According to the 2001 census there are 7.95 million Buddhists in India out of a population of 1 billion, making it the country’s fifth-largest religion. The true figure is far higher - between 20-30 million, but many do not register as Buddhists for fear of losing government concessions that are due to low-status Hindus.
“We have 405 New-Buddhists in our village, 69 from the Matang community, they say there were only 105 of us in 1991 and in 2001 census, we are not there. This means we don't get any relief or benefit from government. We are supposed to get 20 per cent of the Panchayat budget of Rs. 3 lakh per year”.
-- Census wipes out dalits in Maharashtra , Mandar Phanse , CNN-IBN
These Buddhists include a number of groups. There are scattered survivors of the period when Buddhism flourished in India such as the Baruas of Assam, Chakmas of Bengal, the Saraks of Orissa and the Himalayan Buddhists of North-East India; there are also ethnic overlaps from Nepal, Thailand and Burma, such as Tamangs and Sherpas there are converts who have been influenced by theMaha Bodhi Society, the Dalai Lama and so on; and there are refugee Tibetan Buddhists in different settlements.
Finally there are the followers of Dr. Ambedkar, who constitute over 90% India’s Buddhists. Dr Ambedkar was the unquestioned leader of the dalits: people considered ‘untouchable’ under the Hindu caste system. He converted to Buddhism in 1956 with many of his followers, and the events of Autumn 2006 represent a development of his movement on the 50th anniversary of its inception.
One reason for the current interest in Buddhism is the success of those who became Buddhists in the past. 72.7% have a basic education compared with the national average of 52.21% and the community is increasingly confident, self reliant and free from negative social norms. The new Buddhists refuse to work within the ritually polluting and ritually duties traditionally associated with their caste, such as handling dead bodies: a strategy that works when people are able to find alternative employment outside the village. However, even if new Buddhists are successful in joining ritually more or less neutral professions, they are looked down.
It is hard to overstate the continuing importance of Dr Ambedkar - Babasaheb to his followers – within this community. He is seen as a ‘bodhisattva’ – a compassionate being on the path to Enlightenment and revered second only to the Buddha. Statues and pictures of Dr Ambedkar are seen everywhere in New Buddhist communities, where people greet one another with “Jai Bhim”, meaning, ‘Victory to Bhimrao Ambedkar’. Invocations of Dr Ambedkar are even added to traditional Buddhist chants and rituals.
Dr Ambedkar died only six weeks after his conversion in Nagpur and the Buddhist movement lost momentum at a crucial point in its history. Conversion ceremonies in other major Indian cities that were planned to follow the Nagpur event failed to take place. Following his death, the Ambedkarite movement was divisided and lacked direction, and there were few Buddhist teahcers to educate the millions of followers in the new faith.
Nonetheless, a substantial Buddhist movement has grown up. Its focus is the central Indian state of Maharashtra, and Nagpur is its heart. This is where Dr. Ambedkar took initiation on October 14 1956 along with his 380,000 followers. Other significant New Buddhist communities are found in Madya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andra Pradesh. For details of the conversion ceremony in Hydrabad, AP, on 14th October see the previous post. Further large ceremonies are planned in Karnataka, Bihar, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Orissa, and Rajasthan.
In Maharashtra, the conversion movement has been largely confined to the Mahar sub-caste, to which Dr Ambedkar himself belonged. Now it is spreading to other Maharashtrian communities. A confederation of 40 tribal communities, numbering at least hal-a-million are embracing Buddhism (see http://ambedkar2006.blogspot.com/2006_10_04_ambedkar2006_archive.html), and many members of the Matung sub-caste are doing the same.
Conversion ceremonies are regular occurrences, prompting anti-Buddhist measures by some state governments (see http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=42,3191,0,0,1,0 for details of such measures in Gujarat). But Dr Ambedkar’s movement is at last coming of age, as Saddhananda Fulzele, who organised the 1956 Nagpur ceremony and for many years has been the Chairman of Nagpur’s Dr Ambedkar College, told me this week, ‘Fifty years is not a long time in the history of a religious movement.’ Dr Ambedkar’s prestige continues to grow 50 years after his death, his works are being translated into regional languages, many young people are discovering his work for the first time, and there is increasing interaction with Buddhists from outside India. ‘Dr Ambedkar is more powerful dead than alive,’ Fulzele commented.
At a time of deep disillusionment with political solutions to India’s problems, the true contribution of Dr Ambedkar, who framed the country’s constitution, is becoming clearer. Through his political achievements and the foundation of the Buddhist conversion movement he offered a path for India’s lower classes that contains great depth that is deeply in sympathy with the teachings of Buddhism. Large sections of India’s 200 million ‘scheduled castes’ (i.e. those considered untouchable under Hinduism), and many members of the 500 million lower (or ‘depressed’ castes, are now looking seriously at Dr Ambedkar and considering following his example by adopting the Buddhist faith.
