Revision summary
Untouchability includes ritual exclusion, degrading labour and spatial segregation. Urban sanitation and housing show modern forms. Atrocity and honour violence police marriage. Law criminalises the practice; custom often continues it. Sanskritization does not equal annihilation.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Untouchability is not only a temple door. It is a set of practices that mark some bodies as polluting in water, work, housing, and honour. Forms have shifted; the structure has not vanished.
Body
Classical and rural forms
- Denial of wells, roads, and temples, and the imposition of degrading labour such as scavenging, were the village grammar Ambedkar named.
- Jajmani service could hide untouchability as duty.
Contemporary forms
- Residential segregation, separate utensils in schools, and honour violence against inter-caste marriage are everyday continuations.
- Urban informal work repeats caste in sanitation contracts even when the city claims anonymity.
- Digital humiliation and atrocity videos are new media of an old stigma.
Critical examination
- Law, including the Protection of Civil Rights and PoA statutes, treats untouchability as a crime; practice treats it as custom.
- Sanskritization does not annihilate it; a mobile jati may still untouch someone below.
- Beteille’s disharmony is exact here: constitutional equality beside graded pollution.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD U[Untouchability] --> V[Well temple labour] U --> C[Housing work marriage] U --> N[New media stigma] L[Equal law] --> GAP[Disharmonic gap] C[C] --> GAP[GAP]
Conclusion
Forms of untouchability run from well and temple exclusion to sanitation labour, housing, marriage policing, and online stigma. A critical view sees change of site, not the end of the institution Ambedkar wanted annihilated.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How does Andre Beteille justify 'middle class in India?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q3(c)). View answer →
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Did the Constitution end untouchability?
It abolished it in law. Forms persist in labour, housing and honour.
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Is urban anonymity a cure?
It weakens some village rules. Occupations and marriage often restore them.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2018 · Q7(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Elaborate various forms of Dalit assertions in contemporary India? Discuss. -
2016 · Q5(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the various forms of environmental movements waged in india. ·. -
2024 · Q4(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the different forms of untouchability still practised in India? Discuss with suitable illustrations -
2022 · Q3(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Explain the different forms of untouchability in India. -
2017 · Q1(d) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
How have the struggles against untouchability changed their forms and perspective from Gandhian to Ambedkarite positions?
More from this topic
Q5(d) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
How do Louis Dumont and André Beteille differ in their approaches in understanding caste system in India? Explain.
Caste System
Louis Dumont and André Beteille offer contrasting paradigms for studying the Indian caste system. Dumont applies a structuralist-ideological approach, viewing caste as a hierarchical system governed by the religious principle of purity and pollution, derived from classical texts. Conversely, Beteille adopts an empirical-sociological approach, focusing on village-level realities in Tamil Nadu to demonstrate how caste, class, and power often diverge, reflecting secular social stratification. While Dumont sees caste as an integrated whole of structural values, Beteille emphasizes structural pluralism and social mobility. Understanding both theorists is essential for analyzing the continuity and transformation of social inequality in contemporary India.
Q4(c) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
What are the different forms of untouchability still practised in India? Discuss with suitable illustrations
Caste System
Untouchability is practised exclusion on grounds of hereditary pollution, abolished in Article 17 but not in social geography. Forms include water, food, temple, housing, school and marriage bans. Manual scavenging continues despite the 2013 Act. Urban cups, sewers and housing filters are contemporary illustrations. Guru’s humiliation and Ambedkar’s annihilation agenda still describe the structure.
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
What, according to Andre Beteille, are the bases of agrarian class structure in India? Analyse
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Béteille based agrarian class on land property and labour, not on caste rank. Owners, tenants and agricultural labourers are the main classes in his Tanjore study. Caste, class and power are three interacting dimensions. Ownership, control and labour remain the operational bases. Corporate farming, reverse tenancy and public works modify the actors without cancelling the scheme.