An excerpt from Indirabayi (1898), the first social novel in Kannada. The excerpt is a discussion between a young man Bhaskar Raya and his mother that takes place sometime in the second half of 19th century when he is about to go to England for his Civil Service studies/exam. The mother is concerned about his access to unpolluted food/water while journeying and during his stay over there.

“What! Where are you off to…?”

“I have to go to vilayat2 …”

“Where?”

“Vilayat.”

“What do you mean by vilayat?”

“Vilayat is that country where her Highness, the Queen resides.”

“Why do you have to go there?”

“To take the C.S.3  exam.”

“Ayyo! How many exams! How far is this vilayat?”

“It is about 6000 miles from here.”

“How is the climate there? What sort of people live there?”

“The climate over there is slightly cold. The people who are there are those whom we call our rulers (sardar) over here.”

“Are there people from our caste there?”

“There would be one or two who have gone there from our country.”

“How many months will it take you to pass that exam and come back?”

“Not months, it will take me at least three years.”

“How will you travel there? How long will it take you to reach that place?”

“I have to take a steamer from here to Bombayi, and from there again another steamer to vilayat. It will take me three weeks in all to reach there.”

“What will you do for food meanwhile?”

“There is a way out for it. Don’t many people go there and come back?”

“What is the way out – is it eating food cooked by others?”

“Why that? Amrutharaya4  will engage a cook for me and send him along.”

“That is fine but where will you get water untouched by mlechchas5 ?”

“Where indeed would you find water untouched by mlechchas? In fact, isn’t the water we generally use also touched by mlechchas? Brahmins don’t dig wells, do they? The people who dig the wells would have touched the water we use.”

“ What if they touch? Afterwards, don’t we purify it by sprinkling shuddhodaka?”

“Then that’s fine. I will also take two cups of shuddhodaka with me when I go abroad.”

“I don’t know what to say. It is difficult to argue with the English educated as they employ only absurd logic.”

“It is not absurd logic, mother. You reason it out. I cannot understand how touch can pollute. If a mlechcha touches me, will my body become impure?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“In that case, if I touch a mlechcha’s body, will his body become pure?”

“I cannot answer such magical questions.” (She laughs)

“ There is no magic, mother. Our hearts need to be pure. What I think is that if the heart is rotten within and if you sprinkle shuddhodaka on it from outside, there is no use. I am not capable of saying any more to you.”

“If that is so, then what of our elders’ words that it is against our dharma to go to vilayat? Don’t they excommunicate such people who go and come back from our caste? Why do they do so?”

“What can I say? They do it because it is a matter of convenience.”

“But will those people not lose caste?”

“It is not the people who go to vilayat who will lose caste. As more and more people go, I don’t have to tell you who will lose caste.”

–Translated by Tharakeshwar V.B.

1 Shuddhodaka literally means clean water, and is another name for urine of the Cow (Gomootra).

2 Vilayat in Urdu, Persian and other Indian languages literally means ‘foreign country’.  In the colonial context it refers to Britain.

3 C.S.- Civil Services examination, equivalent to today’s IAS (Indian Administrative Services)

4 The adopted father of Bhaskara Raya, the protagonist here. He is the one who is sponsoring Bhaskara Raya’s visit and stay in England.

5 “Mlechcha”, is a word that is generally used to describe the “other” non-self, it also means non-Sanskrit, uncivilized, outsider etc.