Untouchable Summary and Analysis of "Bakha at the

Temple” and “Bakha Takes a Nap”

Summary
Bakha at the Temple
Paused in the street, Bakha observes an old brahminee bull meandering by. He watches as an old
Hindu man passes the bull and touches it, a Hindu custom Bakha is familiar with, though he is
ignorant of its meaning. By the by, he continues on his trek towards the temple. He turns down a
narrow street and passes various shops, including one selling cheap jewelry. He remembers how
as a child he wanted to wear rings, but now that he knows the British don’t like jewelry he finds
such accoutrements garish. As he walks, he cries out the untouchables warning every so often.

Finally, Bakha reaches the temple. Devoid of humans, the quiet and tranquility of the temple
courtyard seems to soothe him. Setting down his tools, he begins to work. After a time he notices
worshipers entering the courtyard. Afraid of repeating the morning’s disaster, he shouts his
presence. He peers furtively at these people as they enter the temple. He, of course, is not allowed
to enter into the actual temple itself, and so is immensely curious about the proceedings.

At length the sound of singing emerges from the open doorway of the temple, which answers his
queries in part. Still, he wonders about the things mentioned in the song. Who is Shanti Deva?
Who is Hari, Narayan? His curiosity overcomes his fear and he approaches the stairs leading to
the temple entrance. Just as he begins to climb the stairs his courage leaves him. He retreats and
resumes sweeping.

After sweeping up all the garbage, Bakha gathers his will together again and rushes up the stairs to
the very top. Peering into the temple doorway he gazes upon “the sanctuary which had so far been
a secret, a hidden mystery to him” (Anand 115). He observes the priests leading the worshipers in
song and is deeply moved by the sound of the hymns. Unfortunately, the peace and tranquility of
the moment is shattered by the cry of “polluted, polluted!” (Anand 116).

Paralyzed by fear, Bakha collapses prostrate on the stairs. However, this scream about pollution
isn’t about him. Instead, it is his sister Sohini that is the cause of a high caste’s contamination
this time. Sohini and Pundit Kali Nath, the man that filled Sohini’s water bucket earlier in
the morning, stand at the foot of the stairs. Nath continues to accuse Sohini of contaminating him
while she stands silently. The sound of the commotion causes the worshipers to rush out of the
temple. They see Bakha’s proximity to the holy building and throw fits. They chase Bakha off the
stairs, and he and his sister run to the courtyard door.

There, a sobbing Sohini tells Bakha that Nath touched her inappropriately. Nearly blinded by rage
Bakha drags Sohini back to the center of the courtyard and looks for the priest. He is nowhere to
be found. The worshipers recoil in the face of Bakha’s fury. He feels as if he can kill them all. He
fumes at the audacity of the priest, assaulting his sister and them accusing her of willfully
contaminating him. It seems as if Bakha will stay and rage in the courtyard indefinitely, but
Sohini convinces him to leave.

As the brother and sister walk, Bakha’s thoughts are in a frenzied state. He contemplates getting
revenge. However, he cannot “overstep the barriers which the conventions of his superiors had
built up to protect their weakness against him” (Anand 125). And so he curbs his anger and bites
his tongue. Watching Sohini as she walks along, Bakha switches between wishing she was never
born so such disgrace and embarrassment could have been avoided to feeling tenderness and
sadness for her. Taking pity on Sohini, Bakha tells her to go home because he can collect their
food for the day in her stead. Ashamed and crestfallen, Sohini leaves her brother standing in the
town proper.

Bakha Takes a Nap

Bakha walks aimlessly through Bulashah, periodically calling out “Posh, posh sweeper coming.”
He comes to an alley and turns down it, planning on begging its inhabitants for food. Stray
animals and rubbish clutter the street. He approaches the first house and calls out “Bread for the
sweeper, mother. Bread for the sweeper.” But no one comes out. All of the homes on the block
seem deserted, their occupants either out in town or ignoring him. Feeling defeated, Bakha sits
down on a house doorstep and drifts into a half sleep. He has a slew of fantastical dreams,
including a vision of himself boarding a train and at a school observing a lesson.

A sadhu who is making his own food circuit jerks Bakha awake. The cries of the sadhu bring a
housewife to the door Bakha was napping under. The woman has come for the sadhu, but recoils
when she sees Bakha sitting in front of her door. She calls him an “eater of masters” and says he
should perish and die for defiling her house by sitting in front of it. Bakha apologizes but asks the
woman for food. The woman ignores him and goes back into her house for the sadhu’s food.

