A New Form of Untouchability

What the editorial is about?

The Limits of anti-boycott laws in India

Context:

Recently, a video, purportedly showing villagers from the Surguja district of Chhattisgarh taking an oath to implement an economic boycott of Muslims, went viral on social media.

The emergence of a new form of untouchability

• The incident was not a spontaneous reaction of the villagers to a brawl in the village but allegedly orchestrated by a Hindutva outfit.
• These acts are not merely ‘expressions of hate’. they can be characterized as the emergence of a new form of untouchability guided by the political imperatives of Hindutva rather than the religious dictates of Hinduism.

The ideology of purity and pollution

• The hierarchical caste-based Hindu social order was governed by the ideology of purity and pollution.