"Harijan" was Gandhi's popularization and reinvention with a twist of a term for the Outcasts or Untouchables. It means, "the lord's person(s)." The first half is cognate, I believe, with German "Herr" and English "sir." Some encyclopedias define it as "Vishnu's person," but I think that is not fully right.
And, it is offensive, not just because the Supreme Court of India said so. Calling the Dalit's the 'lord's children" while ignoring the Hindu caste structure that puts them there? Offensive.
I say the same for "namaste." Claiming to recognize the divine in someone else when said in a pitying way? Offensive.
Both words in some way, to me, seem to say that "god considers you a child of his, and your disability shows god at work and challenges us."
But, it's not Hinduism alone, or eastern religions alone, that hold this.
Jeebus himself, in John 9:2-3:
2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
There you go.
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