Bhubaneswar, June 11: To the Mahatma, it was a mark of his respect for the lowliest in society. To the Orissa government, it is another badge of shame foisted on the disadvantaged group.

The state government has banned use of the word ‘Harijan’, Gandhi’s name for the “untouchables” of his time, after the Orissa Scheduled Caste Welfare Advisory Board found the label derogatory.

“We have decided to ban the utterance of the word ‘Harijan’. Only the terms ‘Scheduled Caste’ or ‘Dalit’ would henceforth be used,” state Scheduled Caste development minister Kalindi Behera announced after a meeting of the board yesterday.

A notification will be issued soon.

“It was the favourite word of Mahatma Gandhi. But several of the board’s 18 members said ‘Harijan’ means ‘illegitimate child of devdasis (temple dancers)’,” Behera said. “So when a majority of the members decided on a change of name, I said ‘so be it’.”

The Concise Oxford Dictionary describes a Harijan as “a member of a hereditary Hindu group of the lowest social and ritual status”. It goes on to cite the word’s origin from the “Sanskrit harijana, lit. ‘a person dedicated to Vishnu’ ? the sense that Gandhi had in mind.

The Mahatma even edited a newspaper called Harijan.

“It (the ban) is not at all a good decision. Gandhiji had used the word to give respect to the downtrodden,” said Gourichandra Mohapatra, whose aunt was a regular contributor to Harijan.