A Journal of Applied Gandhiism 1933–1956
(in nineteen volumes)
NAVA JIVAN
Publishing House 1
Set comprises of 19 volumes of facsimile edition of Harijan from 1933 to 1956. In addition 20th volume of consolidated index of all 19 volumes, prepared by Prof. Hemantkumar Shah. Nineteen volumes run into 8,400 pages and 955 issues. The price of the set is Rs. 30,000. For individual buyers, a special price of Rs. 25,000 (per set, for up to 4 sets) and Rs. 20,000 (per set, for 5 or more sets) is offered for orders booked before 31st January 2014.
Summary of Volumes
Vol# Period
Vol 1 Vol 2 Vol 3 Vol 4 Vol 5 Vol 6 Vol 7 Vol 8
Feb 11, 1933–Feb 9, 1934 Feb. 16, 1934–Feb. 8, 1935 Feb. 15, 1935 –Feb. 8, 1936 Feb. 15, 1936–Feb. 6, 1937 Feb. 13, 1937 –Feb. 5, 1938 Feb. 12, 1938 –Feb. 4, 1939 Feb. 11, 1939–Feb. 10, 1940 Feb. 17, 1940–Nov. 10, 1940
Vol 9
Jan. 18, 1942–Aug. 23, 1942
Vol 10 Vol 11 Vol 12 Vol 13 Vol 14 Vol 15 Vol 16 Vol 17 Vol 18 Vol 19
Feb. 10, 1946–Jan. 26, 1947 Feb. 2, 1947 –Jan. 25, 1948 Feb. 1, 1948 –Feb. 27 1949 Mar. 6, 1949 –Feb. 26, 1950 Mar. 5, 1950–Feb. 24, 1951 Mar. 3, 1951–Feb. 23, 1952 Mar. 1, 1952–Feb. 28, 1953 Mar. 7, 1953–Feb. 27–1954 Mar. 6, 1954–Feb. 26, 1955 Mar. 5, 1955–Feb. 25, 1956
Issues
Pages Editor(s)
53 432 52 424+18=442 52 416 52 420+6=426 51 447+9=456 52 468+14=482 53 448+10=458 37 334+6=340 (Suspension) 32 284 (Government Suppression) 51-52 520 52 536+12=548 52 452+12=464 52 448+8=456 52 472+8=480 52 440+16=456 53 448 52 416+8=424 52 420+8=428 52 424+16=440 •
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R. V. Sastri R. V. Sastri R. V. Sastri, Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai Mahadev Desai, K. G. Mashruwala Pyarelal Pyarelal Pyarelal, K. G. Mashruwala K. G. Mashruwala K. G. Mashruwala K. G. Mashruwala K. G. Mashruwala, Maganbhai P. Desai Maganbhai P. Desai Maganbhai P. Desai Maganbhai P. Desai
…I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power. …It can be profitable only when exercised from within.
[Autobiography, Part IV, Ch. 13]
… I have taken up journalism not for its sake but merely as an aid to what I have conceived to be my mission in life. My mission is to teach by example and precept under severe restraint the use of the matchless weapon of satyagraha which is a direct corollary of non-violence and truth.
[Young India, July 2. 1925]
As evident from the above quotes by Mahatma Gandhi, apart from being a national leader and social reformer, he was a great communicator and used journalism as a potent tool. He recognized that communication is the most effective tool to shape opinion and mobilize popular support. Founded in South Africa in 1903, Indian Opinion was the first journal he was associated with. It was intended to advance the moral, political and social conditions of Indians in South Africa. Within a few years of his return to India from South Africa, he turned to journals Young India and Navajivan to express his views and to educate the public on Satyagraha. In 1933 Gandhi started Harijan, Harijanbandhu, Harijansevak in English, Gujarati and Hindi, respectively. These newspapers were the vehicles of his crusade against untouchability and poverty in rural areas. According to Gandhi, political freedom of India was to be accompanied by socio-economic freedom of all Indians, particularly the freedom of the downtrodden of the society. Although, started with the intention of involving masses in the fight against untouchability, Harijan evolved into a journal that cannot be compared with any other journal. “Harijan made more news than it reported. It was not a party organ, yet it became the most influential journal involved in the movement for Indian Independence.” Started in February 1933, suspended in 1940 and completely suppressed by the Government in 1942, it resumed its publication in 1946, and continued till 1956 —even after Gandhiji’s assassination in 1948. Though Gandhiji started Harijan, he himself never acted as an editor. Starting with the editorship of R. V. Shastri, Harijan flourished under the editorship of Mahadevbhai, Pyarelal, Kishorelal and Maganbhai at different time intervals. Gandhiji himself referred Harijan as ‘views-paper’ instead of ‘news-paper’. Harijan was Gandhiji’s voice, as were his other journals. It was indicative of changes in his own life. The reader will find inner riches of his mind on these pages, along with lively debates on a host of issues. 3
