Gandhi’s renaming of Untouchables as Harijans re-anchored them to the Hindu faith.

Evidence

After the Poona Pact, Gandhi directed all his energy and passion towards the eradication of untouchability. For a start, he rebaptised Untouchables and gave them a patronising name: Harijans. ‘Hari’ is the name for a male deity in Hinduism, ‘jan’ is people. So Harijans are People of God, though in order to infantilise them even further, in translation they are referred to as ‘Children of God’. In this way, Gandhi anchored Untouchables firmly to the Hindu faith. He founded a new newspaper called Harijan. He started the Harijan Sevak Sangh (Harijan Service Society), which he insisted would be manned only by privileged-caste Hindus who had to do penance for their past sins against Untouchables. Ambedkar saw all this as the Congress’s plan to “kill Untouchables by kindness”. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 399

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Harijan: Hari + jan = People of God, a patronising rebaptism by Gandhi.
• CANDY: The etymology ‘Harijan = Children of God’ as a deliberate infantilising renaming is a compact, fun-to-retell fact.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 399
• XREF: connects to: Gandhi’s term Harijan was paternalistic and derived from devotional sources; British census counted Untouchables as Hindu, making their defection numerically threatening.; Hindu revivalists proselytised Untouchables to retain them in subordination. (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Gandhi sought abolition of untouchability but retention of the caste system #complicates (0.75)
• Gandhi consistently insulted Untouchables and denied them political self-organization #complicates (0.70)
• Reframing Hindu law as changeable law enables its reform. #corroborates (0.60)
• Savarna Hindus grounded their inhuman treatment of Untouchables in scriptural authority. #corroborates (0.55)