Information from Jambudvipa Trust
Friday, October 06, 2006
100,000 to Become Buddhists in Hydrabad on 14th October
A hundred thousand people will become Buddhists in Hydrabad on 14th October in a huge meeting in the East Indian state of Andra Preadesh, that will include up to 400,000 people. The chief organizer is KSR Murthy, a former member of India’s parliament, the Lok Sabha.
The event will take place at Dr. Ambedkar Statue on the Tank Bund: the spiritual center for Hydrabad’s Ambedkarites. Every year a very large gathering marks the anniversary of Dr Ambedkar’s conversion on 14 October; this year Murthi expects 3-400,000 to attend with 100,000 converting for the first time. Many similar ceremonies will take place around India on the same date, but this will probably be the largest conversion ceremony. The wave of conversions will culminate in a much larger ceremony in Bombay on 16 December.
Presiding over the ceremony will be Ven. Hsing Yun President of the Buddha Light organization, which is based in Taiwan and has 120 centers around the world. The presence of a senior figure in Chinese Buddhism is a significant development for the conversion movement, which has mainly made connections with the Theravadin Buddhism of South East Asia and Sri Lanka. Ven.Hsing Yun will administer the Buddhist refuges in Chinese (the ceremony through which one becomes a Buddhist) and the Ven.Vinayarakkhitha will translate them into Telugu, the local language.
Murthy, who was born in a small village a day’s journey from Hydrabad but has become a prominent spokesman for his community will be becoming a Buddhist himself on that day. He has prepared by studying works on Buddhism including Dr Ambedkar’s book, ‘The Buddha and Dhamma and taking up meditation. He comments:
‘The dalits situation is still dismal. No political party is committed to making them equal partners in building modern India and though huge sums are said to devoted to their welfare, in reality the money is going down the drain. Untouchability continues to be practiced in the villages and even senior officers from our community encounter discrimination. ‘Though we feel that conversion can't eradicate all of these problems we do believe that it can lead us to a better future in the form of Buddhist practice. I feel my whole life started to change when I first leant vipassana meditation and now that is my path of service to humanity.’
The event will take place at Dr. Ambedkar Statue on the Tank Bund: the spiritual center for Hydrabad’s Ambedkarites. Every year a very large gathering marks the anniversary of Dr Ambedkar’s conversion on 14 October; this year Murthi expects 3-400,000 to attend with 100,000 converting for the first time. Many similar ceremonies will take place around India on the same date, but this will probably be the largest conversion ceremony. The wave of conversions will culminate in a much larger ceremony in Bombay on 16 December.
Presiding over the ceremony will be Ven. Hsing Yun President of the Buddha Light organization, which is based in Taiwan and has 120 centers around the world. The presence of a senior figure in Chinese Buddhism is a significant development for the conversion movement, which has mainly made connections with the Theravadin Buddhism of South East Asia and Sri Lanka. Ven.Hsing Yun will administer the Buddhist refuges in Chinese (the ceremony through which one becomes a Buddhist) and the Ven.Vinayarakkhitha will translate them into Telugu, the local language.
Murthy, who was born in a small village a day’s journey from Hydrabad but has become a prominent spokesman for his community will be becoming a Buddhist himself on that day. He has prepared by studying works on Buddhism including Dr Ambedkar’s book, ‘The Buddha and Dhamma and taking up meditation. He comments:
‘The dalits situation is still dismal. No political party is committed to making them equal partners in building modern India and though huge sums are said to devoted to their welfare, in reality the money is going down the drain. Untouchability continues to be practiced in the villages and even senior officers from our community encounter discrimination. ‘Though we feel that conversion can't eradicate all of these problems we do believe that it can lead us to a better future in the form of Buddhist practice. I feel my whole life started to change when I first leant vipassana meditation and now that is my path of service to humanity.’
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Nagpur Jayanti Procession
On Monday 1 October in a special ceremony at Diksabhumi conversion ground conducted by the Japanese monk Suraj Sesai – a long-time resident of Nagpur – many members of the local Buddhist community took monastic vows. Eight thousand men took the samanera ordination – following the monk’s lifestyle for a short period of time. They were accompanied at the head of a huge procession through central Nagpur by two thousand bhikkhus (full Buddhist monks). In all Two hundred thousand people joined the march, which also included two thousand lorries decorated with scenes from the life of the Buddha, making it the largest procession ever seen in Nagpur. Among those becoming samaneras was the politician and Congress Leader, Nitin Raut.
