October 14, 1956 was clearly an important moment in Dalit history. On this day, B R Ambedkar along with 365,000 of his Dalit followers decided to exit the folds of Hinduism and embraced Buddhism. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism marked a moment when Dalits in the country got a new impetus and a voice that was hitherto constrained by the four-fold varna system dominating Hinduism. Ambedkar had long been frustrated by the basic tenets of Hinduism, and considered the inherent characteristics of the religion, particularly the caste system to be a bigger threat to freedom in Indian society than that of the British. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, who considered the internal reform of the caste system to be the way forward, Ambedkar believed that the only way the Dalits could find a place for themselves in Indian society was by way of conversion.
In May, 1936 Ambedkar addressed a huge gathering of Mahars in Mumbai, where he declared his ideas on conversion, and why he considered it to be the best route towards emancipation. “I tell you all very specifically, religion is for man and not man for religion. To get human treatment, convert yourselves,” said Ambedkar. However his switch to Buddhism was hardly impromptu. He spent the next 20 years contemplating on which religion would suit his requirements best. He dismissed the idea of converting to Islam or Christianity, because of the foreignness attached to them. As explained by professor Gauri Vishwanathan, Ambedkar clearly did not want to betray the folds of ‘Indianness’ even when he decided to convert to a different religion. However, he chose Buddhism after a long drawn out process of contemplation on the religion, and in fact came out with his own version of the Buddhist Dhamma, where he modified those aspects of Buddhism which he considered as not aligning with the overall rationality, inherent of the religion.
