【Editorial】
DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR & THE REVIVAL OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA
“The Dhamma can be revolutionary - indeed, the Dhar-
ma is revolutionary, when it truly is the Dhamma. When
the Dhamma is genuinely understood and practised on
a wide enough scale, there will be a significant change
for the better in society. This is not merely theory: we
have solid evidence that it can be true. In 1956, the great
Indian statesman and Buddhist leader, Dr. B.R. Ambed-
kar, popularly known as Babasaheb precipitated a social
revolution in India on the basis of the Dhamma, affect-
ing the lives of millions of ‘Dalits’, people who were for-
merly considered untouchable.”
- Dharmachari Subhuti
Dharmachari Subhuti’s quote above gives us a sense of in-
ner revolution which will be out of media or internet cover-
age because it can only take place within our own mind and
heart. The spiritual transformation points not just to becom-
ing a good Buddhist, but a cultivated wise and compassion-
ate human being, awakened from our life of delusion to be a
Buddha for the benefit of oneself and the world.
On 14th October 1956, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar went for refuge
to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha himself, and led some
500,000 of his followers into Buddhism. The Dhamma Re-
vival has begun 700 years after its extinction in India, the
motherland of the Buddha. The mass conversion was car-
ried out after many years of struggle to overcome the ter-
rible, historical injustice of untouchability, to which Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar himself had been subjected simply by his birth.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had all along devoted himself with
outstanding selflessness to freeing his people from the op-
pressions of caste by every means at his disposal: jour-
nalism, social awakening, labour organising, legal action,
political activism, and even in government - first in the
Viceroy’s Council and then in the first cabinet when India
gained independence, in which he served as Law Minis-
ter. He was asked by Pandit Nehru, the first Indian Prime
Minister, to draw up of the Constitution of the Republic
of India. However, he was disillusioned with the political
process as a means of eradicating social injustice because
the old attitudes persisted. He saw the problem lay much
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deeper than just laws and constitutions.
“We built a temple (the Constitution) for a god to come
in and reside, but before the god could be installed, the
devil had taken possession of it.”
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar realised that those roots lay in the mind
itself: ‘Caste is a notion, a state of mind.’ But this insight
also suggested the solution: ‘What mind creates, mind can
undo’. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar saw the Buddha-Dhamma as
the best and only way to bring about a ‘new society’ to the
millions of untouchables in India. He defined such a so-
ciety in terms of liberty, equality, and fraternity, which he
derived from the Buddha’s teachings rather than from the
French Revolution. The Buddha teaching of liberty means
living a life free from harming others and the fear to be
harmed by others, while equality means the access to basic
needs like education and equal opportunities for happiness
and advancement in life, and fraternity refers to an attitude
of respect and reverence for every other person based on
loving-kindness, compassion, rejoice and equanimity (The
Four Immeasurables).
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had long been personally drawn to the
Buddha and his teachings, both for its spiritual enlighten-
ment and its emphasis on social morality for all humanity.
He believed that the Buddha-Dhamma was the surest basis
for a truly enlightened society anywhere, not only in India.
A memorial for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was established in his
Delhi house. His birthdate is celebrated as a public holi-
day known as Ambedkar Jayanti or Bhim Jayanti. He was
posthumously awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the
Bharat Ratna, in 1990.
And on every anniversary of his birth and death, and on
Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din (Mass Conversion Cere-
mony Day) at Nagpur (14 October) marking the memorial
day when Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was converted to Buddhism
with his 500,000 followers, hundreds of thousands people
would gather to pay homage to him at his memorial.
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