifying them. Consider.

Some well-known journalists have been predicting the end of the Zardari regime for over a year now by regularly giving D-Day deadlines. But President Asif Ali Zardari continues to defy their hollow predictions, prompting Javed Hashmi to wisecrack that a PhD in politics may be required to fathom his brand of politics. Considering how very consistently wrong they have proven to be, one may be forgiven for wondering whether it is lack of intelligence or scarcity of credible sources that lies at the root of their helplessness and rage. Or is it plain wishful thinking and personal vendettas that are masquerading as serious front-page political analyses?

Continue reading Poverty of philosophy

Abuse of Women: Shameless Us!

General Pervez Musharraf’s derogatory comments about victims of rape have outraged all sections of opinion in Pakistan and abroad. Women, in particular, have condemned these comments most strongly and have expressed their concern on the prospects of justice for women who become victims of crimes such as rape, honour-killings and other forms of abuse. The remarks were obviously designed to silence those who have dared to make their plight public, and those who have exposed the abysmal failure of the state to protect or deliver justice to victims of violence.

Continue reading Abuse of Women: Shameless Us!

Pakistan Liberals going Extinct...Save it, please

Notes from Delhi

Save it, please
by Rabayl Manzoor

gives it to lousy liberals
Let them in




The audacity of these non-liberal sorts is getting appalling. Why, just the other day I was at the signal waiting for the red light to turn green, when the pesky little kid started cleaning the windshield of my car without my consent! Have they no manners? And that irritating lady who simultaneously continued rapping at my car window while I was just trying to listen to my music in peace? The woman had no sense of privacy or decency! How dare they intrude on my life? I certainly do not intrude on theirs, do I?


’m not sure if you’ve heard but word on the street is that there’s an important species about to become extinct in Pakistan.

Even if you’ve not seen one yourself, chances are you hear about them every single day. Nary a day goes by without reading about this particular breed of being in every single newspaper and magazine published here. We’re collectively bombarded about this group’s existential crisis so much that it seems that it is perhaps the most important group in Pakistan.

If it’s not obvious enough, I’m talking about the so-called death of liberals in Pakistan. Liberals as a species are dying and soon enough will be extinct. I should know because I am one. Suddenly we seem to have woken up to the idea that our existence is under threat because of some amorphous, intractable, violent monster also known as the “Other”.

Because we are the educated, well-heeled lot, having had access to all institutions this country has to offer, we obviously know better than “all of them” who are the illogical, dangerous lot out to kill us. Of course we do not blame anyone but them for their lack of education, opportunity and “middle class” mindset. Had they just tried hard enough like we all did, they too would have been smarter, successful and better smelling. And of course to ‘us’, they are a unified, homogenous entity with an agenda: the liberals versus the non-liberals, the hoity-toity versus the hoi polloi, the You-and-Me’s versus the All-of-Them’s. There’s no one left in between ‘us’, the enlightened, and ‘them’, the emboldened!

The audacity of these non-liberal sorts is getting appalling. Why, just the other day I was at the signal waiting for the red light to turn green, when the pesky little kid started cleaning the windshield of my car without my consent! Have they no manners? And that irritating lady who simultaneously continued rapping at my car window while I was just trying to listen to my music in peace? The woman had no sense of privacy or decency! How dare they intrude on my life? I certainly do not intrude on theirs, do I?

What could possibly be more ridiculous than forty thousand of these illiterate buffoons showing up on the streets to celebrate the murder of one of us? Is there a more stark proof of how utterly outnumbered we are on the streets of Pakistan? Our once impervious, protected space has been hit by a stampede, and now ‘they’ are not taking no for an answer.

As if that wasn’t enough, now more and more of them want better wages. Worker strikes have become commonplace due to some bizarre imagination on their part. (That must be it, right?) They have suddenly realized that they should get the sort of wages us liberals do without getting even remotely more educated or talented.

I went to a meeting recently where concerned liberals who owned these companies were discussing how to get rid of their employees with minimum inconvenience. One of the smartest liberals in the meeting said that we should tell these workers to “suck it up”. Because this particular clever liberal owns an NGO and had obviously thought a lot about poor, ignorant people, we all thought it was indeed an astute observation.

I’m not sure when we ceded political space to these goons we love to hate, but I have a dreaded feeling we never really participated in the national conversation in the first place. This intellectually superior group of ours (or the most recent mutation of it anyway) was always too busy to attend a political rally, too pensive to distribute pamphlets door-to-door, and far too wise to mingle with the masses. It is beneath us to persuade the proletariat, dahlin’.

So how do we escape this horrible situation? How do we ensure that our dying breed survives? We’re not willing to reproduce as much as them. We’re not willing to become less intelligent or attractive either. We don’t even want to meet these people to learn about their survival instincts. (Natural selection, anyone?)

The only way we can overcome this existential threat is to utilize a three-pronged approach. First we need to build an even more robust infrastructure that keeps the non-liberals out of our space. We need to have more clubs, hotels, restaurants and airports that are exclusive and inaccessible to anyone who does not subscribe to our liberal lifestyle. Secondly, we need to make private education and private healthcare even more expensive. The former will ensure our liberals are smarter and richer, and at least a few them can employ critical thinking if there is an extreme need for it. The latter will ensure that non-liberals die out by way of natural selection. Lastly, we need to continue writing and ranting in English newspapers (like this one) so that fellow liberals are aware of our dilemma. Everyone needs to know just how bad things are for us now that we can’t even publicly announce that we will not fast or pray at work.

I’ve done my part in helping to save us by letting you know what’s really plaguing our country. I can now relax in liberal complacency and enjoy being the cleverest liberal on the block.

Speak now or forever hold your piece.

Rabayl Manzoor teaches Economics and Politics, and lives in Karachi out of habit rather than choice. She may or may not reply to e-mails at rabayl@gmail.com

Pakistan Celebrates Women's Day on Twitter

Twitter crowd of Pakistan celebrated the International Women's Day with extreme zeal by remembering and highlighting the great women of Pakistan!

Twitter Trends  #WomenWhoShapePakistan shows how important women have been in shaping and making of Pakistan as a Strong and stable nation.