When it seemed that the British were about to accept the demands of Ambedkar, the main representative of the cause of the untouchables in India, Mahatma Gandhi began a fast in protest “until death”; the untouchables or achuta are the fifth category (varna), the lowest, the others being: the brahmins (priests or teachers), the kshatriya (kings, nobles or warriors), the vaisya (merchants or artisans) and the sudra (mass of common workers); each caste is subdivided into hundreds of castes and sub-castes.
