Peshwa rule forced Untouchables to carry brooms and spittoons to avoid polluting Hindus.

Evidence

Under the rule of the Peshwas in the Maratha country, the Untouchable was not allowed to use the public streets if a Hindu was coming along, lest he should pollute the Hindu by his shadow. The Untouchable was required to have a black thread either on his wrist or around his neck, as a sign or a mark to prevent the Hindus from getting themselves polluted by his touch by mistake. In Poona, the capital of the Peshwa, the Untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a broom to sweep away from behind himself the dust he trod on, lest a Hindu walking on the same dust should be polluted. In Poona, the Untouchable was required to carry an earthen pot hung around his neck wherever he went—for holding his spit, lest his spit falling on the earth should pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 821

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ‘On Sacrifice’ and caste-annihilation reading: this is the same Peshwa-era Maratha context Ambedkar returns to; also echoes the running theme in the reader’s tree/sacrifice work about how ritualized domination is codified in daily choreography.