Nomads and Criminals turn to the Buddha
Many of us know that in India the ‘Untouchables’, who now call themselves dalits, were the bottom of the heap. Below the lowest rung of the caste system, they were literally outcasts, but with the outlawing of caste under laws framed by Dr Ambedkar shortly after Indian Independence they were given a place as ‘scheduled castes’, and they benefited from many government affirmative action schemes. Beside them were ‘scheduled tribes’ – including numerous other groups outside the caste system. It is less well-known that below even the scheduled castes and tribes is another group: the nomads and outlaw tribes who fail even to register on the government statistics and social programmes. Now, under the leadership of Laksman Mane – born into a thieving community, but now a celebrated writer and activist – a significant slice of this community is embracing Buddhism.
In a special ceremony at Diksabhumi in Nagpur yesterday morning, Mane took the three Buddhist refuges along with 140 leaders of tribal communities from across Maharashtra. Following the ceremony they held a planning session in which they agreed to extend the conversion programme to the other members of their communities, who number at least 500,000. From 16 November to 16 December the leaders will hold a ‘rally’ – a grand procession across the state – that will culminate in a great ‘diksa’ or conversion meeting in Bombay. Dr Ambedkar had planned a second ceremony on this date in 1956, two months after the Nagpur event. Mane told me that he expects to see 500,000 people from this community becoming Buddhists at the Bombay event. They will be joined by many others, including those who are already Buddhists and new converts from other communities.
When I met him just before he left Nagpur, Mane - a short, solidly built man with an air of sturdy determination – told me of the inspiration he and his fellow converts had gained through the ceremony.
‘My companions left the ceremony different people from the ones who had started it. They were filled with a new inspiration and confidence. We held a planning meeting straight away, and the atmosphere was different from any we had experienced before, full of hope and determination. It was a sudden, dramatic shift. For myself, I felt a new sense of freedom.’
Like Europe’s gypsies, the nomadic and criminal groups follow a rootless life, constantly on the move, begging their food or foraging for scraps. The criminal castes survive by scavenging and stealing - that’s why the British outlawed them in 1871. But 135 years later their lifestyle continues: outside the law and on the edges of society. Many have been gathered together into compounds supported by the barest amenities. ‘These are like ghettos or concentration camps,’ Mane said.
Nomadic and criminal tribals fail to register in government statistics because they are homeless so, even though India is becoming more prosperous, they are many welfare programmes miss them out. For this reason, no one knows the numbers of criminal and nomadic tribals for sure, but a typical estimate is that in Maharashtra alone they number 8 million people, or around five percent of the population. Extrapolating that to India as a whole suggests a figure of around sixty million people living in this community.
Laksman Mane was born into the Kaikadi thieving caste: their assigned role in society is to steal, and this way of life is reinforced by pressure from other members of the community: if they don’t bring back stolen food or goods their families will beat them. Meanwhile, even those who do not steal are likely to be blamed whenever a robbery takes place, and the group regularly suffer beatings at the hands of the police. For many years Mane has urged his fellows to abandon ‘thievery.’
His family were also nomads, and he grew up traveling from place to place: an upbringing described in his celebrated autobiographical novel ‘Upra’. I asked Mane how he had gained an education and he told me: ‘I went to school - hundreds of schools. We moved on every few days, but wherever we went I was determined to get schooling. Some teachers accepted me into their class, others did not.’
Grabbing the chance to study when he could while working in numerous jobs, Mane eventually won a place at a College and gained a BA: an extraordinary achievement for a member of this community where only 0.6% can read or write. ‘Upra’ was published in 1981 and since then he has written sixteen further books, all concerned with the plight of his people.
The decision to embrace Buddhism was long pondered and was inspired by several factors. He insisted that he and his followers were not leaving Hinduism. ‘I was born into the tribal system, not the caste system or Hinduism. In our system there is no caste: we are not even ‘untouchables’. In our system we don’t believe in karma, punya (merit) or reincarnation, and we don’t worship the Hindu Gods.’ Worship in the tribal communities is directed towards ancestors.
Mane continued: ‘The tribal system is like the Buddhist system. We travel from place to place, like the monks, who the Buddha told not to stay in one place for more than three nights. Like them, we live between the village and the country.’ The tribals often dwell in squalid hutments on the edge of the villages, very different from the tree-root existence of wandering monks, who received food from the villagers. But the parallel is evocative and itextends to the attitude to property: ‘In our community we share everything. If one person gains food or money they share it with everyone else. All of us are equal: there is no social status among us and men and women are equal.’
