Untouchability (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Untouchability is the social practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers and criminals and those suffering from a contagious disease such as Leprosy. This exclusion was a method of punishing law-breakers and also protected against contagion from strangers and the infected. A member of the excluded group is known as an untouchable.The term is commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities, who are considered "polluting" among Hindus of India, Nepal and Bangladesh, but the term has been used for other groups as well, such as the Burakumin of Japan, Cagots and Roma in Europe, or the Al-Akhdam in Yemen.