Ambedkar’s Conversion

Ambedkar’s Conversion, Eleanor Zelliot, New Delhi, 2005, Critical Quest

…For a period beginning about two years before this decision {of conversion} and continuing for three or four years after, Ambedkar either participated in or condoned several attempts to claim rights within Hinduism. Efforts to take part in the Bombay Ganapati festival, a ceremony of donning the sacred thread at a Ratnagiri conference, a performance of a wedding in Vedic ritual style, and the temple satyagrahas at Amraoti, Poon and Nasik, were all part of a program to force recognition of the Hindu status of Untouchables.—p. 3

…Tilak’s attitude, “Hinduism absorbed the Shudras, can it not also (p.3) absorb the Untouchables?”{B.G. Tilak, “The Emancipation of the Untouchable,” in The Hindu Missionary (Bombay), #42, April 15, 1918}….—p. 3-4

… “Mr. Gandhi’s anti-untouchability means that the Untouchables will be classed as Shudras instead of being classed as Ati-Shudras (Last-Shudras, meaning beneath the Shudras.)  Mr. Gnahdi has not considered the question whether the old Shudras will accept the new Shudras into their fold.” {Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done To The Untouchables, p.  305.} —p. 4

“…the system of caste and the system of untouchability form really the steel frame of Hindu society.  This division cannot easily be wiped out for the simple reason that it is not based on rational, economic or racial grounds…the chances are that untouchability will endure far longer into the future than the optimist reformer is likely to admit on account of the fact that it is based on religious dogma…Based on religion, the ordinary Hindu only relaxes the rules of untouchability where he cannot observe them. He never abandons them. For abandonment of untouchability to him involves a total abandonment of the basic religious tenets of Hinduism as understood by him and the mass of Hindu….”(Indian Franchise Committee, 1932, Report. Vol. I (London: H.M.S.O., 1932) (Cmd. 4086, Parl. Pap. 1931-32: VIII), p. 211-212}—p. 4

…Contrary to popular opinion, Gandhi neither fasted nor performed satyagraha for temple entry, feeling that it was a matter to be decided by the majority of temple attenders. Ambedkar remained aloof from Gandhi’s efforts at propaganda, but was critical when Gandhi did not carry through a threatened fast if the Guruvayr Temple in Malabar was not opened to Untouchables. {Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done To The Untouchables, p.p. 115-117.}  Ambedkar also refused to give support to temple entry bills on the grounds that referendum to a majority to determine entrance was unrealistic, that the temple entry bills did not condemn untouchability per se, and that accepting temple entry without doing away with the caste system itself would be tantamount to temporizing with evil.{Ambedkar reproduced his February 14, 1933, “Statement On Temple Entry Bill” in Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done To The Untouchables, p. 41}

…Outside Maharashtra, the three best known Untouchables’ leaders aside from Ambedkar in the public field, Rao Bhadur R. Srinivasan, who had served as a delegate to the Round Table Conference, Jagjivan Ram, who later joined the Congress party in Bihar, and M. C. Rajah, the first Untouchable to serve on the Central Legislative Assembly rejected the idea of conversion, as did a number of Untouchable groups.—p. 9

…All India Hindu Mahasabha meeting in Poona… The President of this Mahasabha session, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya…added, “let the Harijans not forsake it (Hinduism) and we will apply the dust under their feet to our foreheads.”  As resolution was passed by the Mahasabha, reaffirming its previous resolutions giving equal access to all (p.9) Hindus irrespective of caste to all public amenities, institutions and places of worship.”  It further recommends to the Hindus the abandonment of all distinctions in the Hindu society based on birth or caste in the sphere of public, social and political life in which such distinctions ought to have no applications and are out of place in the present age.” {The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, p. 59}—pp. 9-10

…Abdullah Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s Muslim convert son, travelled on a propaganda tour for Islam in Kerala. {The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, pp. 187-188 }….—p.10

…It is reported that Ambedkar told Masurkar Maharaj that it was in the hands of caste Hindus to avert the tragedy of a mass exodus from Hinduism.  When asked how, Ambedkar replied that caste Hindu leaders should give a pledge that untouchability would be extirpated within a prescribed period. He said that he would wait five or ten years but added that in the meantime K. K. Sakat, an Untouchable who according to Kesari (the Poona newspaper founded by Tilak) school of thought, was an exemplary Hindu, should be elevated to the position of Shankaracharya for a year and so acknowledged by Chitpavan Brahmans.{Keer, Dr.  Ambedkar, p. 257}—p.11

… “To remain in Hinduism and to attempt to abolish caste system is like sweetening poison.” {The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, pp. 102-03}—p.12

