Harijan Ahmedabad - Sunday July 28 1946

Q. Should not the Sangh give instructions in the essentials of Hindu religion in the Harijan hostels and in Harijan gatherings of adults ? A. It ought to be the primary duty of the Sangh to give to Harijan children and adults a grounding in the essentials of Hindu religion. [...] AN ORGANIZATION OF PENITENTS Gandhiji was next asked : Ought not we to set up a precedent for having Harijan representatives in the Sangh or at least one Harijan member in the Executive Committee of the Sangh ? " In reply he referred to the history of the birth of the Harijan Sevak Sangh at the conclusion of the Poona Pact which resulted in the modification of the decision of the MacDonald Gover [...] It is of course open to the Sangh to alter its scope and give Harijans a majority in its Executive Committee or appoint a competent body of representative Harijans to act as a board of advisers and supervisors and keep the Sangh on the alert and on the right track." Gandhiji was next asked to give his opinion on the recent work in the Gwalior State to enlist the services of the Sadhu community in [...] Why has the Congress failed to produce its blue-print of the plan for protecting the minorities ? Is this silence not calculated to create want of confidence in the bona fides of the Congress ? A. The place of Untouchables in the Swaraj of my conception will be the same in every respect as that of the so-called caste Hindus. [...] What is true and it is a healthy sign is that there is a growing consciousness of the wrong among the Harijans thanks largely to the efforts and the increase in the number of reformers and their impatience of the wrong.