Meanwhile, another woman comes out of her house with food. She gives the sadhu some rice and
kindly gives Bakha a chapatti. The other woman comes back. She gives the sadhu food, but makes
Bakha sweep the gutter in front of her house before she’ll give him anything. As Bakha cleans the
gutter the woman’s young son comes and says he needs to use the bathroom. She directs him to
relieve himself in the gutter because Bakha can clean it up. She then throws Bakha a piece of
bread. He tries to catch it but it lands on the ground. Disgusted by it all, Bakha picks up the bread,
throws his broom aside, and walks off. As he goes the woman remarks to herself that the sweepers
are getting more and more uppity. The scene closes with the woman instructing her son to wipe
his bottom on the ground once he finishes his bathroom business.

Analysis
In “Bakha at the Temple” and “Bakha Takes a Nap” Bakha wallows in the feelings sparked by his
incident with the high caste man in addition to grappling with two new traumatic events. The first
of these events is Pundit Kali Nath, one of the priests of Bulashah’s temple, sexually assaulting his
sister. The other is a high caste woman treating him like scum when he goes to beg for food.
Between his public shaming, Sohini’s assault, and the rudeness of the high-caste woman, this is
shaping into a horrendous, inauspicious day for Bakha. Because these events occurred in such
close temporal proximity to one another he hasn’t had much time to process them. It feels as if he
is wandering the streets of Bulashah listlessly, flitting from one catastrophe to the next.

Before he learns of Sohini’s assault Bakha does manage to have a moment of reflection while
cleaning the temple courtyard. Surrounded by all the religious iconography and the noise from the
temple service he begins to wonder what it all means. As he approaches the temple door to spy on
the worshipers we witness the internal battle between his curiosity and his fear of discovery, a fear
cultivated by “the dead weight of years of habitual bending cast on him.” This is a direct reference
to the generational trauma and burdens Bakha must grapple with as someone descending from a
long line of sweepers. When he creeps slowly up the stairs he is a “humble, oppressed under-dog
that he was by birth, afraid of everything” (Anand 112). This is another reference to the cyclical
oppression theme. Not only does society condition Bakha to be a “humble dog,” he already is one
by default when he is born. Anand uses a simile about the fixed, flowing nature of water to further
elucidate the connection between Bakha and his ancestors and how their continued degradation
across centuries is considered natural and perpetual in Hindu society.

When he finds the courage to watch the worshipers and later when he contemplates getting
revenge on Nath for assaulting his sister, Bakha is clearly pushing back against the conditioning
and teachings forced upon the untouchables. Sadly, rarely does his strength and courage to fight
back crescendo and manifest into action. For example, when he plots to confront the priest it is all
for naught because he cannot bring himself to overstep the barriers of caste and class that separate
the untouchables from everyone else in society. The inability of Bakha to avenge his sister’s honor
and Sohini’s inability to defend herself against Pundit Nath’s accusations are examples of the class
struggles and social disparities between untouchables and the rest of Hindu society. This is
especially true for Sohini. Though she was the priest’s victim she has become the accused because
no one would believe the word of an untouchable over a high-caste person. This is true of both
pedestrian people and members of the judicial system and allows for an array of crimes to be
committed against untouchables with little to no consequences for the perpetrators of those crimes.

The differential treatment untouchables receive extend to the realm of charity as well. When
Bakha and the sadhu beg the high-caste woman for food, she is verbally abusive and unkind to
Bakha but the picture of generosity and politeness to the sadhu. This exposes how many Hindus
view untouchables as lesser humans. Both the sadhu and Bakha were beggars at that moment, but
the woman saw one as deserving of her charity and the other as undeserving. Some of her
deference to the sadhu can be attributed to the sadhu’s ability to give her a religious blessing in
return for the food she gifts him. As an untouchable, Bakha of course doesn’t have this ability.
However, according to Hinduism, by giving him alms the woman is ensuring she maintains her
high-caste position in the next life. So in a way she is also receiving something from Bakha.
Clearly, she does not interpret the situation through that lens though.