Mane is deeply inspired by Dr Ambedkar. ‘Babasaheb [the name by which Ambedkar’s followers address their leader] gave us our rights. He is the father of the nation who framed the constitution that treats us as human beings. The problem is that those in power fail to enforce the constitution. In fact we are treated like animals.’ These tribal groups lack the most basic elements of citizenship because they are homeless, not registered with the authorities and sometimes cast as criminals. Because they do not vote, India’s politicians have been able to ignore them with impunity.
Mane was active in radical political groups such as the Dalit Panthers, but he discovered he Ambedkar’s work and became a follower in 1970. Since 1980 he has been an activist and organizer within the community. ‘I have started many social programmes, been elected to the State Assembly and mounted protests in the Assembly, but everyone ignored me.’
In adopting Buddhism, Mane has made common cause with other followers of Dr Ambedkar. ‘For many years I was a one-man army, but now that has changed. The dalit ‘untouchables’ are our elder brothers and I want to join with them. The country doesn’t accept these people, but I feel today that I have joined the mainstream. I want my people to have their just share in power, property and social standing. Dr Ambedkar said that these things should be redistributed, but peacefully - not using violence as the communists suggest.’
Observers will inevitably ask whether the conversion is genuine or if it is merely a political expedient. In India religion is a matter of identity as much – or even more - than a matter of belief, and in adopting an identity that asserts human dignity, these tribal peoples are plotting way forward that can open out from social change to spiritual change as well. I asked Mane if he wanted to see Buddhist teaching among his followers, so they understood the faith they were adopting. He replied:
‘My people need to move away from superstition and harmful livelihood such as stealing. But our main priorities are two: housing and education. Housing comes first because without a stable base nothing else is possible. Education can follow if we have houses, and I believe that in ten years we will achieve this. My programme is for 100,000 new houses: two for every village in Maharashtra; now that we have organized ourselves and taken diksa the government is paying attention in a way it has never done before. Buddhist teaching can follow – it will follow, but for now we need help, and we look to our elder brothers in Maharashtra, to Buddhists around the world, and to the foreign governments and NGOs. But today I am filled with new life and hope for the future.’
In a special ceremony at Diksabhumi in Nagpur yesterday morning, Mane took the three Buddhist refuges along with 140 leaders of tribal communities from across Maharashtra. Following the ceremony they held a planning session in which they agreed to extend the conversion programme to the other members of their communities, who number at least 500,000. From 16 November to 16 December the leaders will hold a ‘rally’ – a grand procession across the state – that will culminate in a great ‘diksa’ or conversion meeting in Bombay. Dr Ambedkar had planned a second ceremony on this date in 1956, two months after the Nagpur event. Mane told me that he expects to see 500,000 people from this community becoming Buddhists at the Bombay event. They will be joined by many others, including those who are already Buddhists and new converts from other communities.
When I met him just before he left Nagpur, Mane - a short, solidly built man with an air of sturdy determination – told me of the inspiration he and his fellow converts had gained through the ceremony.
‘My companions left the ceremony different people from the ones who had started it. They were filled with a new inspiration and confidence. We held a planning meeting straight away, and the atmosphere was different from any we had experienced before, full of hope and determination. It was a sudden, dramatic shift. For myself, I felt a new sense of freedom.’
Like Europe’s gypsies, the nomadic and criminal groups follow a rootless life, constantly on the move, begging their food or foraging for scraps. The criminal castes survive by scavenging and stealing - that’s why the British outlawed them in 1871. But 135 years later their lifestyle continues: outside the law and on the edges of society. Many have been gathered together into compounds supported by the barest amenities. ‘These are like ghettos or concentration camps,’ Mane said.
Nomadic and criminal tribals fail to register in government statistics because they are homeless so, even though India is becoming more prosperous, they are many welfare programmes miss them out. For this reason, no one knows the numbers of criminal and nomadic tribals for sure, but a typical estimate is that in Maharashtra alone they number 8 million people, or around five percent of the population. Extrapolating that to India as a whole suggests a figure of around sixty million people living in this community.
Laksman Mane was born into the Kaikadi thieving caste: their assigned role in society is to steal, and this way of life is reinforced by pressure from other members of the community: if they don’t bring back stolen food or goods their families will beat them. Meanwhile, even those who do not steal are likely to be blamed whenever a robbery takes place, and the group regularly suffer beatings at the hands of the police. For many years Mane has urged his fellows to abandon ‘thievery.’
His family were also nomads, and he grew up traveling from place to place: an upbringing described in his celebrated autobiographical novel ‘Upra’. I asked Mane how he had gained an education and he told me: ‘I went to school - hundreds of schools. We moved on every few days, but wherever we went I was determined to get schooling. Some teachers accepted me into their class, others did not.’