               Christian publications gave much publicity to the conversion idea, but few Christian approaches directly to Ambedkar have come to light. A missionary in Bombay at the time reports that John R. Mott wanted to see Ambedkar, but made a point of visiting Gandhi first, a gesture Ambedkar did not appreciate.49  Missionaries attended the various meetings of Depressed Class groups considering conversion, and there seems to have been a feeling among them that the Depressed Classes would follow their brothers into Christianity.  The idea of a mass conversion was not acceptable to all Indian Christians, however, and fourteen educated Indian Christians in Madras issued a manifesto in March, 1937, that in cautious terms warned of “danger in this situation”…. The statement also noted that “mass conversions have generally lowered Christian standards so badly as to have left for the Indian Church a legacy of deplorable caste prejudices and jealousies.”50  Ambedkar was aware of the continuation of caste loyalties within Christianity.  Since he also considered Christianity a foreign religion, it seems improbable that he seriously considered Christian conversion.—p.15

49. Information from Mildred Drescher, October, 1966. Miss Drescher was a Methodist missionary in Bombay at this time and a close friend of Dr. Ambedkar.

50. Quoted from “The Guardian” for March 11, 1937, in The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, pp. 354-359.

…Gandhi’s term for the Untouchables was unacceptable to the Mahars….—p. 16

Conversion to Islam was the greatest threat Ambedkar could hold over the heads of the Hindus.  Although he had earlier privately stated that he would not become a Muslim, his public remarks contain hints that this might be the path for his people.  An international Muslim response greeted Ambedkar’s Yeola statement. In October, 1935, Maulana Mohammed Irfan, representative of the Caliphate Central Committee, called on Ambedkar, assuring him that in Islam was perfect equality and that conversion would offer him the possibility of being one of the leaders of the eighty millions of Moslems in India.55  The same month, Maulana Ahmed Said, organizer of the Indian Association of the Ulama, wired to Ambedkar “I invite you from the bottom of my heart to this natural religion; only in it you will realize your hopes.” {The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, p. 47}  The Liberals Islamic Council founded a special section for propaganda.  The Arabic press followed “with special interest and keen expectation the movement of Harijans.” {Quoted from Oriente Moderno, July, 1936, in The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, pp. 238-240}  Cairo Muslims collected propaganda funds, and the Rector of Al Azhar in Cairo explained that the (p.16) veil and circumcision were not obligatory for Untouchables converting to Islam.  On December 1, 1936, five Muslims left Cairo for India on an Al Azhar Mission to study the Depressed Classes, but there is no information on whether they interviewed Ambedkar or not.  Their report on June 1, 1937, recommended that “if the Al-Azhar should see fit to undertake any direct work, it would be the founding of centres for the spread of Islamic culture and of the message of Islam in the following places: Keral (SW Deccan), Surat, Dekka in Little Bengal, Rangoon, Nagpur,”{Quoted from Al. Ahram, June 1, 1937, in The Depressed Classes: A Chronological Documentation (Part I: RanchI: Rev. Fr. J. Jans, Catholic Press; Parts II-VII: Kurseong: St. Mary’s College, 1935-1937, pp. 455-456.} should give financial assistance to the association of Ulama at Lucknow in return for their receiving twenty Untouchable boys, should give assistance to the Islamic Society at Nagpur in return for the Society’s opening new classes to Untouchable boys, and should aid in the preaching of Islam among Depressed classes in Kerala.  Muslim help was offered more directly to Ambedkar, it was rumoured during these days of conversion fever, in the form of a contribution from the Nizam of Hyderabad, although this donation is not documented.{Keer, Dr. Ambedkar, p. 262.  I have also heard this rumor directly from Buddhists in Maharashtra, although a later date was indicated.}—pp. 16-17

Support for Ambedkar’s conversion to Sikhism came from members of the group that was most concerned with the power and preservation of Hinduism, the Mahasabha.  After conversations with Ambedkar in June of 1936, Dr. B.S. Moonje, who had represented the Hindu Mahasabha at the Round Table Conferences, began to circulate quietly the idea that the conversion of Untouchables to Sikhism should be approved by Hindu leaders….—p. 18

…The total result of all the interchange was some dozen Mahar Sikh converts and the realization that Ambedkar, for all his threats, was concerned not to injure Hinduism irreparably.—p. 19

…he listed the cardinal items in the reform of Hinduism that would change it from a “religion of rules” to a “religion of principles,” a change required before it could be a “true religion.”  His list of necessary changes, however, betrays a lawyer’s mind at work with an abstract problem that bears little relationship to actual Hinduism.  Among his requirements were (1) one standard book of Hindu religion, (2) no hereditary priesthood, but an examination system open to all, (3) state sanads (permits) required for priests, (4) a limit by law on the numbers of priests, (5) state supervision of the priest’s morals, beliefs and worship. {B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of caste, pp. 74-75.}….—p. 20

