Sugarcane
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The origins of untouchability can be traced back to the times when the Aryans invaded India around 1500 BC. They looked down upon the indigenous people as culturally and racially inferior. While some of the indigenous people escaped into the jungles, the rest of them were subdued and incorporated into the Aryan society as inferior castes.
In the Later-Vedic period, the people who escaped into the jungles began to be called Chandalas. There was a lot of stigma against the Chandalas in the Later-Vedic period, but untouchability on a large scale appeared only between 600 BC and 200 AD.
Manu holds that the four Varnas originated from different parts of Purusha: the Brahmans from his mouth, the Kshyatriyas from his arms, the Vaishyas from his thighs, and the Shudras from his feet. Rest of the Castes came into being as a result of alliances among the four Varnas.
The two important theories pertaining to the origin of untouchability are as follows:
The first theory says that the discovery that the Indus valley people spoke a proto- Dravidian language suggests that the people conquered by the Aryans were Dravidians. They subsequently moved down south and subjugated the indigenous people there. When Aryan influence spread to the South, the Varna system and the “untouchability” came into existence.
Thus, the Dalits were among the original tribes of South India, who became isolated from the rest of the world and so were looked down upon by others. They belonged to the first wave of Dravidians who emigrated to the South and were subsequently won over by a more civilized wave who forced them to live as manual laborers.
Why the Aryans developed a social organization wherein the Chandalas occupied the lowest position is answered by the “mixed caste” theory offered by Manu. This theory explains the existence of the four Varnas as divinely-ordained and the other castes outside the Varna scheme as a result of unlawful sexual alliances between men and women of different Varnas.
The Chandala resulted as the offspring of a Brahman woman and a Shudra man. Four other groups were also included among the “untouchables”. In the years after 200 AD, “untouchability” came to include more groups.
The label Chandala came to be used to refer to all those at the bottom of society. This oversimplifies what over a period of time a far more complex process. The number of “untouchable” castes always exceeded the number of mixed origin castes, so obviously other considerations influenced the classification system. This theory accords priority to Varna rather than Jati.
To explain the origin of untouchability, recent theories have used components such as race and the concern for racial purity when races interact; the subjugation of diverse groups by the technologically superior Aryans; the division of labor as migrant Aryans settled down adopting agricultural and then urban ways of life; incorporation of new tribes, new guilds, and new religious sect into the Aryan society.
Dalits and the Origin of Untouchability in India: Origin of Untouchability