To close, the two steps forward, one step back routine Bakha did at the steps of the temple parallel
his overall character development. Earlier with the touched man and Pundti Kali Nath, Bakha
could not find the courage to stand up for himself or his sister. Given the circumstances, including
his tenuous place in his society, Bakha cannot be blamed for his unwillingness to defend himself.
However, he does manage to find the courage to take a stand later with the high-caste woman.
When the woman instructs her son to defecate in the gutter next to Bakha so he can clean it up,
Bakha lets his disgust and anger over the situation rise to the surface. Rather than following the
woman’s orders and providing his sweeper services, he throws down the woman’s broom and
leaves. This type of civil disobedience can be powerful and shows how Bakha is coming into his
personhood. His refusal to clean up after the woman’s son is a step forward. Time will tell if he
takes a step back.
Untouchable Summary and Analysis of “Bakha and His
Family” and “Bakha and the Wedding of Ram Charan’
s Sister”

Summary
Bakha and His Family
Hurrying home to his family, Bakha feels the drama and fatigue from the day taking its toll on his
body. He’s starving and thinks about the measly two pieces of bread he’s bringing home to his
family. He also fears his father’s response when he hears of the day’s events because he knows his
father will side with the high-caste people. Still, there’s nothing he can do but hurry home and
hope for the best.

At home, it’s only Sohini and Lakha. Rahka has gone off to collect food from the English
barracks. Sohini is quiet but Lahka is in a pleasant mood and well rested because of his morning
spent at home instead of working like his children. He asks Bakha what he’s brought to eat,
naming several luxurious foods he’s in the mood to eat. When Bakha reveals his hoard of two
pieces of bread, Lakha is not pleased. He thinks back to the feasts following weddings and his
mouth begins to water.

Bakha tries to defend himself by saying he doesn’t know all the people in town well enough to beg
them for food. His father counters by saying Bakha should begin to know them well, for he will
work for them all his life. Bakha sees his future years of life flash before his eyes and feels
horrified. He pictures himself working at the British barracks cleaning their toilets and calms
down. Lakha notices his son’s strange behavior and asks what’s wrong. At first Bakha tries to
keep the truth from his father, but Lakha is so persistent that he finally confesses what happened to
him earlier in the day with the touched man.

Lakha reacts to his son’s story of degradation with a mixture of anger and pity. Mostly he is angry
with Bakha for forgetting the untouchables' call, but can see his son is upset and so tries to temper
the emotion. He asks Bakha if he tried to retaliate. When Bakha confesses he did not seek revenge
but wanted to, Lakha fears for his son. A part of him recoils at the idea of challenging high-caste
men. He tells his son that the high-caste men are their superiors and they must respect them.
Seeing that Bakha is still grieved and upset, Lakha shares with him an anecdote from his own
dealings with high-caste men.

It was some years ago when Bakha was a young child. He was deathly ill with fever and Lakha
went to a high-caste doctor in town for his help. Because of his untouchability he could enter the
doctor’s home, and so beseeched every high-caste person that passed by to help him. They all
ignored him, too concerned about their own affairs to help a sweeper. Lakha waited for an hour
outside feeling as if a scorpion was stinging him. He had enough money for the medicine that
could heal his son, and yet was barred from accessing it because of his class.

Instead of futilely waiting Lakha ran back home to check if Bakha was still alive. His son was still
breathing, but only barely. Lakha sprinted back to the doctor’s house, ran straight into the patient
reception, and threw himself at the doctor’s feet. The other patients began to scream and leave the
doctor’s house in droves because of Lakha’s contaminating presence. The doctor of course was
furious, but as Lakha began to explain the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his appearance
in the clinic, the doctor’s heart began to melt. The doctor started to write a prescription for Bakha,
but then Lakha’s brother ran into the room and announced that Bakha is dying. Lakha rushed
home to say goodbye to his son. As Bakha’s parents cried over their son, there was a knock at the
door. The doctor had followed Lahka. He “graced” their house by entering it and saving Bakha’s
life.

Bakha is deeply moved by Lakha’s harrowing tale, though he tries hard to mask his true feelings.
The conversation shifts to Rakha’s whereabouts and everyone’s hunger. Bakha resents his
father’s hunger complaints because he stayed at home all morning while his children were
laboring and working up appetites. Before long, Rakha appears looking disheveled and haggard.
He deposits his food haul and immediately begins to eat. Bakha needles him for looking so dirty
and unkempt. Lakha, who loves Rakha more than Bakha, comes to his youngest son’s defense and
tells Bakha to leave him alone. Sohini steps in and tries to get Bakha to calm down by offering
him some bread.

When Bakha reaches into the basket they are all eating from, his hand touches a piece of sticky,
wet bread. The texture of the bread brings to his mind an image of a sepoy washing his hands over
the scraps of his meal before giving it to Rakha. At this mental image Bakha grows nauseous and
loses his appetite. He stands up quickly from his place around the basket, so quickly that Lakha
asks him what the problem is. Thinking quickly, Bakha says he must go to the wedding of Ram
Charan’s sister so he can receive his share of the sweets. This placates his greedy father and
so Bakha makes his escape.

