Endless Filth: The Saga of the Bhangis - Softcover

Thekaekara, Mari Marcel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842772678 ISBN 13: 9781842772676

Publisher: Zed Books, 2003

Synopsis

"In the rainy season it is really bad. Water mixes with the shit and when we carry it on our heads, it drips from the basket onto our clothes, our bodies, our faces. When I return home, I find it difficult to eat food sometimes. The smell never gets out of my clothes, my hair. But then in summer there is often no water to wash your hands before eating. It is difficult to say which is worse." This is a telling investigation and indictment of India‘s lack of resolve over the past 100 years to get rid of manual scavenging and transportation of human excrement. Since Gandhi raised the question of untouchability in 1901 there have been reports, recommendations, a National Commission in 1994 and allocation of funds for rehabilitation of the Bhangis, but so far little has changed. Almost every state government denies the existence of the problem. The author suggests that there is a silent and shameful opposition in India to the eradication of untouchability. The Bhangis are trapped in a system ordained by the caste structure which impedes rehabilitation and movement into alternative work. Can attitudes change, or will the dignity, justice and equality enshrined in the Constitution remain no nearer for the Bhangis than it was in 1947?

About this title

About the Author:

Mari Marcel Thekaekara is an independent writer, and the Co- Founder of ACCORD, an organization working for the adivasis of the Gudalur Valley, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India.

Review:

'Deserves notice in an academic publication both for the social challenges that it raises and for the implicit questions about caste, community, identity and reform that it provokes...a readable, relevant and necessary voice for change about a seemingly intractable malaise.' - Journal of Asian Studies

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1842772678
• ISBN 13: 9781842772676
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140