Question

Define Untouchability.

Answer 1

Hint: The term is most often associated with the treatment of "polluting" Dalit groups in the Indian subcontinent. The term has also been used to refer to other groups, including the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea, and the Ragyabpa of Tibet, as well as the Romani people and Cagot in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen.

Complete answer: In its literal sense, untouchability is the process of ostracisation of a minority group by segregating them by social tradition or legal order from the mainstream. Traditionally, those whose professions and life practices included ritually "polluting" behaviours, such as fishermen, manual scavengers, sweepers and washermen, were characterised as untouchable by communities.
In mediaeval times, in comparison to classes who allegedly practised higher standards of cleanliness, untouchables were often those who had eating habits like eating dead animals with diseases. In India, Nepal and Pakistan, untouchability has been outlawed. There is still controversy about the roots of untouchability and its historicity.
B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian social reformer and activist who came from a social community considered untouchable, theorised that because of the upper-caste Brahmins' deliberate strategy, untouchability emerged. The Brahmanas hated, according to him, the people who gave up Brahmanism in favour of Buddhism. This hypothesis was successfully debunked by later scholars like Vivekanand Jha.

Note: Dalit activists started calling for separate voters for the untouchables in India at the time of Indian independence to ensure equal representation. It would guarantee representation for Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, and Untouchables in the newly established Indian government officially labelled as the Minorities Act.