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210
TULSI-PRAJNA
The
himself makes a distinction between the Shadras and the Broken Man. How could then the rules laid down for the Shudras benefit the Broken Man ? Ambedkar does not answer the questions.
The Smstis of Manu, Yājnavalk ya etc, and the Dharmasūtras of Gautam, Bodbāyana, Apastamba mention the rule of prom demotion for four Varņas only. We can explain it in two ways. If we assume with Ambedkar that the Shüdras and Antyajas were two distinct categories, the rule can only mean there was no provision for absorbing the Antyajas (or Broken Man) in the four varņas ultimately and allowing them to live inside. Secondly, we can assume the Antyajas were included in the broad category of the Shūdras and the rules formulated for the Shûdras applied to the Antyajas as well, In that case, we can say that initially it was not impossible on the part of the Broken Man to get promoted to a higher varna and live inside the village.
The first proposition would mean the Broken Men were not only kept outside the villages from the very beginning, but arrangements were made to segregate them permanently. What the reason was is a different question. To segregate a group permanently, it is necessary to ban dining. contact and marriage etc. with it If something like that was done quite early and continued ever what can we call it if not untouchability ? Viewed from that angle what seems logical and probable is that development in India was rather different from that in Ireland, Wales etc. Here the Broken Men were kept a part and the way to their absorption in the village community was closed from the very beginning and that is what led to the origin of untouchability.
The second proposition raises more questions than it solves. Once it is admitted that the Antyajas were included in the category of the Shüdras and the rules formulated for the Shüdras applied to them, other questions arise. Obviously more than one thousand years passed since date when the Broken Men began living outside the villages to the period untouchability came about according to Ambedkar. All that is supposed to have existed in the intervening period is the division of society in four venas, What could have prevented the free mixing of the Broken Man with the village community in the meantime? What could have perpetuated the separate settlements for such a long time? Ambedkar docs; not s there was no difference between the Shudras and Broken Man ioiti. ally. But if he said that, he would face a new question. When the practice of promoting the Shudras to higher varpas became inope rative, the rest of the shūdras remained Shūdras but a section of them became untouchable. That is a phenomenon that remains to be
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