Question

Assertion (A): The British Indian Government could not abolish untouchability.

Reason (R): It was afraid of arousing the hostility of orthodox sections of Indian society.

1. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
2. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
3. (A) is true, but (R) is false
4. (A) is false, but (R) is true

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)

The correct answer is Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

• The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic example of caste.
  • It has origins in ancient India and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, especially the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.
• The caste system as it exists today is thought to be the result of developments during the collapse of the Mughal era and the rise of the British colonial government in India. 
• The struggle against untouchability could not, however, be fully successful under alien rule.
  • The foreign government was afraid of arousing the hostility of the orthodox sections of society.
  • Only the government of a free India could undertake a radical reform of society.

• Untouchability Act
  • Article 17 of the Indian Constitution abolishes the practice of untouchability.
  • The Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 makes this practice a punishable offense.
    • It also prescribes penalties for the enforcement of any disability that arises out of untouchability.
  • This Act was passed in the Indian Parliament for the eradication of untouchability from the country.
  • The Act imposed a 6-month-imprisonment or a fine of Rs.500 for any person convicted of enforcing the disabilities of untouchability on anyone else in case of his first offense.
  • In the case of subsequent offenses, the convicted person will be sentenced the jail term as well as a fine.
    • There is a provision for increasing the punishment also if considered necessary.
  • The offenses covered under the Act are ones like preventing a person from entering a temple/place of worship or any other public place; preventing a person from drawing water from sacred water bodies, wells, etc.; preventing a person from using a ‘Dharamshala, restaurant, shop, hotel, hospital, public conveyance, educational institution, and any place of public entertainment.
  • It also covers the denial of the usage of roads, rivers, riverbanks, cremation grounds, wells, etc.
  • Other offenses included are enforcing professional, trade, or occupational disabilities, preventing a person from benefiting out of a charity, refusing any person from carrying out an occupation, refusing to sell goods/services to a person, injuring, molesting, excommunicating, boycotting, or annoying a person on the basis of untouchability.
  • The Act was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8th May 1955 and passed in both houses.
    • It became effective from 1st June 1955.
  • The Act was amended on September 2nd, 1976, and renamed Protection of the Civil Rights Act.
    • This Act had even stringent measures to curb untouchability.
    • It made the wilful negligence of complaints related to untouchability by investigating officers as tantamount to abetment.