Harijan was founded to replace Young India, whose publication had ceased following Gandhi's arrest in January 1932. Ten thousand copies of the inaugural issue, edited by R. V. Shastri, were published from Poona on 11 February 1933 and contained several pieces by Gandhi on untouchability. The issue also contained a short message from B. R. Ambedkar calling for the purging of the caste system, as a whole, from Hinduism, which contrasted with Gandhi's desire to preserve a varna system after ridding it of hierarchy and untouchability. The debate on caste continued in later issues with contributions from Rabindranath Tagore among others, though Ambedkar refused to write any more to the newspaper that he believed favoured caste Hindu's and was condescending towards dalits.
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