Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India by Narendra Jadhav

Author:Narendra Jadhav [Jadhav, Narendra]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2005-10-10T22:00:00+00:00

We were living well. But the winds of fate turned. It was sometime around 1929. One day my husband came home dejected and told us that there was a strike in the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.

I wondered why he was so upset, and how the strike would affect us. I had so many questions. He was happy that I took an active interest in his work. And my curiosity was always rewarded with patient answers.

He explained that he was a member of the workers’ union. The union had given a call to stop work unless they were given better wages. The union’s demand was legitimate and unless the workers organized and threatened, nobody was going to increase their wages.

My man realized that the union could not have chosen a worse time to go on strike. He went to the union officials and tried to reason, respectfully at first. But it had come to blows when the officials questioned his integrity. He explained to the officials that Babasaheb was touring the country, making speeches exhorting workers not to support the strike. Babasaheb was saying there was a worldwide Great Depression, and a strike meant a lot of people would lose their jobs.

“Don’t tell us what that self-serving Babasaheb is preaching,” the officials told him. “It is all because of him that you low-caste people are losing track of your place in society and trying to mingle with everyone. If you are a member of our union, you have to honor the strike. This is not a time to back out.”

My man begged the union to defer the strike for a few months, but the officials were unyielding.

“We gave you a patient hearing because you are a good man and you have worked very hard for our union. Come to your senses and stop listening to the nonsense spread by Babasaheb.”

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. In a fit of temper, he gave up his union membership. Now he did not enjoy the protection of being a union member, and things got worse.

One day, he refused to eat any dinner. He even refused to have tea. That was when I suspected something was amiss. I had never known my man to refuse a good cup of tea. I sat by him quietly, waiting for him to open up.

“What can I tell you, Soney? I have let you down,” he said feebly. “And I feel let down myself. So many years of hard work, the name I made for myself there with all my good work, everything has gone down the drain.”

His face was ashen, and I struggled to understand what he was saying.

“The officials were very happy with my work. They promised to give me a raise…and I used to work with even more dedication…everything has blown away, Sonu, it has slipped right out of my hands. Many of us are now dismissed from our company. We have all lost our jobs.”

He held his head in his hands and in that instant shrank within himself.

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