member of a low-caste group of Hindu India, formerly known as “untouchables” but renamed by the Indian social reformer Mahatma Gandhi as Harijans (children of the god Hari Viṣṇu, or, simply, children of God). The word pariah—originally derived from Tamil paṛaiyar, “drummer”—once referred to the Paraiyan, a Tamil caste group of labourers and village servants of low status, but the meaning was extended to embrace many groups outside the so-called clean caste groups, with widely varying degrees of status. See also untouchable.