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Publisher’s Note We are pleased to reprint the issues of Harijan in a set of nineteen volumes. In many ways the 1930s was a very fascinating and unique decade. Starting in March 1930 with the Dandi March, the subsequent events caught momentum. Being extremely frustrated and pained on the announcement of the Communal Award by the British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald after the Second Round Table Conference held in London in 1931, Gandhiji returned to India and reached Bombay on December 28, the same year. Within less than a week he was arrested from the terrace of Mani Bhavan, Bombay on January 4, 1932 under Regulation No. 25 of 1827—his fifth arrest in India. He was sent to Yeravda Prison. He received news that the British Prime Minister had decided to establish separate electorate for the untouchables. Listening to the voice of his conscience, Gandhiji quickly responded to this from the prison, announcing his intention to go on fast unto death from September 20. The very blot of untouchability weighed heavily upon his mind. His epic fast not only shook the entire country but it also opened a new chapter of social reforms in India. After sincere assurance by all communities to reach an amicable solution—popularly known as Poona Pact—Gandhiji ended his fast by accepting fruit juice from Kasturba. Ravindranath Tagore recited a beautiful poem composed by him on the occasion. The British Prime Minister accepted the Poona Pact and thus the proposal of separate electorate for untouchables was abandoned. Though incarcerated, he had already decided to embark upon a programme of social education and moral uplift of society. At that point of time, in January of 1933, he was looking for a new medium of communication to reach out to people, as Young India had ceased its publication. Keeping this in mind he started Harijan in February 1933. Though suspended in 1940 and completely suppressed by the Government of India in 1942, it resumed its publication in 1946, and continued even after his assassination in 1948. Harijan continued till 1956, under the editorship of Pyarelal, Kishorelal and Maganbhai. Harijan was Gandhiji’s voice, as were his other journals. It was indicative of changes in his own life. The reader will find inner riches of his mind on these pages, along with lively debates on a host of issues. Needless to say, he also invited opinions. We are sure, Harijan will be of great help to readers to discover Mahatma as a great communicator, who was always deeply engrossed in soul searching. Hence, this set of Harijan.
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Introduction “Harijan was Bapu’s voice. It was the in non-violent thinking and truthful after the death of Mahatma Gandhi. Harijan, and therefore, we know him
mirror of his soul… For himself it was an exercise and discipline expression.” So wrote Pyarelal in the issue of February 22, 1948 Yes, it was really the voice of Gandhi. He is a revealed person in better through this magazine.
Harijan—man of God—was the name chosen by Mahatma Gandhi for the people of the lowest social category who suffered the most under the age-old Hindu caste system. In Hindu practice they were called untouchables. It is therefore, the magazine concentrates on many socio-economic concerns of the prevalent Indian society. This drive for the emancipation of the disadvantaged classes was very much part of the constructive programme Mahatma Gandhi launched along with the independence movement. It was actually aimed at mainstreaming of the oppressed classes in the freedom struggle. Hence, according to Gandhi, political freedom of India was to be accompanied by socio-economic freedom of all Indians, particularly the freedom of the downtrodden of the society. As perceived by Mahatma Gandhi, freedom belongs to the individual, not society. He emphasized on the pages of Harijan that freedom is the most important value in human life and should be pursued at any cost. He, therefore, articulated India’s freedom as freedom of Indians. Gandhi explicitly explained through the pages of Harijan how an individual should also seek a free society to pursue his or her goals of individual and social emancipation. Harijan, founded by Mahatma Gandhi himself, was also ‘A Journal of Applied Gandhism’, as described by Prof. Joan Bondurant.* Initiated in 1933, it was suspended in 1940 and suppressed in 1942 by the Britishers. It started its publication once again in 1946 and continued till 1956. It has remained witness to most of the events leading to India’s independence in 1947. It was Gandhi’s magazine and he used it to reach the masses. Through this carefully nurtured journal, he and his editors and writers strived with dexterity to clearly explain their stand on national and international issues. Harijan was first published under the auspices of The Servants of Untouchables Society, and aptly published in its first issue of February 11, 1933 a free rendering by Rabindranath Tagore of Satyendranath Datta’s Bengali poem ‘Scavanger’. The crusade against the scourge of untouchability continued till the end of its publication in 1956. To break the vicious circle of socio-economic poverty and political marginalization of one of the most backward Hindu communities; for mainstreaming them in the larger society and to consolidate the movement against the Britishers and social suppressors, Harijan published various articles, news and reports of activities of organizations working for betterment of the depressed castes from all corners of India. These write-ups prompt us to read between the lines of the magazine. This mission of championing the cause of the marginalized sections of society continued with the fight for freedom for India. Thus Harijan became a symbol of freedom for all in true