“You are not a true Buddhist”
“Bhimtard”
“Ambedkarites are not Buddhists”
“Jai Bhim wala hai?”
“Rice bag buddhist lol”
Etc.
The slurs go on and on and on…
The so-called disappointment; the judgements coming from these toadies even on the sphere of social media, is stemmed from the politics of Hindutva. In the offline realm too, the process of certification is not a ‘new’ normalcy as this has been going on since ages. The current landscape has just made the id of the bigots open.
The social reality of racism against Ambedkarites is not new. The dalit community within the social strata of Hindu religion has always been experiencing oppression, exploitation, intimidation, infringement and systemic annihilation. If it were not for Navayana Buddhism, the predicament would have been worse. Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, ‘untouchable’ by caste in Hindu sect., splendidly emancipated atishudras from the shackles of Hinduism and managed to convert into Buddhism with 500,000 followers on 14th Oct 1956. He realized that social osmosis in Hinduism is rigid and thus there is no scope of equality, liberty and fraternity in it. He made it succinct, “I tell you all very specifically, religion is for man and not man for religion. To get human treatment, convert yourselves.”
The fold of Buddhism, since its commencement, has always been open, flexible, liberal and rational enough to welcome, entice and entertain various schools of thoughts, identities and individuals and thus it has continued to survive Brahminism, Islamism and other religions. It proliferated without sword and fatwas and continues to be an evolving religion at a good rate of speed. I too made my religious volition in favor of Buddhism on 30th Dec 2018 and since then I am quite pacified, coherent and mindful. Read: Why I chose Buddhism over any other religion
A discourse between Buddha and his disciple Ananda, as recorded in Mahaparinibbana Sutta, clearly indicates that followers should not accept his teaching as correct and binding merely because they emanated from him. Being based on reason and experience, the followers were free to modify or even to abandon any of his teachings if it was found that at a given time and in given circumstances they do not apply. This is a very important source behind the establishment of various schools (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Shaolin, Ch’an, Zen, Nichiren, etc.) in Buddhism. Cheering this axiom, Dr Ambedkar added “Buddha wanted his religion to remain evergreen and serviceable at all times. That is why he gave liberty to his followers to chip and chop as the necessities of the case required. No other religious teacher has shown such courage. They were afraid of permitting repair, because the liberty to repair may be used to demolish the structure they had reared. Buddha had no such fear. He was sure of his foundation. He knew that even the most violent iconoclast will not be able to destroy the core of his religion.”
Thankfully the Navayana Buddhism has enriched the social and economic status of Dalits, while Hindu Shudras and Dalits in other religions continue to struggle for egalitarianism in their own religion. A detailed report (2017) by IndiaSpend also highlighted that Dalit consciousness in India is gradually rising against the apathy of Brahminism and patriarchy and obliges “conversion to Buddhism” religion for accessing equality, castelessness and social fraternity but at a dwindling rate.
The following tweets are consecrated to those who believe that Ambedkarite Buddhism is not Buddhism:
The buck does not stop here. The toadies, in fact, have coined a racial slur ‘Bhimard’ for the ones who follow the religion of Buddhism:
The buck still does not stop here. The following whatsapp conversation is coming from a ‘journalism’ student who is obviously not well-read of his own religion (Hinduism/Jainism) but prefers ultracrepidarianism against me:
Heights! ^^
Thus, I spoke:
The bigotry and nescience are quite clear in these conversations and hint at scary trends that ‘new’ India has been breeding. I stop my article here, albeit I have some hope (lesser than 1%) for this cowmunist nation. But, yeah, you may refer other contextual readings authored by me:
If Gandhi is Mahatma then Apple is Orange
Buddha was not an avatar of Vishnu
The cost of defending Buddha and Dr Ambedkar
Teaching ‘Annihilation of Caste’ should be made compulsory in schools
