...to raise themselves in the social order. Such efforts have been more successful in the case of low but ritually pure castes than in the case of those living below the line of pollution. As for “untouchability,” this was declared unlawful in the Indian constitution framed after independence and adopted in 1949–50.
dietary laws and food customs
TITLE: dietary law: Use of food in religion
SECTION: Use of food in religion
The second reason, closely related to the foregoing, is that one element of dogma in every religion is the definition of polluting, or supernaturally dangerous, objects or personal states. Just as there is no objective or scientific connection between the nutritive qualities of different foods and the symbolic values attached to them, there is no objective relationship between an object or a...
...individual and social functioning, are distinguished from his body, on the one hand, and his mental or spiritual faculties, on the other. These energies are believed to be disturbed or “polluted” by certain contacts or experiences that have consequences for a person’s entire system, including both the physical and the mental aspects. Furthermore, the natural elements, animals...