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Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III - South Asia - U,V,Z

Bách khoa toàn thư nền nông nghiệp thế giới - Vùng Nam Á - Vần U,V,Z | Untouchables 299 Untouchables ETHNONYMS Adi-Dravida depressed caste external caste Harijan Panchama Pariah Scheduled Caste The word Untouchable was first applied-to this category of Hindus by the Maharaja Sayaji Rao III of Baroda in a lecture he gave in 1909 to describe their most essential characteristic vis-à-vis higher-ranking castes. Some twenty years later Mahatma Gandhi named them Harijans which means roughly children of God. Later still the government of India drew up a list of the most disadvantaged castes hence generating a new euphemism Scheduled Castes. Drawing on Sanskrit Untouchables have called themselves Panchama or the fifth vama a term that is not often heard today or in South India they are Adi-Dravidas meaning original Dravidians. The British have long called them Pariahs in reference to a major Untouchable group of Tamil Nadu. The Untouchables are collectively all those castes in any part of South Asia who are Hindus or former Hindus and rank below the Sudra vama. Their numbers are not known precisely but in 1991 India probably had between 130 and 140 million Untouchables and the subcontinental total would be close to 200 million. The low rank of the Untouchables is explained by the general belief that their traditional occupations and other habits are or were polluting to higher castes in a spiritual way as they had something to do with blood dirt or death. Thus the families of leather workers scavengers and butchers are Untouchables simply by reason of their traditional occupations. Furthermore it is felt that this karma comes to Untouchables as a punishment for sins committed in a previous existence. Although these numerous castes all fall below the pollution line they are not undifferentiated in rank but rather recognize a range of social distinctions. Some who rank higher than other Untouchables serve as priests to the rest at their own shrines because it is impossible to get Brahmans or other priests of very high status to serve the .