BR Ambedkar's 62nd Death Anniversary: For the Dalit leader, accepting Buddhism was rediscovering his roots

To remember Bhimrao Ambedkar only as the maker of India’s Constitution is perhaps injustice to his memory. It is to ignore an entire school of thought propagated and embodied by him, that is vehemently against the deeply-entrenched caste order in the society. And to mark his ‘Mahaparinirvan’ (death anniversary) on 6 December, each year hundreds of his followers descend on the streets of Mumbai to march all the way till Ambedkar memorial in Dadar. For many of his Dalit followers, the day marks the passing away of their emancipator, who fought for their rights in a caste-ridden society.

The passing away of Ambedkar on 6 December 1956, at an age of 65, came as a blow for the nascent Dalit Buddhist movement. Just two months before he died due to complications arising out of diabetes, Ambedkar and nearly 5,00,000 of his followers converted to Buddhism at a public ceremony in Nagpur.

Ambedkar saw conversion to Buddhism as the means to break age-old caste barriers, repudiate oppressive Hindu dogmas and reignite self-esteem among the untouchables in India.

“I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu,” Ambedkar said at the 1935 Yeola Conference of Depressed Classes, announcing his intent to convert to another religion in his lifetime. In the same meeting, he urged his supporters to follow his footsteps. “You have nothing to lose except your chains and everything to gain by changing your religion,” he is reported to have said.

He believed that millions of untouchables would remain in the never-ending cycle of low-status, degradation and economic humiliation till they remain bound by the system governed by high caste Hindus.

But why did he choose Buddhism over other religions? The answer lies in Ambedkar’s deep interest in Buddhism, which he first developed in the early 1920s, and his relatively unknown but significant career as an anthropologist.

This is not to say that Ambedkar did not consider converting to any other religion. In June 1936, Ambedkar began exploring the possibility of converting to Sikhism. According to Ambedkar’s biographer Dhananjay Keer, he had the blessing of Sankaracharya Kurtakoti and the leaders of Hindu Mahasabha. For three months, Ambedkar’s close aides had meetings with the leaders of the Sikh community but nothing concrete came out of it.

According to LR Bally, Ambedkar changed his mind after hearing of atrocities against Scheduled Caste Sikhs at the hands of the Jat community. However, the fear of Ambedkar becoming the leader of the Sikh community with the support of six crore Scheduled Caste converts may have also prompted the upper caste Sikh political leadership to dissuade him, opined theologian Kapur Singh. While this theory is popular due to its plausibility, it is not considered credible in academic circles.

He reportedly also explored Jainism but considered its tenant of ‘ahimsa’ extreme and impractical in real world. On the other hand, he termed Gautama Buddha’s ‘ahimsa’ a way of life more than a non-negotiable rule.

The two Abrahamic religions – Christianity and Islam – were considered very briefly but rejected. Ambedkar felt Christianity in India co-opted casteism while the church failed to do enough to help the depressed classes. Ambedkar’s views on Islam, on the other hand, have been controversial and construed by people with diverse political agenda.

Ambedkar finally settled for Buddhism, announcing his intention in May 1950. That same year, his intentions became clearer when he gave a lecture on the rise and fall of Buddhism at Young Buddhists Conference in Colombo.

For a mass leader like Ambedkar, political considerations along with spiritual inspiration played a role in opting for Buddhism. According to a 2003 paper on Ambedkar , Buddhism, as one of the least followed religions in India, offered the perfect platform for marginalised classes to get a unique identity, while expecting only a mild opposition from caste Hindus.

However, over the course of his life, Ambedkar read and wrote extensively on Buddhism. Often under-appreciated as an anthropologist, Ambedkar, in his 1948 book The Untouchables: Who they Were and Why they Became Untouchables , traced the history of untouchables and the decline of Buddhism. According to him, Mahars (his community) were originally warriors practising Buddhism. But when Brahmins began asserting their dominance against Buddhist, his community along with several others were deemed ‘untouchables’.

Thus, for Ambedkar, converting to Buddhism was not only a return to his original roots but also a protest against the dominance of Brahmanical Hinduism.

Ambedkar rationalised his decision with the following statement : I regard the Buddha’s Dhamma (Buddhism) to be the best. No religion can be compared to it. If a modern man who knows science must have a religion, the only religion he can have is the Religion of the Buddha.

Yet, even after converting to Buddhism along with his followers, he didn’t stay long to steer the movement of Dalit self-respect. After his death, the nascent movement faltered amid infighting and lack of direction. According to JV Pawar , one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers, many top leaders of the movement were co-opted by the Congress party to the dismay of many core supporters. As the Congress played crook, Pawar wrote in his book Dalit Panthers: An authoritative history, the divide between Dalit leaders and the community widened.

Despite the rise of the Dalit Panthers in the 70s, the Ambedkarite movement remained limited to Maharashtra and a few pockets of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. With Dalit Panthers itself splitting into several factions, Ambedkarite movement had to wait till the late 1980s for a revival.

Two men were instrumental in reigniting interest in Ambedkar and his movement: BSP founder Kanshi Ram and former prime minister of India VP Singh. Singh can be credited for posthumously honouring him with the Bharat Ratna and making his literature widely available across India. Kanshi Ram, on the other hand, was responsible for the first successful political mobilisation of Dalits in India. In his initial days, as social scientist Badri Narayan noted in a 2009 article , Kanshi Ram credited Ambedkar for planting the seed of Dalit movement in India. Perhaps, Kanshi Ram’s contribution towards Ambedkarite movement was best summarised by Lal Krishna Advani. “People had almost forgotten Dr Ambedkar, but it goes to the credit of Kanshi Ramji that the great leader was brought to the centre of Indian political scene,” he said after the BSP founder’s death.

Ambedkar is now one of the many important figures in India’s political discourse. With the BJP building a pantheon of anti-Congress leaders, Ambedkar fits the bill quite well. His antipathy towards the Nehru-led Congress coupled with some of his purported remarks on the Muslim community – as claimed by the Sangh – now makes him a mascot of the BJP. For a man who fought all his life against upper caste domination, the BJP, traditionally a party representing the interests of upper caste Hindus, doesn’t miss a single opportunity to honour Ambedkar. One may wonder what Ambedkar would think if he were to be alive today.

While political appropriation of Ambedkar continues, a new movement seems to be rising across India. This one is being led by younger voices, many of whom are products of the post-reform era. But one pertinent question remains: Is it time for the community to re-imagine Ambedkar’s clarion call of “Educate, Agitate, Organize?”