…Ambedkar said {Jai Bheem (Madras,) December 25, 1944} that Hinduism did not furnish the sort of spiritual home and social communion religion was intended to furnish; that it was not easy to uproot humanity; that the Untouchables were willing to stay where they were if given political safeguards; and that there was no agreement on where to go.—p. 20

The chief reasons for the long delay between the conversion announcement in 1935 and Ambedkar’s actual conversion twenty years later were that none of the available choices were suitable both intellectually and politically o him, and, more important, that he had opportunities to work for constitutional change, a method more suited to his abilities than working for a change of heart among caste Hindus or building a religious movement among Untouchables. It must be noted that he did little organizational work among the Mahars, and none among other castes, to prepare for a conversion….—p. 21

…Ambedkar also, long before the Buddhist conversion, began to refer to his “three Gurus:” The Buddha; Mahatma Phule, the Non-Brahman reformer and educator of the 19^th century; and Kabir, the medieval northern Indian bhakti poet to whose sect Ambedkar’s father belonged.—p. 21

… “The Hindu masses when they are enlightened are sure to turn to Buddhism,” he wrote, adding that the attitude of Hindus who felt there was something wrong with their religion and yet did not denounce it openly would cause Hinduism to lapse, and the void would be filled with Buddhism.  He ended by listing three needs: the production of a Buddhist Bible; the change of the degenerate present-day Sangha to a dedicated body of men, concerned with service and education; and the propagation of Buddhism by the Buddhist countries.{B. R. Ambedkar, “The Buddha and the Future of His Religion,” in The Maha Bodhi, Vaishaka Number (April-May), 1950, Vol. 58}  There is evidence that he was at work on the first need, the “Buddhist Bible,” in the same year that he wrote the article.{Letter from B. R. Ambedkar to Bhikshu Sangarakshita, 1950.  Bhikshu Sangarakshita, a Buddhist of English birth, consulted with Ambedkar several times between 1950 and 1956, and has continued to make yearly tours among the Buddhists of Maharashtra and Gujarat.}—p. 22

…While he was able to give a talk on parliamentary democracy with little reference to the caste system or the disabilities of the Untouchable, he seemed incapable of speaking of religion without criticizing the Hinduism into which he had been born, exhibiting a degree of bitterness that might be termed not insincerity but a profound disappointment in something that touched his emotions….—p. 23

…The twenty-four oaths combine an affirmation of Buddhism and negation of Hinduism, and were made in Marathi, not Pali:

Buddhist’s Oaths

1. I will not regard Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as gods nor will I worship them.
2. I will not regard Rama and Krishna as gods nor will I worship them.
3. I will not accept Hindu deities like Gauri, Ganapati etc. Nor will I worship them.
4. I do not believe that God has taken birth or incarnation in any form.
5. I do not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu.  I believe this propaganda as mischievous and false.
6. I will never perform any Shradha nor will I offer any Pinda.
7. I will never act against the tenets of Buddhism.
8. I will never get any Samskaar performed by Brahmins…. (p.24)

19. I embrace today the Bauddha Dhamma discarding the Hindu religion; which is detrimental to the emancipation of human beings and which believes in inequality and regards human beings other than Brahmins as low born.—pp. 24-25

On the day following conversion, Ambedkar spoke, in simple and colourful Marathi, to the now converted Buddhists….He quoted his own words at Yeola, “I will not die in the Hindu religion,” and added that today he felt as if he had left hell (and those nearest him said that he wept as he said this.)  He spoke of his own hard life and his own achievements, and then, his words punctuated by applause, alternately praised Buddhism and criticized Hinduism….—p. 25

Of the three needs Ambedkar delineated as necessary for the revival of Buddhism in India—a Buddhist Bible, a dedicated body of monks, and support from Buddhist countries—Ambedkar fulfilled only one.  The Buddha and His Dhamma was published posthumously in 1957 by the Peoples Education Society in Bombay. It was printed as Ambedkar wrote it, in English…The Buddha and His Dhamma is based chiefly on Pali sources, although some changes and the removal of the miraculous and the idea of reincarnation slants the material toward a definition of Buddhism solely as an ethical, rational, and humanitarian religion.102….—p. 26

102. Ambedkar made extensive but selective use of the Buddhist Pali scriptures and the Buddhacarita of Ashvaghosa. A study of Ambedkar’s sources and interpretation is found in the Use of Buddhist Scriptures in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s The Buddha and His Dhamma, by Adele M. Fiske (M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 1966)