socio-political, economic and spiritual sense of the term. * Professor of comparative politics, University of the Pacific, in introduction written for the Garland edition of Harijan published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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Editing And Publishing Of Harijan The first editor of Harijan was R. V. Shastri. He served as an editor since the first issue dated February 11, 1933 (Vol. 1 | No. 1) till the issue of April 5, 1935. (Vol. 3 | No. 8). Mahadev Desai took over from April 13, 1935 (Vol. 3 | No. 9) and continued till his death in 1942. The last issue bearing Mahadevbhai’s name as editor is historical four paged issue dated August 16, 1942 (Vol. 9 | No. 31). K. G. Mashruwala edited the last issue of that year (Vol. 9 | No. 32), again a historical issue—after the publication of which the weekly was suppressed by the Government. When publication of Harijan resumed in 1946, Pyarelal was given the charge of its editorship with February 10, 1946 issue (Vol. 10 | No. 1). He continued to be the editor till the issue of February 22, 1948 (Vol. 12 | No. 4). This was also a landmark issue: After Gandhiji’s assassination it was felt that “with Bapu gone, Harijan cannot continue in its present form any longer” and it was suspended for five weeks. In April 4, 1948 (Vol. 12 | No. 5) issue Sardar Vallabbhai announced the resumption of the weekly and K. G. Mashruwala became the editor and continued till his death. The last issue he edited was of September 13, 1952 (Vol. 16 | No. 29). Maganbhai P. Desai took over from the next issue (Vol. 16 | No. 30) and served the magazine till its closure on February 25, 1956 (Vol. 19 | No. 52). The editing work of the magazine was done in a very structured manner. The style and design of the magazine was never changed. The editorials were included mostly in the inner pages of Harijan. Of course, they were not of the identical length. They often continued on the next column or the next page. In all issues table of contents was given on the last page. No advertisements were published in Harijan except some small announcements of newly published books written by prominent writers including Mahatma Gandhi, which may be considered as ads.
Subjects Harijan does not only depict the events of the times of its publication but also stores some of the most famous ideas and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and some of his contemporaries on various subjects, and therefore it serves as a treasure for the idea of Gandhism. Gandhism in nineteen volumes of Harijan is quite explicit and thoroughly explained through various columns and articles and comments on the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi. Satya, Satyagraha and Ahimsa are nicely explored in many pages of these volumes. Even the subjects of spiritualism, social evils and women’s development were also dealt with in detail by Gandhi and others through Harijan. Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas on swadeshi, self-sufficiency, non-violent struggle, socio-economic evils and their solutions, constructive programmes and their importance, khadi and village industries, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, spirituality and eternity, education and health and many more are easily available in these volumes. The material here speaks about the mind of Mahatma. Hence, these pages will continue to be the source of inspiration for the time immemorial.
Indian National Congress Though Harijan was not a mouthpiece of Indian National Congress (INC), many activities of Congress and Congressmen were reported in the magazine at length. Many resolutions, reports, policy decisions and actions and reactions thereon have found place in the magazine. Therefore, many may be inclined to decipher it as a Congress journal. But it was not. It was also expected that the Congressmen would read Harijan to get instructions to be followed by them in the freedom movement. This expectation was expressed by Mahatma Gandhi himself in the editorial written by him in the edition of December 2, 1939. Indian National Congress and Congressmen were advised for many programmes and plans for the freedom
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struggle through these pages of Harijan. Many reports and resolutions of INC meetings were published in Harijan for consummation of freedom fighters and especially for Congressmen so that they understand the core ideas of the struggle they carried on for their mother India. Gandhi’s advices to Congressmen were vivid and crystal clear. Though Gandhi ceased to be a primary member of INC since January 1934, i.e. within one year of the inception of this publication, Harijan continued to guide the leaders and workers of INC on various issues of freedom struggle, constructive programmes and the essence of Hind Swaraj. Openly, Gandhi also advised INC leaders and workers to be pure and perfect in the political art. One can also consider that these advices are given to all politicians of the world because most of the content printed herein is relevant even today.