Grabbing the chance to study when he could while working in numerous jobs, Mane eventually won a place at a College and gained a BA: an extraordinary achievement for a member of this community where only 0.6% can read or write. ‘Upra’ was published in 1981 and since then he has written sixteen further books, all concerned with the plight of his people.
The decision to embrace Buddhism was long pondered and was inspired by several factors. He insisted that he and his followers were not leaving Hinduism. ‘I was born into the tribal system, not the caste system or Hinduism. In our system there is no caste: we are not even ‘untouchables’. In our system we don’t believe in karma, punya (merit) or reincarnation, and we don’t worship the Hindu Gods.’ Worship in the tribal communities is directed towards ancestors.
Mane continued: ‘The tribal system is like the Buddhist system. We travel from place to place, like the monks, who the Buddha told not to stay in one place for more than three nights. Like them, we live between the village and the country.’ The tribals often dwell in squalid hutments on the edge of the villages, very different from the tree-root existence of wandering monks, who received food from the villagers. But the parallel is evocative and itextends to the attitude to property: ‘In our community we share everything. If one person gains food or money they share it with everyone else. All of us are equal: there is no social status among us and men and women are equal.’
Mane is deeply inspired by Dr Ambedkar. ‘Babasaheb [the name by which Ambedkar’s followers address their leader] gave us our rights. He is the father of the nation who framed the constitution that treats us as human beings. The problem is that those in power fail to enforce the constitution. In fact we are treated like animals.’ These tribal groups lack the most basic elements of citizenship because they are homeless, not registered with the authorities and sometimes cast as criminals. Because they do not vote, India’s politicians have been able to ignore them with impunity.
Mane was active in radical political groups such as the Dalit Panthers, but he discovered he Ambedkar’s work and became a follower in 1970. Since 1980 he has been an activist and organizer within the community. ‘I have started many social programmes, been elected to the State Assembly and mounted protests in the Assembly, but everyone ignored me.’
In adopting Buddhism, Mane has made common cause with other followers of Dr Ambedkar. ‘For many years I was a one-man army, but now that has changed. The dalit ‘untouchables’ are our elder brothers and I want to join with them. The country doesn’t accept these people, but I feel today that I have joined the mainstream. I want my people to have their just share in power, property and social standing. Dr Ambedkar said that these things should be redistributed, but peacefully - not using violence as the communists suggest.’
Observers will inevitably ask whether the conversion is genuine or if it is merely a political expedient. In India religion is a matter of identity as much – or even more - than a matter of belief, and in adopting an identity that asserts human dignity, these tribal peoples are plotting way forward that can open out from social change to spiritual change as well. I asked Mane if he wanted to see Buddhist teaching among his followers, so they understood the faith they were adopting. He replied:
‘My people need to move away from superstition and harmful livelihood such as stealing. But our main priorities are two: housing and education. Housing comes first because without a stable base nothing else is possible. Education can follow if we have houses, and I believe that in ten years we will achieve this. My programme is for 100,000 new houses: two for every village in Maharashtra; now that we have organized ourselves and taken diksa the government is paying attention in a way it has never done before. Buddhist teaching can follow – it will follow, but for now we need help, and we look to our elder brothers in Maharashtra, to Buddhists around the world, and to the foreign governments and NGOs. But today I am filled with new life and hope for the future.’
Monday, October 02, 2006
Monday 2nd October Celebration of the Anniversary and new conversions in Nagpur
Today in Nagpur Diksabhumi – the vast piece of land in the center of the city where Dr Ambedkar adopted Buddhism with millions of his followers in 1956 – was thronged with millions of dalit and other Buddhists as well as representatives of other communities involved in the new wave of conversions that is taking place across India over the next few weeks. I watched as a great incessant stream of people flooded into the ground all day long – while another stream headed in the other direction. When the numbers involved are so vast one can only guess at their true extent, but conservative estimates before the event were that a million people would attend, more likely two million, and there may well have been many more.
Standing in the huge crowd, looking down on it from a neighbouring building, and joining the throng that processed through the stupa – or huge temple – that dominates the site, I was deeply moved by the power of the occasion. Many of those attending had walked for days or traveled across India to be there; their faces as they entered the stupa were intent, serious and filled with devotion for their revered hero, Dr Ambedkar; and there was a palpable sense that history was being made. For the last fifty years since Dr Ambedkar converted himself the movement he started has been dominated by people born into the Maharashtra dalit sub-caste, the Mahars. Now the movement is being embraced by large numbers from other caste backgrounds and from across India. A number of conversion ceremonies took place today that included representatives of such communities: these were the first steps in a wave of conversions that will be taking place over the next few weeks.
