Harijan
Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"
Meaning
Harijan was a weekly journal that Gandhi started in 1933. It campaigned against untouchability, the practice of treating dalits as impure and keeping them apart. "Harijan" means "children of God", the name Gandhi used for the dalits. The journal carried his views on many subjects. He sometimes printed letters that others had written to him, which blurred the line between private letters and public writing.
Example
In the 1930s Gandhi used Harijan to push for temple entry for dalits and for an end to untouchability. Its Hindi edition, Harijan Sevak, carried his support for Hindustani, a simple everyday mix of Hindi and Urdu, as India's common language.
Don't confuse with
- Young India: Gandhi's earlier English weekly, which he edited from 1919 to 1932. Harijan came after it, from 1933.
- Harijan Sevak Sangh: an organisation working for dalit welfare, not a journal.
Related concepts
- Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
- Young India and Navajivan
- A Bunch of Old Letters
- Nehru-Patel strands in Congress
- Fortnightly Reports