Pratyush Joshi
New Delhi/Buffalo, NY

“l love scavenging. In my Ashram, an eighteen year old Brahmin lad is doing the scavenger’s work in order to teach the Ashram cleanliness. The lad is no reformer. He was born and bred in orthodoxy. But he felt that his ccomplishments were incomplete until he had become also a perfect sweeper, and that if he wanted the Ashram sweeper to do his work well, he must do it himself and set an example.

“You should realise that you are cleaning Hindu Society.”
Dr. Ambedkar:

“Can there be a worse example of false propaganda than this attempt of Gandhism to perpetuate evils which have been deliberately imposed by one class over another? If Gandhism preached the rule of poverty for all and not merely for the Shudra, the worst that could be said about it is that it is a mistaken idea. But why preach it as good for one class only? Why appeal to the worst of human failings, namely, pride and vanity in order to make him voluntarily accept what on a rational basis he would resent as a cruel discrimination against him? What is the use of telling the scavenger that even a Brahmin is prepared to do scavenging when it is clear that according to Hindu Shastras and Hindu notions even if a Brahmin did scavenging he would never be subject to the disabilities of one who is a born scavenger? For in India a man is not a scavenger because of his work. He is a scavenger because of his birth irrespective of the question whether he does scavenging or not. If Gandhism preached that scavenging is a noble profession with the object of inducing those who refuse to engage in it, one could understand it. But why appeal to the scavenger’s pride and vanity in order to induce him and him only to keep on to scavenging by telling him that scavenging is a noble profession and that he need not be ashamed of it? To preach that poverty is good for the Shudra and for none else, to preach that scavenging is good for the Untouchables and for none else and to make them accept these onerous impositions as voluntary purposes of life, by appeal to their failings is an outrage and a cruel joke on the helpless classes which none but Mr. Gandhi can perpetuate with equanimity and impunity”.

Extracts from: Dr. Ambedkars writings “What Congress and Gandhi did to Untouchables?”

Where do we fall in the above categories? Certainly with Gandhi unconsciously because even now to narrate we take a book to talk about Scavenging, which was written in 1975? The “Scavengers’ Son” never talks of Caste it talks as if it is a Class problem. Overall the book talks of wage hike and dignity. The dignities the author mean living like ‘other’ human being. Thank god such books are not published now. I feel the book mostly talk ill of Chudalaimuthus’ and his community. Though the book talks of the upper Caste men but it does not analyze the Upper Caste the way it does with Chudalaimuthu and his community.
What does the NGOs’\Government\Civilsocieties(including Dalits)\and ’intellectuals’ say. They start a ‘rehabilitation’ programmes for Scavengers. I don’t see any other word in English which could so derogatively be used against this population in a decent manner. What Dr.Ambedkar said in his writings is that Scavenging is not a profession it is a Caste. Eradicating the Caste system permanently is the only solution for such things.
Was ‘Reservation’ policy a rehabilitation package given to SC/ST/OBCs’ it is not.

Even on a larger context of the caste/dalit term, this still doesn’t fit the reason to celebrate. From what I have seen, the common public including the non-brahmin casteists has not been so much in favor of Karnatik classical music all along. That is not because they discard the elitism in practice that comes with Karnatik music, but because that elitist symbol is not inclusive of them and their culturally associated caste symbols. In other words, if Karnatik music was a culturally associated symbol of Nairs or Panickers or upper class Christians, the story would have been totally different and they would have wholeheartedly accepted the Karnatik system.

One day’s experience – Chudalamuthu learned a few things. When toilets are full and brimming with filth, the Thotti earns something. In the evening the toilets are empty. So no one recognises him.

Chudalamuthu grew up on the rice and kanji that was brought (by his father Isakkumuthu) on the night soil cart. That was true. But did he have to eat that rice forever? Couldn’t he eat well from the wages of hard labour? Even then, Chudalamuthu wondered whether he could stick to such tradition forever. It is a must that the Thotti who removes filth should eat filth. There would be no wages next month. Two months would have to pass like that. If he trudged along with this pot from morning, it would take care of the old man’s needs. But then, what about him?

A few neatly dressed men were approaching, talking enthusiastically. Chudala, who was deep in thought, broke their rank. One of them looked at him fiercely and asked:

“Can’t you keep away from us? You stink!”

Chudala didn’t say anything. A hot retort roared inside him. But he suppressed it. He has to keep away! He stinks! The thing that made him stink was entrenched inside those gentlemen!

He could hear music from a nearby mansion. From another home wafted the smell of a nice curry being seasoned with mustard. There were well-lit homes, seats of happiness, towering on both sides. They are a fortunate lot, those who live there. But what causes such well-being and happiness? Chudala wondered. Isn’t it because the toilets remained clean? How would this town appear if there had been no Thottis around or if men had refused to be Thottis? It would be the end. All these bigwigs would flee with their noses covered. It would be the end. But they know how to create Thottis. Thottis are inevitable.

* * *
“Who do you think is in your womb?”

She replied, laughing:

“Who else? Thotti’s son!”

Chudalamuthu was stunned. He had never thought like that. What a dreadful truth! That child is a Thotti’s son!