This morning several hundred members of the tribal communities led by the writer, Lakshman Mane, embraced Buddhism in a ceremony at Dhiksabhumi. Mane’s followers number in the millions and in the coming weeks there will be at least half-a-million further conversions from this group, and up to five or six million. I will be meeting Laksman Mane tomorrow and will have more information as well as comment by him in tomorrow’s blog.
The tribals have a similar status under the Hindu caste system to those considered ‘untouchable’, now referred to as Dalits. Across India there are around 50 million tribals and this is the first large-scale mass conversion of tribals to Buddhism.
In a ceremony this morning at Nagaloka, the center on the Nagur outskirts where I have been staying, 200 men and women from Tamil-Nadu became Buddhists in a ceremony led by Dhammachari Vivekaratna. They had traveled across India to attend, and will return to initiate the conversions of tens of thousands of others in their native state. They are led by a remarkable woman called P. Lalida who I will be meeting in the next few days – I’ll post a report.
Also this morning, Dhammachari Subhuti conducted a ceremony in Nagpur for 50 representatives of the Matang sub-caste. This community accounts for many of the non-Mahar Dalits in Maharashtra. Over the next six weeks there will be conversion ceremonies for 50,000 Matangs across the central Indian state.
Info:
Conversion in Buddhism involves ‘Taking Refuge’ by reciting verses expressing commitment to the central ideals of Buddhism. These are symbolized by the Buddha – the historical teacher of Buddhism and the ideal of enlightenment which he represents; the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha and the truth they describe; and the Sangha – the community of Buddhists, especially those who have gained realization of his teachings. This is followed by reciting verses expressing an undertaking to follow the five ethical precepts. These are abstention from taking life, from taking that which is not freely given; from sexual misconduct; from speaking untruthfully and from taking intoxicants. Dr Ambedkar also asked his followers to endorse the commitments expressed in his 22 vows. These can be found listed on http://www.ambedkar.org/.
Standing in the huge crowd, looking down on it from a neighbouring building, and joining the throng that processed through the stupa – or huge temple – that dominates the site, I was deeply moved by the power of the occasion. Many of those attending had walked for days or traveled across India to be there; their faces as they entered the stupa were intent, serious and filled with devotion for their revered hero, Dr Ambedkar; and there was a palpable sense that history was being made. For the last fifty years since Dr Ambedkar converted himself the movement he started has been dominated by people born into the Maharashtra dalit sub-caste, the Mahars. Now the movement is being embraced by large numbers from other caste backgrounds and from across India. A number of conversion ceremonies took place today that included representatives of such communities: these were the first steps in a wave of conversions that will be taking place over the next few weeks.
This morning several hundred members of the tribal communities led by the writer, Lakshman Mane, embraced Buddhism in a ceremony at Dhiksabhumi. Mane’s followers number in the millions and in the coming weeks there will be at least half-a-million further conversions from this group, and up to five or six million. I will be meeting Laksman Mane tomorrow and will have more information as well as comment by him in tomorrow’s blog.
The tribals have a similar status under the Hindu caste system to those considered ‘untouchable’, now referred to as Dalits. Across India there are around 50 million tribals and this is the first large-scale mass conversion of tribals to Buddhism.
In a ceremony this morning at Nagaloka, the center on the Nagur outskirts where I have been staying, 200 men and women from Tamil-Nadu became Buddhists in a ceremony led by Dhammachari Vivekaratna. They had traveled across India to attend, and will return to initiate the conversions of tens of thousands of others in their native state. They are led by a remarkable woman called P. Lalida who I will be meeting in the next few days – I’ll post a report.
Also this morning, Dhammachari Subhuti conducted a ceremony in Nagpur for 50 representatives of the Matang sub-caste. This community accounts for many of the non-Mahar Dalits in Maharashtra. Over the next six weeks there will be conversion ceremonies for 50,000 Matangs across the central Indian state.
Info:
Conversion in Buddhism involves ‘Taking Refuge’ by reciting verses expressing commitment to the central ideals of Buddhism. These are symbolized by the Buddha – the historical teacher of Buddhism and the ideal of enlightenment which he represents; the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha and the truth they describe; and the Sangha – the community of Buddhists, especially those who have gained realization of his teachings. This is followed by reciting verses expressing an undertaking to follow the five ethical precepts. These are abstention from taking life, from taking that which is not freely given; from sexual misconduct; from speaking untruthfully and from taking intoxicants. Dr Ambedkar also asked his followers to endorse the commitments expressed in his 22 vows. These can be found listed on http://www.ambedkar.org/.
