Tulsi Prajna 1996 10

SR No.: 524589
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 166
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 162

Vol. XXII, No. 3
AB
parts of the Schodule meant for U.P., C.P. and Orissa. Kaivarta is mentioned as Dhivara ctc. in different parts of the Schedule. Candála is listed as such in Madras and otherwise elsewhere. The list prepared by a government, however, bears the impact of different pressures, while there are people who strive to include their castes in the list with the hope of ensuring certain advantages, there are others who regard it as something against the dignity of their caste and oppose the enlistment. Such pressures being absent in case of Dharmaśstras, the government list cannot but differ from the list of the Dharmaśāstras.
DR. Ambedkar refers of the fact that Nața and Rajaka are not regarded as untouchables in the whole of India and explains it with the contention that they were merely Impure during the age of the Dharmaśāstras. But there are many castes other than Naţa aad Rajaka which are listed as untouchable only in a few provinces or regions. It may be due to the fact that they inhabit these regions only or are known by other names elsewhere. There is also the possibility that they resisted enlistment successfully. What is more important, however, is the fact that they are regarded as untoucha. bles in the major part of the country. Nața is listed as untouchable in Bengal, Bihar, U.P. and Punjab while Rajaka finds a place in the lists for Orissa, Assam, C.P., Bihar, U.P. and Bengal.
DR. Ambedkar emphasizes the fact only Camāra of the 12 communities mentioned in the Smstis is regarded as untouchable throughout India and explains it with the thesis that the Camara was impure during the age of the Dharmashāstras but became untouchable subsequently unlike the rest of the communitics mentioned in the Smstis. Why did the Camara alone become untouchable? Ambedkar explains it as follows:
"Of the twelve communities mentioned in the Smstis as Impure communities only the Camāra should have been degraded to the Status of an untouchable is not difficult to explain. What has made the difference between the Camara and other Impure communities is the fact of beef-eating. It is only those among the Impure who were eating beef that became untouchables, when the cow become sacred and beef-eating became a sin. The Camara is the only beefcating community. That is why it alone appears in both the lists". 48
That there were no untouchables in the age of the Dharma. sastras has been proved mistaken in the preceding pages. That beef-cating made Impure people Untouchables subsequently is a new point. We reserve the examination of that point for a subsequent