Subsequent to which one of the following events, Gandhiji, who consistently opposed untouchability a

Question

Subsequent to which one of the following events, Gandhiji, who consistently opposed untouchability and appealed for its eradication from all spheres, decided to include the upliftment of ‘Harijans’ in his political and social programme?

Accepted Answer

In September 1932, Gandhi went on fast in Puné’s Yerwada Jail in opposition to separate electorates for the Depressed Classes (which Ambedkar supported). When Gandhi’s health began to fail, Ambedkar was made to yield, signing a compromise agreement increasing the number of seats in legislatures reserved for the Depressed Classes, but as part of a joint electorate of all Hindus. After the signing of this ‘Poona Pact’, Gandhi increasingly referred to the untouchables as ‘Harijans’, a term meaning ‘Children of God’. He thought it less pejorative than ‘Untouchable’, less patronizing than the colonial coinage, ‘Depressed Classes’, and more indigenous-sounding than his own earlier alternative, ‘suppressed classes’. The term ‘Harijan’ had first been used by the medieval poet-saint Narsinh Mehta, whom Gandhi had long admired (Mehta’s ‘Vaishnava Jana To’ was one of his favourite hymns). In adopting this term for the Depressed Classes, Gandhi remarked: ‘Not that the change of name brings about any change of status, but one may at least be spared the use of a term which is itself one of reproach’. Gandhi edited a weekly newspaper named Young India. In 1933 he renamed this weekly Harijan, because he believed that the campaign to abolish untouchability was as vital as winning political freedom. Shortly before he went on fast in September 1932, Gandhi had formed an ‘Anti-Untouchability League’, vesting the responsibility for running it in the hands of two of his close associates, the industrialist G. D. Birla and the social worker A. V. Thakkar. After the fast had ended and the Poona Pact was signed, this organization was renamed the Harijan Sewak Sangh, which we may translate into English as the ‘Servants of Untouchables Society’. Hence option (a) is the correct answer.