Dr Ambedkar and the Modern World
A talk by Subhuti at the Conference on Dr Ambedkar and the Modern World, Nagaloka
For the few days before the big event in Nagpur, I have been attending a conference for Buddhists from around the world at Nagaloka, a large and well-equipped centre on the outskirts of Nagpur. 150 monks, activists, Ambedkarites and other Buddhists have gathered in advance of the diksa (conversion) on Monday. It is a little incongruous to be in such secluded surroundings while there is such ferment around us, but the event is a powerful convergence of ideas on the relevance of Buddhism to society in India, East Asia and the West. Attendees included Christopher Queen of Harvard University - the leading western scholar of the Ambedkarite movement.
The keynote talk was by Subhuti, a leading member of the Western Buddhist Order who argued that Dr Ambedkar, the great dalit politician activist and thinker who started the conversion movement 50 years ago, is an important figure for all Buddhists who has made a unique contribution to the tradition. He declared: ‘I now consider myself a follower of Dr Ambedkar.’
Dr Ambedkar’s unique contribution was to bring together a Buddhist perspective with his deep understanding of Indian society and his passionate opposition to oppression. Subhuti commented that Dr Ambedkar realized that ‘caste is a state of mind, and what the mind can create the mind can undo.’ Caste is still very much alive, especially in the Indian villages and those at the bottom of the caste system still suffer violence and persecution every day.
Dr Ambedkar decided at the end of his life to adopt Buddhism and to encourage his followers to do so as well for three reasons, Subhuti said. Firstly, conversion could help ‘uplift the oppressed’. Although Dr Ambedkar had drafted the Indian constitution, which made India a secular democracy, its implementation was dependent on people. ‘The constitution is a palace that is built for gods but occupied by devils.’ He believed that society rests on notions of human identity. The Dalits needed to step outside the system that defined their identity in oppressive terms, and Buddhism was the best alternative because it supports a view of the purpose of society is as the cultivation of the minds of individuals.
In Maharashtra, the central Indian state that was the main center of conversions in 1956. The Buddhists of the Mahar sub-caste have advanced socially much faster than those ‘ex-Untouchable’ communities who have not adopted Buddhism.
Secondly, Dr Ambedkar saw Buddhism as offering a basis for a just society. He believed that democracy requires an attitude of respect for one’s fellow citizens, and this requires that they have a moral sense. Theistic religion, he believed, subordinates man to God, while he saw Buddhism as training people in ethical responsibility and changes underlying attitudes. Buddhist ethics is based in an understanding of he mind and the teaching that actions have consequences.
Thirdly, Dr Ambedkar chose Buddhism for ‘reasons spiritual.’ He felt a lifelong spiritual yearning, realized that this was commonly shared, and discovered that Buddhism addressed his desire to find deeper fulfillment in his inner life.
Subhuti concluded his talk with a call for a response from the wider Buddhist world to Dr Ambedkar’s appeal for help in enabling the new converts to practice Buddhism effectively. ‘Buddhism is in decline around the world, but in India it is being embraced with a sense of passionate urgency.’ However, this requires that Asian Buddhists overcome exclusive identification with their own tradition and see themselves first and foremost as ‘just Buddhists’.
For the few days before the big event in Nagpur, I have been attending a conference for Buddhists from around the world at Nagaloka, a large and well-equipped centre on the outskirts of Nagpur. 150 monks, activists, Ambedkarites and other Buddhists have gathered in advance of the diksa (conversion) on Monday. It is a little incongruous to be in such secluded surroundings while there is such ferment around us, but the event is a powerful convergence of ideas on the relevance of Buddhism to society in India, East Asia and the West. Attendees included Christopher Queen of Harvard University - the leading western scholar of the Ambedkarite movement.
The keynote talk was by Subhuti, a leading member of the Western Buddhist Order who argued that Dr Ambedkar, the great dalit politician activist and thinker who started the conversion movement 50 years ago, is an important figure for all Buddhists who has made a unique contribution to the tradition. He declared: ‘I now consider myself a follower of Dr Ambedkar.’
Dr Ambedkar’s unique contribution was to bring together a Buddhist perspective with his deep understanding of Indian society and his passionate opposition to oppression. Subhuti commented that Dr Ambedkar realized that ‘caste is a state of mind, and what the mind can create the mind can undo.’ Caste is still very much alive, especially in the Indian villages and those at the bottom of the caste system still suffer violence and persecution every day.