Chudalamuthu advised her:

“You should never think like that. The other day, the swamy at Mullakkal Ashram told me, you should think only about good things. Then the child will do well. If you think that he’s a Thotti’s son, he will also become a Thotti.”

* * *
The midwife said:

“Here, hold the child.”

Chudalamuthu’s hand froze. An old woman who came out, said:

“You must give 10 chakras before taking the child.”

Chudalamuthu came back with ten chakras. But he was fearful of taking the child in his hands. He was a Thotti. He had to hold the child with the hands that cleared toilet-filth!

Yet he had to do it. He held out his hand and took the child. And gave it back immediately.

Chudalamuthu had never felt such an aversion at being a Thotti as he did that day. That baby might have also been feeling the aversion. Can it know the stink? A Thotti stinks even if he takes a bath. Will the child have problems because I touched it? He should grow up without touching a Thotti. Even so, when he gave the child to other hands, Chudalamuthu felt like holding him again.

* * *
Advocate Kurup’s wife had a hearty laugh when she learnt that the Thotti’s son was christened Mohanan. That laughter didn’t make a fool of Chudalamuthu. It shocked him. Paralysed him. That laughter was not only full of ridicule but it had the suggestion that a Thotti did not have the right to such a name.

* * *
“Why is the child crying?”

Valli replied with a smile:

“He wants to have dinner with you.”

Muthu was shocked. Yes, he was shocked. Chudalamuthu had never thought there would be such a demand. He wants to eat the rice that I mixed with this hand that gathers toilet-filth. How can it be allowed from now on? How can it be denied? Now he may even call me acha (father) in public.

* * *
He remembered every toilet he had been acquainted with. Day after day he would gather filth with the shovel and the ladle, put it in the bucket and then in the can – each time it would spill on his body… I am supposedly a human being! A human being with a heart, brain and five senses! Why did he have the ability to beget children? To create more Thottis? Could his son become a great man?

No! Chudalamuthu thought: What he must do is to take his pot and start in the morning. And, fill it with whatever he got during his house visits, the sour payasam, stale porridge or day-old kanji, put it on the night soil cart and give it to his son. Thus it should grow up. A Thotti’s son cannot grow without eating that filth. Even if it is not given to him, he’ll ask for it. A Thotti’s son will find that filth tastier than a biscuit. Because his taste for it is hereditary.

* * *
Chudalamuthu said further:

“I always wonder. One day or the other, he will know that he’s a Thotti’s son. Wherever he goes he’s a Thotti’s son. Both are a problem.”

Valli too had something to say:

“I too wonder. Will it do any good even if he pretends he’s not a Thotti’s son? Just think, where will he get a bride? Will he get anyone other than a Thotti’s daughter?

“Yes, that too is right. But, even then, I won’t bring him up as a Thotti’s son. That’s certain. Even if he’s a Thotti’s son, his son should not be a Thotti’s son.”

Valli said, sighing deeply:

“That child will become Thotti’s son’s son.”

Chudalamuthu thought for a brief while and said:

“Yes.”

Valli asked:

“Who made this Thotti in the beginning?”

“Do you also wonder about it?”

“Yes. At times. I never had such thoughts before. But now I wonder.”

“Do you feel an aversion being a Thotti?”

“What can I say if you ask me that? Can I have such aversion?”

It became clear to that husband that his wife too was thinking like him. Valli asked to clear her doubt:

“Will there be a time when there are no Thottis around?”

“I don’t know.”

“No. I don’t think so. No. How can it be? If there is a toilet, don’t you also need a Thotti?

* * *
“Do you know why they refuse to admit our child in school? If Thotti children start to learn – then, they are afraid, there won’t be Thottis any longer.”

* * *
Another day, Mohanan pestered Valli with his stubbornness. He didn’t want the shirt and shorts that he had worn to school the previous day. He didn’t have enough of powder; he insisted on her bathing him with good, perfumed soap. Till that day, he had never been so stubborn. Valli asked, angrily:

“What happened to the shorts that you wore yesterday? It looks very clean.”

He rubbed his eyes and said:

“All the children ran away from me holding their nose, saying that I stink.”

Valli understood that story immediately. It was not that he stank. A Thotti stinks. Therefore, a Thotti’s son will stink.

* * *
Thotti’s son didn’t know what a Thotti is. But other children of his age knew it very well. Because they find a Thotti repugnant.

Valli told her husband about her son’s insistent curiosity.

“Don’t try to evade it any longer. You must leave this job. You must do it before he comes to know everything.”

* * *
He knows!

Mohanan continued:

“In the afternoon when I was going (to school) I saw a man pulling the cart. Oh! What a stink! I covered my nose and ran. Then a boy told me. That it was a Thotti. Amma! Does Achan too draw a cart like this?”

Valli expected that it would be a big problem when Mohanan came to know what a Thotti is. But he was speaking normally. There seems to be no problem now that he has come to know about it.

Even if he had come to know about it earlier, there wouldn’t have been any problem. Perhaps, when he comes to know what is inside the cart – even then he won’t be flustered. Valli answered his question unhurriedly, without emotion:

“Achan too draws (the cart) that way.”
His thinking was different:
“Poor Achan! He too would sweat profusely in the sun.”

Translated by R. Krishnakumar