安南德《賤民：禁忌的碰觸》評介暨翻譯

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the representation of untouchability in Mulk Raj Anand’s first novel Untouchable, which depicts one day in a sweeper boy’s life and in the end presents three popular solutions to caste: conversion, that is, leaving the Hindu fold and adopting a new religious identity; Gandhi’s nationalism, which advocates the eradication of untouchability; and modern technology, especially the flush system. While Anand does not give a definite answer as to which one is the most effect, his representation of the three ideologies reveals his partiality for Gandhi’s approach. In fact, Gandhian nationalism serves as the connecting thread of the three solutions to untouchability, or for that matter, the caste problem. This thesis is an attempt to disclose the interconnection between the three solutions. I draw on Debjani Ganguly’s analysis of how social scientists tend to construct caste as the antithesis of modernity, or in Ganguly’s words, “normative modernity,” which connotes ideas like progress, independence, or democracy. Although Ganguly’s research focuses on India’s post-independence period, I argue that Anand’s text also shows this tendency to read caste as a signifier of India’s backwardness, or a relic of the past.