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Vol. XXII, No. 4
205
"Some poor Mochis asked for food at my house. Those were the days of terrible famine. I found that though we had ordered for feeding those Mochis, my servants belonging to castes like Hari and doma etc. would not allow them to enter. But my wonder knew no bounds when the servants belonging to castes Hārī and doma ate nothing that day on the ground that all the food of the kitchen had become polluted".18
Now, how can we define the phenomena testified by events like that? Is that too rooted in contempt? Some of the untouchables treat other untouchable castes as their hereditary enemies. That is precisely the attitude of the Domas in relation to the Dhobis. Why Brāhmaṇas hate untouchables and untouchables hate the Brahmaņas is answered by the thesis of Ambedkar. That may well be explained as a product of the Brahmana-Buddhist conflict, but when we find one section of untouchables hating the other and treating them as hereditary enemies it becomes impossible to explain the phenomenon with a thesis like that.
Primitive Superstition.
Not only the hostile and contemptuous attitude of one section of untouchables against the other is inexplicable by Ambedkar's theory. It fails to explain the attitude of the untouchables to the Brahmaņas and other 'higher' castes also if one observes carefully. That the forebears of the untouchables were Buddhists and therefore shunned Brahmaņas and the untouchables today are simply continuing that practice, make sense. But it is simply inconceivable that the non-violent creed of Buddhism taught them to abuse, assault and beat a Brahmana if the latter passed through their locality. I have not come across a single instance in the Buddhist literature that the Buddhists treated people of other faiths that way or even condoned such a behaviour.
Ambedkar cites the following evidence to prove that the untouchables too hate the Brahmanas and regard them impure :
1. The Pariahs "will under no circumstances, allow a Brahmin to pass through their paracherries (collection of Pariah huts) as they firmly believe it will lead to their ruin"14.
2. Parayan and Pallan or Chakkiliyan castes of Tanjore district "strongly object to the entrance of a Brahmin into their quarters believing that harm will result to them therefrom" 15 3. Holeyas or Holiars of Hasan district of Mysore are untouchables "and yet the Brahmins consider great luck will wait upon them if they can manage to pass through a Holigiri without being molested. To this Holiars have strong objection, and
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