Although Bakha lives with his father and other untouchables in a remote colony, he has to venture beyond its boundaries every day in order to work for a living. Untouchables may not find social acceptance in the city, but their presence is tolerated there, as there are always lots of menial work to do, such as sweeping streets and cleaning toilets, the kind of work that Bakha has no choice but to perform.

As with most members of the lowest Hindu caste, Bakha routinely experiences humiliation at the hands of those from superior castes. On the day depicted in the novel, Bakha is angrily slapped in the face by a high-caste man for the “crime” of bumping into, and therefore polluting, him.

Over time, however, the city comes to represent hope for Bakha. A high-caste hockey player called Charat Singh invites Bakha to tea and even lets him handle his hockey sticks, a clear indication that he isn’t worried about being polluted by an alleged inferior.

Further hope for Bakha, and indeed all untouchables, comes in the shape of the famous religious teacher and Indian independence campaigner Mahatma Gandhi, who is deeply committed to emancipating the untouchables. He makes a speech that holds out the prospect that Bakha and millions of others like him will one day be free.