Bakha and the Wedding of Ram Charan’s Sister

As he walks toward the home of Ram Charan, Bakha reminiscences about his relationship Ram
Charan’s sister. As children they once play-acted a wedding together, and the pair of them got
married. Since then Bakha has looked at her fondly and has “always felt proud of having once
acted as her husband.” He thinks about the moment he heard of her engagement, and how his
regret over the news felt as “as if a spring of water had burst like a doleful lyric melody in the hard
rock of his body” (Anand 168). He also recalls various fantasies he’s had about her, fantasies that
put his reputation as a docile, respectable young man at stake.

After a while Bakha comes across a group of washermen working. He watches them for a moment
while thinking about how to find Ram Charan. He is too shy to approach the house where the
festivities were being held. Gulabo’s hatred and meanness is infamous among the colony
dwellers. He walks within ten yards of Ram Charan’s house and stops short at the sight of his
other friend, Chota. The two boys great each other amicably and then stare at the wedding
celebrations. Chota is unafraid and goes to call Ram Charan, who is surrounded by revelers. At
first Ram Charan is too busy stuffing his face with sugarplums to notice them, but eventually they
successfully get his attention. Unfortunately they also attract Gulabo’s attention. The boys escape
to the grassy knoll north of the colony, Gulabo’s furious cries of “illegally begotten” and “little
dogs” echoing in the wind behind them.

As the boys reach the Bulashah Hills, Bakha falls behind and takes in the beauty of the nature
surrounding him. The peace and loveliness of his environment, far from the crowds of town and
the ugliness of the outcaste colony, soothe his soul. At first he is relieved his friends have gone
ahead so he doesn’t have to hear a single human voice. However as he rambles along he begins to
desire some companionship to “humanize the solitary excursion of the stoic in him” (Anand 179).
And yet, he doesn’t want to call Ram Charan or Chota to him. So he continues on alone, stopping
to drink from a natural spring nestled in a valley between two of the hills. He lies down next to the
pool and dozes off.

Bakha has barely dozed off when Chota comes up and begins to tickle his nose. Bakha jumps out
of his light doze with a violent sneeze. His friends begin to laugh at his reaction. Sleep disrupted
and peaceful mood destroyed, Bakha laughs along tensely, the stress from the morning’s events
taking its toil on his typical good sense of humor. Noticing his false cheer, Chota asks what’s
wrong. Bakha brushes aside his concern and asks Ram Charan for his share of the sugarplums.
Ram Charan holds them in a handkerchief and tells Bakha to take one, but Bakha refuses to take it
directly from his hands. He tells Ram Charan to throw one to him.

Both Ram Charan and Chota are aghast. Though they are of different hierarchical levels within the
outcaste group, they had long since abandoned the rules and regulations of caste amongst their
little trio. They ate together, and drank from the some soda bottles during hockey games. Hence,
Bakha’s refusal to touch them directly sends up red flags. At first Bakha tries to deny anything is
wrong but at Chota’s prodding he confesses the events around his slap in the morning, Sohini’s
assault, and the uncharitable woman in town. To each tale of degradation Chota reacts in anger
and sympathy, while Ram Charan remains silent, embarrassed by Bakha’s narrative. Chota does
his best to soothe Bakha’s heart, telling him to be brave and that these things will happen as they
are outcastes. He tries to cheer Bakha up by reminding him of their hockey game later in the day.
Ram Charan chimes in that he must go home briefly if he wants to be allowed out later for the
game. The boys begin to troop back.

As they walk the atmosphere is melancholic and tense. The sympathy and understanding of his
friends relights Bakha’s self-righteous indignation from earlier. He imagines his friends helping
him teach Pundit Kali Nath a lesson for his assault of Sohini. When Chota offers to help
catch “the swine of a priest” one day, Bakha realizes his friend shares his thirst for retribution.
However, he feels as “unequal to [Chota’s] suggestion as he [feels] unequal to his own desire”
(Anand 190). He wonders what would be the use of revenge.

Ram Charan has snuck off while Chota and Bakha were preoccupied with thoughts of revenge.
Chota and Bakha plan to meet up in time for the hockey game, as Chota must go home and Bakah
will go receive the hockey stick Charat Singh promised him. The two boys part ways.

