<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> 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 the change of customs enforced by a certain group . This exclusion was a method of punishing law - breakers and also protecting traditional societies against contagion from strangers and the infected . A member of the excluded group is known as an Untouchable . </P> <P> The term is commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities, who are considered "polluting" among the people of the Indian subcontinent, 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 . </P> <P> Untouchability has been made illegal in post-independence India, and Dalits substantially empowered, and attempts have been continuously made to end the hostilities . </P>

Untouchability practice in india was among which community