What Babasaheb Expected of His Followers After His Death
Today Babasaheb Ambedkar is a household name in India and has achieved god-like status among the dalits or ex-untouchables. But while Dr Ambedkar is highly revered and his birth anniversary is celebrated across the country by the Dalits, the question to ask is whether we are doing justice to his thoughts and his vision for the Dalits in post-Independence India.
Many of us believe that Dr Ambedkar’s call to educate, agitate, and organize was his most important call to action for the dalits and that we should completely dedicate ourselves to this agenda set by Babasaheb for us.
While it cannot be denied that dalits have to educate, agitate, and organize on a massive scale to achieve progress and safeguard our rights, it is equally true that most of us have completely ignored Babasaheb’s unfinished agenda of spreading Buddhism across the length and breadth of the country.
The result is that while many dalits claim to be Ambedkarites, they continue to follow Hinduism, the religion that is the cause of their degraded social status and penury for centuries.
We have forgotten Babasaheb’s famous words uttered in 1935 that “though I was born a Hindu, I shall not die as one”. True to his words and resolve, Babasaheb embraced Buddhism along with lakhs of followers on 14th October 1956 at Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur.
He sincerely hoped that his conversion would set in motion a tsunami resulting in the gradual conversion of all the untouchables to Buddhism which would mark the true liberation of the untouchables from the depraved condition they have been subjected to for centuries under the chaturvarna dharma devised by the Brahmins.
Alas, the dalits have largely failed Babasaheb; first by failing to educate the less privileged, failing to organize and agitate for violation of the rights of the dalits in different parts of the country, and secondly, by continuing to remain in the Hindu fold.
Why did we fail to heed the advice of our beloved Babasaheb? I am shocked to see young dalits carrying flags with Babasaheb’s face while participating in the Kaavad yatra! Not just this, many dalits who are fighting to gain temple entry or to perform restricted Hindu rituals have no qualms in calling themselves Ambedkarites. How ironic!
They conveniently forget that Babasaheb had no hopes for the Hindu religion and he clearly said that partial reforms in the Hindu society are meaningless. What is required is the complete overhaul of the Hindu society which is not possible unless the chaturvarna system is overthrown which is at the root of all the ills and evils plaguing the Hindu society. However, if the varnashrama dharma is uprooted then there is no Hindu religion left as Hinduism is sustained by the chaturvarna system.
Therefore since destruction of the varnashrama dharma is akin to destruction of Hinduism itself and which is not possible, Dr Ambedkar gave a call to leave the Hindu fold entirely. For this reason, the dalits who call themselves Ambedkarites while choosing to stay within the fold of Hinduism are not really Ambedkarites; rather they are Hindu dalits.
Next, what did Babasaheb expect of those dalits who have embraced Buddhism? While it’s easy to think that our goal is achieved by embracing Buddhism, the reality is quite different. Let’s remember why Babasaheb wanted us to leave Hinduism and embrace Buddhism?
Because more than religion, it were the values of liberty, equality and fraternity that appealed most to Babasaheb. He famously remarked that a religion that does not cherish these three important values is not a religion at all. The reason why he chose to convert to Buddhism and not some other religion is that he believed from his research and conviction that Buddhism was the only religion that treated all its adherents as equal irrespective of their birth.
Further, Buddhism provides complete liberty to the individual to pursue their calling and also allows the individual to seek the truth through questioning and realization. It also fosters a feeling of fraternity or brotherhood through the Sangha or community founded by the Buddha. Although the Buddhist Sangha is a community of monks rather than lay people, since Buddhism does not contain notions of superiority and inferiority, fraternal feelings are imbibed among the followers as all are equal in stature and their capabilities.
Hence Babasaheb’s conversion to Buddhism marked a direct challenge to Brahminism which is based on notions of inequality and differences between different varnas. By embracing Buddhism, dalits are not merely adopting a new religious belief rather they are challenging the varnashrama dharma that has kept them subjugated for centuries.
No amount of shouting against Brahmanism or name calling will have an equal impact as the adoption of the Buddhist way of living. This will be the biggest slap in the face of the savarnas. For this reason, the last few years of Babasaheb’s life were dedicated to propagating the Buddha’s dhamma in different ways.
Here is a small list of some of the important works undertaken by Dr Ambedkar related to the spread of Buddhism.
- Babasaheb wrote the Buddha and His Dhamma to explain Buddhism to the masses in their language.
- He attended the World Fellowship of Buddhists at Rangoon, Myanmar.
- He established the Buddhist Society of India in 1955.
- He advocated the 22 vows to his followers upon embracing Buddhism.
Hence, Dr Ambedkar was deeply involved in the regeneration of Buddhism in India. Unfortunately, he passed away prematurely at the age of 65 leaving his mission unfinished.
For this reason, it’s the responsibility of those who call themselves Ambedkarites to take his unfinished mission forward in the right earnest. To make Dr Ambedkar’s dream a reality, we need to awaken the masses and show them the path of the Buddha’s dhamma.
In view of the aggressive efforts being made by the RSS to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra, it’s imperative for the dalits and bahujans to respond with equal force by embracing and spreading Buddhism in large numbers.
Here is a list of some of my stories on related topics
