A recent directive by the Haryana government asking all its departments — public and educational institutes and other institutions — to “strictly avoid” using the terms ‘Harijan’ and ‘Girijan’ in official communications to refer to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is indicative of the all-pervading nature of the caste conundrum in India even today.
Origins of the term
The term ‘Harijan’, or ‘children of God’, was first used by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932 to refer to Dalits. He even started three journals in English, Hindi and Gujarati with the same name in 1933. Gandhiji used the term to avoid words like ‘untouchable’, which stigmatised the Dalit community. By using the word ‘Harijan’, he hoped Dalits would be more acceptable to Hindu society.
However, many of the Mahatma’s contemporaries, including B R Ambedkar, objected to the word, terming it condescending and an attempt to avoid the real issue of caste discrimination. In fact, Ambedkar walked out of the Bombay Legislature on January 22, 1938, to protest the use of the word.
Official bans and continued usage
In effect, the word ‘Harijan’ has been banned by the government in caste certificates and all official communication. In 1982, the Union government directed all states not to use the word ‘Harijan’ to denote Dalits. However, it continued in common parlance.
In 2010, a parliamentary committee took note of the fact that the use of the word ‘Harijan’ continued far and wide and recommended that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment issue fresh guidelines to all departments and state governments not to use the term. It even suggested punitive action against those who flouted the order.
That all these years later the Haryana government was forced to issue a directive banning the use of the words ‘Harijan’ and ‘Girijan’ in official dealings is proof that casteism is rampant in modern India. The state government reiterated that the Constitution does not use these terms to denote Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Politics, caste and identity
One school of thought says that Gandhiji used the term ‘Harijan’ to make Dalits more acceptable to upper-caste Hindus, as he did not want to upset influential members of the community whose support he required for his politics.
In the last decade, the BJP, as the ruling party, has also been making consistent efforts to rope in Dalits into the Hindu fold. They received some electoral success for their efforts in this direction in the cow belt. Now they are reaching out to Dalits in the southern states in their bid for Hindu consolidation. This has irked activists who are appalled at the lack of sensitivity to issues relating to caste oppression and Dalit identity.
More than seven decades after Independence, caste continues to haunt the country’s political landscape. Only a radical change in mindset, not government directives, will bring an end to this scourge.
