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Untouchability is the practice of ostracising a group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers and criminals and those suffering from a contagious disease. It could also be a group that did not accept change of customs enforced by a certain group. This exclusion was a method of punishing law-breakers and also protected traditional societies against contagion from strangers and the infected. A member of the excluded group is known as an Untouchable. According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, untouchability was born about 400 AD, due to the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism (an ancient term for Brahmanical Hinduism). The term is commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities, who are considered "polluting" among the people of South Asia, but the term has been used for other groups as well, such as the Burakumin of Japan, Cagots in Europe, or the Al-Akhdam in Yemen. However Hinduism has no clear position on untouchability. The Bhagavad Gita, a central text in Hinduism, often challenged the caste system, stating for example that ‘The wise looks with an equal eye upon a noble brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcast (chandala)’.〔|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SfWAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=The+wise+looks+with+an+equal+eye+upon+a+noble+brahmin,+a+cow,+an+elephant,+a+dog+and+a+chandala%E2%80%99&source=bl&ots=T3WhQquAHC&sig=-hfjIgNu066i0Oah589Zdt5ieVU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAGoVChMIv9z07I2OyAIVBqvbCh0Zvw_R#v=onepage&q=The%20wise%20looks%20with%20an%20equal%20eye%20upon%20a%20noble%20brahmin%2C%20a%20cow%2C%20an%20elephant%2C%20a%20dog%20and%20a%20chandala%E2%80%99&f=false|〕 Untouchability has been made illegal in post-independence India, and Dalits substantially empowered, although much prejudice against them continues. ==Diverse ethnicities population in South Asia== According to Sarah Pinto, an anthropologist, untouchability in India applies to people whose work relates to "death, bodies, meat, and bodily fluids". In the name of untouchability, Dalits have faced work and descent-based discrimination at the hands of the dominant castes. Instances of caste discrimination at different places and times included:〔(Who are Dalits? & What is Untouchability? — Portal )〕 *Prohibition from eating with other members *Provision of separate cups in village tea stalls *Separate seating arrangements and utensils in restaurants *Segregation in seating and food arrangements in village functions and festivals *Prohibition from entering into village temples *Prohibition from wearing sandals or holding umbrellas in front of higher caste members *Prohibition from entering other caste homes *Prohibition from using common village path *Separate burial grounds *No access to village's common/public properties and resources (wells, ponds, temples, etc.) *Segregation (separate seating area) of children in schools *Bonded labour *Social boycotts by other castes for refusing to perform their "duties" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Untouchability」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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