Dr Ambedkar decided at the end of his life to adopt Buddhism and to encourage his followers to do so as well for three reasons, Subhuti said. Firstly, conversion could help ‘uplift the oppressed’. Although Dr Ambedkar had drafted the Indian constitution, which made India a secular democracy, its implementation was dependent on people. ‘The constitution is a palace that is built for gods but occupied by devils.’ He believed that society rests on notions of human identity. The Dalits needed to step outside the system that defined their identity in oppressive terms, and Buddhism was the best alternative because it supports a view of the purpose of society is as the cultivation of the minds of individuals.
In Maharashtra, the central Indian state that was the main center of conversions in 1956. The Buddhists of the Mahar sub-caste have advanced socially much faster than those ‘ex-Untouchable’ communities who have not adopted Buddhism.
Secondly, Dr Ambedkar saw Buddhism as offering a basis for a just society. He believed that democracy requires an attitude of respect for one’s fellow citizens, and this requires that they have a moral sense. Theistic religion, he believed, subordinates man to God, while he saw Buddhism as training people in ethical responsibility and changes underlying attitudes. Buddhist ethics is based in an understanding of he mind and the teaching that actions have consequences.
Thirdly, Dr Ambedkar chose Buddhism for ‘reasons spiritual.’ He felt a lifelong spiritual yearning, realized that this was commonly shared, and discovered that Buddhism addressed his desire to find deeper fulfillment in his inner life.
Subhuti concluded his talk with a call for a response from the wider Buddhist world to Dr Ambedkar’s appeal for help in enabling the new converts to practice Buddhism effectively. ‘Buddhism is in decline around the world, but in India it is being embraced with a sense of passionate urgency.’ However, this requires that Asian Buddhists overcome exclusive identification with their own tradition and see themselves first and foremost as ‘just Buddhists’.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
About this Blog
I’m writing this blog from Nagpur a couple of days before a huge celebration at diksa bhumi – the conversion ground. At least a million people, and possibly many more will gather to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conversion to Buddhism of Dr Ambedkar, the great leader of the Dalits: people who were considered ‘untouchable’ under the Hindu caste system. He sparked a wave of conversions among his followers and there are now around 10-12 million Ambedkarite Buddhists, mainly in the central Indian state of Maharashtra. Nagpur in eastern Maharashtra is the heart of the Buddhist movement and diksa bhumi is where it all started.
What makes this of more than historical interest is that the anniversary is sparking a fresh wave of conversions. Starting on 2 October and continuing for several weeks many thousands more people will be adopting Buddhism, and quite possibly millions will do so. Here in Maharashtra half a million plus ‘tribal’ people – who like the ‘untouchables’ also suffer intense discrimination within the Hindu caste system. And there are reports of very large conversions, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, in Hydrabad, Gujerat, Delhi, Bombay and many other cities.
And yet, despite the scale of these events, and their deep significance for India and beyond, these vents are almost unknown in the West and almost entirely absent from the internet. I am in Nagpur to write an article for Tricycle magazine but while I am here I hope to offer reliable, accurate and up to the minute reports of what is happening, at least for the next few weeks. I hope this will be picked up in the western and Indian media as well as by Buddhists and others who want to know what is happening.
First some useful contacts and links:
To email me: vishvapani@mac.com
I am happy to help with enquiries from journalists etc.
Another contact for press in India is Maitreyanath: +91 9422082687
For background information:
www.karuna.org, www.jambudvipa.org, www.tbmsg.org
I am also keeping a personal blog at http://www.mac.com//redirect/http://vishvapani-observations.blogspot.com/
My personal website is http://www.vishvapani.org
What makes this of more than historical interest is that the anniversary is sparking a fresh wave of conversions. Starting on 2 October and continuing for several weeks many thousands more people will be adopting Buddhism, and quite possibly millions will do so. Here in Maharashtra half a million plus ‘tribal’ people – who like the ‘untouchables’ also suffer intense discrimination within the Hindu caste system. And there are reports of very large conversions, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, in Hydrabad, Gujerat, Delhi, Bombay and many other cities.
And yet, despite the scale of these events, and their deep significance for India and beyond, these vents are almost unknown in the West and almost entirely absent from the internet. I am in Nagpur to write an article for Tricycle magazine but while I am here I hope to offer reliable, accurate and up to the minute reports of what is happening, at least for the next few weeks. I hope this will be picked up in the western and Indian media as well as by Buddhists and others who want to know what is happening.
First some useful contacts and links:
To email me: vishvapani@mac.com
I am happy to help with enquiries from journalists etc.
Another contact for press in India is Maitreyanath: +91 9422082687
For background information:
www.karuna.org, www.jambudvipa.org, www.tbmsg.org
I am also keeping a personal blog at http://www.mac.com//redirect/http://vishvapani-observations.blogspot.com/
My personal website is http://www.vishvapani.org
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