In summer the proliferation of filth brought with it the risk of endemics. Not so very long ago it was still a common occurrence for people to die of
cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and rabies.” p.31
4.1.2 Socio-Cultura l Condition of India
Socio-cultural condition of India will be divided into five parts; the first part is races, the second part is languages, the third part is belief, the fourth part is
caste system and the last part is custom.
4.1.2.1. Races
India is a big country which population is the second largest after China. People who live in India consist of different racial groups of people. These people
are migrating from several countries around India to many cities in India. People who live in India belong to all racial groups of people. In comparison with the fact,
Lapierre tells that after successive migration to India, people who live in slums belong to all the races of Indian continent. The examples of these races are Afgans,
pure Indo-Aryans, Christian Battiahs, Tamil, Sikhs, Parsi, Anglo-Indian, etc. Here, Lapierre explains in his novel the racial groups of people who live in India:
“Stranded there in the course of successive migration, those who occupied this slum belonged to all races of the Indian subcontinent. Afgans of the
Turkish-Iranian type, pure Indo-Aryans from Khasmir and the Punjab, Christian Bettiahs, negroid Oryans, Mongoloids from Nepal, Tibeto-Burmese
from Assam, Aborigines, Bengalis, Afgan moneylenders, marwaris from Rajasthan, Sikhs proudly sporting their turbans, refugees from distant over
populated Kerala- they were all there”.p.46
Those racial groups of people come to India with many causes. Some people come to India because of conflict in their country, some others come to India because
of war in their country and many others come to India’s cities because of disasters which often strike their region. There are many reasons why they move to India, but
these people only have one purpose to move to India which is to find a better life. The cause of successive migration to India is explained below:
“Six years later a famine killed three and a half million people in Bengal alone and ousted millions of refugees. India’s Independence and the partition
in 1947 cast upon Calcutta some four million Muslim and Hindus fleeing from Bihar and East Pakistan. The conflict with China in 1962, and
subsequently the war againta Pakistan, washed up a further several hundred thousand refugees.” p.30
4.1.2.2. Languages