Dictionary Of Hindustani Gandhi’s passion for Hindustani language and love for Indian languages is reflected in the unique work he carried out through this magazine. He himself tried his best to translate English words into Hindustani—a North Indian mix of Persian Urdu and Sanskritized Hindi—and got them published alphabetically in Harijan. He took initiative with the help of Kakasaheb Kalelkar and Acharya Shrimannarayan. In all, 39 instalments were published in Devnagari and Persian scripts in the form of dictionary. From A to D, for more than 5,000 words, translations were given in both of the scripts during the publication of issues in 1946 and 1947. Mahatma writes with a question mark while initiating the effort in the issue of September 1, 1946: “What English knowing Indian has not felt the shame and sorrow of his failure to discover an equivalent for an English word in either his mother tongue or the national language?” The strive, therefore, was to produce English equivalents in Hindustani and to get the Indians, especially English knowing people, out of their colonial mindset reflected in the slavery of the language. This is the most unique feature of this magazine and its parallel is rarely found in this kind of journals. Mahatma Gandhi’s affection and contribution to Indian languages is quite well known and well documented, but his efforts to write a dictionary itself is hitherto remained unknown.
Harijan In Post-Gandhi Period When Gandhi was killed in 1948—his secretary at that time—Pyarelal was the editor of Harijan. But within a month the editorship was changed and Kishorelal Mashruwala became the editor of the magazine. In fact, in February 22, 1948 issue of Harijan, Pyarelal wrote, “…Harijan cannot continue in its present form any longer.” Pyarelal in consultation with others suspended the publication of Harijan. The decision to resume the publication of magazine was taken at a conference of constructive workers held in Sevagram Ashram, Wardha. Hence it resumed its publication and the first issue of the revived weekly was published on April 4, 1948. The guideline given by Mahatma Gandhi himself—“for giving concrete expression to organized non-violence on a national scale”—was followed in post-Gandhi avatar of Harijan by the subsequent editors. ‘The Last Issue’ was the title of the editorial published in the last issue of Harijan written by the editor Maganbhai P. Desai. Of course, the reason of financial crunch on the part of the Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad was already given in the previous issue and explained with the relevant accounting details. The number of subscribers of Harijan was only 2,423 as on January 1, 1956. Its publication incurred loss of more than Rs. 14,000 in 1955 and therefore it was decided to discontinue its publication.
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Index Now something about the index of these volumes: A separate volume of Indices is also being published along with the original 19 volumes of Harijan. The Index has been conceived in three major parts: Author Index, Reference Index and Subject Index. The Reference Index has further been divided into two parts: Index of Persons and Index of Periodicals, Books, Articles, Reports and Newspapers etc.. For the Author Index, the index originally published in volumes of Harijan was taken as a starting point but not as final list of articles, as many articles were published for which there is no reference in the index of the concerned volume. Consequently, it was decided to refer all the pages for preparation of the Author Index. As a result, the Author Index has become quite exhaustive and no author is omitted from the index. At many places in the original volumes short names were given for the writers. In this Author Index short names—enclosed in the brackets—are included along with the main names. The Reference Index includes all the references of periodicals, books, articles, reports, newspapers and persons appearing on the pages of these volumes. However, it does exclude the references of geographical places. Here also we have chosen to be as exhaustive as possible rather than trying to save pages and the resultant index is rather long. As Gandhiji is referred to on almost all the pages of these volumes, Reference Index of Persons does not include references of Mahatma Gandhi in articles by other authors. Of course, references made by Mahatma Gandhi in his editorials and articles and short notes have been completely taken into consideration for the preparation of the said index. Likewise, the second Reference Index includes all the references of articles, reports, books, periodicals and newspapers appearing in these volumes. Therefore, it is also quite exhaustive and it gives a glimpse of the richness of the knowledge of the authors of these volumes. This Index is also useful to get the quick reference of the referred material in the volumes. Mere references of names of geographical places appear numerous times on each page of these volumes and indexing them would have been a mammoth task but with a limited and questionable utility. After lot of pondering and consultations with the publisher, it was decided to omit them from the index. Due care has been taken to prepare the Subject Index which is a mammoth and stupendous task for these kind of volumes. It gives the list of all the subjects for which the discussion has been held in the articles, editorials and notes of these volumes. The Subject Index gives references of almost all the pages of Harijan where a particular subject is dealt with by Mahatma Gandhi and other authors. Honestly speaking, the gigantic task for preparation of a volume of indices gave me a much desired opportunity to read and understand Mahatma Gandhi in detail. For giving this opportunity to me, I must thank Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad—an institution established by Mahatma Gandhi himself. This is very important especially at a time when there has been a fashion in the self-appointed experts of giving references of Mahatma Gandhi without any reference or substantiation. These volumes of Harijan speak and explain the thoughts of most revered person—neither God, nor even an incarnation of God, nor a son or messenger of God—of mankind.
Dr. Hemantkumar Shah
January 30, 2013
Associate Professor, Head, Department of Economics, H. K. Arts College, Ahmedabad
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