Analysis
In these sections of the book, the focus of the novel extends past just Bakha to include others,
including Lakha, Rakha, Bakha’s friends, and the narrator. Through a flashback we learn in part
why the binds of oppression don’t chafe at Lakha as much as they do his children. The
eleventh-hour kindness of the doctor that purportedly saved Bakha’s life is, to Lakha, an example
of the generosity and charity of the higher castes. The rich food the high castes give to the
outcastes during weddings and other special events is another testament to their generosity in
Lakha’s eyes. That’s why Lakha brushes his son aside when Bakha points out the system of
cyclical oppression the sweepers are trapped in (“they think we are mere dirt because we clean
their dirt” [Anand 153]). Rather than hating a system that establishes barriers to healthcare for
certain classes, Lakha curries favors and panders to the main beneficiaries of that system. This
was not always the case. In his anecdote, Lakha says that when he was turned away from the
doctor’s clinic, even though he had enough money to buy the medicine Bakha needed, he felt as if
a scorpion was stinging him. Clearly, he recognized the injustice of the situation and was
tormented by it. Lakha is not blind to the class struggles between the untouchables and the rest of
Hindu society. Nowadays, he simply ignores them.

Like father, like son is a platitude that comes to mind when considering the character of Rakha.
Like Lakha, Rakha seems complacent with his lot in life. He does not share his brother’s
obsession with British culture and does not understand Bakha’s desire to escape the realities of
their lives. Furthermore, he doesn’t have his brother’s propensity for cleanliness, something Bakha
is derisive of. In this way Rakha is a foil to Bakha. As sons of the head sweeper the brothers lead
parallel lives, but because of their personal decisions and preferences these lives are mirror images
of each other.

Some depth is added to the characters of Ram Charan and Chota as well. When Ram Charan
ignores his mother’s ire and runs off with Bakha and Chota anyways he shows his loyalty to his
friends, even though they are beneath him in the class hierarchy. Neither Ram Charan nor Chota
think nothing of breaking bread with Bakha, which is why they are nonplussed when Bakha
refuses to take the sugar plums directly from Ram Charan’s hands. The boys had all but eradicated
the intra-class barriers amongst their small circle, but Bakha’s traumatic experiences earlier in the
day had erected those barriers anew. Chota demonstrates his sensitive, attentive side when he
wheedles Bakha’s tale of woe out of the recalcitrant sweeper. Despite Bakha’s protestations Chota
intuitively knows there is something his friend needs to confess.

As the book progresses so does Bakha’s character development. For example, some light is shed
on the origins of his obsession with the British. When he “interned” with his uncle at the British
barracks the Tommies treated Bakha like a human being. He was still “the help” and still an
“Indian black man”, but they did not treat him as if he was the scum of the earth like orthodox
Hindus do. They didn’t view him as untouchable or as a corrupting, polluting presence. This fact
helps elucidate why British culture is so important to Bakha. For someone that has been treated as
sub-human for his entire life, it is no wonder Bakha began to idolize the British after they treated
him as a full human being. Thus Bakha’s fascination with and love of British clothes, social mores,
and mannerisms can be interpreted as him seeking out a culture that acknowledges his humanity.
He is rejecting his Indian roots because in some ways they deny him his personhood. Though on
the surface his obsession may appear to be the superficial whimsies of a vain young man, there is
something poignant at work here.

These revelations about Bakha, his family, and his friends are facilitated by the observations and
analyses of Untouchable’s third person omniscient narrator. Though he is intelligent, Bakha
simply lacks the worldview and critical thinking skills required to critically interpret many of the
things happening to him. For a book so deeply imbedded with sociocultural and sociopolitical
meaning this is kind of critical analysis is vital. The narrator of Untouchable fills that void. A
pivotal example of this is the narrator’s breakdown of Bakha’s “hatred for his own town and [his]
love for the world to which he looked out” (Anand 150). The narrator explains Bakha’s feelings as
a type of “the grass is always greener on the other side” syndrome. He argues that for people the
familiar becomes stale and the unknown becomes fascinating and exotic. In Bakha’s case the
familiar isn’t stale inasmuch as it’s unbearable. It’s unbearable for him to continue living as a
fourth class citizen.

Bakha doesn’t explicitly articulate these feelings. Rather, his dissatisfaction with his life is related
in more subliminal ways. He has hyperbolic ideas such as “he would be unhappy if he heard even
one human voice” which show he doesn’t even want the company of his friends. Before he shares
the day’s events with Ram Charan and Chota he takes refuge in an anthropomorphized nature that
“stretches [it’s hands] out towards him” (Anand 178), a nature composed of silence and solitude.
His discontent causes him to seek out isolation and escape from the trappings of his life. His gut
instinct is still to escape from reality. Only time will tell if Bakha reaches a point where he can
confront his problems head on.