While the Harijan Sevak Sangh didn’t do very much for the cause of the Dalits, its description of Dalits as Harijans (children of God) caught on. While it seems harmless enough to call a group that is discriminated against God’s children, it has deeply problematic undertones. By connecting Dalit suffering to divine fate, it lets upper-caste Hindus, who are the ones perpetrating the suffering, off the hook. It also indicates, quite damagingly, that the Harijans’ lower caste is somehow related to their karma.
