Name: Untouchable (Penguin Classics)
ISBN: 9780140183955

Mulk Raj Anand

Untouchable (Penguin Classics)

haifa

A short, sharp novel presenting Dalit suffering, probably first of its kind. The book runs through a day of Bakha,but the author packs a lot in to his 150 pages.

Very interesting to see how a literary work engages with the politics of Dalit representation bringing in themes such as Gandhian reformism.

But it is terrifying how the novel still speaks to the contemporary India.

Gayathri Jinesh

Boring. Not relevant, in present day India.

Megan Dent

I'm going to be studying this next week, and I definitely appreciate the importance of the political context, and that part is interesting. But I really didn't enjoy the style of the writing. The experiene of reading this wasn't pleasurable because I just found myself thinking that the protagonist was making silly mistakes. I'm not condoning how people from his position in society are treated (both in the text and in reality), but you would think he would learn after the second time he is pubicly abused to be a bit more careful. I don't know - I just kept thinking 'surely not again'