NEW DELHI-:Mr. Kanshi Ram and Ms. Mayawati are not the first persons to have objected to Mahatma Gandhi rechristening the Scheduled Castes as “Harjans.” The late Jagjivan Ram had also crossed swords With the Mahatma over the issue according to new biography of the former Defence Minister penned by his widow Indira Jagjivan Ram.
In her book Dekhi suni beeti bate in Indira Jagjivan Ram has recounted the bitter row between Gandhi and Jagjivan Ram over the use of the term “Harijan and the subsequent show cause notice Served upon him by Dr Rajindra Prasad reportedly at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi
The young Scheduled Caste leader had according to the book protested against the term “Harijan” coined by Gandhi ji and said the use of the term would in fact increase the gulf between caste Hindus and the Scheduled Castes.
He had also taken up cudgels against the behavior of higher castes towards the Scheduled Castes within the Congress
All these factors served to bring him into confrontation with the then Congress High Command as well a6 invite a show cause notice The book written in Hindi and published by Jagjivan Vidya Bhat watt has also made veiled criticism of Dr B. R. Ambedkar for opposing Indian independence and for trying to take the Scheduled Caste community en masse out of the folds of the Hindu religion.
The biography is the first of a three-volume series which describes Mrs. Rams own private and her husband’s public life
In her book Mrs. Ram has described Dr. Ambedkar politics as a “one-point program to oppose the Congress and the nation’s independence”
Dr. Ambedkar had reportedly told the Commission and the Viceroy Lord Wavell that if India became independent it would be: one of the greatest disasters that could happen.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 22, 1994
