Genealogies of the Dalit political: The transformation of Achhut from ‘Untouched’ to ‘Untouchable’ in early twentieth-century north India

Abstract

The essay documents the unprecedented transformation of the term Achhut in the Hindi literature from an adjective describing a quality ‘untouched, [and] pure’ to a noun referring to an untouchable person or caste and characterising them as impure. Using Hindustani and other language dictionaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, prominent Hindi-language journals of the period, such as the Nagari Pracharini Patrika and Sarasvati, and the Adi-Hindu Mahasabha political and literary activism, I will trace the history and politics of the Dalit movement in the early twentieth century that may have created a new meaning of this category. In particular, I investigate the role that the Adi-Hindu Mahasabha movement, through its publication and politics, may have played a key role in proactively constituting a new meaning of the term Achhut. I also highlight the role of Nirgun Bhakti traditions, their locations in Dalit mohallas, as crucial to the articulation of the Dalit political in North India.