Bindeshwar Pathak realised that India’s future depended on toilets
The social reformer and revolutioniser of national sanitation died on August 15th, aged 80
It all began with a dare. Bindeshwar Pathak, then seven or so, wondered why the thin little woman who came through the back door sometimes, selling bamboo utensils to his Brahmin family, was called “untouchable”. He wondered why his grandmother sprinkled holy Ganga water over the floor where the woman had walked, and was told she had polluted it. So, one day, he dared to touch her sari, to see what would happen to his body.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Cleanliness, godliness”
From the August 26th 2023 edition
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