BUT, how is his proposed solution in the least bit realistic? (Won't say what it is, as this would spoil it for others.) Suffers a lot from the obsession that some Indians have with Gandhi - a great guy, but not exactly living in the same world as the rest of us.

Bakha's life as an untouchable is portrayed as his 'fate' there is no way out of this appalling life of cleaning up after his fellow men. Bakha is humiliated and deprived of all his dignity in this novel, but his story is told with compassion and I have to admit I found it very moving as well as depressing. Bakha retains a great deal of dignity in the novel and the reader comes away feeling a great degree of sympathy for him as a human being. Even though he knows he can not change his social standing Bakha never become sour about his lowly position.

Even though my review makes the novel appear disturbing I have to say it is well worth reading.