Pariah

Pariah, a term wrongly applied by Europeansto all outcastes in India, but properly restricted to a distinct group of thirteen low castes included in the "Right" division in the south. The true outcastes are the Chandalas of the sacred writings, the Kanjurs of the Central Provinces, the Palayars of Travancore. Pariah (properly Pa/iariah) simply means "Highlander," and was originally applied by the Aryan intruders to the dark aborigines driven by them to the hills, and excluded from their social organisation. Hence its secondary meaning, which has been extended even to those dogs which in the East have reverted to a semi-wild state, prowling in packs about the outskirts of the towns and doing scavenger work like some of the Indian pariahs.