The Village -7

...The untouchables are segregated outside the village and prohibited from taking part in any the village social functions. If they are allowed then they are allowed in such way as to confirm their insulted status in the society. Their major contribution is unpaid labor for which they are paid with leftovers in a separate corner.

The land was owned by the higher castes but all the people depended upon it for their survival. The landowning castes owned the lifeline of the village. The land was owned by high caste people and tilled by Shudra tillers who are the forever servants in Hindu society. The casual labor was provided by the untouchables; they were the eternal polluted bottom of the heap. They provided lowly paid labor and worked from field to field.

The people from different jatis provided different things to be used in agriculture. They were mainly ironsmiths, carpenters and leather workers. The carpenter and ironsmith provided plough the leather workers provided large water carriers made of full size buffalo skin for carrying the water from well to fields. The potters provided the pots to be used in homes. In exchange they were given their share at the time of reaping the crop. Those who were not directly related to land got their share directly from land owning castes in exchange of their services.

All got their shares does not mean that they got equal share. The share was usually fixed for every jati. The share they got was barely sufficient for survival. The food was not sufficient for untouchables and Shudras. Sometimes they had to eat the bread made out of fodder or grass. Sometimes they had to eat the grains cleaned out of cow dung. It insulted the lower two strata but added tones of superiority to the personalities of higher Varnas. Such a spiritual treatment was never seen; nothing like freezing and demeaning inhumanity or a burning desire to humiliate the lowly human beings but simply an ancient river overflowing with eternal compassion for the two lower strata; and a cool, calm, soothing, self satisfying breeze flowing in the superior and purer clusters of high caste houses; there the ethereal selves walked dozen feet high in the air with ever broadening radiant smiles; the quiet jubilation knew no bound; after all their superior selves could force the Shudras and untouchables to eat such a grain cleaned out of cow dung; such a show of unsaid permanent tormenting superiority was quite common in Hindu society. This goes to show that there was more than sufficient to feed the animals of high castes but not for the human beings. It is a show of Varna exploitation....